Proxmox VE for Beginners: Complete Getting Started Guide (2026)

If you have a spare PC, an old server, or even a reasonably capable mini PC sitting around, Proxmox VE turns it into a powerful virtualisation platform that rivals enterprise solutions costing thousands of pounds. It is free, open-source, and actively maintained. This guide walks you through everything you need to get started — from downloading the ISO to running your first virtual machine and container.

What is Proxmox VE?

Proxmox Virtual Environment (Proxmox VE, or just PVE) is a Type 1 hypervisor — meaning it runs directly on bare metal hardware, not on top of an existing operating system like Windows or macOS. It is built on Debian Linux and combines two mature virtualisation technologies into a single platform:

• KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) — full hardware virtualisation for running Windows, Linux, BSD, or any other OS as a completely isolated virtual machine (VM). Each VM gets its own virtual CPU, RAM, disk, and network interface.
• LXC (Linux Containers) — lightweight OS-level containers that share the host kernel. Containers start in seconds, use a fraction of the RAM a full VM requires, and are ideal for running Linux-based services.

The entire platform is managed through a polished web-based interface accessible from any browser on your network. You do not need to touch the command line for most day-to-day tasks, though SSH access is available when you need it.

Proxmox VE is genuinely free to download and use. A paid subscription unlocks access to the enterprise update repository and commercial support, but the community repository provides the same updates — just with a slightly delayed release cadence. For home and small business use, the free tier is entirely sufficient.

Proxmox VE vs the Alternatives

VMware’s decision to end its free ESXi licence in 2024 pushed many home lab enthusiasts toward Proxmox, which has seen significant growth as a result. TrueNAS SCALE is excellent if your primary goal is networked storage with virtualisation as a secondary concern — but if virtualisation is the main use case, Proxmox is the stronger choice.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Proxmox VE will run on modest hardware, though what you can actually do with it depends on the resources available:

• CPU: Any 64-bit processor (x86-64). For KVM hardware virtualisation, your CPU must support Intel VT-x or AMD-V — virtually all CPUs manufactured after 2010 do. Enable it in BIOS/UEFI if not already active.
• RAM: 2 GB minimum to run Proxmox itself. Realistically, 8 GB is the comfortable floor for running a few VMs and containers. 16–32 GB opens up much more.
• Storage: 32 GB minimum for the OS installation. A 120 GB or larger SSD is strongly recommended. VMs and containers can use separate disks.
• Network: One wired Ethernet port. Wi-Fi is not recommended for a hypervisor — it causes complications with bridging and is less reliable.
• Display: Required only during installation. Proxmox is headless once running.

Popular hardware choices include decommissioned enterprise servers (Dell PowerEdge, HP ProLiant), Intel NUCs, Beelink or Minisforum mini PCs, and repurposed desktop towers. An N100-based mini PC with 16 GB RAM makes an excellent low-power Proxmox node for under £200.

Downloading and Installing Proxmox VE

Step 1: Download the ISO

Head to proxmox.com/en/downloads and download the latest Proxmox VE ISO installer. As of early 2026, Proxmox VE 8.x is the current stable release, based on Debian 12 Bookworm.

Step 2: Write the ISO to a USB Drive

You need a USB drive of at least 2 GB. Use one of the following tools to write the ISO:

• Rufus (Windows) — free, simple, reliable. Select the ISO, choose your USB drive, and click Start. Use DD mode if prompted.
• Balena Etcher (Windows, macOS, Linux) — even simpler; three clicks and done.
• dd (Linux/macOS terminal) — sudo dd if=proxmox-ve_8.x.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress where /dev/sdX is your USB device.

Step 3: Boot the Installer

Insert the USB drive into your target machine, boot from it (usually F12, F11, or Delete to enter boot menu), and select the USB device. The Proxmox graphical installer will load.

Step 4: Walk Through the Installer

1. Select Install Proxmox VE (Graphical) from the boot menu.
2. Accept the End User Licence Agreement.
3. Target disk: Select the disk where Proxmox itself will be installed. Click Options to choose the filesystem — ext4 is the safest default; ZFS (RAID0) on a single disk is an option if you want ZFS features. Avoid selecting a disk that contains data you want to keep.
4. Location and timezone: Set your country, time zone, and keyboard layout.
5. Password and email: Set the root password and an email address for alerts. Remember this password — it is your admin credential.
6. Network configuration: Set a static IP address for the management interface. Choose an IP that will not conflict with your router’s DHCP range (e.g. 192.168.1.100/24). Set the gateway to your router’s IP, and use a DNS server such as 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8.
7. Review the summary and click Install. The process takes 2–5 minutes.
8. When prompted, remove the USB drive and reboot.

First Steps After Installation

Accessing the Web Interface

From any computer on the same network, open a browser and navigate to:

https://192.168.1.100:8006

Replace the IP with whatever you assigned during installation. You will see a browser security warning because the certificate is self-signed — this is expected. Click through (Advanced > Proceed) to reach the login screen. Log in with username root and the password you set during installation.

The interface presents a left-hand tree showing your datacenter, your node (the physical machine), and any storage pools, VMs, or containers. The main panel shows summary information, tasks, and logs.

Fixing the Subscription Nag

On every login you will see a popup: “You do not have a valid subscription for this node.” This is normal for the free tier. To suppress it, SSH into your node and run:

ssh [email protected]

Then edit the Proxmox web UI JavaScript file to comment out the nag check. A community one-liner that works on Proxmox 8.x:

sed -Ezi.bak "s/(Ext.Msg.show\(\{[\s\S]*?title: gettext\('No valid sub)/void\(\{ \/\/\1/g" \
  /usr/share/javascript/proxmox-widget-toolkit/proxmoxlib.js && \
  systemctl restart pveproxy

This modifies a local JS file only and does not affect functionality. The change may need to be reapplied after major Proxmox updates.

Updating the Repositories and Installing Updates

By default, Proxmox points at the enterprise repository, which requires a paid subscription. Switch to the free community repository. In the web UI, navigate to your node, then Updates > Repositories. Disable the enterprise repository and add the no-subscription repository. Or do it via SSH:

# Disable enterprise repo\
echo "# deb https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-enterprise" > \
  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list\
\
# Add community repo\
echo "deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-no-subscription" > \
  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-no-subscription.list\
\
# Update and upgrade\
apt update && apt dist-upgrade -y

Reboot after the upgrade if the kernel was updated.

Creating Your First Virtual Machine

Before you can create a VM, upload an ISO. In the web UI, go to your node, then local storage > ISO Images > Upload. Upload the ISO for whichever OS you want to install (e.g. Ubuntu Server 24.04).

Now click the Create VM button (top right). Walk through the wizard:

1. General: Give the VM a name and note the VM ID (auto-assigned, starting at 100).
2. OS: Select the ISO you uploaded. Set the guest OS type (Linux, Windows, etc.) — this helps Proxmox configure sensible defaults.
3. System: For Linux VMs, leave defaults. For Windows, enable the QEMU Agent checkbox and consider switching the BIOS to OVMF (UEFI).
4. Disks: Set disk size and choose storage. local-lvm is the default thin-provisioned LVM pool. Bus type VirtIO SCSI gives best performance on Linux guests.
5. CPU: Assign vCPU cores. Type host passes through the physical CPU flags and gives best performance.
6. Memory: Assign RAM in megabytes (2048 = 2 GB). You can enable memory ballooning to allow the host to reclaim unused RAM.
7. Network: The default bridge vmbr0 connects the VM to your physical network. VirtIO is the recommended driver for Linux guests.
8. Confirm and click Finish. Start the VM, then open the Console tab to interact with it just like a physical machine.

Install the QEMU Guest Agent inside the VM once the OS is installed (apt install qemu-guest-agent on Debian/Ubuntu) to enable graceful shutdown and memory reporting from the Proxmox UI.

Creating Your First LXC Container

When to Use a Container vs a VM

Use a VM when you need to run Windows, need a separate kernel, require strong isolation, or are running an application that needs direct hardware access. Use an LXC container when you are running a Linux-based service and want it to start faster, use less RAM, and consume less disk space. A Pi-hole container might use 50 MB of RAM; the equivalent VM would use 512 MB or more.

Downloading a Container Template

In the web UI, go to local storage > CT Templates > Templates. Browse the available templates and download one — Debian 12, Ubuntu 22.04, or Alpine Linux are good starting points.

Creating the Container

Click Create CT (top right). The wizard is similar to the VM wizard:

1. General: Set a hostname, container ID, and a root password for the container.
2. Template: Select the downloaded template.
3. Disks: Set disk size — 8 GB is usually sufficient for a simple service container.
4. CPU: 1–2 cores for most services.
5. Memory: 256–512 MB is adequate for many lightweight services.
6. Network: Assign a static IP or leave as DHCP. Connect to vmbr0.
7. DNS: Inherits from the host by default.

Start the container and open the Console. You will land directly at a root shell — no installation step required. Install your service as you would on any Debian or Ubuntu machine.

For containers that need to run Docker inside them, enable the Nesting and FUSE options under the container’s Options > Features before starting.

Setting Up Storage

Understanding the Default Storage

After installation, Proxmox creates two storage pools on the installation disk:

• local — a standard directory at /var/lib/vz, used for ISO images, container templates, and backups.
• local-lvm — an LVM thin pool, used for VM disks and container root filesystems. Thin provisioning means a 100 GB virtual disk only occupies the space actually written to.

Adding a Second Disk

If you have a second physical disk for VM storage, add it through the web UI or command line. To create a new LVM storage pool on /dev/sdb:

# Wipe the disk and create a physical volume\
wipefs -a /dev/sdb\
pvcreate /dev/sdb\
\
# Create a volume group\
vgcreate data-vg /dev/sdb\
\
# Create a thin pool\
lvcreate -l 95%FREE -T data-vg/data-pool

Then in the web UI go to Datacenter > Storage > Add > LVM-Thin and point it at the new thin pool.

ZFS Basics

ZFS is an advanced filesystem with built-in RAID, checksumming, snapshots, and compression. Proxmox has first-class ZFS support. To add a ZFS pool from the web UI, go to Node > Disks > ZFS > Create: ZFS and select your disks and RAID level:

• RAID0 — stripes data across disks for speed, no redundancy.
• RAID1 (mirror) — mirrors two disks; survives one disk failure.
• RAIDZ — similar to RAID5; requires at least 3 disks, survives one failure.
• RAIDZ2 — similar to RAID6; survives two simultaneous failures.

ZFS datasets can be added as Proxmox storage via Datacenter > Storage > Add > ZFS. ZFS snapshots integrate directly with Proxmox’s snapshot mechanism.

Networking Basics in Proxmox

Linux Bridges

Proxmox networking is built on Linux bridge interfaces. The installer creates vmbr0, which bridges the physical Ethernet port (typically eth0 or enp3s0) to the virtual network. VMs and containers attached to vmbr0 appear on your physical LAN just like any other device.

You can create additional bridges for isolated networks. A bridge without a physical port attached (vmbr1 with no enslaved interface) creates a private internal network that only VMs can communicate on — useful for separating a web server VM from a database VM.

Network configuration lives in /etc/network/interfaces. A typical additional bridge looks like:

auto vmbr1\
iface vmbr1 inet static\
    address 10.10.0.1/24\
    bridge-ports none\
    bridge-stp off\
    bridge-fd 0

VLANs

Proxmox supports 802.1Q VLAN tagging. To use VLANs, enable VLAN aware on the bridge in the web UI under Node > Network. Then assign a VLAN tag to individual VM or container network interfaces. This allows a single physical port to carry traffic for multiple isolated networks, provided your switch and router support 802.1Q trunking.

Useful First VMs and Containers to Run

Once Proxmox is up, you have a versatile platform for self-hosting. Here are popular first projects:

• Home Assistant OS — run it as a VM using the official KVM/QEMU image from home-assistant.io. This is the recommended installation method for full supervisor and add-on support. Assign 2 vCPUs, 2 GB RAM, and pass through USB devices such as Zigbee coordinators using the Proxmox USB passthrough feature.
• Pi-hole — run as a Debian LXC container. Install Pi-hole inside the container with curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash. Assign a static IP and point your router’s DNS to it for network-wide ad blocking.
• Nextcloud — run on an Ubuntu Server VM or LXC container with Nginx and PHP. Give it 2 GB RAM, a generous disk allocation, and mount additional storage via a bind mount or NFS share.
• Nginx Proxy Manager — run in a Docker container inside an LXC container (with nesting enabled). Provides a web UI for managing reverse proxy entries and automatic Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for your self-hosted services.
• Jellyfin or Plex — media server in a VM or container. For hardware transcoding, pass through the Intel or AMD iGPU to the VM/container.
• Vaultwarden — self-hosted Bitwarden-compatible password manager. Runs comfortably in a container with 256 MB RAM.
• Portainer — Docker management UI inside an LXC container, giving you a GUI for managing Docker stacks alongside your Proxmox VMs and containers.

Backups and Snapshots

Snapshots

A snapshot captures the current state of a VM or container at a point in time, including disk and memory state. To take a snapshot, select the VM or container in the left panel, go to the Snapshots tab, and click Take Snapshot. Snapshots are instant and stored on the same storage as the VM.

Snapshots are ideal for “I am about to upgrade this application and want a quick rollback point” scenarios. They are not a substitute for backups — if the underlying storage fails, the snapshot is lost with it.

Note: LVM-thin storage supports snapshots. ZFS storage supports snapshots natively and very efficiently. Standard directory storage does not support snapshots for VM disks.

Scheduled Backups

Go to Datacenter > Backup > Add to create a backup schedule. Configure:

• Schedule: Daily, weekly, or a custom cron expression.
• Storage: Where to write the backup files. The local storage works for single-node setups; an NFS or SMB share pointing to a NAS is better for resilience.
• Mode: Snapshot (non-disruptive, VM keeps running), Suspend, or Stop. Snapshot mode is suitable for most workloads.
• Compression: ZSTD is the default and a good choice — fast and effective.
• Retention: Set how many backups to keep per VM to avoid filling the storage.

Backups are stored as .vma.zst files. To restore, select the backup file in the web UI and click Restore.

Adding an NFS Backup Target

If you have a NAS (a Synology, TrueNAS, or similar), add it as a backup destination via Datacenter > Storage > Add > NFS. Point it at an NFS export on your NAS. Proxmox will write backups directly there, keeping your backup data separate from the hypervisor hardware.

What to Learn Next

Once you are comfortable with the basics, explore these areas to get more from Proxmox:

• Proxmox clusters: Join multiple Proxmox nodes into a cluster for centralised management, live migration of VMs between nodes, and high availability.
• PCIe passthrough: Pass a GPU, NIC, or HBA directly to a VM for near-native performance — essential for GPU compute or gaming VMs.
• Terraform provider: Automate VM provisioning with the community Proxmox Terraform provider for infrastructure-as-code workflows.
• Proxmox Backup Server (PBS): A dedicated backup server application (also free) that provides incremental, deduplicated backups and integrates directly with Proxmox VE.
• SDN (Software Defined Networking): Proxmox’s built-in SDN feature allows sophisticated VLAN and VNet configuration from the web UI without touching config files.

Conclusion

Proxmox VE is one of the most capable free virtualisation platforms available, and the barrier to entry is lower than it might appear. With an afternoon of setup time and modest hardware, you can have a stable home lab running a dozen services — all managed from a single browser tab. The combination of full KVM virtualisation and lightweight LXC containers gives you flexibility that no other free platform quite matches. Start with one VM, get comfortable with the interface, and expand from there.