Installing Proxmox VE 8.2.4

This topic covers the steps to install Proxmox VE version 8.2.4 and create a cluster.

1. Once the ISO is mounted to your host and booted, you will be met with the installer prompting you to choose the installation method:

   

   To follow the steps in this guide, choose the Graphical method.

2. Select your boot drive and click Next:

   

   Note:

   If you click on Options to the right, you can customize the installation medium. Proxmox supports several RAID levels and filesystems for the boot drive.

   

3. Select your preferred Region and Keyboard Layout and click Next.
4. Select the management interface which you will use to access the webUI, the hostname, IP Address, gateway, DNS server and click Next.

   

   This will begin the installation process.

5. Once the installer finishes, the server will boot into the below screen. Connect to the webUI using the address previously specified, port 8006:

   

   The default user is "root" and the password is specified during installation.

   Note: Sometimes the UI will default to a Proxmox auth server, even if you have not configured one. In that case, select "Linux PAM" from the dropdown and enter your credentials.

   Upon login, you will see a prompt informing you that "No valid subscription has been found". This is expected. It is a reminder that you can support the development of Proxmox by purchasing a subscription. However, a license is not required to use Proxmox.

6. Once you log, in you will see the below webUI:

   

   This UI should look familiar if you have previously used Broadcom's vCenter.

   In the left panel, you can see your objects listed under Datacenter (For now, there is only prox1).

   When you select the object, a sub-menu of this object settings appears along with a details view to the right, and recent tasks at the bottom.

   While you can use the current setup as it is, you will not be able to update it. This is because, by default, Proxmox installs the Enterprise update repositories as the place to query updates and these repositories require an active subscription to access them.

   Instead, you will need to add the no-subscription repositories. These repositories are mostly issue-free, but do not have the same level of testing and validation done to the packages within them before being pushed to release. However, they are generally acceptable for personal or lab use.

7. Edit the sources.list file, in /etc/apt:

   

   In this example, the user has added the below repository for easy copy/pasting:

   deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-no-subscription

   

8. Navigate to your node on the left, then go to Updates > Repositories. You should see that the no-subscription repository has been added.

   

9. Assuming you no longer need the enterprise repositories, disable them by clicking each repo with enterprise in the Components column, and clicking Disable.

   You should then see the warning message about the enterprise repos being enabled without active subscription disappear. The warning message about the no-subscription repository not being recommended for production use will remain.

10. Navigate to Updates, and click Refresh to see what is available, and Upgrade:
    Note: This can also be done by running apt update and apt upgrade from the Shell menu.

    

    In the next step, you will be creating a Proxmox Cluster. Proxmox functions differently than vSphere in that there is no management VM (vCenter). Everything can be managed by any node, and the changes are automatically synced across nodes.

11. Using any node (in this example Prox1), navigate to Datacenter > Cluster > Create Cluster.

    

12. Enter a name for the cluster, add the interfaces used for the cluster network and click Create.

    

    Note: This is the network that handles inter-node heartbeating, status monitoring and updates. It does not generate large amounts of traffic, but is sensitive to latency. Ideally, this network would be split on a different interface or VLAN, but this example uses a single interface.

    Proxmox will generate a cluster key, and restart the corosync service, which is the service that ensures all the nodes are in sync with one another.

    

    After this, your created cluster will appear in the GUI:

    

13. Click Join Information and copy the information for use when adding additional nodes (similar to the "connection key" for ActiveCluster on FlashArray).
14. To join another node to the cluster:
    1. Click on the node you are looking to add.
    2. Navigate to Datacenter > Cluster > Join Cluster.
    3. Paste the string you had copied in step 13.
    4. Specify the interface to be used for the cluster network on this node.
       Note: If you only have one interface created, you can leave this field blank.
    5. Enter the peer's root password.
    6. Click Join Cluster.

    

    Proxmox will use the single interface previously created, and add the node to the cluster.

    

15. Repeat step 14 to add additional nodes to the cluster.