Proxmox VE 8 Installation Guide

Hello everyone! In this guide, I'll show you how to install Proxmox VE 8 on Debian 12.

!!! WARNING !!! THIS PROCESS MAY AFFECT YOUR CLOUD-INIT - PROCEED WITH CAUTION

1. SSH Login

First, log into your SSH server as root:

ssh root@yourfavoritedomain.tld

2. Updating Packages and Setting Hostname

Let's continue by updating the Debian 12 packages:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Now, let's set the hostname for the server:

hostnamectl set-hostname yoursubdomain/domain

Edit the hosts file in /etc/hosts and add your hostname at the top with the server's IP:

Replace the IP with your server's IP. It's better to place it at the top of the file! Also replace the ZAP-HOSTING from my example with your own tld.

3. Adding Proxmox Repository

Oh wow, third step already! Now we have to install some necessary packages:

apt install curl software-properties-common apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg2

Hmmm, add the Proxmox repository:

echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-no-subscription" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-install-repo.list

Download the Proxmox Repository key:

wget https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-release-bookworm.gpg -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-release-bookworm.gpg

Most importantly, update and upgrade the system:

apt update && apt full-upgrade -y

4. Installing Proxmox VE

Now we have to install the Proxmox kernel:

apt install proxmox-default-kernel -y

and of course the Proxmox VE packages:

apt install proxmox-ve postfix open-iscsi chrony -y

Configure Postfix (select "Local only" for mail configuration):

Enter your email address for Proxmox notifications:

Remove os-prober and restart the server:

apt remove os-prober

reboot now

Yay! If everything went good, you should be able to access Proxmox via https://yourdomain.tld:8006.

5. Creating vmbr0 Bridge

Now we have to create a bridge for VM and LXC container, so they'd be able to have internet connectivity. Backup your configuration first:

cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.bak

Edit the network interfaces configuration:

nano /etc/network/interfaces

Example configuration (replace ens18, XXX and the /24 with your values):

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto ens18
iface ens18 inet manual

auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet static
    address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/24
    gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.1
    bridge-ports ens18
    bridge-stp off
    bridge-fd 0

6. Configuring sources.list

Since we don't have access to the enterprise repository, we have to remove it.

rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add:

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

Run the following commands to update and upgrade:

apt update && apt dist-upgrade -y