Proxmox¶

Proxmox is an open-source virtualization platform that provides a comprehensive solution for managing virtualized infrastructures. It is designed to simplify the deployment and management of virtual machines (VMs), containers, and storage, making it popular among businesses, IT administrators, and hobbyists who want a flexible and scalable virtualization environment. Proxmox is particularly noted for its robustness, ease of use, and support for enterprise-grade features.

Key features and components¶

Proxmox VE (Virtual Environment)¶

Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) is the core product of Proxmox. It is an open-source server virtualization platform that combines two major technologies:
- KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine): A full virtualization solution for running virtual machines (VMs) with full hardware emulation.
- LXC (Linux Containers): A lightweight virtualization method for running multiple isolated Linux systems on a single host.

The integration of KVM and LXC allows users to manage both virtual machines and containers from a unified interface, enabling flexibility based on use cases.

Web-Based Management Interface¶

Proxmox VE includes an easy-to-use, fully-featured web-based management interface. This interface enables administrators to manage VMs, containers, storage, and networking through a browser without needing extensive command-line knowledge. It provides a visual overview of the entire infrastructure, making tasks like resource allocation, backups, migrations, and clustering straightforward.

Clustering and High Availability¶

Proxmox supports clustering, allowing multiple Proxmox servers to be combined into a single cluster. In clustered environments, VMs and containers can be live-migrated between nodes without downtime, which is critical for load balancing and high availability (HA). This makes Proxmox a suitable solution for organizations seeking fault-tolerant infrastructures with minimal downtime.

High Availability (HA) is a key feature, where VMs can be automatically restarted on other cluster nodes in case of hardware failure.

Software-Defined Storage¶

Proxmox offers flexible storage options and supports a variety of storage types, including local storage (e.g., ZFS), networked storage (e.g., NFS, iSCSI, Ceph, GlusterFS), and distributed storage for scalability and redundancy.

Proxmox integrates tightly with Ceph, an open-source distributed storage system, to provide reliable and scalable storage that can be used across multiple nodes in a cluster. This allows administrators to create high-availability storage clusters.

Backup and Restore¶

Proxmox includes built-in backup and restore capabilities for both VMs and containers. It supports scheduled backups and provides different compression methods. It also includes the Proxmox Backup Server (PBS), which adds advanced functionality like deduplication and encryption for optimized and secure backups.

Networking¶

Proxmox provides advanced networking support, including:
- Bridged networking: Ideal for connecting VMs and containers directly to the physical network.
- Virtual LANs (VLANs) and bonding: For more complex and scalable network setups.
- Software-defined networking (SDN): For enhanced network flexibility in cloud-like infrastructures.

Firewall and Security¶

Proxmox includes a built-in firewall that can be managed per data center, cluster, node, or even per virtual machine or container. This enables granular security policies and protection against unauthorized access. It also supports two-factor authentication (2FA), role-based access control (RBAC), and integrates with enterprise-level authentication systems such as LDAP, Microsoft Active Directory, and OpenID Connect.

Third-Party Integrations¶

Proxmox VE is highly customizable and can be integrated with various third-party tools. It also supports REST APIs, allowing advanced users to automate tasks or integrate Proxmox with external systems.

Open-Source and Community¶

Proxmox is fully open-source and distributed under the GNU AGPL, v3 license. This fosters a large and active community of users and developers who contribute to the platform’s continual improvement. While Proxmox offers commercial support, users can fully utilize the platform without any licensing fees.

Use Cases¶

Proxmox is used in various environments, from small businesses and labs to large enterprises. Its flexibility allows it to manage on-premises virtual infrastructures, including cloud-like setups for hosting multiple services. Proxmox VE’s clustering and HA capabilities make it especially useful for organizations requiring highly available and scalable systems.

Key Benefits:¶

Cost-effective: Since it’s open-source, Proxmox provides a cost-efficient alternative to proprietary virtualization solutions like VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V.
Unified management: A single tool for managing both KVM virtual machines and LXC containers.
Ease of use: The web-based interface simplifies complex tasks for administrators.
Scalability: Proxmox scales well with its clustering and distributed storage support.

Technology overview¶

Proxmox is built on a variety of open-source technologies that enable its virtualization, storage, networking, and management capabilities. Here is a breakdown of the key technologies that form the backbone of Proxmox:

Linux Kernel¶

Base OS: Proxmox is built on Debian Linux, a popular and stable open-source Linux distribution. The core operating system includes a customized Linux kernel, which provides the foundation for running the virtualization and container management layers.
Kernel Modules: Various kernel modules are used to provide hardware virtualization, networking, and storage capabilities.

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine)¶

Type-1 Hypervisor: Proxmox uses KVM as its hypervisor for full virtualization. KVM is a part of the Linux kernel and allows the host machine to run multiple isolated virtual machines, each with its own operating system. KVM is known for its performance and stability, making it one of the most widely used virtualization technologies in enterprise environments.
QEMU: Along with KVM, Proxmox relies on QEMU (Quick Emulator) to emulate the hardware for virtual machines. QEMU works in conjunction with KVM to provide efficient virtualized hardware for VMs, enabling the use of multiple OSes on the same physical machine.

LXC (Linux Containers)¶

Lightweight Virtualization: Proxmox integrates LXC for container-based virtualization. LXC allows for running multiple isolated Linux systems (containers) on the same host using a shared kernel. Containers are much more lightweight than VMs and are ideal for running isolated applications with lower resource overhead.
Linux namespaces and cgroups: LXC uses the kernel’s namespaces for process isolation and control groups (cgroups) for resource management, allowing containers to share resources while remaining isolated.

ZFS (Zettabyte File System)¶

File System and Storage Management: Proxmox supports ZFS, a powerful open-source file system that provides high performance and reliability features such as:
- Data integrity verification (checksums)
- Compression
- Snapshots and clones
- Built-in RAID capabilities
  ZFS is widely used in Proxmox for local storage, particularly for environments that require robust data protection and scalability.

Ceph¶

Distributed Storage: Proxmox has integrated support for Ceph, an open-source distributed storage system designed for scalability and high availability. Ceph allows Proxmox clusters to use shared, redundant storage across multiple nodes. It is ideal for high-availability setups where storage redundancy and reliability are critical.
RADOS Block Devices (RBD): Proxmox uses Ceph RBD for block-level storage, which is commonly used for virtual machine disk images.

LVM (Logical Volume Manager)¶

Block Storage: Proxmox uses LVM to manage physical volumes (e.g., hard drives) and logical volumes (e.g., virtual machine disks) within the system. It allows flexible partitioning of storage space and makes it easier to resize and manage virtual disks.

QEMU and SPICE¶

Remote Display: SPICE (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments) is used alongside QEMU for remote display of virtual machines. SPICE provides high-performance remote desktop capabilities, enabling administrators to interact with virtual machines as if they were local.

Open vSwitch (OVS)¶

Advanced Networking: Proxmox supports Open vSwitch (OVS), a software-defined networking (SDN) solution that allows for complex network setups such as VLANs, bonding, and tunneling. It provides enhanced control over network traffic between virtual machines, containers, and the physical network infrastructure.

IPTables/Firewalld¶

Network Security: Proxmox relies on IPTables and Firewalld for managing firewall rules. These Linux-based firewall tools provide network filtering, NAT, and routing capabilities, allowing Proxmox to secure network traffic at the virtual machine, container, or host level.

libvirt¶

Virtualization Management: libvirt is a toolkit used by Proxmox for managing KVM and LXC instances. It provides a standardized API to interact with the underlying virtualization technologies, simplifying management tasks such as creating, modifying, and deleting VMs or containers.

LDAP, Microsoft Active Directory, and SSO Protocols¶

Authentication and Authorization: Proxmox integrates with authentication systems like LDAP and Microsoft Active Directory for managing user access across virtualized environments. Additionally, OpenID Connect (OIDC) and other SSO (Single Sign-On) protocols are supported for secure and scalable authentication.

REST API¶

Automation and Integration: Proxmox exposes a RESTful API for automating and integrating with external systems. This API enables administrators and developers to programmatically manage VMs, containers, storage, and networking, allowing integration with CI/CD pipelines, third-party monitoring tools, and more.

NoVNC & WebSockets¶

Remote Console Access: Proxmox uses NoVNC, an open-source VNC client, for providing web-based remote access to the console of virtual machines. This allows administrators to manage VMs via a web browser without needing additional client software.

PostgreSQL (Database)¶

Data Management: Proxmox uses PostgreSQL as its database engine for storing configuration and metadata related to the virtual environment. PostgreSQL provides high performance and ACID-compliant transactions, ensuring data consistency and reliability.

Proxmox Backup Server (PBS)¶

Backup and Deduplication: For backup purposes, Proxmox provides the Proxmox Backup Server, an open-source solution for efficient backup and restore operations. PBS uses deduplication and compression techniques to reduce storage space for backups. It can handle both virtual machines and container backups with support for encryption.

Corosync and Pacemaker¶

Cluster Communication and HA: In a Proxmox cluster, Corosync is used for messaging and synchronization between cluster nodes, ensuring the consistency of the cluster’s state. Pacemaker is used to manage high-availability resources, allowing services (such as virtual machines) to automatically failover to another node in the event of a failure.

SPICE and VNC¶

Remote Console Management: Proxmox supports SPICE and VNC protocols for remote access to virtual machines. These protocols enable users to connect to VMs via their console, providing real-time interaction as if they were physically at the machine.

Page last modified: 2024-09-30 10:01:12