Install Proxmox VE: complete guide with the official ISO

This guide walks you through installing Proxmox VE 9 on a physical server in 30-45 minutes, or on a dedicated virtual machine, as the section on the two routes explains. This page follows the official ISO; to start from a Debian 13 that is already installed, see Install Proxmox VE 9 on an existing Debian 13. Even if you have never installed a server operating system, this guide details every step with clear explanations. At the end, you will have a working hypervisor ready to host your first virtual machines.

Quick path (for experienced users)

Already comfortable with server installations?

1. Download the ISO from proxmox.com/downloads
2. Create the USB stick with Rufus (DD mode) or dd
3. Boot → Install Proxmox VE (Graphical)
4. Choose ext4 (simple) or ZFS (software RAID)
5. Configure a static IP + FQDN hostname
6. Post-install: disable both Enterprise repositories (Proxmox VE and Ceph), then enable the no-subscription repository (homelab, non-production)
7. Open https://IP:8006

To go further with Proxmox (clustering, ZFS, Ceph, backup, production), you can read Mastering Proxmox, Wasim Ahmed, a book in English.

Amazon affiliate link. Buying through this link supports the site at no extra cost to you.

What you will learn

This guide takes you from the empty machine to the web interface, in the order the choices come up. You will be able to:

• choose between a dedicated server and a virtual machine, and size that VM;
• create a bootable USB stick and boot from it;
• choose the filesystem (ext4, ZFS) and reserve the IP address before typing it in;
• decide when to disable Secure Boot, in response to a symptom only;
• log in to the web interface and switch to the free update repository.

What you need

Before you start, gather:

Item	Why it is needed
A dedicated server or PC	Proxmox takes over the whole machine: no workstation, no second system (with no hardware, see the dedicated VM below)
A 4 GB USB stick	To create the installation media: the 9.2 ISO weighs 1.6 GB, and a stick sold as 2 GB offers less once formatted
A screen + keyboard	For the initial installation (temporary)
A network connection	An Ethernet cable plugged into your router/box
Another computer	To download the ISO and create the stick

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This server will be dedicated to Proxmox

The installation completely erases the server's hard drive, without asking for confirmation once started. Do not do this on a PC that holds important data: Proxmox is designed to be the only system on the machine, and it does not coexist with any other.

Two routes to install: dedicated server or virtual machine

Proxmox VE replaces the machine's kernel and takes control of its network: it is therefore never installed on a workstation, nor alongside a system you want to keep. It needs an entire machine, whether physical or virtual. Hence two routes, depending on what you have.

The dedicated server route is the one followed by the rest of this guide: a PC or server to sacrifice, a USB stick and the official ISO. The virtual machine route exists because many readers have no hardware to dedicate to it. You create a VM in your usual hypervisor (VirtualBox, VMware, KVM) and install Proxmox in it, where it is then a guest like any other. Nothing puts your workstation at risk: if the installation goes wrong, you delete the VM.

In a VM, the USB stick of step 3 has no reason to exist: the ISO itself is attached to the VM as a virtual CD drive. Skip step 3, then boot from it at step 4.

What specification should the virtual machine route follow?

A VM that is too small or badly configured lets Proxmox install, then fails afterwards, at the first disk created or the first machine started. The following table therefore sets seven items to respect as soon as the VM is created, each with its reason. These values were measured on 2026-10-27 on an installation of Proxmox VE 9.2.2. They are deliberately larger than the minimum homelab configuration given further down, because the labs create disks and machines inside this Proxmox.

Item	Expected value	Why
Version	Proxmox VE 9.x on Debian 13 "trixie"	This is the version taught in this guide and in the course
Processor	4 vCPU	Proxmox and the machines you create in it share the cores
Memory	6 GB of RAM	Proxmox installs its kernel, postfix, open-iscsi and chrony, keeps two kernels during a switchover, and must still hold the disks of the machines created
System disk	40 GB	The system, the two kernels, the ISO images and the first VM disks
Second disk	20 GB, raw, unpartitioned	Without it, the storage labs are impossible: LVM-thin, ZFS pool, adding then removing a vdev
Nested virtualization	Enabled on the host hypervisor	Without it, no machine created in this Proxmox starts
Network and repository	vmbr0 bridge reachable from your workstation, pve-no-subscription repository configured	You must reach the web interface on port 8006 and be able to update without a subscription

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Nested virtualization consists of running a hypervisor inside a virtual machine: here, your host hypervisor must pass the processor's virtualization extensions (VT-x or AMD-V) through to the Proxmox VM. A vdev is a group of disks inside a ZFS pool, and a bridge (vmbr0) is the virtual switch that connects the machines to the network.

How do you check nested virtualization?

The check takes two steps, because the feature is enabled on the host and observed in the guest. On the host hypervisor (Linux with KVM), the following command must return Y; on an AMD processor, replace kvm_intel with kvm_amd. If your host hypervisor is VirtualBox or VMware, the guide Install DSOXLab locally gives the checkbox to tick in each.

cat /sys/module/kvm_intel/parameters/nested

Once Proxmox is installed, two checks in the VM confirm that the extensions reach it: the /dev/kvm file must exist, and the vmx counter below must return a nonzero number. A 0 means the option is not enabled on the host: shut the VM down, enable it, then start again.

ls -l /dev/kvm
grep -c vmx /proc/cpuinfo

Which installation method should you choose in a VM?

Three methods exist in a VM, and this page covers the official ISO one. Choose according to what you want to learn or reproduce, the third one having its own page.

• Official ISO, in the console (this page): you answer the installer screen after screen. Do it at least once to learn, because it is the route you will meet in front of a real server.
• Official ISO, automated: the Install Proxmox VE (Automated) entry of the Advanced Options submenu makes the installer read its answers from a file prepared in advance, which makes the installation reproducible. The entry is described at step 4, the answer file is not detailed here.
• Debian 13, then the Proxmox repository: you first install Debian 13, the system Proxmox VE 9 is built on, then you add the repository and the packages. This is the reproducible route of the course lab, with no graphical console to drive. Its full procedure, with the cloud image traps, lives in Install Proxmox VE 9 on an existing Debian 13.

And if the distinction between a hypervisor installed on the hardware and a hypervisor installed in a virtual machine still escapes you, Type 1 versus Type 2 (in French) lays it out in a few paragraphs.

How do you know whether your installation is compliant?

The course lab has the learner install Proxmox, then scores the compliance item by item. It starts from a bare Debian 13 and not from the ISO: it is therefore found in the lesson Install Proxmox VE 9 on an existing Debian 13.

For an ISO installation, compliance is something you check yourself. The section "Check that everything works", at the end of step 6, gives the installed version and the state of the services; the web interface troubleshooting shows, with ip -brief a, the address carried by the vmbr0 bridge. The VM specification above sets the seven items to respect as soon as it is created.

Why use the official ISO?

There are two main ways to install Proxmox:

Method	For whom?	Difficulty
Official ISO (this guide)	Everyone, especially beginners	Easy
On an existing Debian 13 (route of the lab in a VM)	Comfortable with installing Debian	Hard

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The official ISO is the recommended method because:

• The installer guides you step by step
• The partitioning is automatic (no need to calculate sizes)
• Everything is preconfigured to work together
• You get the web interface ready to use from the first boot

What is inside the ISO?

The Proxmox VE 9.2 ISO contains everything you need:

• Debian 13 "Trixie": the base operating system
• Linux kernel 7.0: optimized for virtualization, with ZFS 2.4 support
• QEMU 11.0: the engine that runs the virtual machines (KVM)
• LXC 7.0: the engine that runs the containers
• The web interface: to manage everything from your browser, including its mobile version

Step 1: Check that your hardware is compatible

Hardware virtualization: mandatory

To run virtual machines, your processor must support hardware virtualization. This is a CPU feature that lets it run the code of isolated machines directly, instead of simulating everything in software, which would be much slower.

Brand	Technology name	How to check in the BIOS
Intel	VT-x (or Intel Virtualization Technology)	Look for "VT-x", "Intel VT", or "Virtualization"
AMD	AMD-V (or SVM Mode)	Look for "AMD-V", "SVM", or "Virtualization"

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How do you enter the BIOS?

The BIOS (or UEFI on recent machines) is the configuration screen that appears before Windows or Linux starts.

To enter it:

1. Restart your machine
2. Press a key right at the start (before the Windows logo)
3. The key varies by manufacturer:
   • Dell: F2 or F12
   • HP: F10 or Esc
   • Lenovo: F1 or F2
   • Asus: F2 or Del
   • Acer: F2 or Del

Once in the BIOS, look for an "Advanced", "CPU Configuration" or "Security" menu to find the virtualization option.

If you already have Linux installed, you can check with this command:

# Check whether virtualization is enabled
grep -E '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

• If you see vmx, Intel VT-x is enabled
• If you see svm, AMD-V is enabled
• If nothing is displayed → virtualization is not enabled, go to the BIOS

Minimum versus recommended configuration

To test and learn (homelab)

For a first homelab, aim for the minimum below without overspending: an old desktop PC or a second-hand mini PC is enough to discover Proxmox. The line that really decides is the RAM, not the processor: it is what caps the number of virtual machines you can run in parallel. Look mostly at the right-hand column, it translates each minimum into a concrete use.

Component	Minimum	What it allows
CPU	64-bit with VT-x/AMD-V	Running a few light VMs
RAM	4 GB	1-2 small VMs (512 MB - 1 GB each)
Disk	32 GB	Proxmox + a few test VMs
Network	1 Ethernet port	Basic access

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For serious use (production)

Component	Recommended	Why
CPU	4+ cores with VT-x/AMD-V	More simultaneous VMs
RAM	16-32 GB	Each VM needs its own RAM
OS disk	64 GB SSD	Proxmox boots faster
VM disk	256 GB+ SSD or 1 TB+ HDD	Storage for your VMs
Network	2 Gigabit ports	Separate management and VM traffic

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RAM: the limiting factor

RAM is often what limits the number of VMs. Each VM needs its own memory:

What you want to do	Recommended RAM
2-3 light VMs (web server, DNS)	8 GB
5-10 varied VMs	16 GB
10-20 VMs or demanding VMs (Windows)	32 GB
Many VMs or ZFS	64 GB+

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Simple rule: add up the RAM of your VMs + 2 GB for Proxmox itself.

ZFS and RAM

If you choose ZFS as the filesystem (the choice is made on screen 2 of the installation), it reserves memory for its read cache, called the ARC. The rule of thumb in the Proxmox documentation is 2 GiB as a base, plus 1 GiB per TiB of storage.

Since Proxmox VE 8.1, the installer itself sets a cap: the ARC does not exceed 10% of the host's memory, nor 16 GiB. On a 16 GB machine, that makes about 1.6 GiB, which is less than the rule of thumb. This cap does not exist if you install Proxmox on top of Debian, and the detail lives in Local storage.

Rather than remembering a percentage, read the value in force on your machine, which stays correct whatever the version: /sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_arc_max gives the active limit (0 means "OpenZFS default"), /etc/modprobe.d/zfs.conf the value set by the installer, and the c_max field of /proc/spl/kstat/zfs/arcstats the cap actually applied.

Step 2: Download the Proxmox ISO

Where do you download it?

1. Go to proxmox.com/downloads

2. Download the latest version (e.g. proxmox-ve_9.2-1.iso)

3. The file is about 1.6 GB (measured on proxmox-ve_9.2-1.iso), allow a few minutes depending on your connection

Which version should you pick?

Always take the latest stable version, the one with the highest number. As of 28 October 2026, that is Proxmox VE 9.2, released on 21 May 2026 and based on Debian 13 "Trixie": kernel 7.0, QEMU 11.0, ZFS 2.4.

Check that the download is correct (optional but recommended)

Sometimes a download can be corrupted (incomplete or damaged file). To check that your file is intact:

# On Linux or macOS
sha256sum proxmox-ve_9.2-1.iso

Compare the string you get with the one Proxmox publishes, in the SHA256SUMS file of its image repository. For the 9.2-1 ISO, the expected value starts with 4e88fe41 and ends with 2c6c. If the two strings match, your file is intact: it was neither truncated nor corrupted along the way. A checksum proves the integrity of the file, not its authenticity: for that, you would have to verify a signature.

Step 3: Create the bootable USB stick

Why a USB stick?

To install Proxmox, you must boot your server from the installer, not from its hard drive. In the past we burned CDs; today we use a USB stick, faster, reusable, and recognized by every recent BIOS.

The stick will be erased

Creating a bootable stick erases everything on it. Copy your important files elsewhere before you start!

Windows

Recommended method: Rufus

Rufus is a small free program that creates bootable sticks easily.

1. Download Rufus from rufus.ie

   Take the "portable" version, no need to install, it works directly.

2. Plug in your USB stick (4 GB, to hold the 1.6 GB of the ISO)

3. Launch Rufus and configure:

   • Device: select your USB stick (check the size to be sure)
   • Boot selection: click "SELECT" and choose the Proxmox ISO you downloaded

4. Click START

5. Careful, two important questions:

   • "Download a different version of GRUB?" → Click NO
   • "Write in ISO or DD mode?" → Choose DD (very important!)

6. Wait for the copy to finish (2-5 minutes depending on the stick's speed)

DD mode is mandatory

Why is DD mode important? ISO mode reorganizes the files to make them Windows-compatible, whereas Proxmox needs the image exactly as it is. DD mode copies it bit by bit, without changing anything.

If you forget it, the stick will not boot, and the symptom looks like a faulty stick.

Alternative: Etcher

If Rufus seems complicated, Etcher is simpler (but less configurable):

1. Download and launch Etcher
2. Flash from file: select the Proxmox ISO
3. Select target: select the USB stick, and check its size so you do not erase another disk
4. Flash!: start the write and wait for it to finish

macOS

With the Terminal

macOS has no simple graphical tool, but the Terminal does the job very well.

1. Convert the ISO (macOS needs a slightly different format):

   hdiutil convert proxmox-ve_*.iso -format UDRW -o proxmox-ve.dmg

2. Identify your USB stick:

   diskutil list

   You will see a list of disks. Spot your stick by its size (e.g. 8 GB = /dev/disk2).

3. Unmount the stick (but do not unplug it!):

   # Replace disk2 with your stick's number
   diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

4. Copy the image to the stick:

   # The "r" before disk makes the copy faster
   sudo dd if=proxmox-ve.dmg bs=1M of=/dev/rdisk2

   Enter your Mac password. No progress bar appears, that is normal. Wait 2-5 minutes.

5. Eject cleanly:

   diskutil eject /dev/disk2

Check the disk number carefully!

A mistake on the number (disk2, disk3...) could erase your main hard drive. Always check the size before running dd.

Linux

With dd (standard method)

The dd command (disk dump) copies data bit by bit, perfect for creating bootable sticks.

1. Identify your USB stick:

   lsblk

   Spot your stick by its size. Example: an 8 GB stick appears as sdb with 7.5G.

2. Copy the image:

   # Replace sdX with your stick's letter (sdb, sdc...)
   sudo dd bs=1M conv=fdatasync if=./proxmox-ve_*.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress

   • bs=1M: copies in 1 MB blocks (faster)
   • conv=fdatasync: makes sure everything is written before finishing
   • status=progress: shows the progress

3. Wait for it to finish (2-5 minutes depending on the stick's speed)

sdX, not sdX1!

Use the whole disk (/dev/sdb) and not a partition (/dev/sdb1).

The 1 at the end designates a partition, not the whole disk. An installation image contains its own partition table: written into an existing partition, it cannot recreate it, and the stick stays unbootable.

Step 4: Boot from the USB stick

Now that your stick is ready, let's move on to the installation on the server.

1. Plug the USB stick into the server where you want to install Proxmox

2. Also plug in a screen and a keyboard (temporarily, just for the installation)

3. Turn the server on and open the boot menu:

   • Press the boot key (often F12, F11, or Esc) right at startup
   • Select your USB stick in the list

4. The Proxmox menu appears:

   It has four entries, observed on the 9.2-1 ISO:

   Option	When to choose it
   Install Proxmox VE (Graphical)	Normal case, choose this one
   Install Proxmox VE (Terminal UI)	If the graphical screen stays black or frozen
   Install Proxmox VE (Terminal UI, Serial Console)	Server driven through a serial port, no screen
   Advanced Options	Submenu: nomodeset, diagnostic modes, rescue, memory test

   Swipe to see more

   The arrow keys move the selection, Enter confirms, e opens the editing of the boot line and Esc goes back. The installer reminds you of these keys at the bottom of the screen.

The computer boots into Windows instead of the stick?

Solutions to try:

1. Check that the stick is properly plugged in (try another USB port, preferably USB 2.0)
2. Go back to the BIOS and look for "Boot Order" or "Boot Priority"
3. Put "USB" first in the boot order
4. Enable "Legacy Boot" or "CSM" if UEFI does not work

Do not touch Secure Boot for this: the section "Do you need to disable Secure Boot to install Proxmox?", further down, says in which precise case to do it, and why disabling it is not a reflex.

Black or frozen screen? On some hardware (very old or very recent), the graphics drivers cause problems.

The installer already has an entry ready for this case. In the boot menu, open Advanced Options, then choose Install Proxmox VE (Graphical, nomodeset). The nomodeset parameter disables the kernel's takeover of the graphics card: the display is cruder, and it works where the screen stayed black.

This submenu has nine entries, observed on the 9.2-1 ISO: the two nomodeset variants, three Debug modes, the automated installation, the Rescue Boot that repairs an existing installation, a memory test (memtest86+, which requires Secure Boot to be disabled) and access to the UEFI settings.

If you need a parameter other than nomodeset, you have to edit the boot line yourself:

1. move to the entry you want, without confirming it;
2. press e to edit it;
3. go to the line that starts with linux;
4. add your parameter at the end of that line;
5. press Ctrl+X to boot. This change is temporary: it does not survive a reboot.

Do you need to disable Secure Boot to install Proxmox?

No, not on principle: Proxmox VE supports Secure Boot. According to the Proxmox wiki (Secure Boot Setup, consulted on 2026-10-28), its boot loader has been signed by the official Microsoft Secure Boot certificate since Proxmox VE 8.1, and every fresh installation of version 9 already contains the signed packages (shim, GRUB and kernel). So leave the option as your firmware offers it: it protects you from a modified loader or kernel.

Three real limits are worth knowing. Secure Boot only exists in UEFI mode, not in classic BIOS or CSM. A kernel you compile yourself or a DKMS module (a driver rebuilt at every kernel update) must be signed with a key that you enroll. Finally, the memtest86+ entry of the boot menu requires Secure Boot to be disabled.

Disabling it is therefore justified in response to a precise symptom, not beforehand. That symptom is the one described by the Proxmox wiki, in the "Troubleshooting" section of the page Install Proxmox VE on Debian 13 Trixie (consulted on 2026-10-28): "If the kernel fails to boot with error: bad shim signature., make sure Secure Boot is disabled." In other words, if the kernel refuses to start with this message, disable Secure Boot in the firmware, long enough to diagnose. This wiki page deals with installation on Debian. No source deals with the ISO route separately: the message belongs to the Secure Boot chain and not to the installation route, so it is handled the same way after an installation from the ISO. Then re-enable Secure Boot, and check the state with mokutil --sb-state, which must answer SecureBoot enabled.

Step 5: The installation, step by step

The Proxmox installer guides you through 6 screens. Here is what you need to know about each one.

Screen 1: License (EULA)

Click I agree. Proxmox VE is distributed under the GNU AGPL v3 free license, and can be used without a subscription.

Screen 2: choose the disk and the filesystem, a choice with no way back

This is where you decide where and how Proxmox will be installed.

Which disk should you choose?

If you have several disks, select the one where you want to install the Proxmox system. Generally, you choose:

• An SSD for performance (Proxmox boots faster)
• The smallest one if you have an SSD + a big HDD (the HDD will then serve for the VMs)

Which filesystem? Click "Options"

The filesystem determines how your data is structured on the disk: snapshots, redundancy, memory consumption. This choice conditions the features you will have afterwards, and it cannot be changed later without reinstalling everything.

System	What is it?	For whom?
ext4	The standard Linux system, simple and proven	Beginners, simple homelab
XFS	Like ext4, optimized for very large files	Heavy file servers
ZFS	Advanced system with built-in RAID and data protection	Production, critical data
BTRFS	Integration still young in Proxmox	To be avoided for now: support is not stable

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Advice for beginners

Choose ext4 for your first installation. It is simple, reliable, and covers most of a homelab's needs: you only need ZFS if you want its snapshots, its redundancy or its compression.

You can always reinstall with ZFS when you are more comfortable and understand why you need it.

Understanding the ext4/XFS options (with LVM)

If you choose ext4 or XFS, Proxmox uses LVM (Logical Volume Manager) to organize the disk. LVM adds a layer between the physical disk and the partitions: it pools the space into a volume group (pve), then carves logical volumes out of it that you can grow or shrink without repartitioning the disk. This flexibility is what makes LVM more practical than classic partitioning.

Your hard drive
└── pve (LVM volume group)
    ├── root (system logical volume) - where Proxmox is installed
    ├── swap (swap logical volume) - fallback when RAM is full
    └── data ("thin" pool) - for the disks of your VMs and containers

Here is what this actually gives, read with lvs on a fresh installation done on a 40 GB disk:

Volume	Size obtained	Share of the disk
root	17.31 GB	about 43%
swap	4.88 GB	about 12%
data (thin)	10.43 GB	about 26%
free space of the group	4.88 GB	kept in reserve

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Two lessons. First, the installer does not allocate the whole disk: it leaves a free reserve in the volume group. Second, it is root that takes the biggest share on a small disk, which leaves little room for the machines: on 40 GB, only about ten gigabytes remain for your VMs. That is enough to learn, too tight for real use.

Advanced options (you can keep the default values):

Option	What it does	Advice
hdsize	How much of the disk to use	Already prefilled with the disk size: keep the proposed value
swapsize	Swap size	Empty by default. 4 to 8 GB are enough, even with 64 GB of RAM
maxroot	Maximum size of the system volume	Empty by default. 96 GB is already comfortable
minfree	Space left free in the volume group	Empty by default. This space serves LVM-thin snapshots
maxvz	Maximum size of the data volume	Empty = all the rest

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A clarification that avoids hesitation in front of the screen: only hdsize carries a value, the other four fields are empty, and an empty field means here "compute it for me".

Understanding the ZFS options (for the curious)

ZFS is more complex, but it brings snapshots and redundancy that LVM does not offer. First point that surprises: the RAID level is not chosen separately, it is part of the name of the filesystem. Observed on the 9.2-1 installer, here is the full list of the selector.

Selector entry	Disks	Protection
ext4, xfs	1	None, with LVM
zfs (RAID0)	1 or more	None: losing one disk loses the whole pool
zfs (RAID1)	2 or more	Survives the loss of one disk, capacity divided by two
zfs (RAID10)	4 or more	Striped mirrors, fast and redundant
zfs (RAIDZ-1)	3 or more	Survives 1 failure
zfs (RAIDZ-2)	4 or more	Survives 2 failures
zfs (RAIDZ-3)	5 or more	Survives 3 failures
btrfs (RAID0 / RAID1 / RAID10)	depending on the level	Integration still young in Proxmox

Swipe to see more

The names single and mirror, which you meet in older tutorials and in ZFS terminology, do not appear in this installer: look for RAID0 and RAID1.

As soon as a ZFS system is selected, the panel displays a warning you must read, and which the box below comes back to: "ZFS is not compatible with hardware RAID controllers". Two tabs then appear, Disk Setup, which chooses the pool's disks, and Advanced Options, whose default values, observed on a machine with 6 GB of RAM, follow.

Option	What it does	Proposed value
ashift	Sector size, as a power of 2	12, i.e. 4 KiB. The field is numeric, there is no "auto" value
compress	Compresses data on the fly	on, which applies ZFS's default algorithm
checksum	Verifies the integrity of each block read	on, this is what detects silent corruption
copies	Number of copies of each block	1: redundancy comes from the RAID, not from this setting
ARC max size	Memory reserved for the read cache	590 MiB on this 6 GB machine, i.e. the 10% that the installer has capped since PVE 8.1

Swipe to see more

Keep these values for a first installation. The line that matters is ARC max size: it confirms on screen the cap described above. You will still come across tutorials advising to set it to half of the RAM, which has not been the default since Proxmox VE 8.1.

Two traps of the ZFS choice

Your second disk would be absorbed by the pool. If your machine has a second disk that you reserve for something else, for example for storage exercises, the Disk Setup tab offers it as Harddisk 1 and includes it in the system pool. Measured on a VM with two disks: /dev/vda and /dev/vdb are both selected. Then set Harddisk 1 to do not use, otherwise the disk is erased and merged into the pool.

A hardware RAID card is incompatible. If your server has one (Dell PERC, HP Smart Array), do not use it with ZFS, which needs to see each disk directly to manage redundancy itself. A controller that hides the disks behind a fake big disk prevents it. Configure it in HBA, IT, JBOD or Passthrough mode, according to your server's manual.

Screen 3: Location

This screen looks harmless, but two of its fields have a real technical effect, not just a cosmetic one. The country guides the choice of download mirrors, and the time zone determines the timestamp of all your logs: a wrong value makes debugging painful the day you cross-reference Proxmox's logs with those of another device.

Good news, there is generally nothing to type: the installer detects the country and prefills the three lines. On the bench used for this guide, it already proposed France, Europe/Paris and French. Check them rather than retyping them, and look above all at the keyboard layout: it is the one that will be used to type your password on the next screen.

Field	What to enter	Why it matters
Country	France	Proxmox will download from nearby servers = faster
Time zone	Europe/Paris	So that the log timestamps are correct
Keyboard Layout	French	So that your AZERTY keyboard works correctly

Swipe to see more

Screen 4: Password and email

Field	What to enter
Password	The installer requires a minimum of 8 characters. Aim rather for 12 or more, with uppercase, digits and symbols: this password opens the root access of the hypervisor
Confirm	The same password, to avoid typing mistakes
Email	Your real address

Swipe to see more

Two default values that the installer refuses

The Email field comes prefilled with mail@example.invalid, and the hostname of the next screen with pve.example.invalid. These two values are refused when you click Next: "Please enter a valid Email address", then "Hostname does not look like a valid fully qualified domain name".

This is not a failure, it is intended: the .invalid domain is reserved precisely so that it is never valid, which forces you to enter your own.

Why is this address requested? Because Proxmox uses it to warn you, and these messages matter: a disk showing signs of failure, security updates available, a failed automatic backup. This is not advertising: it is the alert channel that Proxmox uses by default, and an address that you never read deprives you of these alerts. So give an address that you actually check.

Screen 5: network configuration

A mistake on this screen only shows after the reboot: the web interface becomes unreachable, and you then have to fix the network from the server console.

First point that puzzles: there is no "Netmask" field. The mask is entered in CIDR notation, in the small field to the right of the address. If you are looking for where to type 255.255.255.0, write 24 in that field: it is the same thing, expressed as a number of bits.

Field	What it is	Example
Management Interface	The network card to use, with its MAC and driver	nic0 - 52:54:00:… (virtio_net)
Hostname (FQDN)	The full name of the server	pve1.home.lab
IP Address (CIDR)	The fixed address, then the prefix in the neighboring field	192.168.1.100 and 24
Gateway	The address of your router or box	192.168.1.1
DNS Server	The DNS server	192.168.1.1
Pin network interface names	Freezes the names of the network cards, checked by default	leave it checked

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Second point, reassuring: everything is already prefilled. The installer queried the network over DHCP (the service that automatically hands out addresses on a network, run by your box in most cases) and proposes an address, a gateway and a DNS that work. Your job is to replace the automatically obtained address with the one you have chosen, not to type everything.

How do you fill in each field?

1. Management Interface

The installer automatically detects your network cards. Choose the one that is plugged in (the installer indicates which ones are connected).

2. Hostname (FQDN)

The name must have the form name.domain.extension:

Example	Valid?	Why
pve1.home.lab	Yes	Name + domain + extension
proxmox.mynetwork.lan	Yes	Name + local domain in .lan
pve1	No	No domain (incomplete)
my server.lan	No	Spaces not allowed
PVE1.Home.Lab	Avoid	It works, but prefer lowercase

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Which domain should you use?

For a homelab, use a domain that is unlikely to conflict with a real Internet domain:

• .home.lab
• .lan
• .internal

Avoid .local: this suffix is reserved for service discovery on the local network (mDNS, what Apple calls Bonjour and Linux Avahi). Using it for a fixed name creates inconsistent resolutions, depending on whether the machine queries its DNS or the multicast.

3. IP Address: how do you choose it?

Choose a static IP (fixed): if the address changed, you would no longer know how to reach Proxmox. Four steps, in this order, make it reliable.

1. Find your network from your PC's IP: if it is 192.168.1.50, your network is 192.168.1.x.
2. Choose an address outside the DHCP range. Your box automatically hands out addresses in a range (for example 100 to 199): a static address placed inside it could be given to another machine.
3. Reserve the address, because that is what guarantees nobody else receives it. You have three ways: a DHCP reservation in your box (the address is tied to the machine's MAC), an entry in an IPAM (the tool that keeps the inventory of an organization's addresses), or, failing that, a static range that you maintain in a file or a table, outside the DHCP range.
4. Check before you enter it, with a measurement that really answers the question: the arping -D duplicate detection, detailed right after.

For this check, arping -D is used from another Linux machine on the same local network. It sends an ARP request (local network address resolution, explained further down) for duplicate detection for the target address. The package is called iputils-arping on Debian and Ubuntu, and eth0 is to be replaced with your card:

sudo arping -D -I eth0 -c 3 192.168.1.100
echo $?
# 0: nobody answered during the test
# any other value: a machine already carries the address, pick another

With no Linux machine at hand, consult your box's DHCP server: its list of leases and reservations shows the addresses already allocated.

A silent ping proves nothing. A machine may not answer ICMP (the ping protocol) because a firewall filters it, which is what Windows machines do by default, or because it is powered off at the time of the test. In both cases, the address is nevertheless taken, and reusing it creates an address conflict that cuts both machines off intermittently. Conversely, a ping that answers proves that the address is taken.

arping -D does better, because ARP (the resolution of an IP address into a MAC address (in French), on the local network) is a layer 2 resolution that IP filtering rules do not see: a machine that is powered on therefore answers it even when it ignores ping. Layer 2 filtering remains possible, but rarer. arping -D has two other limits: it does not cross a router (same network segment only), and it does not see a machine that is off or a device that has not yet taken its DHCP lease. That is why the check comes after the reservation, never in its place.

Examples of addresses to favor (if your network is 192.168.1.x):

• 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.30 are often outside the DHCP range, because the range of most boxes starts higher
• Avoid 192.168.1.1, it is almost always your box
• Above all, read the real DHCP range in your box's interface, it is the only one that counts. The examples in this guide and in the rest of the course use 192.168.1.100: check that it is outside your DHCP range, or reserve it, before using it as is

Finally: CIDR prefix, Gateway and DNS

Field	Usual value	How to find it
CIDR prefix	24	It is the equivalent of 255.255.255.0, and applies to almost all home networks
Gateway	192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1	The address of your box or router
DNS	The same as the gateway	Your box relays DNS requests. A public resolver also works, at the price of entrusting your browsing to its operator

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Write this information down!

Write down the IP you chose! You will need it to reach the web interface.

Example to note: https://192.168.1.100:8006

Screen 6: Summary and installation

The Summary screen recaps your eleven answers. Check them, and above all the Disk(s) line: it is the disk that is going to be erased. If something is wrong, Previous goes back.

A checkbox is ticked under the table, Automatically reboot after successful installation. It explains the advice below: the server restarts by itself at the end, without leaving you time to remove the stick.

The previous screens were confirmed with Next; this one carries the Install button, and it is from this click that the disk is written, and so erased.

The installation time depends mostly on the disk: measured at about 80 seconds on an NVMe disk, it takes much longer on a mechanical disk. You see a progress bar scroll by and the name of each package installed.

Once finished:

1. Remove the USB stick (in a VM, detach the ISO), otherwise the machine will restart on it and relaunch the installer
2. The server restarts automatically
3. A text screen displays the URL for logging in to the web interface

Step 6: First access to the web interface

Log in from your browser

1. On another computer (your usual PC), open your favorite browser

2. Type the address: https://YOUR_IP:8006

   Example: https://192.168.1.100:8006

3. Your browser will display a security warning, this is normal!

   The certificate is "self-signed" (created by Proxmox itself, not by a recognized authority). It is not dangerous on a local network.

   • Chrome: click "Advanced" → "Proceed to [IP] (unsafe)"
   • Firefox: click "Advanced" → "Accept the Risk and Continue"
   • Edge: click "Details" → "Continue to [IP] (unsafe)"

4. Log in:

   • User name: root
   • Password: the one you chose during the installation
   • Realm: Linux PAM standard authentication
   • Language: the interface language you prefer (French, for example)

The subscription popup is normal!

At every login, a message reminds you that you have no commercial subscription.

This message signals no limit: without a subscription, all the features remain available. The subscription is optional: it gives access to professional support and to the Enterprise repository, which the repository documentation describes as the most stable and suitable for production use.

Just click OK to continue.

Configure updates (no-subscription repository)

By default, Proxmox enables an Enterprise repository (paid) that you cannot query without a subscription. For personal use, switch to the no-subscription repository, which is free. Careful: there are two Enterprise repositories, not one, and that is the trap of this step.

Via the web interface (recommended method):

1. In the left menu, click your server's name (e.g. pve1)

2. Click Updates → Repositories

3. You will see a pve-enterprise line marked with a warning icon, this is normal (it does not work without a subscription)

4. Select the pve-enterprise line and click the Disable button

5. Also disable the Ceph Enterprise line, the one whose URL starts with enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-. This is the second paid repository, and forgetting it makes the Refresh of step 7 fail on a 401 error, which is surprising when you think you have disabled everything. Ceph is the distributed storage of Proxmox: you only need it if you deploy it, and a free version then exists (see "Errors during updates" in the troubleshooting section)

6. Click the Add button, select No-Subscription in the list, then Add. The line created is called pve-no-subscription: this is the name you will find in the files and in apt messages

7. Go back to Updates, click Refresh to check the available updates

8. If updates appear, click Upgrade to install them

After the switch, the pve-no-subscription line also keeps a warning in that list, and this is not a flaw in your installation: it is how Proxmox marks a repository it does not intend for production. The box below says what that actually implies.

What is the difference between the repositories?

Repository	What Proxmox says about it	Price	For whom
Enterprise	"the most stable packages", suitable for production	Paid subscription	Production, companies with an SLA
No-Subscription	"can be used for testing and non-production use"	Free	Homelab, learning, pre-production
Test	Less tested, may break	Free	Developers only

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You sometimes read that the free repository is equivalent to the other, but the Proxmox documentation does not say that. It writes "it's not recommended to use this on production servers", because "these packages are not always as heavily tested and validated" (Package Repositories, consulted on 2026-10-28). So this repository is the right choice to learn, to test and to run a homelab, which is what this course does, and the interface warning is consistent with that stance. For a machine whose downtime costs an organization money, the subscription is the vendor's answer.

Check that everything works

Log in over SSH or through the web console (click your node → Shell) and check:

# Display the installed Proxmox version
pveversion

# Result observed on a fresh 9.2 installation, on 2026-10-27. The last
# digits vary depending on the updates applied:
# pve-manager/9.2.2/b9984c6d90a4bd80 (running kernel: 7.0.2-6-pve)

# Check that the Proxmox services are running
systemctl status pve-cluster pvedaemon pveproxy

# You must see "active (running)" for each service

# See the available disk space
df -h /

# The "/" line gives the system's space. Do not look for your VMs there:
# with LVM, their disks live in the "thin" pool pve/data, which is not
# mounted and therefore does not appear in df. lvs is what shows it:
lvs

Troubleshooting: common problems

The installation does not start

Even before you see the Proxmox installer, several blockages occur when booting from the USB stick. They almost all have the same origin: the BIOS/UEFI not booting from the right medium, or a badly written stick. A classic trap is the write mode: Proxmox requires writing in raw disk image (DD) mode, not in classic ISO mode, otherwise the stick is not bootable. Go through the middle column, it is what tells a BIOS problem from a stick problem.

Symptom	Likely cause	Solution
The PC boots into Windows/Linux	The USB stick is not the priority	Change the boot order in the BIOS
Black screen after selection	Graphics driver problem	Advanced Options then the Graphical, nomodeset entry, or failing that Terminal UI
"No bootable device" message	The firmware finds no boot code on the stick: boot order or badly written stick	Check the boot order, then recreate the stick in DD mode
The kernel does not start, message error: bad shim signature.	A signature is missing in the Secure Boot chain	Disable Secure Boot in the firmware long enough to diagnose, see the dedicated section
The USB stick does not appear	Stick badly created	Recreate it with Rufus in DD mode
"Missing operating system" error	Stick created in ISO mode	Recreate it with DD mode (not ISO)

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Unable to reach the web interface

Symptom	Likely cause	Solution
"Connection refused" / "ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED"	Wrong IP or service stopped	Check the IP on the server with ip a
Timeout (nothing happens)	Not on the same network, or firewall	Check that you are on the same network
"Invalid certificate" / "Your connection is not private"	Normal (self-signed certificate)	Accept the security exception
http://IP:8006 does not load	The "s" of HTTPS is missing from the address	Port 8006 only serves HTTPS: type https://IP:8006
Port 8006 is open but nothing answers	The node's certificate is missing: pveproxy listens and its workers die	journalctl -u pveproxy -n 20, then pvecm updatecerts --force

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This last line deserves a word, because it misleads the diagnosis: the service is indeed active, the port indeed listened on, and yet no answer comes. The pveproxy journal then names the real cause, an unusable /etc/pve/local/pve-ssl.pem, and it is the resolution of the node's name that must be repaired before regenerating the certificate. After an installation from the ISO, this case is rare, because the installer itself writes /etc/hosts with the address and name entered on screen 5: the installer's source code (Proxmox/Install.pm, consulted on 2026-10-28) builds this file there from the IP address, the hostname and the domain of the configuration. The case is however common on a cloud image, and covered in Install Proxmox VE 9 on an existing Debian 13.

To check the IP on the server (with the keyboard directly connected):

ip -brief a

Look for the address under vmbr0, and not under the physical card. At installation, Proxmox indeed creates a network bridge named vmbr0, gives it the server's address, and leaves the physical card without an address, in manual. This is the bridge your future virtual machines will use to reach the network. Output observed on a fresh installation:

lo       UNKNOWN  127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128
nic0     UP
vmbr0    UP       192.168.122.173/24 fe80::5054:ff:feb2:33ce/64

To check that Proxmox answers:

ss -tlnp | grep 8006
# Must show a line with "pveproxy" - otherwise the service is stopped

To restart the service if needed:

systemctl restart pveproxy

Errors during updates

Message "401 Unauthorized" or "Failed to fetch":

An Enterprise repository is still active, and you have no subscription. Read the repository name in the message, because there are two: the Proxmox VE one and the Ceph one. This is the message the second gives when only the first has been disabled:

Err:5 https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-squid trixie InRelease
  401  Unauthorized [IP: 51.91.38.34 443]

The fix is the same as for pve-enterprise: disable that repository. If you do deploy Ceph storage, replace it with its free version, which lives on download.proxmox.com with the no-subscription component. The version name after ceph- changes with Proxmox releases, squid then tentacle: read the one your file carries rather than copying ours.

Proxmox VE 9 is built on Debian 13, which describes its repositories in the deb822 format: .sources files made of Key: value fields, and no longer the old deb http://… lines of .list files. Procedures written for Proxmox VE 8 therefore do not apply as is.

A fresh installation contains only three repository files, observed on 2026-10-27, and /etc/apt/sources.list no longer exists at all:

ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
# ceph.sources   debian.sources   pve-enterprise.sources

This listing carries the cause of the Ceph 401: ceph.sources is right there, placed by the installer, and it is the one holding the second paid repository. So the two files to deal with are pve-enterprise.sources and ceph.sources, not the first one alone.

The same listing shows a last thing: the no-subscription repository is not present at the start. You add it yourself, through the web interface as described above, or by hand.

# Check the state of the Enterprise repository
cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.sources

# To disable it, add the Enabled field to it. Commenting out a line does not
# work here: the deb822 format has no "deb" line to comment out.
echo 'Enabled: false' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.sources

# Second paid repository, the Ceph one: read the paragraph under this block first
echo 'Enabled: false' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ceph.sources

Open the Ceph file before appending this line. A >> always writes at the end of the file. If ceph.sources holds a single entry, the line lands in the right place. If it holds several, separated by an empty line (the Proxmox wiki shows the content of this file depending on the repository chosen: enterprise, no-subscription or test), the command would disable only the last one, which is not necessarily the one blocking you. Find the entry whose URIs field starts with enterprise.proxmox.com, and that is the one that gets the Enabled: false. The web interface makes this distinction on its own, which is one more reason to leave it in charge.

The file of the free repository, which the interface creates for you or which you write by hand in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, is called proxmox.sources and not pve-no-subscription.sources: its file name does not reuse the repository's name, which is surprising when you look for it. It contains the following, the Signed-By field designating the key that authenticates the packages:

Types: deb
URIs: http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve
Suites: trixie
Components: pve-no-subscription
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

The URL is indeed HTTP, and this is not an oversight: APT does not trust the transport, it verifies the signature of each package index with the key designated by Signed-By. A package modified along the way would be rejected at installation. Then run the update again:

apt update && apt full-upgrade -y

Security: first recommended measures

Your Proxmox works! Here are a few security best practices to apply:

Action	Why	How
Create a non-root user	Do not use root day to day	Datacenter → Permissions → Users → Add
Configure fail2ban	Block brute-force attacks	apt install fail2ban
Enable the Proxmox firewall	Limit incoming connections	Datacenter → Firewall → Options → Firewall: Yes
Update regularly	Fix security flaws	Updates → Refresh → Upgrade

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Key takeaways

You have installed Proxmox VE 9 successfully! Here are the key points:

1. The official ISO is the recommended route for Proxmox VE 9.2 (Debian 13, kernel 7.0, QEMU 11.0, ZFS 2.4). Without a dedicated server, install in a compliant VM (6 GB of RAM, raw second disk, nested virtualization enabled); to start from an existing Debian 13, follow the dedicated lesson
2. Hardware virtualization (VT-x/AMD-V) must be enabled in the BIOS before the installation
3. The installation erases the chosen disk, and the filesystem cannot be changed without reinstalling everything: take ext4 if you are starting out
4. With ZFS, set a second disk reserved for something else to do not use, configure a RAID card in HBA mode, and know that the ARC is capped at 10% of the RAM (16 GiB at most) since PVE 8.1: read zfs_arc_max or c_max on your machine
5. The hostname is an FQDN (e.g. pve1.home.lab) and the IP is static and reserved: a silent ping does not prove that an address is free, check with arping -D after the reservation
6. Proxmox VE supports Secure Boot: disable it only in response to error: bad shim signature.
7. Switch to the no-subscription repository for free updates (homelab and learning, not production), disabling both Enterprise repositories, the Proxmox VE one and the Ceph one: forgetting the second gives a 401 error on the first Refresh
8. The web interface is at https://IP:8006 (with the S of HTTPS)

Knowledge check

Check that the essentials of this lesson are in place. The questions only cover what has just been explained here.

Knowledge check

Check what you have learned with this interactive quiz

8 questions

8 min

70% to pass

How it works

• The timer starts when you click Start
• Multiple choice, true/false and short answer questions
• You can move between questions
• Detailed results are shown at the end

Start the quiz

Starts the quiz and the timer

FAQ: common questions about installing Proxmox from the ISO

These are the questions that come up most often after a first Proxmox installation, gathered here so you do not have to search the guide again. They cover the installation method, whether it is free of charge, the choice of the filesystem and the minimum configuration.

How do you install Proxmox VE?

Is Proxmox VE free?

ext4 or ZFS for a Proxmox installation?

What are the minimum requirements for Proxmox VE?

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