https://backend-engineering-strategy-tools.github.io/site/tags/hypervisor/Recent content in Hypervisor on Backend Engineering Strategy ToolsHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usThu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://backend-engineering-strategy-tools.github.io/site/public-notes/cloud-infrastructure/proxmox/Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://backend-engineering-strategy-tools.github.io/site/public-notes/cloud-infrastructure/proxmox/<p>Proxmox VE (Virtual Environment) is an open-source Type 1 hypervisor built on Debian. It runs KVM for full virtual machines and LXC for lightweight containers, managed through a web UI or API. The subscription model is optional — the community edition is fully functional without a paid license; the subscription gives access to the enterprise update repository and support.</p> <hr> <h2 id="comparison">Comparison </h2><table> <thead> <tr> <th>Platform</th> <th>License</th> <th>VMs (KVM)</th> <th>Containers</th> <th>Clustering</th> <th>Web UI</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Proxmox VE</td> <td>Open-source (optional sub)</td> <td>Yes</td> <td>Yes (LXC)</td> <td>Yes</td> <td>Yes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>VMware ESXi</td> <td>Commercial</td> <td>Yes</td> <td>No</td> <td>Yes (vCenter)</td> <td>Yes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Standalone KVM</td> <td>Open-source</td> <td>Yes</td> <td>No</td> <td>Manual</td> <td>No</td> </tr> <tr> <td>oVirt</td> <td>Open-source</td> <td>Yes</td> <td>No</td> <td>Yes</td> <td>Yes</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Proxmox is the practical choice when you want VMware-style management without the licensing cost, or when you want to run both VMs and containers on the same node.</p> <hr> <h2 id="core-concepts">Core concepts </h2><p><strong>Node</strong> — a physical host running Proxmox VE. Managed independently or as part of a cluster.</p> <p><strong>Cluster</strong> — multiple nodes joined together. Share a unified management view and allow live migration of VMs between nodes. Uses <a class="link" href="https://corosync.github.io/corosync/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" >Corosync</a> for distributed consensus.</p> <p><strong>Quorum</strong> — clusters require a majority of nodes to be reachable to avoid split-brain. Minimum useful cluster size is 3 nodes (loss of one node still leaves a majority). Two-node clusters need a quorum device (<code>qdevice</code>) to function safely.</p> <p><strong>VM</strong> — full virtual machine backed by QEMU/KVM. Hardware-level isolation. Arbitrary OS.</p> <p><strong>Container (CT)</strong> — LXC container. Shares the host kernel; lower overhead than a VM. Linux-only. Useful for services where you want process-level isolation without a full OS.</p> <p><strong>Storage pool</strong> — where disks and images live. Supported backends: local directory, LVM, LVM-thin, ZFS, NFS, CIFS, and Ceph (via <code>rbd</code>). ZFS and Ceph are the most capable options for a cluster — ZFS for local redundancy, Ceph for shared storage across nodes.</p> <hr> <h2 id="related">Related </h2><ul> <li><a class="link" href="https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" >Proxmox VE documentation</a></li> <li><a class="link" href="https://forum.proxmox.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" >Proxmox community forum</a></li> <li><a class="link" href="https://corosync.github.io/corosync/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" >Corosync documentation</a></li> <li><a class="link" href="https://backend-engineering-strategy-tools.github.io/site/public-notes/cloud-infrastructure/ceph/" >Ceph</a> — distributed storage backend for Proxmox clusters</li> <li><a class="link" href="https://backend-engineering-strategy-tools.github.io/site/public-notes/cloud-infrastructure/openstack/" >OpenStack</a> — the next tier up the scale spectrum</li> <li><a class="link" href="https://backend-engineering-strategy-tools.github.io/site/homelab/proxmox-cluster/" >Proxmox cluster in the homelab</a></li> </ul>