Installing Proxmox 9

#proxmox #homelab #virtualization

Hello,

In this post I will go over how I installed proxmox on my HP home lab server. I will try my best to go over every detail from installing the OS to creating my first VM.

If you missed how my is server setup, you can check my post Building my Home Lab.

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Luke 18:14

Getting the software.
Let's start by downloading the software. Proxmox Download

Now the current version is 9.0. If you follow this procedure to a different version, be cautious that a few items can change.

Also we need balena etcher to burn the .iso filo into a bootable USB drive. Balena Download

Burning the ISO image.
Open balena etcher, select flash from file and choose the .iso image from proxmox.

With the USB drive inserted, select the target pointing to USB drive.

Flash the image. If you get an error at this step, try running balena etcher as administrator.

About my Hard Drives
My hard drives are cheap and used and I need some protection and redundancy.
My Server has a SAS controller that can be configured in 2 ways:

Normal mode:
The SAS controller will manage the RAID and the disks. This is ideal if you don't want the OS to manage the disks and it will also prolong the SSD life. The cons is that you can’t pass the entire disk to a VM and also will not work with ZFS.

HBA mode:
This will pass the disk to the OS to manage without doing any controller function. This is ideal if you want to use ZFS as a file system or want to pass the entire disk to a specific VM.

I am choosing the normal mode and created 3 volumes.
Volume 1 - RAID 1 with 2x 128GB SSD. This is where I will install my proxmox OS

Volume 2 - RAID 1 with 2x 1TB SSD. I will use this to run VMs that require some speed on read/write.

Volume 3 - RAID 5 with 4x 300GB HDD. This is the slow disk. I will use VMs that do not require speed / space.

If you are using a simple computer with no raid controller, use ZFS for redundancy.

Installation
Booting with the USB stick on my server, I need to choose the boot menu by pressing F11 and selecting the USB. Your board will be different.

We will select the graphical installation and accept the EULA.