Proxmox Virtualization

Proxmox VE (Virtual Environment) is a free, open-source virtualization platform that combines KVM-based full virtual machines with lightweight LXC containers in a single web-managed system. It's built on top of Debian, includes ZFS storage management, backup/restore, clustering and monitoring out of the box, and is the foundation my entire homelab runs on — both the Docker hosts and the standalone LXC services live as guests on top of it.

Hardware

• PVE (main server) — a Beelink Mini-PC, running as the primary Proxmox host. It has a 500GB SSD for VM and container storage, and connects to the network via the server-room Zyxel switch.
• pve2 (test server) — a second Proxmox host, physically located in the study and connected via the OpenWRT-side Zyxel switch. It's dedicated purely to testing and development, running the third Docker host VM (docker-host-pve2) plus experimental setups without risking the production environment.
• Backups — nightly VM backups from PVE run at 00:30 to an NFS share on the Synology (nas:/volume1/backup), with retention of the last 3 daily, 3 monthly and 1 yearly backup.

Advantages

• Mixed virtualization — full KVM virtual machines and lightweight LXC containers run side by side on the same host, so I can pick whichever fits a service best.
• Web-based management — the entire cluster, its VMs, containers, storage and backups are managed from one browser UI via Authelia/Nginx, no separate tooling needed.
• Built-in ZFS support — snapshots, checksumming and pool management are native, making disk setup and VM protection straightforward.
• Native backup/restore — scheduled backups to an external NFS target are configured directly in Proxmox, without third-party backup software.
• No licensing cost — the platform is fully usable without a subscription by switching to the no-subscription repository, which matters for a homelab that isn't running on enterprise support contracts.

Open-source edition

• Proxmox VE Community/no-subscription — the enterprise repositories are disabled and the host is switched to the free "no-subscription" package repository, giving full functionality identical to the paid tiers minus vendor support and the enterprise-only repo.
• License — Proxmox VE itself is open source (AGPLv3); the subscription only adds official support and access to the more conservative enterprise update channel.

Setup process

• Bootstrap — on new Beelink hardware, an initial OS (Windows) needs to be cleared first; entering the BIOS (DEL key) to set the boot order to USB-first allows booting the Proxmox installer.
• Base install — Proxmox VE installed directly from ISO, then updated after disabling the enterprise repo and enabling the no-subscription repo.
• Storage — an additional SSD is partitioned (GPT via parted) and turned into a ZFS pool through the Disks → ZFS section of the web UI.
• Networking/backup target — an NFS share from the Synology is mounted for backup storage, and a nightly backup job is scheduled per VM.
• Guest creation — VMs (like the Debian Docker-host VMs) and LXCs (Pi-hole, Ubuntu-Worker, MariaDB) are created through the web UI, with ISO images uploaded to local storage beforehand.