One of the best alternatives to VMware and Hyper-V is definitely Proxmox which has, with a lot of new features added on regular basis, great chance to become THE virtualization platform for SMB and Home labs.
Why it is so exiting to run Proxmox as a home lab or run it in production for small company? The main reason is that it is good enough to handle the job and that is easy to install, configure and manage.
In this article we’ll detail some new features that we are aware, but also some upgrade tips. Installing and configuring Proxmox Is easy. Here is a quick screenshot from the lab, where I’m installing the latest version.
As I mentioned, there are some new features which are really worth to write about. Let’s have a look.
Proxmox 8.4 New Features
Proxmox, the same way as VMware or Hyper-V, is managed with clusters, you have shared storage, live migration etc etc. You don’t have some advanced features found only within a VMware eco-system, but most SMBs can live without them.
What’s new in Proxmox 8.4 virtual environment?
Live migration with mediated device – Mediated devices allow physical hardware resources to be partitioned into multiple virtual devices. It is now possible to migrate running virtual machines (VMs) which have mediated devices such as NVIDIA vGPU in use. Within a cluster, live migration to another node is possible if hardware and driver support for live migration is equally available on the target node. An available platform with support for live migration is NVIDIA vGPU. Additionally, the new ‘pve-nvidia-vgpu-helper’ tool simplifies the setup of NVIDIA vGPU drivers.
API for third-party backup solutions – Proxmox VE now provides an API simplifying the development of plugins by external backup solution providers. Third party backup solutions can now directly implement backup and restore functionalities in Proxmox VE, and make use of advanced features. Third-party backup providers can implement a plugin that is fully integrated in the backup stack and in the web interface of Proxmox VE. This gives third-party backup solutions the opportunity to enhance the efficiency, reliability, and manageability of their backup and restore features in Proxmox VE. Imagine that your company uses Veeam, Nakivo or other well known backup software. And both do agentless backups.
You’ll be able to continue to use this software when you migrate/move all your workloads into Proxmox. Pretty exciting considering how much more expensive the traditional virtualization solutions such as Hyper-V or VMware vSphere has become.
Virtiofs directory passthrough – Version 8.4 offers the functionality to share files and directories directly between a host and the VMs running on that host. This is possible through the use of virtiofs, which allows VM guests to access host files and directories without the overhead of a network file system. Modern Linux guests support virtiofs out of the box while Windows guests need additional software to use this feature.
Virtio-fs is a shared filesystem designed for virtual environments. It allows to share a directory tree available on the host by mounting it within VMs. It does not use the network stack and aims to offer similar performance and semantics as the source filesystem.
To use virtio-fs, the https://gitlab.com/virtio-fs/virtiofsd[virtiofsd] daemon needs to run in the background. This happens automatically in {pve} when starting a VM using a virtio-fs mount.
Latest versions of open-source technologies – Proxmox VE 8.4 is based on Debian 12.10 (“Bookworm”), but uses the Linux kernel 6.8.12 as stable default and the newer kernel 6.14 as opt-in. This version of Proxmox VE includes updates to the latest versions of leading open-source technologies for virtual environments like QEMU 9.2.0, LXC 6.0.0, ZFS 2.2.7 with compatibility patches for kernel 6.14, and Ceph Squid 19.2.1 as stable option.
Upgrades
To upgrade Proxmox to the latest version, it’s pretty simple too. If you don’t have an enterprise subscription (you testing it in the home lab), you can upgrade too without paying.
Go and select your host > Updates > Repositories > Add.
This is the recommended repository for testing and non-production use. Its packages are not as heavily tested and validated as the production ready enterprise repository. You don’t need a subscription key to access this repository.
So, it looks like this.
The package validation process at Proxmox is as follows: Test -> PVE-No-Subscription -> Enterprise.
The PVE-No-Subscription repository is therefore sufficiently stable. In my opinion, the warning is intended to exonerate the Proxmox team in case of a problems during validation tests. Once added, the repository is listed in the interface.
Disable the Enterprise repository
We’ll disable the Enterprise repository that we no longer need by selecting it and clicking Disable.
Once done, click again on the Update, then Refresh.
Then, you should see a large list of updates. In my case I’m upgrading from 8.2.2 to 8.4. Hit the Upgrade button, and then reply “Y” within the new pop-up window asking if you want to launch the upgrade process. Sit back and enjoy the ride…
You should see a message at the end saying that everything is OK. If so, reboot and you are done.
Command line
You can obviously do the same through command line. After disabling the enterprise repo, and adding the pve-no-subscription repo, you run apt update and apt dist-upgrade
Distribution upgrades from older versions of Proxmox VE are possible with apt. It’s also possible to install Proxmox VE 8.4 on top of Debian. Proxmox Virtual Environment is free and open-source software, published under the GNU Affero General Public License, v3.
Final Words
Proxmox is growing and growing in popularity within virtualization communities and home lab users. This is because VMware under Broadcom umbrella is becoming “only for rich” solution. Sure, it is the best virtualization solution, but it is not the only one.
Open-source alternatives can easily compare to an ordinary car which transports you from point A to point B. Sure, if you have money to spend, you can buy a Mercedes which does the same, but better, more comfortably, perhaps.
Anyways, the mainstream with virtualization that there always will be something new and some new, exciting solution which fits the everyday needs. Changing from VMware or Hyper-V to Proxmox is possible and viable. Don’t let other convince you otherwise. However, do your own research, build a lab or Proof of concept (POC) so you can judge by yourself.
Proxmox has also made improvements to SDN, web UI (security and usability), and added new ISO installer options. Enterprise users get updated support options starting at €115/year per CPU.
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