Installing Proxmox on a Computer or Server
What is Proxmox Virtual Enviroment
Proxmox Virtual Environment is a Hypervisor solution, based on KVM. It provides near raw performance with minimal losses, and you can host many virtual machines and even containers on a single host. With Proxmox you can even make and use Ceph - a software distributed storage accross all nodes. The best part is that it's free and it will ease your VM management.
We will show you how to set up Proxmox Virtual Environment (Proxmox VE) on your computer or server.
You will need:
- A server or PC that meets the minimal requirements of proxmox
64bit CPU with Intel VT or AMD-V
1GB of RAM for Proxmox plus additional memory for the guest OS
Hard drive
Network card
- A small USB flash drive or a DVD with at least 4GB capacity.
- The Proxmox VE iso, which can be downloaded from Proxmox's website
- A PC with Windows or Linux to burn the image into the USB/DVD.
Preparing the bootable media
Go to https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads and download the latest Proxmox VE installer.
If your server has an IPMI that supports virtual media, you can import the ISO by following the instructions for your IPMI or iLO / iDRAC.
If you have a DVD or a USB drive, you can burn the ISO to the media.
For USB, we recommend using Balena Etcher or Rufus. If you use Rufus, please burn it in DD mode.
If you have a USB with Ventoy installed, you can copy the downloaded ISO to the flash.
Installing Proxmox
Insert the bootable media into the PC and turn it on. To boot from the bootable media, you may need to access the boot menu (in most cases F12) or go to the BIOS setup and choose the bootable media as the first boot device.
If you use Ventoy, navigate to the Proxmox VE ISO and boot It in normal mode like in the images below.
After that, for easier guided installation, you can directly press enter. It will choose the Graphical installer of Proxmox VE. You can also use the Terminal UI option, especially if you use IPMI remote console. 
The setup will try to get an IP from a DHCP. After that it will show you the Proxmox EULA. Click I agree to continue.
The first step is to choose where to install Proxmox VE. If you need specific partitioning or settings, click Options and set them there.
The second step Is to set the timezone and language. If it’s connected to the internet, it will automatically populate and set the timezone to your country.
The third step is to set the root password and email address that will be used for important notifications about the server. Choose a strong password to make it secure.
After that, we need to configure the networking. The IP address will be static, and you need to choose an IP that is not used by any other computer and not in the DHCP server pool.
If the PC gets an address from the DHCP server, the fields will be automatically populated. If you use that address, you will only need to exclude it from the DHCP server pool.
A summary of the configuration will be shown for confirmation. To start the installation, click Install
After the installation is complete, the server will reboot automatically. You can access the management interface by going to https://Your.Proxmox.IP.Address:8006 in your browser. You can also see the address in the server’s CLI. It will show you a certificate warning. You can proceed by clicking Advanced and then on Continue to…
After that, you can log in with the root username and the password you set in the installation setup.
You can now host many Virtual machines and containers in your new Proxmox server. You can learn how to create your first machines using the link below:
Making your first virtual machine and container in Proxmox VE
