Proxmox VE Commands Reference

Essential commands for managing virtual machines and containers

What is Proxmox VE?

Proxmox Virtual Environment (Proxmox VE) is an enterprise-grade, open-source virtualization platform that combines two powerful virtualization technologies: KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for full hardware virtualization and LXC (Linux Containers) for lightweight container-based virtualization.

Proxmox VE transforms standard x86 hardware into a comprehensive virtualization solution with an integrated web-based management interface, making it ideal for building private clouds, running production workloads, and creating flexible test environments. Whether you're managing a single server or orchestrating a multi-node cluster, Proxmox provides enterprise features without the enterprise licensing costs.

High Availability Clustering & Live Migration

Proxmox VE excels at creating resilient, highly-available infrastructure through its advanced clustering capabilities:

Multi-node clusters: Join up to 32 nodes into a single cluster with centralized management and shared configuration
Live migration: Move running VMs between physical hosts with zero downtime—users won't even notice
High availability (HA): Automatically restart VMs on healthy nodes if a host fails, ensuring critical services stay online
Shared storage: Leverage Ceph, NFS, iSCSI, or ZFS for distributed storage across your cluster
Fencing and quorum: Prevent split-brain scenarios with intelligent node fencing and voting mechanisms
Backup and replication: Schedule automated backups and real-time VM replication across nodes for disaster recovery

With Proxmox clustering, you can build production-grade infrastructure with automatic failover, load balancing, and the ability to perform maintenance on physical hosts without service interruption—all managed through a single, unified interface.

Key Features & Use Cases:

Private Cloud Infrastructure: Deploy your own VMware-alternative with full-featured VM and container management
Production Workloads: Run business-critical applications with HA clustering, automatic failover, and live migration
Development & Testing: Quickly provision isolated VMs and containers for development, staging, and QA environments
Hybrid Virtualization: Run both full VMs (Windows, Linux) and lightweight LXC containers on the same platform
Backup & Disaster Recovery: Built-in backup scheduling, snapshots, and replication for comprehensive data protection
Software-Defined Networking: Create VLANs, bridges, and complex network topologies through the web interface
Storage Flexibility: Support for local storage, network storage (NFS, iSCSI, Ceph), and ZFS with advanced features
Cost-Effective Enterprise: Get enterprise virtualization features without expensive licensing—fully open-source

Proxmox VE combines powerful command-line tools with an intuitive web interface, giving you complete control over your virtualization infrastructure. Below you'll find essential CLI commands to manage VMs, containers, storage, networking, and clustering operations.

Virtual Machine (QEMU/KVM) Management

List all VMs

qm list

Create a new VM

qm create 100 --name my-vm --memory 2048 --cores 2 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0

Start a VM

qm start 100

Stop a VM

qm stop 100

Shutdown a VM gracefully

qm shutdown 100

Reboot a VM

qm reboot 100

Delete a VM

qm destroy 100

Show VM configuration

qm config 100

Set VM memory

qm set 100 --memory 4096

Set VM CPU cores

qm set 100 --cores 4

Add disk to VM

qm set 100 --scsi0 local-lvm:32

Clone a VM

qm clone 100 200 --name cloned-vm

Migrate VM to another node

qm migrate 100 node2

Live migrate VM (no downtime)

qm migrate 100 node2 --online

Access VM console

qm terminal 100

Monitor VM status

qm status 100

Container (LXC) Management

List all containers

pct list

Create a container

pct create 101 local:vztmpl/ubuntu-22.04-standard_22.04-1_amd64.tar.zst --hostname my-container --memory 1024 --cores 2 --net0 name=eth0,bridge=vmbr0,ip=dhcp

Start a container

pct start 101

Stop a container

pct stop 101

Shutdown a container gracefully

pct shutdown 101

Reboot a container

pct reboot 101

Delete a container

pct destroy 101

Enter container shell

pct enter 101

Execute command in container

pct exec 101 -- command

Show container configuration

pct config 101

Set container memory

pct set 101 --memory 2048

Clone a container

pct clone 101 201 --hostname cloned-container

Migrate container to another node

pct migrate 101 node2

Push file to container

pct push 101 /local/file /container/path

Pull file from container

pct pull 101 /container/path /local/destination

Snapshots & Backups

Create VM snapshot

qm snapshot 100 snapshot-name

List VM snapshots

qm listsnapshot 100

Rollback VM to snapshot

qm rollback 100 snapshot-name

Delete VM snapshot

qm delsnapshot 100 snapshot-name

Create container snapshot

pct snapshot 101 snapshot-name

Rollback container to snapshot

pct rollback 101 snapshot-name

Backup VM

vzdump 100 --mode snapshot --storage backup-storage

Backup container

vzdump 101 --mode snapshot --storage backup-storage

Backup all VMs and containers

vzdump --all --mode snapshot --storage backup-storage

Restore VM from backup

qmrestore /path/to/backup.vma.zst 100

List backups

pvesm list backup-storage

Storage Management

List storage

pvesm status

Add directory storage

pvesm add dir backup-storage --path /mnt/backup

Add NFS storage

pvesm add nfs nfs-storage --server 192.168.1.10 --export /export/path

Remove storage

pvesm remove storage-name

Scan storage content

pvesm scan nfs 192.168.1.10

List storage content

pvesm list storage-name

Check ZFS pool status

zpool status

Create ZFS pool

zpool create -o ashift=12 tank mirror /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

Networking

Show network configuration

cat /etc/network/interfaces

Apply network changes

ifreload -a

Create Linux bridge

auto vmbr1
iface vmbr1 inet static
  address 10.0.0.1/24
  bridge-ports none
  bridge-stp off
  bridge-fd 0

Show firewall rules

pve-firewall status

Enable firewall

pve-firewall start

Show VM network interfaces

qm showcmd 100 | grep -i net

Cluster Management

Show cluster status

pvecm status

List cluster nodes

pvecm nodes

Create cluster

pvecm create cluster-name

Add node to cluster

pvecm add node1-ip-address

Remove node from cluster

pvecm delnode node-name

Show expected votes

pvecm expected 1

Show cluster configuration

cat /etc/pve/corosync.conf

Templates & Cloud-Init

Convert VM to template

qm template 100

Clone from template

qm clone 100 200 --name new-vm --full

Download cloud image

wget https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img

Import cloud image as disk

qm importdisk 100 jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img local-lvm

Set Cloud-Init user

qm set 100 --ciuser ubuntu --cipassword password

Set Cloud-Init SSH key

qm set 100 --sshkey ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Set Cloud-Init IP config

qm set 100 --ipconfig0 ip=10.0.0.10/24,gw=10.0.0.1

System & Node Management

Show Proxmox version

pveversion

Update package lists

apt update

Upgrade Proxmox

apt dist-upgrade

Show node tasks

pvesh get /nodes/node-name/tasks

Show system resource usage

pvesh get /nodes/node-name/status

Restart Proxmox web interface

systemctl restart pveproxy

View system logs

journalctl -u pve-cluster -f

Download container templates

pveam update

List available templates

pveam available

Download specific template

pveam download local ubuntu-22.04-standard_22.04-1_amd64.tar.zst

High Availability (HA)

Show HA status

ha-manager status

Add VM to HA

ha-manager add vm:100

Remove VM from HA

ha-manager remove vm:100

Set HA priority

ha-manager set vm:100 --state started --max_relocate 2

Show HA groups

ha-manager groupconfig

Note: Replace VM IDs (100, 101, etc.), node names, and paths with your actual values. Use qm help, pct help, or pvesh help for more detailed information about specific commands. Access the web interface at https://your-proxmox-ip:8006 for GUI-based management.