We recommend using high quality server hardware, when running Proxmox VE in production. To further decrease the impact of a failed host, you can run Proxmox VE in a cluster with highly available (HA) virtual machines and containers.

Proxmox VE can use local storage (DAS), SAN, NAS, and distributed storage like Ceph RBD. For details see chapter storage.

Minimum Requirements, for Evaluation

These minimum requirements are for evaluation purposes only and should not be used in production.

  • CPU: 64-bit x86 (Intel 64 or AMD64). Alternatively, 64-bit ARM (arm64, aarch64) with an ARMv8-A or newer CPU, see 64-bit ARM (arm64) Support.

  • For x86 hosts, an Intel VT or AMD-V capable CPU and motherboard for KVM full virtualization support. On the supported arm64 platforms, KVM hardware-assisted virtualization needs no equivalent CPU flag.

  • RAM: 1 GB RAM, plus additional RAM needed for guests

  • Hard drive

  • One network card (NIC)

  • Intel 64 or AMD64 with an Intel VT or AMD-V CPU flag. Alternatively, a 64-bit ARM host with an ARMv9-A or newer CPU, see 64-bit ARM (arm64) Support.

  • Memory: Minimum 2 GB for the OS and Proxmox VE services, plus designated memory for guests. For Ceph and ZFS, additional memory is required; approximately 1GB of memory for every TB of used storage.

  • Fast and redundant storage, best results are achieved with SSDs.

  • OS storage: Use a hardware RAID with battery protected write cache (“BBU”) or non-RAID with ZFS (optional SSD for ZIL).

  • VM storage:

    • For local storage, use either a hardware RAID with battery backed write cache (BBU) or non-RAID for ZFS and Ceph. Neither ZFS nor Ceph are compatible with a hardware RAID controller.

    • Shared and distributed storage is possible.

    • SSDs with Power-Loss-Protection (PLP) are recommended for good performance. Using consumer SSDs is discouraged.

  • Redundant (Multi-)Gbit NICs, with additional NICs depending on the preferred storage technology and cluster setup.

  • For PCI(e) passthrough, the CPU and motherboard need to support an input/output memory management unit (IOMMU): Intel VT-d or AMD-Vi on x86, or a System Memory Management Unit (SMMU) on arm64.

Tip IOMMU usually also needs to be enabled in the BIOS/UEFI. See the PCI(e) Passthrough chapter for details.

64-bit ARM (arm64) Support

Proxmox VE supports native 64-bit ARM (arm64, aarch64) on the NVIDIA Grace Hopper and NVIDIA Vera platforms. On other UEFI-based ARMv9-A or newer hardware, support is best-effort. Device-tree-only single-board computers, such as the Raspberry Pi, are not supported.

An arm64 host must boot through UEFI and describe its hardware through ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). Proxmox VE does not support device-tree-only or legacy BIOS boot on arm64.

Several x86-specific features are not available on arm64:

  • Virtual machines cannot use SeaBIOS. On arm64, guests always boot through UEFI, provided by the ARM build of OVMF, also known as AAVMF.

  • AMD SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization) memory encryption and Intel’s GVT-g mediated vGPUs are x86-only.

  • There is no operating-system-level CPU microcode package, unlike intel-microcode and amd64-microcode on x86.

A cluster can contain both x86 and arm64 nodes, but guests cannot move between nodes of different architectures while running:

  • Live migration is only possible between nodes of the same architecture, because a running guest’s CPU state cannot be transferred across architectures.

  • A guest, whether a virtual machine or a container, only runs on a node whose architecture matches the guest. Offline migration, backup and restore, or shared storage can move a guest’s data to a node of a different architecture, but the guest still needs to be reinstalled or reconfigured for that architecture before it starts.

Simple Performance Overview

To get an overview of the CPU and hard disk performance on an installed Proxmox VE system, run the included pveperf tool.

Note This is just a very quick and general benchmark. More detailed tests are recommended, especially regarding the I/O performance of your system.

Supported Web Browsers for Accessing the Web Interface

To access the web-based user interface, we recommend using one of the following browsers:

  • Firefox, a release from the current year, or the latest Extended Support Release

  • Chrome, a release from the current year

  • Microsoft’s currently supported version of Edge

  • Safari, a release from the current year

When accessed from a mobile device, Proxmox VE will show a lightweight, touch-based interface.