Chapter 2. Installing Proxmox VE

This chapter is a guide to the installation of Proxmox VE on a physical machine. After completing this chapter, you will have a working PVE server for exploration, experimentation, and perhaps production, depending on your hardware configuration.

Along the way, the chapter will explain how to determine whether a computer's hardware satisfies PVE's minimal or optimal requirements. This chapter also helps us determine whether our configurations make the most of Intel or AMD's virtualization technologies. Finally, it will outline what to expect from the Proxmox Installer, and how to initiate and, ultimately, complete the installation and configuration of a new Proxmox VE system.

The chapter is organized sequentially, moving from installation preparations through booting the new server:

• Hardware requirements and recommendations for Proxmox VE
• Downloading Proxmox VE
• Ensuring hardware virtualization (or nested virtualization) is enabled
• Preparing for the Proxmox VE Installer
• Completing the Proxmox VE Installer

Note

The term bare metal, briefly introduced in the previous chapter, refers to a physical computer system that does not have an operating system or any other software installed.