Installing Proxmox VE – The Foundation for Your Local AI Server

Before we start the installation, we should make sure the hardware is suitable for what we have planned.

For a simple Proxmox server, relatively modest resources are enough (Intel NUC, mini PCs, etc.). If you want to run several services and local AI models later, you should plan for more performance and storage.

For a pure virtualization host, 8 GB of RAM can be enough for simple tests. For several services and especially local AI applications, I would plan for considerably more memory. The actual amount you need depends on your virtual machines, containers and models.

⚠️ Caution: During the installation, the selected target drive is usually repartitioned and existing data may be deleted. Back up important data beforehand and check carefully which drive you select.

Before installing Proxmox, we should enable the required virtualization features in the BIOS or UEFI.

These settings lay the groundwork for using virtual machines and containers later on.

Important for the GPU: A graphics card can be used in Proxmox in two ways.

• In an LXC container (the way we do it in this series): The container shares the host's NVIDIA driver. No IOMMU is needed for this, and several containers can share the same GPU.
• In a virtual machine (PCIe passthrough): The graphics card is passed through exclusively to the VM. This requires IOMMU.

The names differ depending on the mainboard and CPU vendor, so the following options are meant as a guide.

⚙️ Important BIOS settings

Enable CPU virtualization. IOMMU and Above 4G Decoding are not required for the LXC approach used in this series. You can enable them if your board offers them and you want to pass a GPU through to a VM later.

Resizable BAR and the primary graphics card setting usually don't matter for use in an LXC container.

Apply and save the BIOS settings

1. Restart the computer.
2. Open the BIOS/UEFI, for example with Del or F2.
3. Look for the settings listed above.
4. Enable the required features.
5. Save the changes and restart the computer.

Download the Proxmox VE ISO file

First, download the current Proxmox installation image:

1. Visit the official Proxmox download page.
2. Select the Proxmox Virtual Environment category and click ISO Images.
3. Download the latest Proxmox VE ISO image to your computer.

To install Proxmox on the target machine, you need to write the ISO image to a USB stick. Since Proxmox uses a special hybrid ISO, the stick has to be written bit by bit.

⚠️ Caution: Creating the installation medium irrevocably deletes all existing data on the selected USB stick!

Method A: On Windows 🖥️ (with Rufus)
On Windows, the free tool Rufus is the most reliable choice.

1. Plug your USB stick into the computer and start Rufus.
2. Select your USB stick under Device at the top.
3. Under Boot selection, click SELECT and choose the downloaded Proxmox ISO file.
4. Click START at the bottom.

Important: A dialog appears (ISOHybrid image detected). You must select "Write in DD Image mode" here.
(Note: The default ISO mode often causes errors when booting Proxmox.)

Confirm the warning about erasing the stick and wait until the progress bar reaches 100 %.

Method B: On Linux 🐧 (with the dd command)
On Linux, the cleanest way to create the stick is directly in the terminal with the dd command.
Plug in the USB stick and find the drive name in the terminal:

lsblk

Identify your stick by its size (e.g. /dev/sdX). Make sure to choose the entire drive and not a single partition (such as /dev/sdX1).

If your system mounted the stick automatically, unmount its partitions:

sudo umount /dev/sdX*

(Replace sdX with the name of your stick.)

Start writing with the following command (adjust the paths accordingly):

sudo dd if=proxmox-ve_9.x-x.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fdatasync

⚠️ Caution: dd overwrites the target without asking. If you mix up the stick with your system drive, the data on it is gone for good. Double-check the name with lsblk. The video below shows how to recognize your stick.

if=...: path to your downloaded Proxmox ISO.
of=...: target drive of your USB stick.
bs=4M: writes in 4 MB blocks for a fast result.
status=progress: shows the current progress.
conv=fdatasync: makes sure all data has been written completely before the process finishes.

Once the command has finished, you can safely remove the USB stick and start the installation.

Now we get to the actual installation.

Plug the prepared USB stick into the computer that will run Proxmox. Start the computer and open the boot menu. Select the USB stick as the boot medium there.

4.1 Select the installation mode
After booting, the Proxmox welcome screen appears. Select Install Proxmox VE (Graphical) for the normal graphical installation wizard.

4.2 Accept the license terms
Read the license agreement (EULA) and click I agree at the bottom right to continue.

4.3 Select the target hard disk
Here you choose the hard disk or SSD on which Proxmox will be installed.

⚠️ Caution: All existing data on the selected drive will be deleted. Check the model name and the drive size carefully.

File system options: By default, Proxmox uses the ext4 file system. If you have several identical SSDs installed and want redundancy, you can choose e.g. zfs (RAID1) for mirroring under Options. For a simple start, ext4 on a single drive is perfectly sufficient.

4.4 Location, time zone and keyboard
Enter your regional settings, for example:

• Country: Germany
• Timezone: Europe/Berlin
• Keyboard Layout: German

4.5 Administrator password and email address
Set the password for the main user (root):

• Password: Choose a secure password. You'll need it later for the administrator login in the web interface and via SSH.
• Email: Enter a valid email address. Proxmox will send important system notifications there later (e.g. when storage runs low or backups fail).

4.6 Network configuration
Proxmox requires a static (fixed) IP address.

• Management Interface: Select the network card that connects the server to your home network.
• Hostname (FQDN): Enter a fully qualified domain name (e.g. pve.fritz.box or proxmox.local).
• IP Address (CIDR): Enter the desired fixed IP address including the subnet mask in CIDR notation (e.g. 192.168.178.133/24). The /24 stands for the standard subnet mask 255.255.255.0.
• Gateway: The IP address of your router (e.g. 192.168.178.1 for a Fritz!Box).
• DNS Server: Usually also the IP address of your router (192.168.178.1).

4.7 Run the installation
The summary page shows all your settings once more. Quickly check your entries.

1. Click Install at the bottom right.
2. Wait until the progress bar has finished.
3. Remove the USB stick and restart the computer.

After the restart, Proxmox VE boots up. The screen shows the address at which you can reach the web interface.

It looks like this, for example:

https://192.168.178.133:8006

The IP address is only an example. Use the address that your own Proxmox server shows.

Logging in

1. Open a browser on a computer in the same network.
2. Enter the displayed address including port 8006.
3. If necessary, confirm the browser warning about the self-signed certificate, provided you expect the connection to your own server.
4. Log in with the user root and the password you set during installation.
5. Select the appropriate authentication realm when logging in, usually Linux PAM standard authentication.

After the initial installation, the paid enterprise repository is active by default. Without a subscription you can't get updates from it. To keep your system up to date cleanly and for free, we enable the free no-subscription repository directly in the web interface. It is intended for home servers and testing; in business environments you use the enterprise repository with a subscription.

6.1 Disable the enterprise repository

• In the left column under Datacenter, select your server node (e.g. pve).
• In the menu, navigate to Updates → Repositories.
• Click the pve-enterprise entry in the list (file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.sources).
• Click the Disable button at the top.
• The checkmark under "Enabled" then disappears.

If the list also contains an enabled ceph-enterprise entry, select it and click Disable as well.

6.2 Add the no-subscription repository

• In the same menu, click the Add button at the top.
• A selection dialog opens. In the Repository dropdown, select No-Subscription.
• Click Add.
• The free package source pve-no-subscription is now added to the list.

6.3 Update the system

Once the sources have been switched, you can update your Proxmox server directly from the web interface:

• In the left column, click the Updates sub-item under Updates.
• Click Refresh at the top left to reload the package list. (You can close the notice about the missing subscription with "OK".)
• Then click Upgrade.
• A console window opens. If prompted, confirm the update with the Y key and press Enter.

Once the process has finished, close the window. If a new kernel was installed during the upgrade, restart the server afterwards (top right: Reboot) before continuing with the next guide. Your Proxmox VE is now fully set up and up to date.

Tested with Proxmox VE 9.2.20 (Debian 13), October 2026.

The USB stick doesn't boot

• Rewrite the stick with Rufus in DD Image mode.
• Try a different USB port, ideally USB 2.0.
• Set UEFI boot in the BIOS and disable Secure Boot as a test.

The installer shows a black screen or hangs
In the boot menu, select Install Proxmox VE (Terminal UI) instead of the graphical variant.

Message "No support for KVM virtualisation detected"
CPU virtualization is turned off in the BIOS. Enable SVM Mode (AMD) or VT-x (Intel), see step 2.

The web interface can't be reached

• Use https:// (not http://) and port 8006, for example https://192.168.178.133:8006.
• Check that the IP address is correct. It is shown on the server's screen.
• Your computer must be in the same network. Test with ping 192.168.178.133 (use your IP).
• If the IP or gateway is wrong, correct them in /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/hosts and restart the server.
• The browser warning about the certificate is normal. Proxmox initially uses a self-signed certificate.

Updates fail with "401 Unauthorized"
An enterprise repository is still active. Two ways to fix it:

• Web interface: Under Updates → Repositories, select all enabled entries containing enterprise (including ceph-enterprise, if present) and click Disable.
• Shell: This command shows the files that are still active:

grep -rn "enterprise" /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

In Proxmox VE 9, the sources are stored as .sources files, for example pve-enterprise.sources. An entry is disabled when it contains the line Enabled: false.

Then check with apt update whether the error is gone.

"No valid subscription" appears at every login
That's normal without a subscription. Click OK; functionality is not restricted.