Proxmox Datacenter Manager 1.1 released!

[t.lamprecht]

We are pleased to announce the release of Proxmox Datacenter Manager 1.1!

This point release focuses on expanding visibility and automation for large-scale, multi-site deployments. Our main focus for this iteration has been introducing integrated automation installation workflows and taking our first major steps toward comprehensive, cross-remote guest management. This helps you manage your virtualized environments safely and efficiently at scale.

Proxmox Datacenter Manager 1.1 is based on Debian 13.5 "Trixie", ships with the Linux kernel 7.0 as the new stable default, and includes ZFS 2.4.

Main new features and enhancements:

• Integrated automated installation workflows with per-installation bearer tokens
• Central subscription management
• Unified Ceph cluster monitoring on connected hyper-converged Proxmox VE remotes
• Central guest and snapshot management (first iteration)
• Local Proxmox Datacenter Manager host metrics shown as RRD graphs
• Enhanced infrastructure visualization with the map widget & resource gauges
• Enterprise support available for existing customers with active Basic or higher subscriptions for their Proxmox remotes
• Open-source license: GNU AGPLv3

In addition to these highlights, this release resolves a variety of underlying bugs and tunes performance across the management platform. Please check the full release notes for a complete breakdown of all changes.

Release notes
https://pdm.proxmox.com/docs/roadmap.html#proxmox-datacenter-manager-1-1

Press release
https://www.proxmox.com/en/about/company-details/press-releases/proxmox-datacenter-manager-1-1

Video tutorial
https://www.proxmox.com/en/services.../whats-new-in-proxmox-datacenter-manager-1-1/

Download
https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads
Alternate ISO download:
https://enterprise.proxmox.com/iso

Documentation
https://pdm.proxmox.com/docs/

Community Forum
https://forum.proxmox.com

Bugtracker
https://bugzilla.proxmox.com

Source code
https://git.proxmox.com

Our BIG thanks go out to all of our community members, dedicated testers, and developers whose ongoing support, bug reports, and code contributions made this release possible. We invite everyone to dive in, try out the new provisioning options and the cross-remote views, and share your experiences, questions, or ideas right here in this discussion thread!

FAQ
Q: How does this integrate into Proxmox Virtual Environment and Proxmox Backup Server?
A: You can add arbitrary Proxmox hosts or clusters as remotes. Proxmox Datacenter Manager will then monitor them and provide basic management using only the API.

Q: How many different Proxmox VE hosts and/or clusters can I manage with a single Datacenter Manager instance?
A: Due to the early stage of development, there are still some pain points, but we are confident that we will be able to handle large setups with a moderate amount of resources. We have run tests with over 5000 remotes and over 10000 virtual guests to confirm the performance expectations of our new UI framework. We are targeting similar numbers for the backend.

Q: What Proxmox VE and Proxmox Backup Server versions are supported?
A: The minimum required Proxmox VE version is 8.4 and the minimum required Proxmox Backup Server version is 3.4.
We will support all actively supported Proxmox project releases, but encourage frequent upgrades of both PDM and the PVE and PBS remotes to leverage all features.

Q: Can I upgrade a 1.0 installation to the stable 1.1 via apt?
A: Yes, upgrading from 1.0 is possible via apt and GUI. We recommend using the pdm-enterprise repository on upgrade for the most stable experience.

Q: Can I upgrade Proxmox Datacenter Manager Alpha to this 1.1 version?
A: Yes, please follow the upgrade instructions on https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_Datacenter_Manager_Upgrade_from_Alpha_to_1

Q: How are the bearer tokens for the automated installation workflow managed?
A: Bearer tokens are scoped per installation and can be reviewed and revoked at any time from the Proxmox Datacenter Manager UI. See the documentation for details on the recommended lifecycle.

Q: Can I install Proxmox Datacenter Manager alongside Proxmox VE or Proxmox Backup Server?
A: Yes, but installing alongside other Proxmox projects is not the recommended setup (expert use only).

Q: What environment does Proxmox Datacenter Manager support?
A: Proxmox Datacenter Manager will work everywhere where a standard x86-64/AMD64 Debian system is supported.

Q: Are there any recommended system requirements for the Proxmox Datacenter Manager?
A: Yes, see https://pdm.proxmox.com/docs/installation.html#system-requirements.

Q: What network setups are supported between Proxmox Datacenter Manager and remotes?
A: In general the Proxmox Datacenter Manager needs to be able to connect to all Proxmox VE remotes directly to send API requests and query load and usage metrics. Remotes on the other hand do not need to be able to connect to Datacenter Manager directly. Reverse proxies between Proxmox Datacenter Manager and any of its Proxmox VE remotes are not supported, we recommend using tunneling (for example, WireGuard or OpenVPN) for hosts that must not be exposed directly to a non-private network.

Q: Where can I get more information about feature updates?
A: Check the roadmap, forum, the mailing list, and/or subscribe to our newsletter.

 

[Gilberto Ferreira]

Good job guys...
But I want to pointed out that Network option still is very basic, in the automated installation. Need to include the ability to create LACP right from the installation.

 

[mgabriel]

Congratulations for the release :=)

 

[cyb3rx]

where can we install it? do we need a dedicated host (hardware server)?
Is it similar to VMware vCenter for managing VMs and networks centrally?
can we install it as VM on proxmox cluster like with VMware?

 

[Gilberto Ferreira]

where can we install it? do we need a dedicated host (hardware server)?

You can install it inside a VM.

Is it similar to VMware vCenter for managing VMs and networks centrally?

You will see all your clusters, vms and PBS. You'll can start, shutdown, stop, migrate vm from one node/cluster to another.
But to set vm parameters, you still need to open the webui from that target.

can we install it as VM on proxmox cluster like with VMware?

Pretty sure that can be done.

 

[t.lamprecht]

Good job guys...
But I want to pointed out that Network option still is very basic, in the automated installation. Need to include the ability to create LACP right from the installation.

It allows the same options as the installer supports - if you want new ones ther they need to get added first to the installer. So once https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2164 is addressed we can also add support for this in the PDM auto-installer support.

 

[deebsr]

It allows the same options as the installer supports - if you want new ones ther they need to get added first to the installer. So once https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2164 is addressed we can also add support for this in the PDM auto-installer support.

As a feature request if we can have the option to add in a post first-boot script that would be helpful. Currently this is how we configure the networking on our hosts. We have the toml file install the PVE using DHCP as the option then we have the first-boot script that runs that configures the interfaces file with the Bond and vmbr0 with static Ips ( for Mgmt, corosync, and NFS )

 

[Gilberto Ferreira]

It allows the same options as the installer supports - if you want new ones ther they need to get added first to the installer. So once https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2164 is addressed we can also add support for this in the PDM auto-installer support.

I'm looking forward to have this options in PVE installer.
Make network changes over iLO or iDrac, is a painfull thing...

 

[JCNED]

Any chance on some flexibility for licensing? I have a decent size install base across a few datacenters., but all of my development test nodes are licensed under community as I don't need support from Proxmox, so I either remove them to get enterprise repo, or i just run non sub. Having a percentage of 80% does not scale very well when my number goes up an down depending upon what i'm testing. Would be happy to just pay for PDM as I pay for PBS and PVE

 

[t.lamprecht]

No, nothing planned here. For each ten nodes 2 of them can be such test nodes, that should cover most testing needs. For example, on a sizeable setup of 25 production nodes one can have a 5 node PVE cluster and e.g. one PBS node to cover that too while still having 80% covered. From what we can see on our enterprise customer setups, this is actually providing rather lots of headsroom for testing nodes in practice, especially on bigger setups. One can e.g. also use the basic subscription for the testing nodes over standard or premium levels and then profit also from enterprise support being available to check out any issues in the test bed to help resolve them before they get to production.

But for specific subscription question please open a ticket in the shop, they can also help with subscription upgrades, should that be needed.

 

[Howard A2 Labs]

The nodes should at least actually be counted by what we pay for, by socket.
Our single socket development nodes with paid community subscriptions count as much against me as my dual socket (2x price) basic subscriptions count for me.

 

[mmagill]

Another option could be to also have PDM a separately licensed community version. Say 215 Euros a year, which is a right between PMG community and a 2 CPU community PVE license. It could still be an included feature for basic or higher PVE while giving people with more than 20% community licenses an option to use the enterprise PDM repos

 

[t.lamprecht]

This is not planned, as already mentioned in the past, a single subscription would have to start much higher to recoup cost, the current approach scales much better for all and provides an additional benefit for basic and higher.

In any case, this is the PDM 1.1 release thread, please lets get back on topic.

 

[Domino]

Looks good my end!

Love the ability to just glance at the dashboard and see all is fine across the network of nodes.

Has there been any thoughts regarding adding a sweet notifications layer which can send out notifications when out-of-thresholds are detected? does it monitor in the background or is it only active when you're logged into the dashboard?

Would be a really nice feature to have email/telegram/xmpp notifications support, as it is a central-hub for seeing everything, notifications would just push it straight into prime-time.

 

[t.lamprecht]

Has there been any thoughts regarding adding a sweet notifications layer which can send out notifications when out-of-thresholds are detected? does it monitor in the background or is it only active when you're logged into the dashboard?

It periodically polls the status and metrics and caches them locally so that one can check what was going on before a node got unresponsive or when it got shut down. When you check the UI in some views, and especially the refresh buttons, ensure that the shown data really is the freshest data, but it still uses the shared cache from the backend that is also filled by periodic polling.

FWIW, a colleague started the work to integrate the notification stack that was developed for PBS and PVE, which is pretty flexible in its targets, especially as it supports webhooks. But first, that's just the basic infrastructure, but once that is in place, we can gradually add more sensible notifications.

 

[Johannes S]

Would be a really nice feature to have email/telegram/xmpp notifications support, as it is a central-hub for seeing everything, notifications would just push it straight into prime-time.

For this it might make sense to setup a dedicated monitoring software though e.g. Prometheus, Icinga2 or checkmk. pulse is a monitoring software specifically aimed at ProxmoxVE which also publishes it's metrics to prometheus.

 

[Domino]

For this it might make sense to setup a dedicated monitoring software though e.g. Prometheus, Icinga2 or checkmk. pulse is a monitoring software specifically aimed at ProxmoxVE which also publishes it's metrics to prometheus.

Indeed, already have alternative layers in place to provide monitoring, but they are an additional myriad of scripts that in all fairness is a lot of extra legwork that could in theory be avoided to make things more streamlined.

From an analytical perspective, PDM is a highly welcome'd visionary idea, and it sets the foundation for being able to provide notifications services merely because of the fact it already hooks into the API of all the monitored nodes.

As a service, the more complete the Proxmox universe becomes, the more plug-and-play for all without having to fork time aside to achieve administrative functionality which could in essence be provided as complementary facilities within the Proxmox platform itself.

Not so indifferent to how Red Hat do things, albeit that may be on a more grand scale.

PDM is a step in the right direction, looking forward to watching its usefulness grow further.