Proxmox Datacenter Manager - First Alpha Release

[t.lamprecht]

We’re excited to announce the alpha preview of Proxmox Datacenter Manager! This is an early-stage version of our software, giving you a first impression at what we’ve been working on and a chance to collaborate.

What's Proxmox Datacenter Manager?
The Datacenter Manager project has been developed with the objective of providing a centralized overview of all your individual nodes and clusters. It also enables basic management like migrations of virtual guests without any cluster network requirements.

The project is fully developed in the Rust programming language, from the backend API server to the CLI tools to a completely new frontend. The frontend is built on the new widget toolkit that we developed over the last few years. This offers a more modern web user interface experience, not only in terms of appearance and functionality, but also in terms of accessibility, speed, and compatibility.



Why Release an Alpha?
Although still in the early stages of development, we felt it was important to provide interested users and potential developers with an early insight into our newest project.
This alpha version is intended to:

• Get your feedback: We want to know what works, what doesn’t, and what you’d like to see improved.
• Test core features: Help us identify bugs and refine functionality before we move to beta.
• Collaborate with you: Your input is invaluable in making Proxmox Datacenter Manager a great tool.

What to Expect from the Alpha
Since this is an alpha release, it’s important to note:

• Some features are still in development or may be incomplete.
  See the Roadmap for a high-level overview of planned features before suggesting your own ideas.
• Some bugs and glitches are expected, and we encourage you to report them.
• Documentation is in-progress, and will be available shortly.

Installation
You can use the official ISO image to install Proxmox Datacenter Manager on a virtual machine or bare-metal host.

https://enterprise.proxmox.com/iso/

Alternatively, you can install Proxmox Datacenter Manager on top of an existing Debian Bookworm based installation.

1. Add the PDM apt repository to your host:
   echo 'deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pdm bookworm pdm-test' >/etc/apt/sources.list.d/pdm-test.list
   
   You also need to download our release key if this is a plain Debian installation and not a Proxmox based system already:
   wget https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-release-bookworm.gpg -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-release-bookworm.gpg
2. Refresh the package index:
   apt update
3. Install the main packages:
   apt install proxmox-datacenter-manager proxmox-datacenter-manager-ui
4. Visit https://IP-OR-HOSTNAME:8443 in your browser and use the root@pam user to login.

First Steps with Proxmox Datacenter Manager – Mini Howto
After installing Proxmox Datacenter Manager the first thing you want to do is adding your first Proxmox VE remote(s).

You can open the remote wizard from the dashboard or the Remotes panel. There, you need to enter the URL of one of your nodes and either the root or Administrator credentials of that node or the API token you want to use.

Getting Your TLS Fingerprint
If the TLS certificate of your node is self-signed you will also need to enter the fingerprint to ensure basic safety. To find out the TLS fingerprint of your node, open the web interface, select the respective node and click on the "Certificates" navigation entry.
There you can select the entry with the file name "pve-ssl.pem", or if you use ACME "pveproxy-ssl.pem", and click "View Certificate". You will find the fingerprint in the second row of the certificate view. Copy the value and then switch again to the PDM user interface and paste the value in the fingerprint field.

Press Connect to make Proxmox Datacenter Manager probe the connection to the Proxmox VE host, if this works you can continue with the next step, entering your credentials – for example using the root user. The Proxmox Datacenter Manager will then automatically create an API token to use for communicating with the Proxmox VE remote node.

Once you finished the wizard you can use the remote panel for an overview and basic management.



What’s Next?

• The alpha phase will run until the first beta will be available in the first half of 2025.
• Development of initial core feature-set which will be continuously released to pdm-test repository.
• The second beta will be based on the upcoming Debian Trixie.
• A stable version 1.0 is planned for later in the year 2025.
• Stay tuned for updates as we move toward beta and beyond!

Roadmap
For the current roadmap please see https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_Datacenter_Manager_Roadmap

Join the Discussion
We’d love to hear your initial impressions and answer any questions. Let’s start a conversation in this thread or connect in our new forum to report bugs, suggest features, or share your thoughts. You can check the roadmap to see if your idea is already being tracked.

Follow the announcement forum and pdm-devel mailing list https://lists.proxmox.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pdm-devel, and subscribe to our newsletter https://www.proxmox.com/news and follow this forum here.

FAQ
Q: Where can I find the sources for the Proxmox Datacenter Manager and the new Proxmox Yew Widget Toolkit?
A: You can find the full source code for these projects on our main git repository server: https://git.proxmox.com/

Q: How does this integrate into Proxmox Virtual Environment?
A: You can add arbitrary Proxmox VE 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 PDM 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 version is supported?
A: The minimum required Proxmox VE version is 8.3. During the alpha phase, we will only support the latest Proxmox VE version and encourage frequent upgrades of both PDM and PVE as new features are often developed in lockstep.

Q: Will other Proxmox projects be supported?
A: Yes, support for Proxmox Backup Server is planned, for other Proxmox projects (Mail Gateway, Offline Mirror) we will see how they can be integrated after the first stable release of Proxmox Datacenter Manager.

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, the minimum system requirements are:

• CPU: 64bit (x86-64 or AMD64), 2+ Cores
• Memory (RAM): 2+ GB RAM (the more remotes PDM manages the more memory it requires)
• Hard drive: more than 8+ GB of space.
• Network card (NIC)

Q: Can I upgrade to the latest Proxmox Datacenter Manager Alpha with apt?
A: Yes, first ensure you have basic Debian repositories and the pdm-test repository set up.
Then you can use either the built-in updates UI or use the standard apt update and apt full-upgrade commands.

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

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 upcoming features?
A: Follow the announcement forum and pdm-devel mailing list https://lists.proxmox.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pdm-devel, and subscribe to our newsletter https://www.proxmox.com/news and follow this forum here.

 

[sw-omit]

Very nice looking already, looking forward to giving it an install and a run through the paces... after the holidays

EDIT: One question already from looking at the screenshots, I see a subscription-status area:
Does (at least post-alpha/post-beta) this manager require a subscription itself and/or does it require any/all of the nodes it is going to manage to have a subscription of some kind?
For me/our company probably not (that big of) an issue, but just curious, and others might have an issue with it should it need either of the above.

 

[mertcenikut]

Thank you, I will definitely review it.

 

[berkaybulut]

This is a great development..

 

[speatzle_]

Very nice, no more need to manually figure out the command to do the Cross Cluster Live migration.

I can't wait for Planned SDN Features.

 

[nettacompany]

Çok başarılı.

 

[t.lamprecht]

Does (at least post-alpha/post-beta) this manager require a subscription itself and/or does it require any/all of the nodes it is going to manage to have a subscription of some kind?

No, the subscription status is purely informational. We will not gate any features behind a subscription, just as we do not gate anything in Proxmox VE or our other projects. But we will certainly display prominent notices, as we have to pay our staff and maintain the infrastructure after all; users are definitely free to ignore those notices. In general, it's a bit early to commit to how PDM Enterprise support will be handled specifically, we'll decide that for the first stable release.

 

[ness1602]

For now looks good with 3 clusters, testing migration

 

[xenon96]

Good idea, and I'm sure many users have wanted this for a long time, including me.

But why did you move from the Sencha UI / ExtJS?
Sure, it's just a change, but I personally found your previous UI very nice, practical and clear!

 

[dcsapak]

Good idea, and I'm sure many users have wanted this for a long time, including me.

But why did you move from the Sencha UI / ExtJS?
Sure, it's just a change, but I personally found your previous UI very nice, practical and clear!

if you want to use a style very similar to the old one you can change the theme in the user menu on the top right to 'Crisp' and density to compact. this should give a very similar experience than the pve/pbs ui

 

[JensF]

Looks nice already, but the migration doesn't work for me yet.
Source is a PVE with a ZFS storage. Target is a PVE with a BTRFS storage.

2024-12-19 15:43:33 ERROR: error - tunnel command '{"allow_rename":"1","storage":"local-btrfs","cmd":"disk-import","volname":"vm-106-disk-0","snapshot":"__migration__","export_formats":"zfs","format":"raw","migration_snapshot":1,"with_snapshots":1}' failed - failed to handle 'disk-import' command - no matching import/export format found for storage 'local-btrfs'
2024-12-19 15:43:33 aborting phase 1 - cleanup resources
tunnel: -> sending command "quit" to remote
tunnel: <- got reply
2024-12-19 15:43:34 ERROR: migration aborted (duration 00:00:02): error - tunnel command '{"allow_rename":"1","storage":"local-btrfs","cmd":"disk-import","volname":"vm-106-disk-0","snapshot":"__migration__","export_formats":"zfs","format":"raw","migration_snapshot":1,"with_snapshots":1}' failed - failed to handle 'disk-import' command - no matching import/export format found for storage 'local-btrfs'
TASK ERROR: migration aborted

And it doesn't log that in the Administration - Tasks

 

[xenon96]

if you want to use a style very similar to the old one you can change the theme in the user menu on the top right to 'Crisp' and density to compact. this should give a very similar experience than the pve/pbs ui

Oh yes thanks, that looks more familiar!
Note: Dropdown not working on MacOS Safari, I have to switch the theme in Firefox

 

[zerosnugget]

Really nice addition to the Proxmox ecosystem! For an Alpha release it already looks pretty solid in general and I really like the new UI. I didn't try cross cluster migration but to have everything summarized in one interface is already pretty nice. I really wish to have permission integrated into this as well and to have the possibility to access VM consoles through this UI directly. The roadmap in general also looks pretty awesome and I can't wait for more releases!

 

[fabian]

Looks nice already, but the migration doesn't work for me yet.
Source is a PVE with a ZFS storage. Target is a PVE with a BTRFS storage.

2024-12-19 15:43:33 ERROR: error - tunnel command '{"allow_rename":"1","storage":"local-btrfs","cmd":"disk-import","volname":"vm-106-disk-0","snapshot":"__migration__","export_formats":"zfs","format":"raw","migration_snapshot":1,"with_snapshots":1}' failed - failed to handle 'disk-import' command - no matching import/export format found for storage 'local-btrfs'
2024-12-19 15:43:33 aborting phase 1 - cleanup resources
tunnel: -> sending command "quit" to remote
tunnel: <- got reply
2024-12-19 15:43:34 ERROR: migration aborted (duration 00:00:02): error - tunnel command '{"allow_rename":"1","storage":"local-btrfs","cmd":"disk-import","volname":"vm-106-disk-0","snapshot":"__migration__","export_formats":"zfs","format":"raw","migration_snapshot":1,"with_snapshots":1}' failed - failed to handle 'disk-import' command - no matching import/export format found for storage 'local-btrfs'
TASK ERROR: migration aborted

And it doesn't log that in the Administration - Tasks

ZFS offline migration currently only works for ZFS targets. this will be lifted soonish, but with the limitation that snapshots are then not supported.

 

[dcsapak]

Note: Dropdown not working on MacOS Safari, I have to switch the theme in Firefox

mhmm thanks for the report, i'll have to look at it on a mac when i get my hands on one

 

[JensF]

Thanks for the reply Fabian.
That's okay for me. So I just have to wait a bit.

 

[t.lamprecht]

Good idea, and I'm sure many users have wanted this for a long time, including me.

But why did you move from the Sencha UI / ExtJS?
Sure, it's just a change, but I personally found your previous UI very nice, practical and clear!

The open source releases from ExtJS basically stopped happening, development of the variant we use slowed down to a crawl since a while. As the web ecosystem still advances this means that we either have a broken framework in a few years or need to do lots of maintenance work. Besides that with the new framework we can use the Rust programming language, which we already use in the backend for new projects; besides that it has some nice safety and performance features this also means that in the long run we can use only one programming language for almost everything, which is much less overhead for all devs.

FWIW, we oriented a lot on the design and components of ExtJS but tried to add some incremental improvements.

 

[ceelight]

Thanks! Nice one!

First impressions:
- I couldn't connect to the PVE Cluster even with the cert fingerprint. I had to add the RootCA-cert to the trusted certificates in linux (update-ca-certificates). Then it worked.
- If I add one node of a cluster, it adds all nodes. Great! But it would be nice to see the Cluster name here and not one of the node names.

Great work!

EDIT: How would you like to have more issues? Here in the thread as new posts? New topics in the forum?

 

[zerosnugget]

Something like this is also a really nice added bonus to the general overview

 

[dcsapak]

- If I add one node of a cluster, it adds all nodes. Great! But it would be nice to see the Cluster name here and not one of the node names.

that's the ID of the remote you give in the wizard, maybe we have to make that part more clear (it's the 'Remote ID' field)