Can I have an NFS share only for Templates and backing storage?

ptselios

New Member
Sep 14, 2025
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Hello,
In my current RHEL-based KVM setup I build a lot of VMs using an existing cloud image as backing store. All the images are stored in an NFS share.
I want to replicate this in my brand new Proxmox installation.

My understanding is that I need to add the NFS share as "Disk Image".
Of course what I want is to NOT deploy VMs on this share. Of course I can make it read-only on the server but this looks a work around.
So, is it possible to make this NFS share available so as to use the images in it as templates for new VMs (with or without backing store) and at the same time not deploy VMs (or containers) there?
 
Welcome!
If I properly understand you question, then: yes, you can.

See https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/chapter-pvesm.html and search especially for "nfs".

Among others:

"The NFS backend is based on the directory backend, so it shares most properties."

So let's look at the directory backend:

"you can store any content type like virtual disk images, containers, templates, ISO images or backup files."

And in the Table 4 "Storage features for backend nfs" we read:
Content types: images rootdir vztmpl iso backup snippets.

The meaning of these types:

images: QEMU/KVM VM images.
rootdir: Allow to store container data.
vztmpl: Container templates.
iso: ISO images
backup: Backup files (vzdump).
snippets: Snippet files, for example guest hook scripts

Good luck!
 
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There is no "VM image template" backend, just image (unlike container templates).
So the "VM template" is an image residing on the NFS storage backend; it's fully accessible for deployment.
Is the issue to prevent some users from deploying VMs on that NFS storage ?
 
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Yes and no.
What I would like to have is a "clean" templates directory, where I have my OS images there.
Then I choose if I want to copy that image when I deploy the new VM, or to just use it as an overlay/backing store.

It's more on the "I want to read that directory" but not write it.
Yes, I could do that via the NFS export, obviously. But if I had that functionality out of the box in the VE it would be better/cleaner.
 
You can use the "import" content type for that, in this screenshot I have a cifs/smb share but it works the same for nfs or any other directory-like storage:
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The nice thing is, that then you don't need to backup complete template vms but can start from scratch every time. Combined with cloud-init and a cloud-init-compatible base image this enables quick spinning up of new vms without needing to bother with template vms.
 
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Exactly my point. Especially since Proxmox is the "new kid on the block" and there are 10s of images that I can use already.
I think this is what I didn't see, the import. Many thanks!
 
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Exactly my point. Especially since Proxmox is the "new kid on the block" and there are 10s of images that I can use already.
I think this is what I didn't see, the import. Many thanks!
You are welcome. Can you please edit the thread to add the solved tag to it? Thanks :)