Air Gapped Installation of Proxmox VE

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nailix

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Nov 5, 2025
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Hello,

I have been struggling for a while trying to get my air gapped Proxmox VE 9.0-1, which is the only thing currently installed.
As I can not decide whether a subscription would be worth it, so I currently have to use the No-Subscription repository.
The main issue is that I can't get into the web gui, as I get the same issue as a lot of other people with /PVE/StdWorkspace.js missing accompanied by error code 500 and a blank page. It can resolve the name and all, but I don't get the login etc.
As the system is air gapped I don't have the luxury of just updating with apt, I have tried to install multiple packages like proxmox-widget-toolkit and pve-manager etc.
That are supposedly required for the gui to operate normally, but with no success.
I have previously installed Proxmox VE using the same ISO, but with connection to the internet.
The only requirement for when installing is to keep the system air gapped from other systems and the internet, with file transfers with USB and CD/DVD allowed.

The hardware i am working with is a HPE ProLiant Gen11, with 120+GB ram 240TB of storage.

Among things I have tried is:
Downloading packages from the no-subscription repo
Downloading the ISO again
Creating a VM running proxmox ve and exporting
Cloning another system running proxmox with Clonezilla
Searching for StdWorkspace.js specifically in the packages and on the systems

I have also tried checking out the forum for other similar cases, but not too many have an air gapped setup.
I have tried looking into Proxmox Offline Mirror Tool, but I can't find a way to download it, unsure if it is because I need Enterprise or do something wrong.

Right now I feel like I have done just about everything I can based on my own experience and guiding from the forum, GPT, YT etc.

One thing I have yet to try is to make another air gapped install, and see if it might just be my hardware that is the problem, which I hope not as it is brand new :(

I would appreciate all help, and thanks in advance.
 
Welcome to the Forum, nailix!

Proxmox VE, AFAIK, can be fully installed without a network connection. Everything necessary is included in the ISO image.
If I recollect correctly that's the method I used myself, to be sure it doesn't use DHCP or any automation.

I don't clearly understand your description of the situation.
If you could write precisely what you have done from scratch, it would be easier to help you :).
 
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The main issue is that I can't get into the web gui, as I get the same issue as a lot of other people with /PVE/StdWorkspace.js missing accompanied by error code 500 and a blank page.
Click to expand...
Most people who have that problem got it by running an old "community script" that supposedly removes the "nag screen" but doesn't support PVE 9. The fix is to not do that.
 
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That was my first suspicion as well, but from what nailix has written ("As the system is air gapped"), I put this possible reason away. How could he get any external script to the air-gapped system?...

Without the detailed description I'm not even trying to guess :-).
 
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Onslow said:
Welcome to the Forum, nailix!

Proxmox VE, AFAIK, can be fully installed without a network connection. Everything necessary is included in the ISO image.
If I recollect correctly that's the method I used myself, to be sure it doesn't use DHCP or any automation.

I don't clearly understand your description of the situation.
If you could write precisely what you have done from scratch, it would be easier to help you :).
Click to expand...
Thanks, and sorry for the unclearities, as it was written in frustration and rush.

So from scratch I have installed PVE and configured just the basic stuff like static IP, system drive etc. So just a plain install, with no errors occuring during the installation itself.
After that I wanted to log in through the web, where I then run into the blank page
and when opening the dev tools inside Edge to check for errors i get the Error 500 missing /PVE/StdWorkspace.js.

Due to that I did some reasearch and found it is somewhat common, where most say that updating things like pve manager and widget toolkit.
As you know I can not run apt to update, so I downloaded the packages from the No-Subscription repo, and install them manually using dpkg inside the CLI, as well as trying to reinstall from the ones provided with the ISO.

This did not work at all, and I later tried downloading the ISO again, incase the original was corrupt in some way.
This did not work either so I started testing with other systems. First installing inside VMWare, which worked straight away.
I then installed it onto a laptop, which also worked. Which lead me on the quest of trying to migrate the working system onto the not working system.



BobhWasatch said:
Most people who have that problem got it by running an old "community script" that supposedly removes the "nag screen" but doesn't support PVE 9. The fix is to not do that.
Click to expand...
I have not had the pleasure of running into that screen too many times yet, so no community scripts on the system so far, not that I think it will ever, but would obviously be doable.


Onslow said:
That was my first suspicion as well, but from what nailix has written ("As the system is air gapped"), I put this possible reason away. How could he get any external script to the air-gapped system?...

Without the detailed description I'm not even trying to guess :-).
Click to expand...
"Luckily" I can use either a USB or write it to a CD/DVD, which InfoSec obviously prefer.


Tommorow I will likely try another browser, another disk as system drive and another air gapped system.


If you have any suggestions as to what might work I would really appreciate it.
 
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If this is for a professional use-case, take a look at the Proxmox Offline Mirror which is Proxmox's official tool to make updates from the enterprise repository available to air-gapped systems and manage their subscription keys.
t.lamprecht

Thread 'Proxmox Offline Mirror released!'

We are proud to announce the first release of our new Proxmox Offline Mirror tool.

With the Proxmox Offline Mirror tool, you can manage a local apt mirror for all package updates for Proxmox and Debian projects. From this local apt mirror you can create an external medium, for example a USB flash drive or a local network share, to update systems which cannot access the package repositories directly (or proxied) via the internet. Such systems might be restricted by policies to access the public internet or are completely air-gapped. Finally, you can also manage subscriptions for such...
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narrateourale said:
If this is for a professional use-case, take a look at the Proxmox Offline Mirror which is Proxmox's official tool to make updates from the enterprise repository available to air-gapped systems and manage their subscription keys.
t.lamprecht

Thread 'Proxmox Offline Mirror released!'

We are proud to announce the first release of our new Proxmox Offline Mirror tool.

With the Proxmox Offline Mirror tool, you can manage a local apt mirror for all package updates for Proxmox and Debian projects. From this local apt mirror you can create an external medium, for example a USB flash drive or a local network share, to update systems which cannot access the package repositories directly (or proxied) via the internet. Such systems might be restricted by policies to access the public internet or are completely air-gapped. Finally, you can also manage subscriptions for such...
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Click to expand...

It is, however not at a really big scale, mostly for backups. I tried to find Proxmox Offline Mirror, but from what I have found it now requires a subscription, and unfortunately I am not the one with the wallet :)
I will pitch it, but for now I have to try the free method.
 
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nailix said:
but from what I have found it now requires a subscription
Click to expand...
AFAIK, POM (Proxmox-Offline-Mirror) only requires a subscription to be able to manage offline subscription key(s) for the air-gapped system.
So in essence - if you only use the no-subscription repo on the air-gapped system, you can setup a POM for this without a subscription.

See here.
 
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