[SOLVED] Headless Proxmox possible?

[Chicken76]

I'm thinking of a CPU without iGPU, using a discrete GPU for installation, then removing it and running it without any display adapter at all.

I realize that for any troubleshooting or BIOS upgrades I would need to add again a GPU, but the question is, does it need a GPU to run?

Anyone tried this?

 

[NewDude]

I'm running headless right now, but all of the servers I've bought in the last decade have had video output on the motherboard, so GPU wasn't an issue. Most recently I plugged an old TV into the server because it had 2x display ports (and I didn't have a spare adapter) and an HDMI port, but that's neither here nor there.

My experience is limited to Dell and Supermicro servers though.

 

[Chicken76]

I'm running headless right now, but all of the servers I've bought in the last decade have had video output on the motherboard, so GPU wasn't an issue. Most recently I plugged an old TV into the server because it had 2x display ports (and I didn't have a spare adapter) and an HDMI port, but that's neither here nor there.

My experience is limited to Dell and Supermicro servers though.

You're running headless, as in "no display adapter at all (integrated or otherwise)", or as in "no monitor/tv plugged in but some kind of display adapter present"?

 

[NewDude]

You're running headless, as in "no display adapter at all (integrated or otherwise)", or as in "no monitor/tv plugged in but some kind of display adapter present"?

The former. As I tried to state, I haven't seen a server without any sort of video output in over a decade, maybe two.

I'm curious as to what hardware you're trying to run on, honestly, as the Supermicro boxes I've got at a datacenter allow virtualized access over IPMI, so plugging in a monitor isn't really required as long as things have been configured correctly. Of course, those 1U boxes have video output built in; the Dells have it front and back...

 

[Chicken76]

The former. As I tried to state, I haven't seen a server without any sort of video output in over a decade, maybe two.

I'm curious as to what hardware you're trying to run on, honestly, as the Supermicro boxes I've got at a datacenter allow virtualized access over IPMI, so plugging in a monitor isn't really required as long as things have been configured correctly. Of course, those 1U boxes have video output built in; the Dells have it front and back...

Cool! On your headless machine, have you encountered any problems related to missing a display adapter? Any special settings needed?

I'm not thinking of big (expensive) enterprise machines, but more in the line of low end E3 Xeons for a home server (the ones ending in 0 usually didn't have iGPU).

 

[NewDude]

Well, here's my take. Right now I've got a pretty nice setup in a datacenter, but since I no longer host for others and am only hosting for myself, and because I've got gigabit fiber at the house, I'm trying to save $1,000 per month by moving in-house (literally). So I'm going as low end as I can.

With that in mind, I bought Dell's lowest end server - a T30 - which is for sale for $400-500 or so on Amazon from third party sellers. It has 2 display ports and an HDMI output, so you can run pretty much any kind of display on it you want. No problems running headless, but you'll need to go into the BIOS and turn off keyboard warnings, because nothing's more annoying than a remote server that says "keyboard not detect - press F1 to continue booting" each time you power it on. It just works with Proxmox so far. I have a second server coming in today or tomorrow, and from there I need to decide whether I want to just host on two nodes, or if I want to buy a third for HA and depend on an external storage array as a single point of failure. I'd use CEPH, but the limited reading I've done so far suggests I can't give it the sort of resources it's designed for in my El-Cheap-O Home Environment-O.

 

[alexskysilk]

Cool! On your headless machine, have you encountered any problems related to missing a display adapter? Any special settings needed?

I'm not thinking of big (expensive) enterprise machines, but more in the line of low end E3 Xeons for a home server (the ones ending in 0 usually didn't have iGPU).

You shouldnt need any special settings at all. all my servers are headless. I do suggest you get a server with a bmc so you can have full remote functionality (including power control and console redirection.)

 

[atl]

I have running Proxmox since version 3.4 running on different devices like AMD GX-412TC SOC or AMD G-T40E Processor, which are embedded devices without any graphics engine. They have only a serial console for local management. It works perfectly without any issues.