Is proxmox a good solution for Windows VM

[sebastien4444]

Hi!

I'm looking for an hypervisor where I can run Windows VM as well as Linux VM.

As proxmox is popular, I have installed it on an Intel NUC and created a VM with Windows Server 2022 Evaluation on it.

And at this point, I'm very disappointed.

First, the creation of a Windows VM in Proxmox looks so complicated compared to making this in Hyper-V or VMWare.
There are so many options to configure, and all differents tutorials I've followed don't even fill in the same parameters :
Sometimes Graphic Card is Default, sometimes VirtIO-GPU. Sometimes Qemu Agent is enabled, sometimes not.
I have a "Machine" droplist with q35 or Default (i440fx) wich doesn't appears on the tutorials.
Sometimes CPU type is set to x86-64-v2-AES, sometimes "Host"...etc.

Despite those uncertainties, I finally got my windows server VM running, but during I worked on it (less than 1 hour), it crashed at least 4 times.

During my google research on those crash, I realised problems on Windows VM on Proxmox are usual.

That's why I ask this question : is proxmox a good solution for Windows VM ? Or is it specially built for Linux VM and won't be reliable for Windows VM (maybe just for simple Windows client, but not Windows Server with somes roles like ADDS or ADCS)

 

[ness1602]

Yes,proxmox works great with Windows, just don't forget to install virtio drivers.

 

[leesteken]

Crashing VMs (Windows or otherwise) is not a usual Proxmox thing. It's often a hardware issue; please run memtest and disk tests. If you share the VM configuration then people to advise you on how to optimize it.

 

[sebastien4444]

Yes,proxmox works great with Windows, just don't forget to install virtio drivers.

Thanks for that quick answer. I've installed the virtio drivers. But it doesn't prevent the many crashes I had.
I will continue working on that VM and post the error messages I get when it crash

 

[leesteken]

Thanks for that quick answer. I've installed the virtio drivers. But it doesn't prevent the many crashes I had.

There have been reports of the VirtIO Windows drivers version 0.1.248 having issues and 0.1.240 working much better.

I will continue working on that VM and post the error messages I get when it crash

That could help pinning down the cause of the issue, thanks. EDIT: Check what Windows thinks happened and what Proxmox reports happened when the VM crashes.

 

[IvanF]

Yes, Windows VMs work great. As already mentioned, do not forget to install the Virtio-Win driver.

I would rather see the problem in the fact that you have different instructions from the Internet (which mostly follow the different purpose of the given VM).

Install the VM without unnecessary changes (or setting the CPU to "host" will transfer the ID of your physical CPU to the VM [you won't spoil anything]) and everything should work stably