Multiple proxmox installations for different systems on the same usb drive

[Sauce]

Hey all,

Hear me out -- this may sound nuts, but I was wondering if I could install proxmox multiple times on a USB drive and then have them share virtual drives and installations? My thought is to have a USB drive that I can bring from one machine to another boot it up and fire whatever OS is in it. Of course I'd be limited to USB speeds for the VM (though you could imagine I could do the same thing with a SATA drive or NVMe drive).

The reason for the different installations is that I imagine the hardware may vary from one to the other, and I'd either need a proxmox setup that can boot on the superset of machines (i.e. can support all of those configurations), or I'd sacrifice a small amount of space for each system's unique setup so long as the guest drives and systems can run agnostic to it on virtualized hardware.

Is this possible and easy? I tried running the gui installer and it kinda just... did everything, so I'd have to either tweak the configuration it created or start from scratch with a more advanced approach (neither is an issue really).

Is it a stupid idea or crazy?

Sauce

 

[Kingneutron]

Not possible / feasible. Proxmox installer wipes the destination disk during OS install and gives it a fresh GPT table. You can't really put multiple Proxmox installs into separate partitions on the same disk.

(or you could try doing multiple Debian installs and slapping Proxmox on top, but why go to the trouble when the installer does everything Teh Right Way?) I think you may not understand the Proxmox way of doing things.

And network would be a pain trying to boot on multiple hardware variations, since vmbr0 kinda depends on the hardware and default GW not changing. You'd need a way to access the PVE web dashboard; you could install Xorg + XFCE and a browser on the same PVE boot, but again - WHY? That's just taking resources away from VMs and CTRs.

I hate to say it, but you may be better off using the USB as a thin-client boot and use a Cloud instance for your desktop. It's easy enough to install straight Debian or Ubuntu onto USB to get a desktop environment, although for endurance I would recommend either a Kanguru or Samsung T7.

If you want to go the cheap/disposable route, you could get a multicard USB reader and use microSD cards.

My advice is to Keep It Simple. Settle with running PVE on 1 machine, and consider clustering if you have compatible hardware. If you are really determined to run a Proxmox on rotating PCs, I would buy multiple reliable USB disks and use a dedicated (labelled) one for a given PC, or install a dedicated drive in each PC for Proxmox boot.

 

[Sauce]

Hey, thanks for the advice.

A cloud install assumes a high enough speed internet connection everywhere. I guess I wasn't clear about my reasons.

Ultimately I travel between two locations and want to carry my work with me back and forth. Machines exist at both locations and I'm looking to leverage those.

As for your comment wrt networking, the control panel would be addressable by a different IP at each place since the proxmox install would be unique to each place.

Maybe a better analogy is to think about this in two steps.

1. Set up proxmox on two different computers. Each uses their own boot device (usb, sata, whatever). Then use a removable drive to have an os image installed (guest) with all its data. Basically shut down that vm and physically migrate it between the two machines to have the exact state travel with me.

2. For convenience only: move the two proxmox installs onto different partitions of that traveling disk.

Honestly breaking it up in 2 steps is probably likely what I'll try first. I'll do a setup on one machine and see if I can get a second machine to boot into that VM by moving the drive over and having a clean Bootable promox disk for the second PC. If that works, why not try to copy both boot partitions onto one drive?

I hope that adds a little flavor.

Sauce

 

[lexarion]

One solution for this ( I will test it. ) is the following:

USB Disk ( ssd 1TB or so)
Ventoy installed ( Boot loader which accepts iso and other DISK Images.

Make on one computer a setup. boot a linux then. make a vhd image of the DISK not the partition.
Ventoy has a vhd boot plugin available.
Then put that image on the Ventoy disk.
Then you should have an bootable disk image ( I check the details of this in a follow up. its just a short 00:00 night write )

I know it did work with my Windows install which i can carry around now. also isolated dev environments as bootable images .

Again i will try to build something as a proof of concept ( Prox 6.2/7/8/8.2 full installs from usb ).

also You can setup the path of the ventoy disk as a dir mount in the corresponding setups after you boot from them and then have a directory "VMs" as a Storage for them.

I think its doable. Feasable is another thing. I do a lot of stuff which is bringing the Question "Is it supposed to do this ? "

See YA