New to Linux and ProxMox - Help please

[surferride]

Hi there, I am new to Linux and ProxMox, but decided to give it a try!

I want to offload containers running on my Desktop PC and from my Synology NAS and run them on a Mini PC (Beelink SEi12 with and Intel 12th Gen i5-1235U, 32 GB RAM and 512 SSD)

I installed ProxMox following a guide (cant remember which one).
Then tried to install a Windows 11 VM to test and also to create a Template once I had it all configured with drivers, updates, etc. The Windows 11 boot times are absurdly slow. Its like if its trying to do something.
Today I tried creating my first LXC with Debian 12 and followed an online guide to install Plex (as I want to move it from a Windows installation into this container), but unfortunatlely again the boot times are painfully slow until I get the console enabled to login.

I read about nesting, not sure if I should have nesting enabled or not on the "proxmox" node. When I check on the Shell with this command: cat /sys/module/kvm_intel/parameters/nested I see "Y". Should it be enabled? If not, how do I disable it?

I also read something about all the delays being part of IPV6 trying to get an IP address? Not sure.
I configured the Mac Adress of the Mini PC with a static IP assignment from my router and seems to be working well as this is the IP address I am using to login to the GUI.

Thanks a lot for your help and sorry if I am missing anything obvious.

 

[wbk]

Hi surferride,

Welcome to the forums!

.. decided to give it a try!

That is the spirit!

I installed ProxMox following a guide (cant remember which one). (....) again the boot times are painfully slow

I _think_ Proxmox can be installed without any special settings and give a quite usable configuration. None of my (few) nodes are as powerful as yours, but I don't notice long boot times.

I read about nesting,

Did you read about it via the "Help" button on the container-creation popup? If you don't intend to run Proxmox on Proxmox (think of it as Inception for your computer), you probably won't need it. Turning it on or off shouldn't impact boot times.

I also read something about all the delays being part of IPV6 trying to get an IP address? Not sure.

Not IPv6 especially I think, lack of IPv4 (and networking in general) will hold up booting, at least for Linux.

I configured the Mac Adress of the Mini PC with a static IP assignment from my router and seems to be working well as this is the IP address I am using to login to the GUI.

The computers running on your Proxmox are not 'connected to' your router, as such. It is not without reason that in the Proxmox GUI it says "Datacenter" as the top level. Think of Proxmox as a (now almost empty) datacenter building. All machines that run there, and need to contact the outside world, need an IP for communication.
Without putting a switch or router in the building, none of the computers can connect the outside world, even if you can visit the front desk and the front desk itself has internet.

That makes me realize that a guide can come in handy anyways ;-)

Did you add a bridge to Proxmox? You would find it under your node/System/Network. Mine is called `vmbr0`:



You would need at least one of type "Network Device" (the actual network port on your computer) and one of type "Linux Bridge" (go with Linux Bridge; OVS Bridge has some features that Linux Bridge didn't (doesn't?) have, mostly related to VLAN's if I recall correctly).

If you don't have a bridge here, your VM's and containers can't communicate with your router, and will wait until they (don't) get a DHCP-answer.

If you _do_ have a bridge, I have no idea what the trouble booting could be. Maybe someone else has a bright idea for troubleshooting; my first step would be having a look at the boot log of your Debian container. If you hate reading logs (then what are you using a computer for ), you could create a VM with Debian and have a look at the messages while it is booting (or try to find if there is a way to let your current Windows installation show messages while booting).

Good luck!

 

[surferride]

Hi there, thank you for your comments and time to help me figure out what is going on.

I think the network configuration is correct, but someone more experienced than me should be able to better say.

I did disable now the static mapping from my router to avoid any conflicts on IP assignment with the same Mac Address being used on the Mini Beelink PC I am using as ProxMox server.

This is a screenshot of my Network:



I also created this quick capture on video to show how I have configured some things and what is the behavior of the Windows 11 VM I created for example.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hanx6iHV5QKkdN7j8

Still if I try to start the Debian for Plex, looking at the console I just see a square on the very top left, with several minutes delay until I am able to login with root.

I am a bit lost, so any help on what might the issue be will be helpfull

Thanks again!

Hi surferride,

Welcome to the forums!


That is the spirit!


I _think_ Proxmox can be installed without any special settings and give a quite usable configuration. None of my (few) nodes are as powerful as yours, but I don't notice long boot times.

Did you read about it via the "Help" button on the container-creation popup? If you don't intend to run Proxmox on Proxmox (think of it as Inception for your computer), you probably won't need it. Turning it on or off shouldn't impact boot times.


Not IPv6 especially I think, lack of IPv4 (and networking in general) will hold up booting, at least for Linux.



The computers running on your Proxmox are not 'connected to' your router, as such. It is not without reason that in the Proxmox GUI it says "Datacenter" as the top level. Think of Proxmox as a (now almost empty) datacenter building. All machines that run there, and need to contact the outside world, need an IP for communication.
Without putting a switch or router in the building, none of the computers can connect the outside world, even if you can visit the front desk and the front desk itself has internet.

That makes me realize that a guide can come in handy anyways ;-)

Did you add a bridge to Proxmox? You would find it under your node/System/Network. Mine is called `vmbr0`:

View attachment 57109

You would need at least one of type "Network Device" (the actual network port on your computer) and one of type "Linux Bridge" (go with Linux Bridge; OVS Bridge has some features that Linux Bridge didn't (doesn't?) have, mostly related to VLAN's if I recall correctly).

If you don't have a bridge here, your VM's and containers can't communicate with your router, and will wait until they (don't) get a DHCP-answer.

If you _do_ have a bridge, I have no idea what the trouble booting could be. Maybe someone else has a bright idea for troubleshooting; my first step would be having a look at the boot log of your Debian container. If you hate reading logs (then what are you using a computer for ), you could create a VM with Debian and have a look at the messages while it is booting (or try to find if there is a way to let your current Windows installation show messages while booting).

Good luck!

 

[wbk]

This is a screenshot of my Network:

That seems well enough

I also created this quick capture on video

I had a look, on my side the video starts a bit blurry. I was able to read 'time out' at the 18 seconds mark, just before you switch from console to web interface:

It seems your BIOS/UEFI is set to boot from (virtual) DVD?

I try to stay away from Windows troubleshooting: the OS is just not user friendly in that respect.

For starters, have a look at running Alpine Linux from template in a container. If that starts without problems, have a look at running Debian (or your preferred Linux distro) in a container. From there on, you can troubleshoot the booting procedure by reading the log, and see where there is as timeout.

If there is a timeout like the one in the screenshot, you would not see it in the log: it happens before the OS is loading. In my experience containers are easier to manage and troubleshoot than VM's. My advice to people starting Proxmox, for whatever it is worth ;-), is to stay away from VM's if you don't need them, to get the most out of the hardware you have.

 

[surferride]

Hi there, I decided to reinstall all from scratch. Lets see if I get better luck. I am learning a lot by doing, its my third time installing Windows 11, and I want to create a Template without messing it up. I will keep you posted how it goes thanks a lot again for your help!

 

[wbk]

I am learning a lot by doing

Great!

Good luck ;-)

 

[surferride]

Hi there @wbk its me again

I recorded a video with the issue I am having, maybe you have an idea of how I can fix it?

Thanks a lot!

https://youtu.be/c-89McORjUg (Video is in Full HD )

 

[wbk]

I have zero experience with Windows in general, let alone on Proxmox, so in that regard I'm less than useless.

I did notice 'raw' as the disk format, as opposed to qcow2. This probobly is exactly _because_ you use LVM thin provisioning. With thin provisioning you already have the low disk usage benefit of qcow2, but on a lower level.

Disadvantage in that case is that the higher level utilities don't know that it is a sparse file system. The result is that the full VM disk is sent for backup.

I have my backups sent to the Proxmox backup server which (I think) only backs up 'used' blocks of data, and (for sure) deduplicates subsequent snapshots.

So I have a number of suggestions, maybe other people can chime in

• run the Proxmox backup server on your NAS, to benefit from PBS integration into PVE, or
• switch from LVM thin to 'regular' LVM, and use qcow2 as disk format, or
• check your NAS for deduplication options

It was nice of you to take the trouble for the video as an extra explanation to your post. If it is all the same to you, you could consider to next time create a new topic with the specific problem you face in the title, and take the trouble to describe the problem in the forum instead of linking a video. Many people that might help you can read faster than they can scan a video, and it helps to let others find your problem and learn from it!

 

[surferride]

Thanks a lot for your comments and ideas, will do so !