ProxMox for Dummies?

[clp595]

I need a ProxMox for dummies guide.

My friend died suddenly without a backup plan and I am trying my best to keep his things up and going until they can be sold, transferred to others or shut down. Some of his websites are designated to be given to other people.

To say that I am neither a server administrator a technical guru is a huge understatement.

There are some VMs that are down. I think it is because the SSls are expired; however, without being able to access it who knows. His current version of ProxMox is 5.4 and I got advice on the forums to upgrade to 6.2. The bottom line is, I don't know how to even start with this so I need a dummies guide.

Can anyone help?

 

[tom]

Start reading here:
https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/

And watch some tutorials on youtube, e.g.:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ProxmoxVE

 

[oguz]

hi,

condolences for your friend.

His current version of ProxMox is 5.4 and I got advice on the forums to upgrade to 6.2. The bottom line is, I don't know how to even start with this so I need a dummies guide.

take a look here[0] for the upgrade instructions

you can ask here if something is unclear in the documentation

[0]: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_5.x_to_6.0

 

[James Crook]

Sorry for your loss.

Backups, make a backup of the machines and contaners. Then restore them to another host to test that you can restore. Backups are only as good if they work, and you only know they work when you really really need them.

Bonus points, restore them to a uptodate proxmox box and see if they work as expected.
Good luck.

 

[jim.bond.9862]

To OP, are you sure that vm are down? Or you assume they are because you can not reach them via ip?
Can you reach the host UI?
If yes first thing first, as James said, back up everything you can.
Get an external disk big enought to hold the vm images and data and do full backup.
Than back up the vm configs.
Make notes where each vm points for data storage. Note all paths and disks references.
I will not be a good source for how to get access to come as I do not use SSL on my setup as it is all internal only for now so no need to.


James, it is a good advise but...
Not sure what the OP situation is in terms of hardware , but what if he has something like my setup?
A single host running it all and no access to any other extra hardware?

I run a home server. Single machine with dual Intel CPU. And 18 disks of various sizes lumped in several zfs pools based on disk sizes.
How would I approach safe upgrade to latest version?
I run 5.3.11 close to OP. Last time I upgraded from 5.1 to 5.3 I lost whole setup except my data. As it is on separate pool.

 

[clp595]

To OP, are you sure that vm are down? Or you assume they are because you can not reach them via ip?
Can you reach the host UI?
If yes first thing first, as James said, back up everything you can.
Get an external disk big enought to hold the vm images and data and do full backup.
Than back up the vm configs.
Make notes where each vm points for data storage. Note all paths and disks references.
I will not be a good source for how to get access to come as I do not use SSL on my setup as it is all internal only for now so no need to.


James, it is a good advise but...
Not sure what the OP situation is in terms of hardware , but what if he has something like my setup?
A single host running it all and no access to any other extra hardware?

I run a home server. Single machine with dual Intel CPU. And 18 disks of various sizes lumped in several zfs pools based on disk sizes.
How would I approach safe upgrade to latest version?
I run 5.3.11 close to OP. Last time I upgraded from 5.1 to 5.3 I lost whole setup except my data. As it is on separate pool.

The physical server is rented in a server bank. There are 15 VMs on the physical server. 3 of the VMs he had off and of the rest, there are 2 that are not accessible. The remainder are working. I cannot reach the VM via IP or otherwise. The IP pings with no problem but otherwise, the websites on these VMs are not working and I cannot get into the Virtualmin or Webmin. Is there a workaround to get into the virtualmin?

I should also add that according to HextricTools uptime monitor, one of the sites from an inaccessible VM goes online and offline repeatedly and has been for days. I can never catch it where the virtualmin will load though, it doesn't stay online long enough.

 

[jim.bond.9862]

can you get into Proxmox WebUI?
if yes maybe you can get to VM via built in console, than you can reboot it and see what is going on.
you can also check logs

 

[clp595]

can you get into Proxmox WebUI?
if yes maybe you can get to VM via built in console, than you can reboot it and see what is going on.
you can also check logs

I am able to get into the ProxMox webui and have rebooted; however, when I try to access the console I get a message saying vnc failed to connect to server, no vnc