Proxmox Newbie Questions

[GeorgeL]

Hi folks

I have been playing with KVM VPS on my dedicated server with libvirtd for the past few months. But now I want to try Proxmox and have a few questions to see if Proxmox is suits my usage.

I do a lot of server configuration/development testing, so I need to be able to spin up many KVM VPS servers on the fly. I have an AMD Ryzen 5950X 16C/32T, 32GB RAM server with 5x public IPv4 IPs and IPv6.

1. While CentOS 7 is now EOL, I still need to be able to create CentOS 7-based KVM guest servers for testing along with AlmaLinux/Rocky Linux 8/9. So, is the CentOS 7 image still available for Proxmox KVM guest server creation? I have already set up my own private CentOS 7 YUM repo for my usage.
2. My web host lists Proxmox as an OS option I can reload. I currently use AlmaLinux 9. Is the web host-provided Proxmox generally the same as Proxmox VE? Are there any differences I need to be aware of in install/configuration if I opt for web host reload to Proxmox? Or is it better to install Proxmox from scratch myself? I guess if I let the web host install, then disk partitioning will be whatever the web host configures.
3. The server only has a 500GB disk, though, and on my current OS, it's using 217GB on /home and 6G on /. Is that enough for up to 8x KVM guest servers?

Thanks

 

[dherzig]

Hi!

As long as you have access to an .iso installer file, you can plug it into the kvm guest and set up whichever OS you like.

You're right regarding the provider's choices -- I guess it's worth a try for convenience sake anyway. On the other hand, a PVE installation from the official media is quick!

As long as you're not planning to for big file sharing servers, you should be good with your disk. PVE itself is very lean, and the default standard disk size on Linux KVM guest creation is 32GB per guest. If you hand a 500GB disk to the standard installer, it should do LVM partitioning leaving you with some 100GB for placing iso files, lxc container images, and backups 'local storage' and some 400GB for placing your actual vm-guest disks.