Proxmox VE KVM Templates

[Criot]

Hi

I want to create some KVM templates from virtual machines by using the 'Convert to template' function in Proxmox VE 6.2

Once the template is created, where is the template file stored? I'm struggling to find it.

I want to use templates for easier OS installation.

 

[t.lamprecht]

Hi,


The disks are stored where the previous one where, and the config stays also as where it was.
There's currently no way to use a VM (template or note) as "base" in the Create Wizard, if you mean that.

But, you can clone a template and adapt from there to base off a similar VM. This can even have the benefit of reduced spaces use with linked clones as the base installation is shared.

 

[Criot]

Hi,


The disks are stored where the previous one where, and the config stays also as where it was.
There's currently no way to use a VM (template or note) as "base" in the Create Wizard, if you mean that.

But, you can clone a template and adapt from there to base off a similar VM. This can even have the benefit of reduced spaces use with linked clones as the base installation is shared.

Thanks for that. Makes sense. Esentially what I'm looking for is to install a VM from ISO, customise and create a template from that VM, which I have done successfully, so that I can install new VMs from said templates in future rather than installing from ISO and having to make the configurations on each VM manually. However once I have created the template from the VM, I'm struggling to then find where exactly the template file is stored.

Hope this makes sense!

Thanks

 

[t.lamprecht]

Hmm, cloning that new Template should do the trick here - then you'd only need to make adaptions from the base installation.
After you the Template it is still where it was before, the config is in /etc/pve/nodes/NODENAME/qemu-server/VMID.conf and nshould be also still visible in the Webinterface (sorted after the non-templates in the resource tree on the left). You can then clone it over the webinterface, or with qm clone command - webinterface makes it normally a bit easier.

Note that having such prepared templates poses some implications: for example if you would have a common Linux Distro and clone that, you clone also things like the hosts SSH keys with it, this may not be a big problem if the clones are strictly internal used from known trusted personal, but even then you may want to re-generate those after cloning.

If something is still unclear you could try to describe the goal and actions you wanted to make, and where they did not go as expected.

 

[Criot]

Hmm, cloning that new Template should do the trick here - then you'd only need to make adaptions from the base installation.
After you the Template it is still where it was before, the config is in /etc/pve/nodes/NODENAME/qemu-server/VMID.conf and nshould be also still visible in the Webinterface (sorted after the non-templates in the resource tree on the left). You can then clone it over the webinterface, or with qm clone command - webinterface makes it normally a bit easier.

Note that having such prepared templates poses some implications: for example if you would have a common Linux Distro and clone that, you clone also things like the hosts SSH keys with it, this may not be a big problem if the clones are strictly internal used from known trusted personal, but even then you may want to re-generate those after cloning.

If something is still unclear you could try to describe the goal and actions you wanted to make, and where they did not go as expected.

Brilliant thanks - Is there an actual directory containing the template files, or is it all ran from the configuration files?

 

[LnxBil]

Is there an actual directory containing the template files

Depends on the storage.

In general: a template is just a VM with the template flag set.