How to install Proxmox on a bare-metal server

Proxmox VE is a widely used vir­tu­al­iza­tion platform you can install on a bare-metal server. This guide covers every­thing from system re­quire­ments and hardware prepa­ra­tion to in­stalling and setting up Proxmox step by step.

Step 1: Ensure your server can run Proxmox

Before you begin, make sure your server meets the basic re­quire­ments for running Proxmox. You’ll need a 64-bit processor with vir­tu­al­iza­tion support and at least 8 GB of RAM, though 16 GB or more is rec­om­mend­ed. Your system should also have enough storage on SSDs or HDDs. For better data pro­tec­tion and fault tolerance, consider setting up your drives in a RAID array. Also check that your server’s network ports can be con­fig­ured properly. Proxmox can later use them to create multiple virtual networks for virtual machines and con­tain­ers. A fast, stable network con­nec­tion is also essential for good vir­tu­al­iza­tion per­for­mance.

Step 2: Download the Proxmox ISO

Go to the official Proxmox website and download the latest Proxmox VE ISO image. This file contains every­thing needed to install Proxmox on your hardware. Save it on the computer you’ll use to create the in­stal­la­tion media.

Step 3: Create bootable in­stal­la­tion media

Next, create a bootable USB drive or DVD using the ISO file. Your bare-metal server will use this media to start the installer.

On Linux, you can write the ISO to a USB drive with dd:

sudo dd if=proxmox-ve_x.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress 
sudo sync

Replace /dev/sdX with the path to your USB drive and update the ISO file name to match your version. On Windows, you can use the Rufus tool to create a bootable USB drive.

Step 4: Boot the server from your USB or DVD

Insert your bootable media from step 3. Then restart the server and open the BIOS setup screen as the system starts. Depending on the man­u­fac­tur­er, this is usually done with F2, Del or Esc. Check your server’s doc­u­men­ta­tion if needed.

In the BIOS/UEFI, first enable your processor’s vir­tu­al­iza­tion ex­ten­sions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V), so Proxmox can run virtual machines ef­fi­cient­ly. Enabling IOMMU is also rec­om­mend­ed. This allows Proxmox to assign hardware resources more flexibly.

Next, make sure the boot order is set so the server starts from the USB drive or DVD. Save your changes. Your server is now fully prepared to load the Proxmox in­stal­la­tion media and begin the setup. After restart­ing, the server should au­to­mat­i­cal­ly boot from the in­stal­la­tion media and display the Proxmox installer menu.

Step 5: Run the Proxmox installer

The in­stal­la­tion wizard will guide you through the basic setup. Select the drive where Proxmox should be installed. Then choose your time zone, country and keyboard layout. Create an ad­min­is­tra­tor account with a password and provide a valid email address for system no­ti­fi­ca­tions.

Step 6: Set up the network interface

A stable network setup is important, since Proxmox is managed through its web interface and needs network access for updates. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion between virtual machines also relies on a stable con­nec­tion. During in­stal­la­tion, you’ll need to configure the server’s network interface. You can use either a static IP address or DHCP. For pro­duc­tion en­vi­ron­ments, a static IP is strongly rec­om­mend­ed. This is because it ensures reliable access to the server and provides more stable con­nec­tions for VMs and clusters.

After con­fig­u­ra­tion, check that the network interface is working as it should. On Linux, you can do this by dis­play­ing your current network in­for­ma­tion:

ip a

You can run a quick ping test to check whether the server can reach an external host. If the ping returns suc­cess­ful­ly, your network con­fig­u­ra­tion is working and ready for Proxmox.

Step 7: Complete the in­stal­la­tion and reboot

After you’ve entered all the required in­for­ma­tion in the in­stal­la­tion wizard, Proxmox au­to­mat­i­cal­ly starts the in­stal­la­tion process. This can take a few minutes while the system installs the selected packages, formats the par­ti­tions and sets up the base con­fig­u­ra­tion. When the in­stal­la­tion is complete, make sure to remove the in­stal­la­tion media so the server doesn’t boot from the USB drive or DVD on the next restart. Then reboot the server. As it starts up, you should see the Proxmox VE boot screen, con­firm­ing that the system was installed correctly. From this point on, you can manage the server through the Proxmox web interface.

Step 8: Log in to the Proxmox web interface

On another computer, open a browser of your choice and point it to:

https://<SERVER_IP>:8006

Replace <SERVER_IP> with the IP address you con­fig­ured during in­stal­la­tion. Sign in using the ad­min­is­tra­tor cre­den­tials you created earlier.

After logging in, you can create your first virtual machines and con­tain­ers. You can also configure storage pools, set up networks and schedule backups. Your server can function not only as a standard vir­tu­al­iza­tion host but also as a Proxmox file server for cen­tral­ized file storage or as a Proxmox Backup Server for regular VM backups.