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Proxmox Level 1 – Foundations

This module introduces Proxmox VE as a virtualisation platform and gives learners the practical knowledge needed to navigate the GUI, understand core concepts, provision guests, and carry out basic administration safely.

It acts as the natural prerequisite for Proxmox Level 2 – Engineering and Proxmox Level 3 – Advanced.

Proxmox Foundations Training

Course purpose

Give learners a practical, beginner-friendly foundation in Proxmox VE so they can understand what the platform is, work confidently in the GUI, create and manage guests, and build the right habits before moving on to deeper engineering and troubleshooting topics.

Duration

  • 1 day for experienced technical learners
  • 2 days if you want plenty of labs and beginner-friendly pacing

Target audience

  • new Proxmox administrators
  • helpdesk / NOC / operations staff
  • junior infrastructure engineers
  • VMware/Hyper-V admins transitioning to Proxmox
  • technical staff who need to manage guests but not yet troubleshoot at host-engineering level

Prerequisites

Ideally learners will have:

  • basic Linux awareness
  • basic networking awareness
  • general understanding of servers, disks and IP addressing

The course is still designed to remain beginner-friendly.

Learning outcomes

  • explain what Proxmox VE is and where it fits in an infrastructure estate
  • distinguish between Linux, KVM, QEMU, LXC and Proxmox VE
  • explain the difference between a VM and a container
  • describe the meaning of common virtual hardware settings such as vCPU, RAM, ballooning and VirtIO
  • navigate the Proxmox GUI confidently
  • create, start, stop and manage guests
  • explain common storage types at a high level
  • explain Proxmox networking basics at a high level
  • understand what a cluster is and perform simple join/create tasks
  • understand the role of qemu-guest-agent
  • understand the difference between snapshots and backups
  • perform basic backup operations and understand the role of Proxmox Backup Server

Detailed module structure

Unit 1: Introduction to Proxmox VE

Topics:

  • what Proxmox VE is
  • what problems it solves
  • where it sits in the stack
  • Proxmox VE as:
    • a Linux-based host platform
    • a hypervisor management platform
    • a clustering platform
    • a storage/network integration point
  • common use cases:
    • virtual servers
    • labs
    • branch office infrastructure
    • private cloud / on-prem virtualisation
  • bare metal hypervisor vs hosted hypervisor
  • management plane vs guest workloads
  • single node vs cluster
Good framing: Linux is the operating system underneath, KVM provides virtualisation in the kernel, QEMU provides the VM process and virtual hardware emulation, LXC provides system containers, and Proxmox VE ties all of it together as the management platform.

Unit 2: Linux, KVM, QEMU and LXC — what each thing is

Topics:

  • Linux as the base OS
  • what a kernel is, at a very high level
  • what KVM is
  • what QEMU is
  • how KVM and QEMU work together
  • what LXC is
  • containers vs virtual machines
  • why Proxmox supports both

Useful beginner table:

  • Linux = host operating system
  • KVM = kernel virtualisation capability
  • QEMU = VM userspace engine / device model
  • LXC = container technology
  • PVE = management platform

Unit 3: What is a guest?

Topics:

  • definition of a guest
  • guest types:
    • VM
    • LXC container
  • when to use a VM
  • when to use a container
  • trade-offs:
    • isolation
    • performance
    • flexibility
    • operating system support
    • security boundaries

Practical explanations:

  • a VM has its own kernel
  • a container shares the host kernel
  • a VM emulates hardware
  • a container isolates userspace processes

Unit 4: Virtual hardware fundamentals

Topics:

  • vCPU:
    • what a vCPU is
    • sockets vs cores vs threads in simple terms
    • overcommit at a high level
  • RAM:
    • assigned memory
    • reserved vs used memory concepts
  • ballooning:
    • what it does
    • why it exists
    • when it helps and when to be cautious
  • disk controllers and virtual disks
  • NIC models
  • BIOS vs UEFI
  • machine types at a high level
  • VirtIO:
    • what it is
    • why paravirtualised devices improve performance
  • guest drivers/tools
  • boot order
  • CD/DVD ISO attachment
  • why Windows may need VirtIO drivers
  • why guest OS choice affects hardware compatibility
  • why more vCPUs is not always better
Key idea: virtual hardware is presented to the guest OS as if it were real hardware.

Unit 5: Proxmox GUI navigation and day-to-day use

Topics:

  • datacentre, node, storage and guest views
  • summary, console, hardware, options, tasks, backups and snapshots
  • task history and logs
  • permissions and roles at a high level
  • where to find important guest actions in the GUI

Lab ideas:

  • identify where to find ISO images
  • identify local storage
  • locate guest hardware settings
  • find task history
  • find node summary
  • find cluster view

Unit 6: Storage foundations

Topics:

  • what storage means in Proxmox
  • file-based vs block-based storage
  • shared vs local storage
  • which storage types can hold VM disks, container rootfs, ISOs, templates and backups
  • high-level overview of:
    • Directory
    • LVM
    • LVM-Thin
    • NFS
    • iSCSI
    • Ceph
    • Proxmox Backup Server storage target
  • what each is, what it is not, typical use cases and basic pros/cons

Beginner framing:

  • Directory: normal filesystem storage for files
  • LVM: block storage managed by logical volumes
  • LVM-Thin: thin-provisioned block storage, more flexible for VM disks and snapshots
  • NFS: shared file storage over the network
  • iSCSI: block storage presented over the network
  • Ceph: distributed shared storage platform
  • PBS: backup target, not primary VM storage

Unit 7: Creating and provisioning guests

Topics:

  • creating a VM:
    • ISO selection
    • storage choice
    • CPU and memory assignment
    • network adapter selection
    • disk bus type
  • creating an LXC container:
    • templates
    • rootfs
    • CPU and memory
    • network
  • basic best practices for naming and organisation
  • templates at a high level

Lab ideas:

  • create a Linux VM
  • create an LXC container
  • compare settings side by side

Unit 8: Basic guest lifecycle operations

Topics:

  • start
  • stop
  • shutdown
  • reset / reboot
  • suspend / resume
  • pause / freeze
  • console access
  • force stop vs graceful shutdown
  • what happens when guest tools are installed vs not installed
Important distinction: shutdown asks the OS to shut down cleanly, stop is a hard power off, and pause or suspend halts execution rather than shutting the guest down.

Unit 9: Cloning, templates, migration and snapshots

Topics:

  • clone vs template
  • full clone vs linked clone at a high level
  • migration at a high level:
    • what live migration is
    • what it requires
    • when it will and will not work
  • snapshots:
    • what they are
    • why they are useful short term
    • why they are not backups
  • restore from snapshot at a high level
Simple operational message: snapshots are useful for short-term change protection, but they can consume space and hurt performance if left in place and should never replace backups.

Unit 10: Networking basics

Topics:

  • NICs and Linux bridges
  • host management IP
  • guest networking
  • vmbr interfaces
  • VLAN awareness at a high level
  • bond basics at a high level
  • why storage traffic and guest traffic may be separated
  • what Proxmox SDN is, at a very high level, if relevant
Scope note: this unit stays at foundation level and deliberately avoids deep editing of /etc/network/interfaces, which fits more naturally in Level 2.

Unit 11: Basic cluster concepts and operations

Topics:

  • what a Proxmox cluster is
  • benefits of clustering
  • single pane of glass management
  • migration between nodes
  • quorum at a simple level
  • basic cluster create / join concepts
  • what shared storage changes
  • cluster prerequisites at a high level

Lab ideas:

  • review the cluster view in the GUI
  • walk through the prerequisites for adding a node
  • discuss what clustering enables and what it does not

Unit 12: Guest tools and qemu-guest-agent

Topics:

  • what qemu-guest-agent is
  • why it helps
  • improved shutdown and reboot behaviour
  • IP reporting
  • filesystem freeze/thaw support for backups
  • operations that depend on guest cooperation

Unit 13: Backups, PBS and basic recovery concepts

Topics:

  • why backups matter
  • snapshots vs backups
  • backup storage targets
  • scheduling at a high level
  • basic restore concepts
  • what Proxmox Backup Server is
  • what PBS does differently
  • deduplication and compression at a high level
  • retention at a high level
Important foundation message: snapshot = short-term rollback aid, backup = recoverable copy stored separately, PBS = purpose-built backup platform for Proxmox environments.

Unit 14: Basic administration good practice

Topics:

  • naming conventions
  • guest notes and documentation fields
  • tagging
  • checking task logs before retrying actions
  • avoiding force stop unless necessary
  • validating storage choice before deployment
  • not leaving snapshots around
  • confirming backups complete successfully
  • understanding whether a task is node-local or cluster-wide

Assessment

Practical GUI exercise

  • identify storage, guest hardware, task history and node views
  • create and start a guest
  • perform basic lifecycle operations safely
  • explain the difference between snapshot and backup

Foundation knowledge check

Explain VM vs container, describe basic storage and networking choices, and outline what clustering and guest tools enable.

Solid foundations - Confident GUI use - Better day-one Proxmox administration

Designed to prepare learners for safe operations now and deeper engineering study later

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