Proxmox Auth

Proxmox Authentication & Management Skill

Expert guidance for Proxmox VE cluster authentication, API access, and infrastructure management.

Authentication Methods

SSH Access (Primary)

# Access Proxmox nodes directly
ssh 192.168.1.100  # pve-node1
ssh 192.168.1.100  # pve-node2

# Execute commands on nodes
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct list"
ssh 192.168.1.100 "qm list"

Proxmox API via pvesh

# Get cluster nodes
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pvesh get /nodes"

# Get node status
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pvesh get /nodes/pve-node1/status"

# Get cluster status
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pvecm status"

Cluster Configuration

Nodes:

• pve-node1: 192.168.1.100 (example: 4 cores, 12 GiB RAM)
• pve-node2: 192.168.1.100 (example: 20 cores, 64 GiB RAM)

Important: Commands default to the node you're connected to. For cross-node operations, SSH to the target node directly.

Container Management (LXC)

Basic Operations

# List all containers (any node)
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct list"

# Start container on specific node
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct start 200"

# Stop container
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct stop 200"

# Get container status
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct status 200"

# Execute command in container
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct exec 200 -- command"

Configuration

# Read container config
ssh 192.168.1.100 "cat /etc/pve/nodes/pve-node2/lxc/200.conf"

# Find which node hosts a container
ssh 192.168.1.100 "ls -lh /etc/pve/nodes/*/lxc/*.conf | grep 200.conf"

GPU Passthrough Containers

# CT200 (ai-workloads) on pve-node2
# IP: 192.168.1.100
# Services: Stable Diffusion (7860), ComfyUI (8188), Ollama (11434)

# Access container
ssh root@192.168.1.100

# Check GPU in container
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct exec 200 -- nvidia-smi"

# Check Docker containers
ssh root@192.168.1.100 "docker ps -a"

VM Management (QEMU)

# List all VMs
ssh 192.168.1.100 "qm list"

# Start/stop VM
ssh 192.168.1.100 "qm start 100"
ssh 192.168.1.100 "qm stop 100"

# Get VM config
ssh 192.168.1.100 "qm config 100"

Cluster Operations

Node Information

# Get all nodes
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pvecm nodes"

# Check cluster status
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pvecm status"

# Get corosync config (node IPs)
ssh 192.168.1.100 "cat /etc/pve/corosync.conf"

Storage

# List storage
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pvesm status"

# Check specific storage
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pvesm list local-lvm"

Backups

# List backups
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pvesh get /nodes/pve-node1/storage/local/content --content backup"

# Backup container
ssh 192.168.1.100 "vzdump 200 --mode snapshot --storage local"

# Restore backup
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct restore 200 /path/to/backup.tar.gz"

Network Diagnostics

Container Network Issues

# Check container IP
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct exec 200 -- ip addr"

# Check if container responds
ping 192.168.1.100

# Test container services
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" http://192.168.1.100:7860/

# Check container networking from inside
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct exec 200 -- ip route"
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct exec 200 -- systemctl status networking"

Bridge Configuration

# Check bridge status
ssh 192.168.1.100 "ip addr show vmbr0"

# List all bridge connections
ssh 192.168.1.100 "brctl show vmbr0"

Common Patterns

Find Container Location

# Search all nodes for container config
ssh 192.168.1.100 "ls -lh /etc/pve/nodes/*/lxc/*.conf | grep -E '200\.conf|VMID|^/'"

Restart Container with Network Reset

# Stop, wait, start
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct stop 200 && sleep 5 && pct start 200"

# Check status after restart
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct status 200"
ping -c 3 192.168.1.100

Check Container Logs

# System logs
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct exec 200 -- journalctl -xe"

# Specific service logs
ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct exec 200 -- journalctl -u docker -n 50"

Troubleshooting

"Configuration file does not exist"

Cause: Running command from wrong node (container is on different node)

Fix: Find correct node first:

ssh 192.168.1.100 "ls /etc/pve/nodes/*/lxc/200.conf"
# Result shows: /etc/pve/nodes/pve-node2/lxc/200.conf
# SSH to pve-node2 (192.168.1.100) instead

Container Not Responding on Network

Checks:

1. Container running: ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct status 200"
2. Has IP: ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct exec 200 -- ip addr"
3. Network reachable: ping 192.168.1.100
4. Services running: ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct exec 200 -- systemctl status"

Fix: Restart container or reboot node if needed

Node Reboots

After node reboot:

• Containers with onboot: 1 start automatically
• Check with: ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct list | grep running"
• Manual start if needed: ssh 192.168.1.100 "pct start 200"

Important Notes

• Always SSH to the correct node for container operations
• CT200 is on pve-node2 (192.168.1.100)
• Use pct exec for running commands inside containers
• GPU passthrough requires specific LXC configuration (see CT200 config)
• DHCP containers may change IP after restart (check with pct exec)

Quick Reference

AI-Workloads Container (CT200)

Hostname: ai-workloads IP: 192.168.1.100 Node: pve-node2 (192.168.1.100) Resources: example 6 cores, 24GB RAM, GPU passthrough

Services:

• Stable Diffusion WebUI: http://192.168.1.100:7860
• ComfyUI: http://192.168.1.100:8188
• Ollama: http://192.168.1.100:11434
• Open WebUI: http://192.168.1.100:3000

Docker Containers:

# List all containers
ssh root@192.168.1.100 "docker ps -a"

# Restart services
ssh root@192.168.1.100 "docker restart sd-auto1111"
ssh root@192.168.1.100 "docker restart comfyui"
ssh root@192.168.1.100 "docker restart ollama"