Proxmox today announced the release of version 8.1 of Proxmox Virtual Environment, its open-source server virtualization management platform. This version comes with several new features, support for Secure Boot, a Software-defined Network stack, a new flexible notification system, and many further enhancements and bug fixes.

Proxmox VE 8.1 is based on Debian 12.2 (“Bookworm”), but uses a newer Linux kernel 6.5 as stable default, and includes updates to the latest versions of leading open-source technologies for virtual environments like QEMU 8.1.2 and LXC 5.0.2. It comes with ZFS 2.2.0 including the most important bugfixes from 2.2.1 already. The virtualization platform adds support for Ceph Reef 18.2.0 and continues to support Ceph Quincy 17.2.7.

Highlights in Proxmox Virtual Environment 8.1

• Support for Secure Boot: This version is now compatible with Secure Boot. This security feature is designed to protect the boot process of a computer by ensuring that only software with a valid digital signature launches on a machine. Proxmox VE now includes a signed shim bootloader trusted by most hardware’s UEFI implementations. This allows installing Proxmox VE in environments with Secure Boot active.
• Software-defined Network (SDN): With this version the core Software-defined Network (SDN) packages are installed by default. The SDN technology in Proxmox VE enables to create virtual zones and networks (VNets), which enables users to effectively manage and control complex networking configurations and multitenancy setups directly from the web interface at the datacenter level. Use cases for SDN range from an isolated private network on each individual node to complex overlay networks across multiple Proxmox VE clusters on different locations. The benefits result in a more responsive and adaptable network infrastructure that can scale according to business needs.
• New Flexible Notification System: This release introduces a new framework that uses a matcher-based approach to route notifications. It lets users designate different target types as recipients of notifications. Alongside the current local Postfix MTA, supported targets include Gotify servers or SMTP servers that require SMTP authentication. Notification matchers determine which targets will get notifications for particular events based on predetermined rules. The new notification system now enables greater flexibility, allowing for more granular definitions of when, where, and how notifications are sent.
• Support for Ceph Reef and Ceph Quincy: Proxmox Virtual Environment 8.1 adds support for Ceph Reef 18.2.0 and continues to support Ceph Quincy 17.2.7. The preferred Ceph version can be selected during the installation process. Ceph Reef brings better defaults improving performance and increased reading speed.

Availability

Proxmox VE 8.1 is available for download at the Proxmox website. The ISO contains the complete feature-set and can be installed on bare-metal.

The virtualization platform from Proxmox comes stocked with all the essential management tools, as well as an easy-to-use, web-based user interface. This allows for simple, out-of-the-box management of the host, either through the command line or a standard web browser. Distribution upgrades from older versions of Proxmox VE are possible with apt. It’s also possible to install Proxmox VE 8.1 on top of Debian. Proxmox Virtual Environment is free and open-source software, published under the GNU Affero General Public License, v3.

This post is a collection of articles and tutorials on customizing the look and feel of Proxmox VE 6.0. It will be added to in the coming weeks and months as I find other areas of possible customization. Start with the first article, and proceed to whichever customization you want. I use most of these on my three-node Intel NUC Proxmox VE cluster. Make Customizations to Proxmox VE 6.0 Persistent Use Free, No-Subscription Repositories on Proxmox VE 6.

This tutorial will show how to run Proxmox VE 6.0 using Vagrant. Vagrant is a tool for building and managing virtual machine environments and is especially useful for development and testing. Vagrant runs on everything from the Raspberry Pi to gaming laptops and the MacBook Air. We’ll also use Packer to build the Proxmox VE 6.0 Vagrant box. This tutorial assumes you have a working installation of macOS or Ubuntu running on a client computer and that you have VirtualBox or libvirt installed.

In this tutorial, we’ll change the theme of Proxmox VE 6.0. There are six themes you can choose from (in the image below from top left to bottom right): theme-aria theme-classic theme-crisp (default theme) theme-gray theme-neptune theme-triton Prepare Ensure you have a server running Proxmox VE 6.0. Then, ensure you have followed the steps in our previous article on making customizations to Proxmox VE 6.0 persistent across upgrades. Note: If logged in as root on your Proxmox VE host, omit the sudo part of the commands below.

This tutorial will guide you through the steps required to replace the logo, favicon, and boot screen (as seen in the console when booting a virtual machine) on Proxmox VE 6.0. Another customization for our directory of customizations! This article builds on a previous article on persistent customizations to Proxmox VE. If you find Proxmox VE useful, consider getting a subscription. If you don’t have a computer to run Proxmox VE on yet, I can recommend running it on a low-power Intel NUC or three.

Building on our last article, we’ll make the Proxmox VE 6.0 subscription warning dialog disappear when logging in to the web interface. If you find Proxmox VE useful, you should consider getting a subscription to this great product. You’ll get support and more stable packages with one. Note: Please be careful when trying this out! I can’t guarantee that it’ll work properly! Preparation First, you’ll need a computer or two to install Proxmox VE.