Proxmox VE remote management: nodes, web UI and scripts from anywhere

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   Step 1: Make a group for the cluster

   In the RemoteAccessApp app on Windows, open the Connections page. Each node you add below goes in one group named after the cluster, such as pve-home. Add tags like pve or backup to filter the list later. Groups and tags sync to every PC you sign in on.

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   Step 2: Add each node as an SSH host

   Click Add host, choose SSH, and enter the node's address (for example 192.168.1.10), port 22 and user root, the account Proxmox VE sets up for its shell.

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   Step 3: Sign in with a key instead of root's password

   On the Connections page, import or paste your key under Keys & passwords, click Copy public key, and add it as a new line to /root/.ssh/authorized_keys on each node. Then edit the host and choose key sign-in. The SSH keys help covers making a key.

   On the first connection, compare the key fingerprint with the node's own before you trust it. See server keys.

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   Step 4: Save the web interface as a web panel

   Add a web panel with the node's address and port, such as https://192.168.1.10:8006. Proxmox VE uses a self-signed certificate unless you've replaced it: the tab asks about it once and remembers a certificate you've accepted. Save the user name and Fill sign-in types it for you.

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   Step 5: Open the node's dashboard

   Connect to a node and click Dashboard on its terminal tab for live CPU, memory, load, disk, network and busiest-process readings. Nothing is installed on the node, and readings only run while the tab is on screen.

In the Proxmox VE sign-in box, the user name includes the realm, such as root@pam for the node's own root account, or you pick the realm from the list. The web panel tab is a full browser view, so the whole interface works there, and when it opens a console in a pop-up window, that opens as another tab.

In a cluster, every node serves the same web interface, so one panel per cluster is usually enough. A second panel for another node is handy for the day the first one is down.

Port 8006 and SSH belong on your own network. When you're away, there are two ways in that don't need port forwarding:

• A node's shell, from any browser. Sign in to the website and open the node's saved SSH host. For an address like 192.168.1.10, choose Through my PC: one of your own PCs on that network, running the RemoteAccessApp Agent, opens the connection there. It's free.
• The web interface, through a PC's screen. Open a Windows PC at home with RemoteAccessApp and use the web interface in its browser. The PC connects out to our relay, so nothing at home accepts connections from the internet.

More on why this matters in stop exposing your hypervisor web UI.

Save a script in the terminal's Scripts & History panel (Ctrl+Shift+S), choose Run on hosts…, and tick the nodes, or select all. It runs on up to 8 nodes at a time and shows each node's output and result, with a button to run it again on the ones that failed. A morning check across a cluster:

hostname
pveversion
qm list
pct list
pvecm status

qm list shows the node's VMs and pct list its containers, with their state. pvecm status shows quorum, so you'll spot a node that has dropped out of the cluster. To see what updates are waiting:

apt update
apt list --upgradable

To start, stop or migrate VMs, use the web interface or qm and pct in a terminal; RemoteAccessApp has no VM buttons of its own. For typing into several open node terminals at once, turn on Broadcast.

Setting aside an evening for updates? The homelab maintenance night checklist goes through updates across hosts, backups copied off the node, and disk and load checks.

Proxmox VE keeps ISOs and backups as plain files on the local storage, so a transfer tab can copy them straight from one node to another, streaming through your PC with nothing saved on your own disk:

• ISOs live in /var/lib/vz/template/iso. Copy an installer from one node to the others, or send it from your PC to every node at once with Upload to servers….
• Backups made by vzdump go to /var/lib/vz/dump by default. Copy them to another node or a backup server with Verify on, which compares SHA-256 checksums of the original and the copy.
• Container templates are in /var/lib/vz/template/cache, and copy the same way.

Storage that every node already shares doesn't need copying, of course. The server-to-server copy guide walks through a first copy.

Proxmox VE's own containers are LXC, managed with pct and the web interface. The app's Containers tab is for Docker and Podman, so it won't list them. If you run Docker inside a VM or an LXC container, save that guest as its own SSH host and its Containers tab lists them; see Docker and Podman hosts. For a shell inside an LXC container from the node, use pct enter with the container's id.

Put the web interface, each node's dashboard and a terminal side by side in up to eight panes, then save the layout as a workspace and reopen it with Open and connect all. See split view and workspaces. For Windows VMs on your nodes, add them as RDP hosts; the guide to managing Proxmox, VMware and KVM hosts covers VMs and consoles across platforms.

Running VMware next to Proxmox VE? Here's how to manage a VMware ESXi host remotely in the same list. The post one app for your whole homelab shows how Proxmox, VMware and KVM hosts sit together.