While many people start with a single node, Proxmox VE can scale out to a
large set of clustered nodes. The cluster stack is fully integrated
and ships with the default installation.
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Unique Multi-Master Design
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The integrated web-based management interface gives you a clean
overview of all your KVM guests and Linux containers and even of your
whole cluster. You can easily manage your VMs and containers, storage
or cluster from the GUI. There is no need to install a separate,
complex, and pricey management server.
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Proxmox Cluster File System (pmxcfs)
Proxmox VE uses the unique Proxmox Cluster file system (pmxcfs), a
database-driven file system for storing configuration files. This
enables you to store the configuration of thousands of virtual
machines. By using corosync, these files are replicated in real time
on all cluster nodes. The file system stores all data inside a
persistent database on disk, nonetheless, a copy of the data resides
in RAM which provides a maximum storage size of 30MB - more than
enough for thousands of VMs.
Proxmox VE is the only virtualization platform using this unique
cluster file system.
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Web-based Management Interface
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Proxmox VE is simple to use. Management tasks can be done via the
included web based management interface - there is no need to install a
separate management tool or any additional management node with huge
databases. The multi-master tool allows you to manage your whole
cluster from any node of your cluster. The central web-based
management - based on the JavaScript Framework (ExtJS) - empowers
you to control all functionalities from the GUI and overview history
and syslogs of each single node. This includes running backup or
restore jobs, live-migration or HA triggered activities.
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Command Line
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For advanced users who are used to the comfort of the Unix shell or
Windows Powershell, Proxmox VE provides a command line interface to
manage all the components of your virtual environment. This command
line interface has intelligent tab completion and full documentation
in the form of UNIX man pages.
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REST API
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Proxmox VE uses a RESTful API. We choose JSON as primary data format,
and the whole API is formally defined using JSON Schema. This enables
fast and easy integration for third party management tools like custom
hosting environments.
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Role-based Administration
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You can define granular access for all objects (like VMs, storages,
nodes, etc.) by using the role based user- and permission
management. This allows you to define privileges and helps you to
control access to objects. This concept is also known as access
control lists: Each permission specifies a subject (a user or group)
and a role (set of privileges) on a specific path.
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Authentication Realms
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Proxmox VE supports multiple authentication sources like Microsoft
Active Directory, LDAP, Linux PAM standard authentication or the
built-in Proxmox VE authentication server.