Proxmox with Kubernetes and containerization can allow you more easily manage your services and to have less downtime. But, as you said, it adds another layer. Is it worth the time to set it up? Over a long period, yes.

As a DevOps/Developer/Sysadmin, I’d probably use it if I set up a lot of services. If I just have some kind of file share thing, probably not.

Having to manually start and stop your VMs is very atypical, proxmox can absolutely handle that itself

Proxmox exclusively with unprivileged LXCs, which themselves host other docker containers/stacks managed with Dockhand (a more modern alternative to both Portainer and Dockge). I have a very tiny low power machine so I have to be kind with my resources, therefore no VMs. But LXCs are simpler anyway. I can easily pass devices like /dev/tun for tailscale and i forget the name of the iGPU for accelerated workloads (for Immich, Nextcloud).

Reasoning: with containers it’s easy to make mistakes without dire consequences (just docker compose down -v and start over). The LXCs are easy to back up and restore. They hold internal running state of whatever docker containers I run in them.

Pro tip: don’t map host paths using the UI (mp0 etc), use lxc.mount instead. This will let you continue to have snapshots of your LXCs whereas the other approach makes your LXC incompatible with snapshots.

Good luck!

There are different reasons to run different things. Some apps are not able to be run as containers, or don’t make sense to run containerized.

VMs offer better isolation between systems, which is important for high-security applications.

Traditional Hypervisors also allow you to easily run fleets of completely different OSes on the same hardware, which you can’t do with containers.

On the other hand, if you want/need high scalability, extremely efficient resource usage, and you don’t need to run radically different OS environments simultaneously, containers, especially Docker containers or Podman containers are a great choice.

Incus containers are a great middle ground that I’m a fan of more than Docker/podman containers or traditional VMs. They are system containers, vs application containers like Docker/Podman.

That means they are actually full-fledged Linux distros by default, but are still much smaller than a traditional VM.

Also, for any of these solutions, if you’re constantly doing admin tasks manually, you’re doing it wrong. All modern platforms have APIs or other ways to interact with them via code.

For my own setup, I have everything. My main server runs XCP-ng for the hypervisor, and I have several traditional VMs on it, including my primary NAS. I also run a virtual Incus host that I have my Minecraft server running in, and some random other system containers. I have a Docker host VM, but I don’t really use it.

I also have my home media server which is a standalone system running TrueNAS on bare metal with Tailscale and Jellyfin running as Docker containers within TrueNAS.

My setup is messy because it has been built slowly over several years, and I don’t have enough time or energy to rip it all down and put it back together in a more optimal way.

Proxmox with VMs running Docker using Cosmos.

Pros: backups, easy VM management, easy disk management.

Been using proxmox for 10+years. It is rock solid. Cluster of 3 automatically handles VM movement. Plenty of options for snaps, backups, etc. Tons of support out there too

• Yes, but I also use podman on another machine.

• Proxmox server hosts LXC’s and a few VMs.

• Proxmox makes it extremely easy to run and manage containerised workloads. Set it up in a flash and it runs happily, no intervention necessary. Podman containers on the other hand can be tricky to set up, but I prefer the controls I have on that machine. If it needs to be secure I Podman it, if not I just stick it in a Proxmox LXC.

Podman sounds like a podcast about other podcasts

It’s not an either-or scenario. Running services in Docker/Podman is great and makes a lot of sense, as you’ve found. But there’s no reason the OS running those Docker containers can’t be a VM on a hypervisor like Proxmox. Then you get the simplicity of Docker, in addition to the isolation and segmentation (network and process) provided by VMs, and snapshot-based incremental backups from PBS. It’s the best of both worlds. You wouldn’t have a VM per service like you ran before, instead you’d have a VM per group of related services with common networking and security requirements. For example, all of your publicly exposed services can run in Docker in their own isolated VM that’s walled off from the rest of your network, while your internal-only services also run in Docker, but on a separate VM on your internal network.

• No
• Manual only
• Because I’m old and crusty, and always rawdogged service setups. I’m sure containers are nice and all, I just never got around to learning them properly.

Proxmox with LXC’s and a few VM’s.
Often with Portainer as well.

It’s just nice to use and easy to automate backups.

I used to run barebone on Debian, but I accepted that I’m not good enough in the terminal and to used to graphical solutions to go back.

Install incus on your OS of choice to manage LXCs and VMs, it’s ideal!

No need to chain yourself to an OS that is rolling on the free branch, get stability and control!

As for LXCs vs Podman containers, seems it is preference of control. LXCs are little OSes you need to keep up to date, containers need to be rebuilt to keep up to date. (I think only Linuxserver images actually rebuild just for base OS updates, hopefully the reverse proxy and authentication images too)

Podman brings some nice networking, read-only features, and user abstraction with it, I think that helps it push ahead.

That said, LXCs are little OSes and that flexibility can be very useful. For instance, incus is able to make an LXC with a unique Mac from an Ethernet adapter - I haven’t cooked how to do that with Podman yet. So I run my DNS from there so it doesn’t mess with my server’s DNS port.

I like the flexibility that proxmox provides me. I do this as a hobby and I’m self taught. I can try a bunch of things and if I mess up I can start over without much hassle.

I used to be bare metal Debian, but I moved to ProxMox for a few reasons.

1. Backup and restore is a breeze, and the UI makes things human friendly.
2. It makes it easier to separate my wiki notes in an LXC so that I can still see them if I’m doing maintenance on my main server VM that requires restarts.
3. There is essentially no noticeable performance reduction.

It works, it’s easy, and the simplicity has saved my butt a few times. I don’t think I’ll be switching, and I’d recommend it to anyone running a homelab. I still use docker to manage most of my services inside a VM.

I run podman in proxmox vms