Proxmox is Debian, so much of your ideas could translate directly across. That said, I try to mod the PVE server as liitle as possible.

Proxmox makes it so easy to spin up yet another VM or LCX to handle services with its core offerings. Also google “proxmox helper scripts” to find tteck’s additional stash of ready-made LCX.

For anybody considering using the Proxmox ESXi Import Wizard, you should watch this video.

https://www.proxmox.com/en/services/training-courses/videos/proxmox-virtual-environment/proxmox-ve-import-wizard-for-vmware

Personally, I don’t watch tech videos. Give me the documentation and let me go. Well, the folks at Proxmox made the unusual decision of releasing the full and complete directions on using the Import Tool via this video. I don’t know of any other official source where you get the full intricate details of an optimal virtual machine import and conversion to VirtIO.

Ya, it sux. Watch the video anyway.

Um … that thing about vmdk and qcow being the same … that’s … not correct. I’ve never heard anyone say anything like that before. Its so wild that I can’t even find a link to refute it.

But anyway, to convert VMDK and QCOW2, you need qemu-utils. Run this …

qemu-img convert

Um … you did that yourself, you know. You ran this.

apt update

The correct command is this.

apt-get dist-upgrade.

If you use the GUI to upgrade and watch what it does, it runs this second command. As you’ve discovered, its not optional. Fabian should have told you so in that post. He’s probably tired of relating that message to folks.

Boy. You asked about Proxmox. Nobody said anything.

How does Proxmox make it easier? Have you used it? All sorts of ways. Like, its a full virtual infrastructure management system instead of just an OS. Proxmox loves ZFS. It does many of the things you’ve mentioned here.

Proxmox does have its own backup system that can work with an NFS target or with their smart dedupe storage and replication server product. https://www.proxmox.com/en/products/proxmox-backup-server/overview

You’ve got some pretty advanced ideas and perhaps have already moved beyond the Proxmox question. But if you are curious and haven’t used it, spin up a server and give it a whirl.

Do it. Jump in. Just start with whatever you can assemble.
It’s a great way to keep your room warm.

I don’t know about the Ubuntu LCX. I don’t container much.

I’d do this with a virtual machine and TrueNAS. Those are just the tools I like to use. The TrueNAS Scale ISO will install qemu-guest-agent, so you don’t need to worry about drivers. Make sure to build it with Virtio SCSI Single disk controllers. Use one 50gb OS disk for the install. Add huge data disk(s) after the install.
Promox Disk options … SSD emulation, Discard, IO Thread, No cache … and I use Write Back (unsafe). Use the Virtio NIC.

And try it again. Hopefully faster this time.

Gotta give them credit for being willing to release it at all, but that was the rawest alpha I’ve ever seen. There are still patches released for it daily. I love the prominently displayed Documentation link at the top that gives you a “Coming Soon” popup.

This app brings some needed cross-cluster migration features, but at this time its so shady as to be unusable. Really. Like if you want to use it, you have to patch the hosts on both side, to match whatever level the PDM is at, and there’s no patch level compatibility chart to guide you in that process.

Honestly, I just asked the devs and other forum users for the latest directions in order to get it running, and if you want to try it, that’s what you should do too. Because there are no directions. Because this will all change in a week anyway.