Cheat sheets

Cheat sheet: Proxmox

The commands for Proxmox VE that you use most often on the host itself (in the shell or via SSH). Replace 100 with the number of your virtual machine (VM) and 101 with that of your container (LXC).

Virtual machines (qm)

Show all VMs qm list
Start a VM qm start 100
Shut down a VM gracefully qm shutdown 100
Stop a VM forcefully (if shutdown doesn’t work) qm stop 100
Restart a VM qm reboot 100
Check the status of a VM qm status 100
View the settings of a VM qm config 100
Adjust memory and CPU cores qm set 100 --memory 4096 --cores 2
Increase the disk by 10 GB qm resize 100 scsi0 +10G
Create a snapshot qm snapshot 100 voor-update
Show snapshots qm listsnapshot 100
Roll back to a snapshot qm rollback 100 voor-update
Delete a snapshot qm delsnapshot 100 voor-update
Make a full copy qm clone 100 101 --name nieuwe-vm --full
Convert a VM into a template qm template 100
Unlock a stuck VM qm unlock 100
Delete a VM (be careful!) qm destroy 100

Containers (pct)

Show all containers pct list
Start a container pct start 101
Shut down a container pct shutdown 101
Stop a container forcefully pct stop 101
Open a shell in the container pct enter 101
Execute one command in the container pct exec 101 -- ls /
View the settings pct config 101
Adjust memory pct set 101 --memory 1024
Create a snapshot pct snapshot 101 voor-update
Roll back to a snapshot pct rollback 101 voor-update
Delete a container (be careful!) pct destroy 101

Backups

Create a backup of a VM vzdump 100 --storage local --mode snapshot --compress zstd
Restore a backup as a VM qmrestore /var/lib/vz/dump/vzdump-qemu-100-FILE.vma.zst 100
Restore a backup as a container pct restore 101 /var/lib/vz/dump/vzdump-lxc-101-FILE.tar.zst
View backup files ls -lh /var/lib/vz/dump/

Storage and system

Show storage and free space pvesm status
Show the Proxmox version pveversion -v
Cluster status (with multiple hosts) pvecm status
Update packages apt update && apt full-upgrade
Restart the web interface systemctl restart pveproxy
Follow the web interface log journalctl -u pveproxy -f
Read the configuration file of a VM cat /etc/pve/qemu-server/100.conf
Check a ZFS storage zpool status

Good to know

  • Always check the number before you delete anything: qm destroy and pct destroy cannot be undone.
  • The web interface is available by default at https://IP-address:8006.
  • More information: our Proxmox guides.

Sources and attribution

This overview has been compiled in our own words. Commands and options vary by version: when in doubt, check the official documentation.