Proxmox Virtual Environment is one of the most powerful platforms you can run in a home lab — and it’s completely free. This guide walks you through installing Proxmox VE on bare-metal hardware from scratch, with no prior Proxmox experience needed.
🎥 Watch the Video Tutorial
💡 Why Proxmox for a Home Lab?
Proxmox VE is an open-source virtualization platform that lets you run virtual machines (KVM) and lightweight containers (LXC) side by side on a single server. It has a polished web interface, solid community support, and enterprise-grade features — all at no cost for home use. Running Proxmox on a spare laptop or mini PC turns it into a full home lab hypervisor.
🛠 What You’ll Need
- A PC or laptop with x86-64 CPU and 8GB+ RAM (16GB+ recommended)
- Proxmox VE ISO — free download from proxmox.com
- A USB drive (8 GB+) to create the installer — Ventoy recommended
- A second machine or tablet to access the Proxmox web UI during setup
📋 Step-by-Step Installation
1. Download the Proxmox VE ISO
Go to proxmox.com/en/downloads and download the latest Proxmox VE ISO installer. The file is around 1.2 GB.
2. Create a bootable USB installer
Copy the ISO into the ISO folder on a Ventoy USB drive — Proxmox boots cleanly from Ventoy. If you haven’t set up Ventoy yet: How to Install Ventoy and Create a Multi-OS Bootable USB
3. Boot from the USB and run the installer
Plug the USB into your target machine and boot from it (F12, F2, or Escape at startup). Work through the graphical installer:
- Accept the EULA
- Select your target disk (this will be wiped)
- Set your country, timezone, and keyboard layout
- Set an email address and a strong root password
- Configure the management network — set a static IP on your LAN (e.g.
192.168.1.100/24)
Click Install. Proxmox installs and reboots automatically. Remove the USB when prompted.
4. Access the Proxmox web interface
After rebooting, the Proxmox console shows a URL. From another machine on the same network open a browser and go to:
https://:8006
Accept the self-signed certificate warning. Log in with username root and the password you set during installation.
5. Dismiss the subscription notice and run updates
Proxmox shows a “No valid subscription” notice on login — this is normal for home use. Run the post-install script from tteck to suppress it and switch to the free community repo:
bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/tteck/Proxmox/raw/main/misc/post-pve-install.sh)"
✅ Conclusion
Proxmox VE is now installed and ready. You have a web-based hypervisor running on your hardware — the foundation for every other guide in this series. Next up: creating your first Ubuntu and Windows 11 virtual machines.
📺 Watch the full video guide here: https://youtu.be/O6RbqTvb0tY
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