Proxmox VE Reviews

This is a free version of VMware and that's why we're using it. It does everything that VMware can do and it's more flexible. We were looking for a virtual solution and we're a startup, so the cheapest is best. We are customers of Proxmox and I'm the technology operations manager. 

The feature I like best about this product is the fact that they have independent nodes. Proxmox is based on KVM and essentially you could lose a node. All the hosts that are running are evacuated elsewhere in the cluster and away you go. I have reduced infrastructure and I'm familiar with it because at the heart of the hypervisor is Debian Linux and I'm a Linux administrator. It didn't require learning a whole new platform and it's so easy to use. Proxmox will be in my toolbox forever, I love it.

This is a really great solution and the more VMware raises their costs, the more appealing it is. I'd be very nervous if I were one of the big companies because you're going to have administrators like myself discovering Proxmox and the cost is zero. With this solution, when something goes wrong, you Google it, you figure out the problem and fix it. Of course if you're an enterprise company, that's something else.

The product should have more enterprise features, perhaps DRS. I don't think Proxmox has the ability to sense that a host is running hot and needs to be evacuated. So DRS, dynamic resource scheduling, is a feature that constantly monitors the host and if it sees a particular host taking up a lot of resources, it will take that host off and throw it on a different host in the cluster that's not running as hot and doesn't have as much utilization. It protects the overall cluster 

As above, I think the DRS would be a helpful additional feature.

I've been using this solution for six months. 

As long as you're monitoring your host yourself, it's a stable solution. 

I can't really speak to the scalability. I haven't looked into it yet. We're a very small company and we have about five people using the solution, all at the director or senior level. We have a senior application developer, and a director level manager who brought the product in.

Does a three and a half minute setup sound reasonable to you? When I first installed it, I thought there must be more to it. I downloaded the ISO onto a thumb drive and made it bootable. Then you boot the server, boot off the thumb drive. You have to answer about six questions and that's it. Very simple. 

My only recommendation to anyone thinking of implementing this solution is to read up on it, but give it some serious consideration because it really is a great product. In other words, don't let the freeware label scare you off.

I would rate this solution a seven out of 10. 

I use Proxmox VE to host a domain control environment, a Windows server environment, and to host a few apps that I publish on the store. I'm also using it to manage clients' remote surveillance backups because I keep my clients' CCTV footage.

I set up an NVR environment, and I'm pushing traffic to my servers. I'm running a mini data center. It's doing apps. It's doing Windows Server Management for a normal environment. It's nothing fancy, but it's working.

I like that it's secure, and I find its Software RAID very useful. It's way better than the Hardware RAID I was used to. I'm really impressed by their Software RAID feature. 

Backup and recovery could be better. It's a bit problematic. If you're not well-versed with Linux, it tends to be a bit of a challenge when setting up and recovering. It's not really GUI-based, and if you're not a good Linux user, it becomes a bit difficult.

In the next release, I would like to have something like Hyper-V's Data Protection Manager, where you could do an offsite backup and keep a copy. I haven't seen that incorporated yet, but I'm sure they will do that.

I have been using Proxmox VE for more than five years.

Proxmox VE is a stable solution. I don't have that much money to buy new hardware or new servers, and I have more or less deployed it on the old used servers I purchased online. It's been a breeze. Until I make money to buy the high-end servers, I'm just purchasing used servers or end-of-life servers, and they're running. For a third-world set up, they're running well. For 25-plus years, it's been a good solution for me.

Proxmox VE is a scalable solution. When I get a new host or a new client, I'll probably buy a new server and add it to the node or the cluster. It's just a breeze. It's as simple as a click, and I have added it. 

I have about 20 clients. My clients are about seven schools, gas stations, coal, utilities, a bank, two small microfinance banks, and the government.

I am thinking of doing more. I am thinking of setting up a mini data center with it because we have done the proof of concept for CCTV storage. People don't have the space or the money to do their own backup and store their own footage. Part of my solution is selling them storage that they can retrieve from their devices. I store their CCTV data in my data center and give them a remote view. You don't need to have an NVR.

When I sell a surveillance solution, you don't even have to have an NVR. Give me a firewall, and then I will point your storage to come to my server. I'm the one in the neighborhood storing information at the moment.

The forums have everything you need. I haven't had any challenges because the forums are there. I have yet to get the paid subscription support. I have yet to find an installation that has given me a challenge that I can only resolve by subscribing for support.

I was using Hyper-V from VMware, but Microsoft kept crashing. It takes a lot of investment here in Africa. I need to invest a lot in power because master machines crash. Windows and power are not the best of mates. After that, I moved to Huawei Desktop Protocol and Huawei Desktop Cloud. That also had issues with the support and licenses. Then we moved to Proxmox, and it's been working.

The initial setup is straightforward. It was hard at first, but I went over the forums. After I went over the forums, I did the YouTube tutorials and videos, and after that, I managed my clients well without paying for a bit of support. Surprisingly, I have been running for about five years.

It doesn't take hours because I've deployed on two nodes, and I've deployed on three nodes. Currently, I'm running it on four nodes, and it's doing great. So, with every installation, I tend to get better.

On a scale from one to five, I would give my initial setup experience a four.

I had some support. I've got over 12 years of experience working with Twitter, Uganda. Now Twitter, Uganda is a multinational, and the rest of the group supports the partners. I've had a bit of guidance when it comes to switching, routing, storage, and databases. 

When I went out on my own, I used that background knowledge and the background skills I obtained through the years, and they helped me out. I didn't have any outside tech support to help. The tutorials were there, and the videos were available on YouTube.

I have a guy who does the power because he's got to stabilize the servers. Then I've got a guy who does the networking. He gives me the IP. He gives me the ports to connect. Then I have the guys who do the installation on-site, especially the Windows servers. I also have the Linux guys. It's a team of about four people. The rest are juniors or what we call apprentices. They help out here. I mostly use students to get the work done.

I'm definitely getting a return on my investment. I'm buying used servers, and I'm charging like I was charging for new servers, and I'm making a good profit on them. I'm repurposing servers, and I'm making a lot of money from repurposed servers using Proxmox, and they're running.

On a scale from one to five, I would rate my ROI at three.

Proxmox VE is affordable. It's cheaper than Hyper-V, Huawei Desktop Protocol, and Huawei Desktop Cloud.

I made a comparison with Hyper-V and Huawei. I bought Proxmox because it's cheaper and more resilient to our power environment. We have very unstable power in the country, so Hyper-V and sudden breaches in power were problematic.

I would tell potential clients about the ease of use. What's quite surprising is that Microsoft is going that way now, but these guys had that solution there back in the day.

Microsoft is doing Software RAID with Server 2019. These guys already had that solution back in that day. They're doing cloud spaces, but Linux had SAFE back in the day. 

I'll tell them it's a cheap option. It's a stable option. I know Microsoft has done a lot in trying to get stable, but it's an affordable option. It's a stable solution, and it just works off the fly like that. 

You watch the video, use a storage guy, have a power guy, and have a good networking guy. You could get the service up and running compared to having a Microsoft MVP somewhere in a corner or on-call somewhere.

The releases are killing us. It's like they keep releasing every year. I would wish for them to come with something very stable. They keep coming up with something new every six months because I think their release cycle is every six months. I'm trying to finish something, and they release something new altogether, and I have to migrate. I know the iterations are as minimal as possible, but it still has an impact.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give  Proxmox VE a seven.

I am using it to virtualize microservices.

I have also begun to integrate Proxmox into my DevOps pipeline through scripting.

I have a sensible virtualization technology to spin up VMs on demand.

I'm using several servers now.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The stability is good.

You can scale the solution.

The documentation is great.

If you have problems, you can find answers on their website.

I can't speak to any improvements. It is not lacking features. I have been keeping up with new versions and am thankful for all of the improvements made through the years.

I've been using the solution for four years now.

The stability is very good. It's reliable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

I haven't had any problems with scalability. I'm using it on several servers with large memory and hard disks and it's doing just fine.

M2 disks are completely supported if the bare metal server does.

Setting up the firewall is so easy that it can be managed with scripting.

Proxmox has become a centre of our IT-infrastructure.

I've only used their website when I've had questions. I've never spoken to anyone directly. Therefore, I can't speak to personal experience with technical support.

Positive

We previously used VMware. I switched due to the fact that I wanted to try something different.

The initial setup is not overly complex. It's very straightforward and very simple. 

I had a server that I needed to expose to the internet and I just decided to use it instead of VMware and it worked.

You only really need one person to handle maintenance, however, we have two people on staff that can handle those types of responsibilities. 

I handled the initial setup on my own. I did not need to use an implementation specialist or consultant. 

I've seen a very good ROI.

Collaboration and the networking of more than one server is becoming more important to me now. Preparing to switch to their licensing plan.

I just went directly to this product. I'm aware of other possibilities, KVM and others, however, I decided on Proxmox as it had a good following and good documentation.

Version 7 is almost completely in use now. Two servers are going to be upgraded to 7.

I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten.

We primarily use the solution in order to have an infrastructure set up on-prem. It enables flexibility in projects to set up virtual servers. Instead of having to go out and buy expensive solutions from VMware, for example, Proxmox fills the gap between flexibility and stability. 

The solution is easy to install. It can run on a lot of different types of hardware. Creating virtual machines with it is really easy. 

The backup solution is a little bit slow and sometimes sluggish on the restore side. It takes a little bit of time, but that could also be the fault of the hardware.

We had some challenges with management including volume and storage management. Setting it up properly and making it work, specifically shared storage between the virtual machines, is difficult.

The installation could definitely be easier. For the vendor, if the solution offered better information, they would have more users on it.

The solution should implement something that enables me to at least get an overview of the loads and the statuses of the machines and applications from my cell phone. An app for mobile management would be great.

It's been very stable. It's been working tremendously for our projects in order to set up things temporarily. Right now, it's not in production; we're only using it for testing. It offers superb stability, however.

We haven't tried to scale the solution. We tried it with two loads, which isn't really enough for a scalability test. We only have about 20 people on the solution currently.

We haven't really used technical support. We've only been using the community version.

We previously used VMware. We switched mostly due to the cost, but also the scalability, and usability of Proxmox.

The initial setup, after you've done it once, is straightforward, but the first time it isn't. That's because of the way you build the image. When you install on x86 infrastructure, mounting the installation is not straightforward. Unless you have medium to good NAVIS experience, it's actually difficult to install. 

We handled the implementation ourselves. The documentation available is really good, which is why we were able to handle it internally.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

Apart from a few small issues, everything works well in comparison to VMware. I would select Proxmox any day. The solution itself is really good.

The solution should definitely keep supporting the community, and always have a community edition because people who are interested in it will want to learn it. Once users get into production mode, they will definitely end up buying the support version. They should make the implementation easier, however, because then the solution would get more people on board.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We use VM for high availability. 

Proxmox VE has many containers. You need to download the image and do basic configuration, after which it is operational within a few minutes. The solution provides many containers that are light in use and don't use a lot of memory. You don't have to spend a lot of resources. 

The tool needs to add a lot of containers. 

I rate the product's scalability a ten out of ten. 

Proxmox VE's installation is very simple. 

Proxmox VE is free of cost. 

Proxmox VE is free and is a lot more professional than VMware. I rate it a ten out of ten. 

We use the open-source version of Proxmox for automation and other uses, including LXC containers. We use it for my enterprise applications and to offer our hosted cloud-services.

Proxmox with Ceph Storage as HCI has given really peace of mind to Management & IT for regular hardware maintenance, with near to zero downtime or no downtime for most of VM & LXC container keeping in mind service running round-the-clock for customer.

The feature that I have found most valuable is that its storage ZFS & Ceph, container based on LXC and everything else works out of the box. Additionally, it is a really stable, reliable, and scalable solution.

They have a good road map already in place, so I don't think there are any immediate challenges.

I don't have any real challenges about improvement here. (As most IT required features are included and they do have roadmap). Plus API & Command tool is lot helpful.

I personally keep exploring other players and backup/Restore/DR software.

And believe more advance features of backup/restore & DR Data Sync for Ceph  on GUI fronted would be added benefits for users coming from other platform.

On Security/Firewall/Software-Defined-Switch with more advance feature on webGUI would be also more helpful too.

I have been using Proxmox VE for more than six years.

Proxmox VE is an enterprise solution, it is used daily. Its regular maintenance is normal, the way you would maintain any normal infrastructure. There is nothing special or complex with it. We have a team of five people who maintain it, but there aren't any complex challenges.

My company is very small but I have more than 10,000 users accessing on ProxmoxVE Cluster. We provide the solution to other customers.

The thing about this solution is that is so stable I hardly need any technical support.

We used Raw Linux Virt-manger for per Server management for VM & LXC before, without any central management.

Everything has a learning curve, steps to watch, understand and explore. But with Proxmox there are hardly any challenges. I don't think the deployment took more than an hour.

Its was inhouse.

License & Support-subscription & running maintenance cost is bear minimum compare to other closed source solutions. We were able to use our other existing commodity server part of this cluster.

Recently, I have been a Proxmox reseller. I wanted to promote it in India because there is no reseller here. We are trying to promote Proxmox here because being open source it's not popular worldwide, although we have been using it in production for the last more than five or six years. We have been exploring Proxmox for small applications for more than seven, eight years.

Tried Xen, but was not comfortable.

With Proxmox VE you get everything in one box, including the ZFS & Ceph storage & LXC container technology. 

Even the support subscription is really good.

It's a wonderful open-source solution. It's out-of-the-box and it is easy to learn compared to other vendors. It is easy to deploy and maintain and you hardly have any trouble or challenges from the software. 

It provides peace of mind for management.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Proxmox VE a nine.

We have many use cases for this solution, including electric services. 

We are happy with Proxmox VE. We use it as part of a cluster. The solution has a very good user interface and price. 

I had a few problems regarding instability.

One additional feature that could be beneficial is application storage. 

I have been using the solution for two years. 

When it comes to scalability, I am satisfied with Proxmox. I got everything that I needed with Proxmox. Currently, my team consists of 15 people but we have 1,000 clients.

We migrated our old servers with Proxmox VE. 

The initial setup was simple. Deployment took us several weeks. 

We do not have any licensing costs. 

We did not evaluate other options. We tried out Proxmox VE two years ago and have been using it since. 

I recommend the main features of this solution considering its price. The only disadvantage of Proxmox VE is that it is a young solution so it does have some bugs.

We use it wherever we need virtualization.

It fits in well with our organization. It works and does what it says it does.

Its performance and support can be improved. Currently, there is a cost for support.

We've been using this solution for probably two years now.

We are satisfied with the stability of the solution.

It leads itself well for scaling out. It is being used on almost all of our servers here. We have 46 users, and everyone who works here uses this solution.

I didn't contact them.

Before Proxmox, we used Zend Server.

The initial setup was fairly straightforward. The initial deployment probably took two hours.

We implemented it through an in-house team. We have two staff members for its deployment and maintenance. Their roles are IT Manager and Assistant IT Manager.

I'm sure there was or is an ROI, but I don't really get to see that end of the operation.

I am not aware of the licensing cost, but there is a cost for support.

We tried VMware and decided to go with Proxmox VE. The cost was the key factor.

I would highly recommend this solution. I would rate Proxmox VE a nine out of ten.