Homelab KVM Mangement Panels

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I’ve built up a smallish server for a homelab and I’m looking for tips or suggestions on splitting it up into smaller nodes. I could run docker/k8s on it and manage the containers but there’s a lot of software I’d like to run that doesn’t behave well in docker and I’d rather just virtualize it with other options. The CPU is VT-D capable, and I’ve done a lot with libvirt/QEMU but I’d like to reduce the management overhead. Is Virtualizor a good panel? I don’t mind the small fee, I’m open to spending a little money if it reduces the amount of babysitting time.

So, are there some good guides/hints/panels that I can research? Not looking for a ClosetDC, this is just for some internal use. (Plex, Katello, CI/CD, git and what ever else comes along.)

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Virtualizor is awesome. Works out of the box.

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Thanks, looks like it does IPv6 as well, that’s very nice. I have a /56 to my location and I’d like to give each VPS a /64.

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It can definitely do that. https://www.virtualizor.com/wiki/IPv6_Subnets

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I’ve been a fan of Proxmox since picking it up a year or so ago. Free and easy to use for the most part.

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I checked out Proxmox and even got so far as trying the installation. The thing that put me off on it was the Debian-based OS. I pretty much run everything I can on CentOS/RHEL and manage patches for all my nodes outside of the lab via Foreman/Katello.

I like that its free for most use, and the lowest support tier is comparable in price to what I’d spend on Virtualizor.

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Speaking of free things, you can run Virtualizor for… 3 days, I think? without a license.

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Ahh, I see. I’m the opposite. Debian all day and night, CentOS only if I have to :stuck_out_tongue:

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CentOS only if I have a gun to my head…

Proxmox is great, been running it for years, but if the base OS is a hangup you could look at XenServer - and more specifically the new XCP-NG version which is removing Citrix from the equation. https://xcp-ng.org/

Which you could combine with Xen-Orchestra ✦ Web Interface for XenServer for the actual management part, or the other xen management software out there.

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Heh, so I need to get over my Debian discrimination. :laughing: I’ll take another look at Proxmox, and evaluate what I can do with it.

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I mean, I’m sure there are many other here who will back me up in saying that for a homelab (unless you’re going down the path of libvirt + virtmanager) Proxmox is king, regardless of your CentOS-based predilections :wink:

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I’ve tried it again and it’s been good. Things like PCI-Passthough are really nice to have, and it’s matured a lot since I last tried it. Since it self-manages for the most part I guess it doesn’t have to really be CentOS. I have to learn to be a bit more flexible, right tool for the right job.

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Can it do PCI-Passthrough in the webUI now?

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If it can I can’t find that section. It’s all kernel flags and for the GPU there’s the usual module blacklisting. But there’s some really good documentation and I’ve done it a few times on my personal system for KVMs.

Edit: PCI Passthrough - Proxmox VE

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I know editing the Proxmox VM configs to add a GPU requires about 2 lines of code. I hope one day they’ll include it in the WebUI. Just checked my dev server which I think is up to date, and can’t see anything there.

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try using vmware esxi free.
use it on my “homelab” servers: What is a vSphere Hypervisor? | Free Hypervisor | VMware
that run from plex to other projects as well.

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