Proxmox Home Lab Manager

Sysadmin skill for managing Proxmox VE home lab infrastructure.

Connection

Proxmox host (requires 2FA - password then OTP)

ssh proxmox

Synology NAS (see ~/.ssh/config for Host entry)

ssh nas

Discovery Commands

List All Infrastructure

All containers with status, IPs

ssh proxmox "pct list"

All VMs

ssh proxmox "qm list"

Detailed resource usage (CPU, memory, disk) for everything

ssh proxmox "pvesh get /cluster/resources --type vm --output-format json" | jq

Container config (shows IP, mounts, resources)

ssh proxmox "pct config <CTID>"

VM config

ssh proxmox "qm config <VMID>"

Network Discovery

Find container IP

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- ip -4 addr show eth0"

What's listening in a container

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- ss -tlnp"

Host network config

ssh proxmox "cat /etc/network/interfaces"

Storage Discovery

Storage pools

ssh proxmox "pvesm status"

Storage config

ssh proxmox "cat /etc/pve/storage.cfg"

NFS mounts

ssh proxmox "mount | grep nfs"

Disk usage

ssh proxmox "df -h"

Container Management

Start/stop/restart

ssh proxmox "pct start <CTID>" ssh proxmox "pct shutdown <CTID>" # graceful ssh proxmox "pct stop <CTID>" # force ssh proxmox "pct reboot <CTID>"

Enter container shell

ssh proxmox "pct enter <CTID>"

Run command in container

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- <command>"

VM Management

ssh proxmox "qm start <VMID>" ssh proxmox "qm shutdown <VMID>" ssh proxmox "qm stop <VMID>" # force ssh proxmox "qm reboot <VMID>" ssh proxmox "qm status <VMID>"

Service Debugging

Find and Check Services

List systemd services in container

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running"

Check specific service

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- systemctl status <service>"

Service logs

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- journalctl -u <service> -n 100 --no-pager"

Follow logs live

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- journalctl -u <service> -f"

All recent logs in container

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- journalctl -n 100 --no-pager"

Common Service Names

Most containers run a single main service. Discover with:

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running" | grep -v systemd

Typical patterns: jellyfin , AdGuardHome , caddy , sonarr , radarr , sabnzbd , tailscaled

Host Health

Overview

ssh proxmox "pvesh get /nodes/pve/status"

Quick health

ssh proxmox "uptime && free -h && df -h /"

ZFS status

ssh proxmox "zpool status"

Host logs

ssh proxmox "journalctl -n 100 --no-pager"

Backups

Backup job config

ssh proxmox "cat /etc/pve/jobs.cfg"

List backups in storage

ssh proxmox "pvesm list <storage-name> --content backup"

Troubleshooting

Container Won't Start

ssh proxmox "pct config <CTID>" # check config ssh proxmox "df -h" # disk space ssh proxmox "ls /var/lock/pve-manager/pve-config/" # stale locks

Service Not Responding

1. Container running?

ssh proxmox "pct status <CTID>"

2. Service running?

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- systemctl status <service>"

3. Logs

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- journalctl -u <service> -n 100 --no-pager"

4. Port listening?

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- ss -tlnp"

5. Restart

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- systemctl restart <service>"

NFS Mount Issues

ssh proxmox "mount | grep nfs" # current mounts ssh proxmox "cat /etc/fstab | grep nfs" # configured mounts ssh proxmox "mount -a" # remount all

Tailscale (if present)

Find tailscale container

ssh proxmox "pct list" | grep -i tail

Check status (replace CTID)

ssh proxmox "pct exec <CTID> -- tailscale status"

Documentation Reference

Detailed infrastructure docs (IPs, service configs, setup history) are in: ~/obsidian/Notes/PROXMOX_SETUP.md

Read this file if you need static reference info not discoverable via commands.