Install Proxmox VE 9: Step-by-Step Setup on Bare Metal

This guide shows how to install Proxmox VE 9 on a physical server, from the USB stick to the first running virtual machine. Proxmox VE is a free, open-source hypervisor built on Debian that runs KVM virtual machines and LXC containers from a web interface. Version 9.2 (released May 2026) is based on Debian 13 “Trixie”; the steps are the same for any 9.x release.

Short answer: Enable VT-x/AMD-V and VT-d in the BIOS, write the Proxmox VE 9 ISO to a USB stick, boot it and choose the graphical installer. Pick ZFS RAID1 on two disks (or ext4 on hardware RAID), set a static management IP, finish, then open https://SERVER-IP:8006. Disable the enterprise repository, enable pve-no-subscription, run apt update && apt full-upgrade, and upload an ISO to create your first VM.

What you need

Item	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	64-bit Intel or AMD with VT-x / AMD-V	Server CPU with VT-d / AMD-Vi for PCI passthrough
RAM	2 GB for Proxmox itself plus guest memory	32 GB or more; ZFS needs about 1 GB per TB of storage extra
Disks	One disk	Two SSDs for ZFS RAID1 boot, separate disks or NVMe for VM storage
Network	One NIC	Two or more NICs: management and VM traffic separated

Download the current ISO from the Proxmox downloads page and write it with dd, Rufus (DD mode) or balenaEtcher:

lsblk                      # find the USB stick, e.g. /dev/sdX
dd if=proxmox-ve_9.2-1.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

Step 1: prepare the BIOS

Enable Intel VT-x or AMD-V (SVM), and VT-d or AMD-Vi (IOMMU) if you plan PCI passthrough. Use UEFI boot and disable Secure Boot only if your board’s firmware causes problems; Proxmox VE 9 supports Secure Boot. Set the USB stick as the first boot device.

Step 2: run the installer

1. Choose Install Proxmox VE (Graphical). The terminal UI option works the same way on servers without a graphics card.
2. Accept the licence and select the target disk. Click Options to choose the file system: ZFS (RAID1) across two identical disks gives bootable redundancy and snapshots; ext4 or xfs with LVM-thin suits a single disk or a hardware RAID controller. Do not put ZFS on top of hardware RAID.
3. Set country, time zone and keyboard layout.
4. Enter a strong root password and an e-mail address for alerts.
5. Set the management network: interface, fully qualified hostname (for example pve1.example.com), static IP in CIDR form, gateway and DNS server.
6. Check the summary and install. The server reboots after a few minutes; remove the USB stick.

Step 3: first login and repositories

Browse to https://SERVER-IP:8006, accept the self-signed certificate and log in as root with realm Linux PAM. Without a subscription, switch to the free repository so updates work. Proxmox VE 9 uses deb822 .sources files:

cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
sed -i 's/^Enabled:.*//; $a Enabled: false' pve-enterprise.sources   # disable enterprise repo
cat > proxmox.sources <<'EOF'
Types: deb
URIs: http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve
Suites: trixie
Components: pve-no-subscription
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg
EOF
apt update && apt full-upgrade -y
pveversion

If you do not use Ceph, also disable ceph.sources the same way. The same change can be made in the web interface under Node » Updates » Repositories.

Step 4: network and storage

The installer creates the Linux bridge vmbr0 on the management NIC; VMs attached to it sit on the same network. Add a second bridge for VM traffic on another NIC under Node » System » Network, or a VLAN-aware bridge to put VMs on tagged VLANs. Add extra disks under Node » Disks as a ZFS pool or LVM-thin and register them in Datacenter » Storage.

Step 5: create the first VM

1. Upload an installer ISO to local » ISO Images, or use Download from URL.
2. Click Create VM: choose the ISO, machine type q35, SCSI controller VirtIO SCSI single, disk with Discard and IO thread enabled, CPU type host for a single node, network model VirtIO on vmbr0.
3. For Windows guests, attach the VirtIO drivers ISO as a second CD so the installer can see the disk.
4. After the OS is installed, install qemu-guest-agent in the guest and enable the agent option on the VM.

Step 6: secure and back up

Create a non-root admin user with two-factor authentication under Datacenter » Permissions, restrict port 8006 to your admin network with the built-in firewall, and schedule backups under Datacenter » Backup, ideally to a Proxmox Backup Server so restores are incremental and verified.

Install Proxmox VE 9 at a glance

Official documentation: Proxmox VE documentation, Proxmox VE package repositories.

Related guides: Proxmox vs ESXi 9 for hosting · Migrate VMware to Proxmox VE 9 · Install VMware ESXi 9.

Frequently asked questions