Proxmox VE

Proxmox Virtual Environment (Proxmox VE) is an open-source server virtualization platform based on Debian Linux. It provides enterprise-class virtualization using KVM for full virtual machines and LXC for lightweight Linux containers, all managed through a powerful web-based interface.

The platform excels at infrastructure management for hosting providers, enterprises, and homelab enthusiasts. It supports live migration, high availability clustering, software-defined storage (Ceph, ZFS, GlusterFS), and software-defined networking. The web interface provides a complete management experience including VM creation, console access, resource monitoring, backup scheduling, and firewall configuration.

Proxmox VE's storage model is particularly flexible. It supports local storage (LVM, ZFS, directory), network storage (NFS, iSCSI, Ceph RBD), and distributed storage with built-in Ceph integration. This means providers can start with local disks and scale to a fully redundant Ceph cluster without changing platforms.

The backup system (Proxmox Backup Server integrates seamlessly) supports full, differential, and incremental backups with deduplication. Live backups allow taking snapshots of running VMs without downtime.

While Proxmox VE is free to use, paid subscription tiers provide access to the enterprise repository (stable, tested updates), technical support, and the Proxmox Customer Portal. Many hosting providers use it as their hypervisor layer with Virtualizor or SolusIO on top for customer-facing VPS management.