Preface
Not so many years ago, it would've taken three computers to author this book efficiently on the go. Virtualization, however, has made it possible to write without the obscene hassle of dragging about so much baggage. Virtualization has reduced labor and energy expenditure and maximized productivity and discretionary time during the writing and production of this book.
Abstraction liberates us from material constraints, leaving in their place the privilege of nostalgia—tractor-fed edge strips, darkroom chemicals, printing presses and type-set trays, overflowing money bags with dollar signs, and of course, cramped server rooms.
Through server virtualization, the abstraction of computing resources from physical systems has overturned data centers and radically upset the traditional and repetitive routines of system engineers and administrators in favor of efficiency, conservation, lowered expenditure, secure systems, and the simple deployment of automation to complete repetitive tasks.
Proxmox VE has been a pioneering agent in this rapid revolution since the 2008 release of version 1.0—the first hypervisor to support both virtual machines and containers.
With version 4.2 in the works, and the industry's fascination finally fixed on the realization of a container revolution, Proxmox VE still provides an open source, enterprise virtualization solution with premium support that enjoys tremendous international popularity—even as competing brands have scrambled to roll out container solutions just in time.
This book is packed with introductory concepts and best practice techniques for experienced Linux users eager to take advantage of bleeding edge virtualization strategies and practices with Proxmox VE.
This book explores the benefits of two of these complementary virtualization technologies, containers and virtual machines, so you'll be forearmed to make informed and deliberated choices regarding the best paths for virtualizing your data center.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Proxmox VE Fundamentals, outlines Proxmox VE's features and distinguishing characteristics and briefly compares and contrasts virtual machines and containers.
Chapter 2, Installing Proxmox VE, goes through the Proxmox VE installation process after covering Proxmox VE's hardware requirements and discussing minimal and optimal hardware specifications.
Chapter 3, Creating Containers, starts with a primer on containers and their uses before providing a walkthrough of the container creation processes, including choosing and downloading an OS or virtual appliance template.
Chapter 4, Creating Virtual Machines, first elaborates on the functional differences between virtual machines and suggests prospective use cases and the inherent benefits and drawbacks of full virtualization. It then walks through the process of creating and configuring virtual machines intended for Microsoft Windows Server and Fedora Server.
Chapter 5, Working with Virtual Disks, compares and contrasts virtual hard disk options, including disk image types, virtual bus/interfaces, and cache types.
Chapter 6, Networking with Proxmox VE, contrasts common virtual Ethernet adaptor options provided by Proxmox VE and works to articulate use cases for each.
Chapter 7, Securing Proxmox VE, enumerates strategies for mitigating security threats to virtualized datacenters in general, and Proxmox VE hosts and guests in particular.
What you need for this book
Working with the illustrative examples in this book will require a 64-bit machine to host Proxmox 4.1 that meets at least the minimum recommended specs for evaluation:
- CPU: 64 bit (Intel EMT64 or AMD64)
- Intel VT/AMD-V capable CPU/Mainboard (for KVM Full Virtualization support)
- A minimum of 1 GB RAM
- Hard drive
- One NIC compatible with RedHat Enterprise Linux
This is not an ideal rig—more powerful specs can be found in Chapter 2, Installing Proxmox VE.
In addition to a machine to host Proxmox VE, broadband internet access is assumed, as is a remote workstation on the same LAN as the Proxmox VE host, a modern, JavaScript-enabled web browser, and installed ssh and sftp clients.
Who this book is for
This book is intended for server and system administrators and engineers who are eager to take advantage of the potential of virtual machines and containers to manage servers more efficiently and make the best use of resources, from energy consumption to hardware utilization to physical real estate.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "We can use the qm create command to create a Proxmox VE virtual machine."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
-ostype win8 \ -sockets 1
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Proceed with the installation by pressing i or navigating to Install Fedora 23."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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