Hi. Since yesterday i selfhosted all my stuff with a raspberry pi and two odroids. Everything works ok, but after i read about a few apps that are not supported by the arm-architecture of the SBCs and about the advantages of the backup-solution in proxmox, i bought a little server (6500T/8GB/250GB) to try proxmox.
Installed proxmox, but now - before i install my first VM - i have a few questions:
a) What Linux OS do i take? Ubuntu Server?
b) Should it be headless?
The server is in the cellar of my house, so would there be any advantages of installing an OS with a GUI?
I run Debian on all my vms, they have no GUI installed at all. I manage all of them over SSH
Yes, that is what i am used to.
I guess headless is better for performance and i do not see an advantage at all.
Another question: Why do you have several debians-vm’s? You also could take one, right?
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I use multiple VMs, and group things either by security layer or by purpose.
When organising by purpose, I have a VM for reverse proxies. Then I have a VM for middleware/services. Another VM (or multiple) for database(s). Another VM for backend/daemon type things.
Most of them end up running docker, but still.Lets me tightly control access between layers of the application (if the reverse proxy gets pwnd, the damage is hopefully contained there. If they get through that, the only get to the middleware. Ideally the database is well protected. Of course, none of that really matters when there’s a bug in my middleware code!)
Another way to do it is by purpose.
Say you have a media server things, network management things, CCTV things, productivity apps etc.
Grouping all the media server things in a VM means your DNS or whatever doesn’t die when you wiff an update to the media server. Or you don’t lose your CCTV when you somehow link it’s storage directory into the media server then accidentally delete it. If that makes sense.Another way might be by backup strategy.
A database hopefully has point in time backup/recovery systems in place. Whereas a reverse proxy is just some config (hopefully stored on GitHub) and can easily be rebuilt from scratch.
So you could also separate things by how “live” the data is, or how often something is backed up, or how often something gets reconfigured/tweaked/updated.I use VMs to section things out accordingly.
Takes a few extra GB of storage/memory, has a minor performance impact. But it limits the amount of damage my dumb ass can do.
Do you actually need a VM for your use case? You might use docker containers or LXC instead.
Normally I use VMs for situations where a container isn’t available (Windows, openwrt) or the VM is better supported (arguably
home assistant).This indeed. To OP: if you use LXC containers using templates that Proxmox provides, they are headless by default. A Gui is a waste of resources.
I realize I’m being pedantic, but aren’t docker containers essentially just wrapped VMs?
Nope. Docker containers are kind of “virtual filesystems” and programs are running on top of the host’s kernel. They’re just isolated processes running on their own volume - to which you can also attach external “volumes”.
You mentioned selfhosting, so it’s safe to assume you want to install servers. Servers are headless by default.
But the proxmox admin web interface also makes it easy to access a VM’s GUI remotely.
Usually it’s handy to have a display during initial setup and cfg. Also, with x windows port forwarding … you access your server gui over a network like god intended :)
