Proxmox Coverage in XDA

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 15, 2025

• XDA ☛ I simplified my home lab with a single Proxmox node

  I started my home lab with the hardware I owned. Initially, I roped my Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB) as a testbed for Docker containers and self-hosting apps. Meanwhile, my Windows 11 desktop and M1 MacBook Air provided support and helped with other specific projects, like running local LLMs occasionally.

  When Pi 4 hit its limits, my three-device home lab became chaotic. I needed a solution that wouldn’t cannibalize my primary computers. So, I consolidated everything into a single HP ProDesk 600 G6 mini PC running Proxmox. Here’s how I simplified my home lab with a single Proxmox node.

• XDA ☛ I tried out the new Proxmox OCI images for containers, and I adore them

  When it comes to running containerized apps, Proxmox gives you plenty of options to match your server’s capabilities. There’s native LXC support that, when paired with TurnKey templates and the ultra-useful Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts repo, can help you reliably host dozens of useful self-hosted services. It’s technically possible to deploy containers within LXCs, but between the extra network complexity and security issues of this setup, it’s hard to recommend it.

  Otherwise, you can also deploy typical Docker and Podman containers inside virtual machines – and that’s precisely how I’d been running many underrated container images until now. But with Proxmox adding support for OCI images in version 9.1, you’ve got yet another method to self-host cool services on your home lab. Well, since it’s still in early development, there are a few quirks with the OCI image support on Proxmox. But after spending the weekend deploying typical DockerHub images as LXC templates, I’m really excited about this feature.

• XDA ☛ Proxmox Datacenter Manager just got its first stable release, and you need it in your home lab

  Proxmox’s powerful virtualization prowess, support for LXCs (and OCI images with VE 9.1), and clustering provisions are only a part of what makes it a terrific home lab platform. Technically, ESXi may have a more fleshed-out collection of first-party tools, but Proxmox is slowly working its way up with official and community-created offerings. You’ve got Proxmox Backup Server to create space-efficient snapshots of your virtual guests, while the Mail Gateway lets you add an extra layer of protection to your self-hosted email server.

  Then there’s Proxmox Datacenter Manager, which was already a solid challenger to vCenter in its alpha builds. And now, the full release brings some much-needed facilities to this management utility.

• XDA ☛ This is my favorite LXC on Proxmox – and it's not what you think

  Proxmox’s solid performance in virtual machines (including those running in a nested setup) is the reason why I use it for my distro-hopping experiments, DevOps training, and remote development projects. But aside from its utility as a tinkering platform, PVE also doubles as an amazing self-hosting environment thanks to its support for LXCs and the ultra-useful Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts repository.

  Heck, I’ve got a bunch of LXCs deployed using these templates that I consider essential for my everyday tasks. My GPU-powered Jellyfin LXC is responsible for streaming movies and TV shows that my family has collected over the last two generations, while my Semaphore container houses all the Terraform config files and Ansible playbooks for my automation experiments. But if I had to name one LXC that matters more than any other containerized service on my PVE servers, I’d point to the Tailscale subnet router – one that runs on a typical TurnKey Debian template, no less.