Proxmox VE Management

Configuration

Set environment variables or store in ~/.proxmox-credentials:

# Option 1: API Token (recommended)
export PROXMOX_HOST="https://192.168.1.100:8006"
export PROXMOX_TOKEN_ID="user@pam!tokenname"
export PROXMOX_TOKEN_SECRET="xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"

# Option 2: Credentials file
cat > ~/.proxmox-credentials << 'EOF'
PROXMOX_HOST=https://192.168.1.100:8006
PROXMOX_TOKEN_ID=user@pam!monitoring
PROXMOX_TOKEN_SECRET=your-token-secret
EOF
chmod 600 ~/.proxmox-credentials

Create API token in Proxmox: Datacenter → Permissions → API Tokens → Add

CLI Usage

# Load credentials
source ~/.proxmox-credentials 2>/dev/null

# Auth header for API token
AUTH="Authorization: PVEAPIToken=$PROXMOX_TOKEN_ID=$PROXMOX_TOKEN_SECRET"

Common Operations

Cluster & Nodes

# Cluster status
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/cluster/status" | jq

# List nodes
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes" | jq '.data[] | {node, status, cpu, mem: (.mem/.maxmem*100|round)}'

# Node status
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/status" | jq

List VMs & Containers

# All VMs on a node
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/qemu" | jq '.data[] | {vmid, name, status, mem: .mem, cpu: (.cpu*100|round)}'

# All LXC containers on a node
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/lxc" | jq '.data[] | {vmid, name, status}'

# Cluster-wide resources
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/cluster/resources?type=vm" | jq '.data[] | {node, vmid, name, type, status}'

VM/Container Control

# Start VM
curl -ks -X POST -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/qemu/{vmid}/status/start"

# Stop VM
curl -ks -X POST -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/qemu/{vmid}/status/stop"

# Shutdown VM (graceful)
curl -ks -X POST -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/qemu/{vmid}/status/shutdown"

# Reboot VM
curl -ks -X POST -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/qemu/{vmid}/status/reboot"

# Same for LXC: replace /qemu/ with /lxc/

Snapshots

# List snapshots
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/qemu/{vmid}/snapshot" | jq

# Create snapshot
curl -ks -X POST -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/qemu/{vmid}/snapshot" \
  -d "snapname=snap1" -d "description=Before update"

# Rollback
curl -ks -X POST -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/qemu/{vmid}/snapshot/{snapname}/rollback"

# Delete snapshot
curl -ks -X DELETE -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/qemu/{vmid}/snapshot/{snapname}"

Tasks & Logs

# Recent tasks
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/tasks" | jq '.data[:10] | .[] | {upid, type, status, user}'

# Task log
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/tasks/{upid}/log" | jq -r '.data[].t'

Storage

# List storage
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/storage" | jq '.data[] | {storage, type, active, used_fraction: (.used/.total*100|round|tostring + "%")}'

# Storage content
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/storage/{storage}/content" | jq

Backups

# List backups
curl -ks -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/storage/{storage}/content?content=backup" | jq

# Start backup
curl -ks -X POST -H "$AUTH" "$PROXMOX_HOST/api2/json/nodes/{node}/vzdump" \
  -d "vmid={vmid}" -d "storage={storage}" -d "mode=snapshot"

Helper Script

Use scripts/pve.sh for common operations:

./scripts/pve.sh status          # Cluster overview
./scripts/pve.sh vms             # List all VMs
./scripts/pve.sh start {vmid}    # Start VM
./scripts/pve.sh stop {vmid}     # Stop VM

Notes

• Replace {node}, {vmid}, {storage}, {snapname} with actual values
• API tokens don't need CSRF tokens for POST/PUT/DELETE
• Use -k to skip SSL verification for self-signed certs
• Task operations return UPID for tracking async jobs