virtual-machine

VMID: a unique number between 100 - 999 (will be documented later)
Name: hostname

System

• Qemu agent allows guest actions (shutdown, snapshot) to complete better
  BIOS
• use OVMF if PCIe passthrough is needed
• OVMF is UEFI compatible
• EFI disk is needed to save the boot order
  Type - hardware layout of virtual motherboard
• i440fx or Q35 (required for PCIe PT)
  Controller - best to use VirtIO SCSI

Hard Disk
https://blog.joeplaa.com/benchmark-proxmox-virtual-disk-settings/

Bus device (SATA, VirtIO SCSI, VirtIO-blk)
Image Format (raw vs qcow2)

• QEMU qcow2, allow snapshot, file based storage
• RAW, preallocate entire space, better performance
  Trim/Discard
• use discard if using SSD (enable TRIM support)
• only available on thin provisioning, delete unused block after deleted in VM

Cache

• set to no backup to skip disk backup of this VM

CPU

• it is possible to have combined number of cores in all VM exceed the total core on the VM
• eg. 4 VM with 4 cores each is possible on 8 core
• setting the CPU type of host allow CPU type passthrough (more performance)

Memory

using PCI passthrough the RAM will be pre-allocated

• leave ballooning on

Network

• set as vmbr0 (bridged) VM have direct access to Ethernet LAN
• The Realtek and E1000 are virtualized, VirtIO is the best performing

Window VM
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Windows_10_guest_best_practices
Require the use of VirtIO drivers
https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/stable-virtio/virtio-win.iso
Check the qemu agent to enable it
VHD: choose SCSI controller and VirtIO SCSI
Cache = writeback
To search for the VirtIO drivers /vioscsi/w10/amd64
Driver install (msi file located directly on the CD)
Memory ballooning
Qemu quest agent /quest-agent/{executable}

Template (Linux Cloud-Init)

1. Check if Cloud-Init is installed, if not install it
2. /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg
3. install whois in order to create a password hash mkpasswd
4. mkpasswd -m sha-512 to create a password hash

users:
	- default # create the default user
	- name_of_user
	  loca_passwd: False
	  passwd: {the has of the password}
	  gecos: Name
	  groups:
	  sudo: ["AL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL"]
	  shell: /bin/bash
 
- timezone "America/Vancouver"
 
package:
- the packages need to be installed

1. remove ssh host keys
2. cd /etc/ssh, sudo rm ssh_host_*
3. trunate -s 0 /etc/machine-id empty the machine-id file completely
4. make sure /var/lib/dbus/machine-id is a symlink to /etc/machine-id
5. `ln -s /etc/machine-id /var/lub…’
6. apt clean and autoremove to remove packages and apt cache
7. add config file and packages
   Convert VM to template

• remove attachment to iso
• add CloudInit drive and choose a location
• Under cloudinit, change username and password or ssh key
  Clone the template into another VM
• Full Clone: complete copy of original VM
• Linked Clone: require less space but require the base template to run