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
