Proxmox Cheat-Sheet

VM Management

Command
Command Description

qm list

list VMs

qm create <vm>

Create or restore a virtual machine.

qm start <vm>

Start a VM

qm suspend <vm>

Suspend virtual machine.

qm shutdown <vm>

Shutdown a VM

qm reboot <vm>

Reboot a VM

qm reset <vm>

Reset a VM

qm stop <vm>

Stop a VM

qm destroy <vm>

Destroy the VM and all used/owned volumes.

qm monitor <vm>

Enter Qemu Monitor interface.

qm pending <vm>

Get the virtual machine configuration with both current and pending values.

qm sendkey <vm> <key_event>

Send key event to virtual machine.

qm showcmd <vm>

Show command line used to start the VM (debug info).

qm unlock <vm>

Unlock the VM

qm clone <vm> <new_vm>

Clone a VM

qm migrate <vm> <node>

Migrate a VM

qm status <vm>

Show VM status

qm template <vm>

Create a Template

qm set <vm>

Set virtual machine options (synchronous API)

Cloudinit

Command
Command Description

qm cloudinit dump <vm> <type>

Get automatically generated cloudinit config.

qm cloudinit pending <vm>

Get the cloudinit configuration with both current and pending values.

qm cloudinit update <vm>

Regenerate and change cloudinit config drive.

Disk

Command
Command Description

qm disk import <vm> <source> <storage

Import an external disk image as an unused disk in a VM.

qm disk move <vm> <disk>

Move volume to different storage or to a different VM.

qm disk rescan

Rescan all storages and update disk sizes and unused disk images.

qm disk resize <vm> <disk> <size>

Extend volume size.

qm disk unlink <vm> --IDLIST <string>

Unlink/delete disk images.

qm rescan

Rescan volumes.

qemu-img convert <qcow2> <raw>

Convert qcow2 to raw

qemu-img convert -p -O qcow2 <raw> <qcow2>

Convert back to qcow2

Snapshot

Command
Command Description

qm listsnapshot <vm>

List all snapshots.

qm snapshot <vm> <snapshot>

Snapshot a VM.

qm delsnapshot <vm> <snapshot>

Delete a snapshot.

qm rollback <vm> <snapshot>

Rollback a snapshot.

qm terminal <vm>

Open a terminal using a serial device.

qm vncproxy <vm>

Proxy VM VNC traffic to stdin/stdout.

Misc

Command
Command Description

qm guest cmd <vm> <command>

Execute Qemu Guest Agent commands.

qm guest exec <vm>

Executes the given command via the guest agent.

qm guest exec-status <vm> <pid>

Gets the status of the given pid started by the guest-agent.

qm guest passwd <vm> <user>

Sets the password for the given user to the given password.

PV, VG, LV Management

Command
Command Description

pvcreate <disk>

Create a PV

pvremove <disk>

Remove a PV

pvs

List all PVs

vgcreate <vg> <disk>

Create a VG

vgremove <vg>

Remove a VG

vgs

List all VGs

lvcreate -L LV-SIZE -n <lv> <vg>

Create a LV

lvremove <vg>/<lv>

Remove a LV

lvs

List all LVs

Storage Management

Command
Command Description

pvesm add TYPE <storage>

Create a new storage

pvesm alloc <storage> <vm> <file> <size>

Allocate disk images

pvesm free <volume>

Delete volume

pvesm remove <storage>

Delete storage configuration

pvesm list <storage>

List storage content

pvesm lvmscan

An alias for pvesm scan lvm

pvesm lvmthinscan

An alias for pvesm scan lvmthin

pvesm scan lvm

List local LVM volume groups

pvesm scan lvmthin VG

List local LVM Thin Pools

pvesm status

Get status for all datastores

Template Management

Command
Command Description

pveam available

List all templates

pveam list <storage>

List all templates

pveam download <storage> <template>

Download appliance templates

pveam remove <template>

Remove a template

pveam update

Update Container Template Database

Container Management

Command
Command Description

pct list

List containers

pct create <vm> OSTEMPLATE

Create or restore a container

pct start <vm>

Start the container

pct clone <vm> <new_vm>

Create a container clone/copy

pct suspend <vm>

Suspend the container. This is experimental.

pct resume <vm>

Resume the container

pct stop <vm>

Stop the container. This will abruptly stop all processes running in the container.

pct shutdown <vm>

Shutdown the container. This will trigger a clean shutdown of the container.

pct destroy <vm>

Destroy the container (also delete all uses files)

pct status <vm>

Show CT status

pct migrate <vm> <target>

Migrate the container to another node. Creates a new migration task.

pct config <vm>

Get container configuration

pct cpusets

Print the list of assigned CPU sets

pct pending <vm>

Get container configuration, including pending changes

pct reboot <vm>

Reboot the container by shutting it down and starting it again. Applies pending changes.

pct restore <vm> <template>

Create or restore a container

pct set <vm>

Set container options

pct template <vm>

Create a Template

pct unlock <vm>

Unlock the VM

Container Disks

Command
Command Description

pct df <vm>

Get the container’s current disk usage

pct fsck <vm>

Run a filesystem check (fsck) on a container volume

pct fstrim <vm>

Run fstrim on a chosen CT and its mountpoints

pct mount <vm>

Mount the container’s filesystem on the host

pct move-volume <vm> <volume>

Move a rootfs-/mp-volume to a different storage or to a different container

pct unmount <vm>

Unmount the container’s filesystem

pct resize <vm> <disk> <size>

Resize a container mount point

pct rescan

Rescan all storages and update disk sizes and unused disk images

pct enter <vm>

Connect to container

pct console <vm>

Launch a console for the specified container

pct exec <vm>

Launch a command inside the specified container

pct pull <vm> <source> <destination>

Copy a file from the container to the local system

pct push <vm> <source> <destination>

Copy a local file to the container

Web GUI

Command
Command Description

service pveproxy restart

Restart the Proxmox web GUI