Proxmox Host Preparation

This section covers the minimal preparation steps on the Proxmox host before creating LXCs, VMs, and storage pools.

Proxmox Basic Setup

• Proxmox VE installed on bare metal (Installtion Tutorial)

• System fully updated (apt update && apt upgrade)

• Correct timezone and hostname configured

• Web UI access verified

No additional Proxmox plugins are required for this setup.

---

Storage Devices Overview

• Identify all physical disks intended for data storage

• Verify disk names (lsblk, Proxmox UI → Disks)

• Ensure data disks are empty if they will be used for ZFS

• System disk is kept separate from media storage

Disks are prepared later when creating the ZFS pool.

---

Network Bridges

• Default bridge vmbr0 is used

• Bridge is connected to the main LAN interface

• All LXCs and VMs use this bridge

• No VLAN configuration required

Static IPs or DHCP reservations are recommended but optional.

---

Optional: GPU / iGPU Passthrough Preparation

This step is optional and only required if hardware transcoding is planned.

• Enable IOMMU in BIOS (Intel VT-d / AMD-Vi)

• Enable IOMMU in Proxmox kernel

• Verify GPU or iGPU is visible to the host

Actual passthrough configuration is handled later in the Plex LXC.

---

Result

At this point:

• Proxmox host is ready

• Disks are identified

• Network is functional