PSProxmox/Documentation/guides/LXCContainers.md

LXC Container Management Guide

This guide covers how to use PSProxmox to manage LXC containers on a Proxmox VE server.

Overview

Proxmox VE supports Linux Containers (LXC) as a lightweight alternative to full virtual machines. LXC containers provide an isolated environment for applications with minimal overhead compared to VMs.

PSProxmox provides cmdlets for creating, managing, and removing LXC containers, as well as working with TurnKey Linux templates.

Container Management Cmdlets

PSProxmox includes the following cmdlets for managing LXC containers:

• Get-ProxmoxContainer: List all LXC containers or get details for a specific container
• New-ProxmoxContainer: Create a new LXC container
• New-ProxmoxContainerBuilder: Create a builder for configuring container parameters
• Remove-ProxmoxContainer: Delete an LXC container
• Start-ProxmoxContainer: Start an LXC container
• Stop-ProxmoxContainer: Stop an LXC container
• Restart-ProxmoxContainer: Restart an LXC container

TurnKey Template Management Cmdlets

PSProxmox also includes cmdlets for working with TurnKey Linux templates:

• Get-ProxmoxTurnKeyTemplate: List available TurnKey templates
• Save-ProxmoxTurnKeyTemplate: Download a TurnKey template to a Proxmox storage
• New-ProxmoxContainerFromTurnKey: Create a new LXC container from a TurnKey template

Basic Container Operations

Listing Containers

To list all containers on a Proxmox server:

Get-ProxmoxContainer

To get a specific container by ID:

Get-ProxmoxContainer -CTID 100

To get containers on a specific node:

Get-ProxmoxContainer -Node "pve1"

To get containers by name pattern (supports wildcards and regex):

# Using wildcards
Get-ProxmoxContainer -Name "web*"

# Using regex
Get-ProxmoxContainer -Name "^web\d+$"

Creating Containers

To create a new container using parameters:

New-ProxmoxContainer -Node "pve1" -Name "web-container" -OSTemplate "local:vztmpl/ubuntu-20.04-standard_20.04-1_amd64.tar.gz" -Storage "local-lvm" -Memory 512 -Swap 512 -Cores 1 -DiskSize 8 -Unprivileged -StartOnBoot -Start

To create a new container using a builder (for more complex configurations):

$builder = New-ProxmoxContainerBuilder -Name "db-container"
$builder.WithOSTemplate("local:vztmpl/ubuntu-20.04-standard_20.04-1_amd64.tar.gz")
        .WithStorage("local-lvm")
        .WithMemory(1024)
        .WithSwap(1024)
        .WithCores(2)
        .WithDiskSize(16)
        .WithUnprivileged($true)
        .WithStartOnBoot($true)
        .WithStart($true)
        .WithDescription("Database container")

New-ProxmoxContainer -Node "pve1" -Builder $builder

Managing Container State

To start a container:

Start-ProxmoxContainer -Node "pve1" -CTID 100 -Wait

To stop a container:

Stop-ProxmoxContainer -Node "pve1" -CTID 100 -Wait

To restart a container:

Restart-ProxmoxContainer -Node "pve1" -CTID 100 -Wait

Removing Containers

To remove a container:

Remove-ProxmoxContainer -Node "pve1" -CTID 100 -Confirm:$false

Working with TurnKey Linux Templates

TurnKey Linux provides pre-built appliances that can be used as templates for LXC containers.

Listing TurnKey Templates

To list all available TurnKey templates:

Get-ProxmoxTurnKeyTemplate

To list templates by name pattern:

Get-ProxmoxTurnKeyTemplate -Name "wordpress*"

To include templates that have already been downloaded:

Get-ProxmoxTurnKeyTemplate -IncludeDownloaded

Downloading TurnKey Templates

To download a TurnKey template to a storage:

Save-ProxmoxTurnKeyTemplate -Node "pve1" -Name "wordpress" -Storage "local"

Creating Containers from TurnKey Templates

To create a container from a TurnKey template:

New-ProxmoxContainerFromTurnKey -Node "pve1" -Name "wordpress" -Template "wordpress" -Storage "local-lvm" -Memory 512 -Cores 1 -DiskSize 8 -Start

Best Practices

1. Use Unprivileged Containers: For better security, create unprivileged containers when possible.
2. Resource Allocation: Allocate appropriate resources (memory, CPU, disk) based on the container's purpose.
3. Storage Selection: Choose the appropriate storage type for your containers (local-lvm is often a good choice for performance).
4. Naming Convention: Use a consistent naming convention for your containers to make management easier.
5. Template Management: Download and maintain templates on a central storage for easy access from all nodes.

Examples

See the LXC Container Management Examples for more detailed examples.

Related Documentation

• Proxmox VE LXC Documentation
• TurnKey Linux