Proxmox VE Command-Line Cheatsheet

pveversion -v                # Proxmox VE and package versions
apt update && apt full-upgrade   # update the host (never plain "apt upgrade")
pvesm status                 # storage, type, and free space
ip -br addr                  # network interfaces and addresses
systemctl status pveproxy    # web interface service

qm list                      # all VMs with status
qm config 100                # a VM's configuration
qm start 100
qm shutdown 100              # clean shutdown (needs ACPI or the guest agent)
qm reboot 100
qm set 100 --memory 4096 --cores 2
qm set 100 --onboot 1        # start at host boot
qm set 100 --agent enabled=1 # use the QEMU guest agent
qm disk resize 100 scsi0 +10G   # grow a disk ("qm resize" is an alias); then grow the filesystem inside the guest
qm guest cmd 100 network-get-interfaces   # guest IPs via the agent

qm stop 100                  # hard power-off, like pulling the plug
qm destroy 100 --purge       # deletes the VM and its disks; --purge also removes it from backup, replication and HA jobs
qm unlock 100                # clears a stuck lock: only if no task is running

pct list
pct config 200
pct start 200
pct shutdown 200
pct enter 200                # root shell inside the container
pct exec 200 -- df -h        # run one command inside
pct set 200 --memory 1024 --cores 1
pct resize 200 rootfs +4G    # grow the root disk
pct push 200 ./file.conf /etc/app/file.conf   # copy a file in
pct pull 200 /var/log/app.log ./app.log       # copy a file out

pct stop 200                 # immediate stop
pct destroy 200 --purge      # deletes the container and its volumes; --purge also removes it from backup, replication and HA jobs

qm snapshot 100 before-update --description "Before updates"
qm listsnapshot 100
qm rollback 100 before-update     # destructive: discards changes since the snapshot (a snapshot with RAM also starts the VM)
qm delsnapshot 100 before-update
pct snapshot 200 before-update    # same idea for containers

vzdump 100 --storage backups --mode snapshot --compress zstd
vzdump 100 200 --storage backups --mode snapshot --compress zstd --notes-template "{{guestname}}"
ls /var/lib/vz/dump/         # backups on the "local" storage
qmrestore /var/lib/vz/dump/vzdump-qemu-100-<date>.vma.zst 150 --storage local-lvm   # restore to new VM ID 150
pct restore 250 /var/lib/vz/dump/vzdump-lxc-200-<date>.tar.zst --storage local-lvm  # restore to new CT ID 250

pveam update                         # refresh the container template list
pveam available --section system     # OS templates you can download
pveam list local                     # templates already downloaded
qm template 100                      # convert a VM into a template
qm clone 100 101 --name web01 --full # full clone of template 100 as VM 101

cat /etc/network/interfaces   # host network configuration
ifreload -a                   # apply changes to the interfaces file
bridge vlan show              # VLANs on VLAN-aware bridges

zpool status                  # health of each pool and disk
zpool list                    # size and free space
zfs list                      # datasets and volumes
zpool scrub rpool             # start a data integrity check

journalctl -b -p err          # errors since the last boot
journalctl -u pveproxy -b     # web interface logs
systemctl restart pveproxy pvedaemon   # restart the web interface services
qm showcmd 100 --pretty       # the QEMU command line a VM starts with
grep -Ec '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo     # 0 = virtualization not enabled in firmware