Even with the free version of ESXi reinstated, Proxmox has a ton of benefits for home labbers who don’t want to waste money unlocking paywalled services. While ESXi’s 8-core per VM limit and lack of cluster provisions are often the biggest issues with the free version, the lack of vCenter support can be rather annoying, especially if you’re looking for a neat way to control multiple ESXi nodes.

Turns out, Proxmox devs have been working on a similar utility to help you manage different PVE nodes from a unified interface. Since it’s still in its early stages, it’s missing some essential features, and you’ll have to dig a little deeper into PVE’s website to find the ISO files for Proxmox Datacenter Manager. But after using it for a month, PDM has become one of my favorite companion services for my Proxmox-powered home lab.

Proxmox Datacenter Manager can pair standalone nodes

Without forcing you to deal with cluster shenanigans

When you’ve got a multitude of Proxmox servers, bouncing between their web UIs can be a real pain, even more so when you’re relying on local IPv4 addresses instead of dedicated domain names. Grouping them into a cluster is one solution to your management woes, as you get a centralized interface to control your workstations.

Unfortunately, clustered PVE setups have their own drawbacks. Even when you’re not running a high-availability cluster, your Proxmox nodes need to maintain a quorum, or you won’t be able to access the web UI. Let’s say you only need one out of three systems operational 24/7. In a cluster environment, you’ll need to keep another node active just to make the first system accessible. On a 2-node setup, you’ll have to set up a QDevice as the third system, or you won’t be able to tinker with the cluster if either node shuts down.

Then there’s the fact that you won’t be able to add secondary nodes to the cluster if they already have some virtual guests. As such, you’ll have to back up everything on all systems except the primary node, connect them to the cluster, and redeploy them using different IDs. Throw in all the config files you’ll have to edit just to disconnect a node from a cluster, and you can see why it’s far from an optimal solution.

Proxmox Datacenter Manager, on the other hand, adds all your nodes – including standalone and clustered systems – to a centralized interface. Of course, you’ll have to navigate to their individual interfaces using the Open Web UI on PDM to run dedicated tasks. But the fact that Datacenter Manager doesn't force you to remove virtual guests or require multiple nodes to remain operational alone makes it more useful than clusters for home labbers who prefer standalone PVE nodes. Heck, the management platform’s beta release added EVPN configuration support, so it’s also pretty useful for folks running clustered workstations.

Easier uptime and log monitoring

And you can manage updates across all servers

Besides letting you start virtual guests, Proxmox Datacenter Manager also doubles as a neat monitoring system. Each node’s uptime, task summaries, and resource utilization metrics are neatly laid out in the Dashboard. Once you navigate to the server nodes, you’ll spot detailed graphs for the server load as well as CPU and memory usage. Heck, there’s even a section detailing the amount of resources allocated vs. the current specs of the PVE nodes – which is precisely how I realized I’d overprovisioned resources on my Xeon workstation.

The latest beta release of PDM can also pull error logs from your Proxmox nodes, so you’ll know if a VM or LXC malfunctions out of nowhere. Plus, you can even install updates on your PVE nodes directly from Proxmox Datacenter Manager’s web UI. And then there’s the migration facility, which is hands-down my favorite aspect of this management utility…

Virtual guest migration is just as simple

It's quicker than the ol’ backup and restore method

When you’re trying to move virtual machines and Linux containers between different nodes, you’ve got a couple of options in Proxmox. The first involves clustering the source and destination nodes, though I’ve already talked about that method’s drawbacks. The second process involves backing up the virtual guests you wish to migrate, sending the backed-up data to the target node, and whipping out a new VM or LXC with it.

So, you’ll either have to partake in some FTP wizardry to transfer the backup files between nodes, or deploy Proxmox Backup Server and link it to both systems. The problem with PBS is that you’ll need enough space to hold both the Backup Server instance and the virtual guest snapshots – which can be challenging without a dedicated NAS (or high-capacity drives on a Proxmox node, if you’re planning to virtualize PBS).

Proxmox Datacenter Manager provides a simple solution to this conundrum. Rather than relying on backups or requiring annoying cluster setups, PDM can migrate virtual machines between any nodes added to its UI. Truth be told, the backup and restore method offers more customization options when recreating the virtual guest, but Datacenter Manager is significantly faster (and less tedious to configure) when you need to batch migrate VMs and LXCs.

I’m looking forward to Proxmox Datacenter Manager’s eventual release

Between the detailed PDM roadmap and the fact that the Proxmox team released version 0.9 (beta) last month, we’re bound to see the full version of the management platform sooner or later. The thing is, Proxmox Datacenter Manager is currently lacking a few important facilities, including notifications and console access for nodes. But given the team’s track record, I can't wait to try out PDM when it finally releases. With enough polish, it might even surpass vCenter.