Manage Proxmox VE from your Mac

Proxmox VE is a Debian-based hypervisor for KVM virtual machines and LXC containers, with a web interface on port 8006. The web interface remains the place to create and configure guests. The rest of the day happens around it: maintenance on the nodes over SSH, a console for a VM that has no network yet, an ISO to upload, the same check run on every node of a cluster. SSHive handles those from one window, with a profile per node filed in a Proxmox folder. One thing to know up front: the console built into the web interface is noVNC, which runs in the browser. SSHive's VNC viewer connects to a VM once you give that VM a VNC display of its own, as described below.

Proxmox logs you in as root by default. Install your key first (Settings > SSH Keys > Install on host does it through an open session), then create one profile per node, pve1, pve2, pve3, in the Proxmox folder. To check a cluster, broadcast pvecm status or pveversion to all three: each node answers in its own tab, and a node that has lost quorum stands out. For a shell inside an LXC container, pct enter 101 in the node's session is enough; the container needs no SSH server of its own.

The Proxmox wiki documents how to give a VM a VNC display of its own: add an args: line to /etc/pve/local/qemu-server/<VMID>.conf, then stop and start the VM. The wiki's example listens on 0.0.0.0, every interface of the node. With args: -vnc 127.0.0.1:77 instead, the display listens on port 5977 (5900 + 77) on the node's loopback only, so the only way in is through SSH. In the node's profile, add a local tunnel from port 5977 to localhost:5977, then point a VNC profile at localhost:5977. To require a password, add ,password=on to that line (args: -vnc 127.0.0.1:77,password=on), start the VM, then run set_password vnc <password> -d vnc2 in its Monitor panel. The wiki notes that this needs QEMU 6.1 or later and that a VNC password is limited to 8 characters. The password also does not survive a restart of the VM: set it again each time the VM starts. This is how you reach an installer or a rescue boot before the VM has an SSH server.

Drag an .iso from Finder into /var/lib/vz/template/iso/ on a node, the directory behind the default local storage, and it shows up in the web interface's ISO list for new VMs. Container templates go in /var/lib/vz/template/cache/. An ISO is far larger than the free version's upload cap, so this part needs Pro.