I have a server with a bunch of services just as Docker containers. I see that Proxmox is popular among the self-hosting community. I was wondering why?

I understand that running things in a VM provides better security than running them in a container. But is the difference so important given the relatively low risk that an exploit happens inside a container that leads to doing damage to the host machine?

There’s also obviously the additional overhead of using Proxmox. It wouldn’t be an issue for me as I should have enough resources to, say replace all my Docker containers with VMs. I’m more wondering if the security difference is so massive, or if there is another reason I’m missing why people use Proxmox.

Or am I misunderstanding how people use Proxmox? I was assuming people would use it like how you use Docker, i.e. different services get their own VM/container. If you have a different kind of setup I’d be interested in hearing it.

Edit: I would appreciate if people stop being pedantic and actually read the post. Obviously I am aware that you can run containers in VMs, or containers on bare metal alongside VMs. That’s not what the question is and you know it.

  • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    Proxmox and Docker serve different purposes. Proxmox is a hypervisor, while Docker handles containerized services. There is a little bit of crossover when it comes to containers (Proxmox can host LXCs, kinda sorta a little bit similar to Docker containers), but that’s really the only commonality.

    If you want to run multiple services and have a playground to mess around with and learn things, Proxmox is what you want. Spin up a VM (or 2, or 3) for Docker, and run your Docker services in those. You still have the ability to dick around with other things in Proxmox without having to worry about fucking up everything else on the physical machine.