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.

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    10 hours ago

    I use proxmox because I am a tinkerer and VMs help me tinker without worrying about making major mistakes that might brick my server. If I want to try something new, just spin up a test VM and try it out, the rest of my stacks are safe and if I muck up the test VM I’m tinkering with, just delete it and start again.

    I started with KVM-QEMU, which proxmox is based on, with virt-manager front end. Can do all the same things, but can be installed on most distros. Will let you get your feet wet with VMs without having to format and install proxmox.