Proxmox VE command line cheat sheet: qm, pct, pvecm, pvesm and more

All of these run as root on a Proxmox VE node. Every tool has a man page (man qm) and built-in help (qm help create). In the examples, 110 is a VM, 200 a container and pve2 another node.

Virtual machines: qm

qm list                           # VMs on this node
qm status 110
qm config 110                     # current configuration
qm start 110
qm shutdown 110 && qm wait 110    # clean ACPI shutdown
qm reboot 110
qm stop 110                       # hard stop, like pulling the plug
qm set 110 --memory 4096 --cores 4
qm disk resize 110 scsi0 +10G     # grow only
qm snapshot 110 before-update
qm listsnapshot 110
qm rollback 110 before-update
qm delsnapshot 110 before-update
qm clone 9000 120 --name app02 --full
qm template 9000
qm migrate 110 pve2 --online
qm terminal 110                   # serial console (needs serial0)
qm guest exec 110 -- uname -a     # via guest agent
qm unlock 110                     # only if the locking task is gone

Containers: pct

pct list
pct start 200
pct shutdown 200
pct stop 200
pct enter 200                     # root shell inside
pct exec 200 -- df -h
pct config 200
pct set 200 --memory 1024
pct snapshot 200 before-update
pct rollback 200 before-update
pct push 200 ./file /root/file
pct pull 200 /etc/os-release ./os-release
pct migrate 200 pve2 --restart
pct unlock 200

Templates: pveam

pveam update
pveam available --section system
pveam download local <template-file>
pveam list local

Storage: pvesm

pvesm status
pvesm list local-lvm
pvesm list local --content iso
pvesm path local-lvm:vm-110-disk-0
pvesm scan nfs 192.0.2.50
pvesm add nfs nas --server 192.0.2.50 --export /export/pve --content backup,iso
pvesm set nas --disable 1

Cluster: pvecm

pvecm status                      # quorum and membership
pvecm nodes
pvecm create lab-cluster          # on the first node
pvecm add 10.0.0.11               # on a joining node
pvecm qdevice setup 10.0.0.50     # external vote for 2-node clusters

Backup and restore

vzdump 110 --storage nas --mode snapshot --compress zstd
vzdump --all --storage nas
qmrestore <backup-file> 410 --storage local-lvm
pct restore 420 <backup-file> --storage local-lvm

API, tasks and HA

pvesh get /nodes
pvesh get /cluster/resources --type vm --output-format json
pvenode task list --source active   # running tasks
pvenode task list --errors --vmid 110
ha-manager status
ha-manager add vm:110

Commands that destroy data

Warning: these remove guests or data permanently. Confirm the ID with qm config, pct config or pvesm list first and make sure a tested backup exists.

qm destroy 110 --purge
pct destroy 200 --purge
pvesm free local-lvm:vm-110-disk-1
pvecm delnode pve4               # only after the node is powered off for good

Where things live

• /etc/pve/qemu-server/<vmid>.conf and /etc/pve/lxc/<ctid>.conf: guest configs on the current node.
• /etc/pve/nodes/<node>/: per-node files in the cluster file system.
• /etc/pve/storage.cfg: storage definitions.
• /etc/pve/jobs.cfg: backup jobs.
• /etc/pve/ha/: HA resources and rules.
• /etc/network/interfaces: host networking (not cluster-wide).

Official documentation

• qm(1)
• pct(1)
• pvecm(1)