A Proxmox cluster allows for High Availability (requires 3 nodes) and resource sharing. In a production data centre it would allow for Virtual Machines (VMs) or containers to move between nodes to help keep production systems running. It is not something I’ve done previously as I only had 1 device running Proxmox. However, I’ve now got 2, so it is time to cluster!
Making a Proxmox Cluster
The Proxmox cluster needs at least 2 nodes (devices) running Proxmox, and the root account (or an account with root permissions) details. My nodes are called containers, and containers2 as I generally use Proxmox to run containers. containers is going to be my first node, and containers2 is going to be my second node.
On the Proxmox interface for containers, click Datacentre. The Datacentre panel then has an option for Cluster. Clicking this gives the options for “Create Cluster” and “Join Cluster“.
Create Cluster asks for the clusters name and then creates the cluster. It will also show the “Join information” for any nodes that want to join. This information can be viewed via the “Join Information” button on the Cluster Information screen.
On the Proxmox interface for containers2 (my second node) it is a similar route. Click Datacentre and then click Cluster. Clicking “Join Cluster” asks for the join information and the password of the root account (or an account with root permissions).
After a few moments both nodes should show in the Datacentre, allowing for the web interface from one Proxmox to be used to manage both nodes and the whole data centre.
The Datacentre > Summary page should also now show the health of the cluster and how many nodes are online / offline.