Part 1: Creating the VM and Installing Debian 13

Proxmox VM Erstellung

Objective of This Section

In this first part, we create a virtual machine in Proxmox and install a minimal Debian 13 system on it.

At the end of this section:

Prerequisites

Hardware Recommendations

VM Parameters (Example)

Note:
The data disk is not used during the Debian installation,
but will be mounted separately at a later stage.

Required Credentials (Example)

⚠️ Note:
In a production environment, use secure, unique passwords
and store them in a password manager.

Debian Installation Medium

We use Debian 13 (amd64).

Download source (ISO): https://debian.snt.utwente.nl/debian-cd/13.3.0/amd64/iso-cd/ 

Step 1: Create the VM in Proxmox

  1. Create a new VM
  2. Assign the desired VM ID
  3. Select the previously downloaded Debian ISO

Step 2: VM System Configuration

Machine Type and Agent

Why q35 instead of i440fx:
The q35 machine type emulates a modern Intel chipset with native PCIe support. This enables proper PCIe passthrough (e.g., for GPUs or NVMe devices), AHCI controllers, and vIOMMU emulation. Compared to the legacy i440fx, it is significantly better suited for modern guest systems and extensions.

QEMU Guest Agent:
The QEMU Guest Agent is a small daemon running inside the guest system that enables direct communication with Proxmox. It allows clean shutdowns (instead of ACPI force-off), freezes file systems before snapshots/backups (ensuring consistency), and provides accurate status information such as IP addresses and memory usage.

Configure the System Disk

Add Second Disk (Data)

We now add a second disk, which will later be used exclusively for Nextcloud data.

We deliberately start the data disk at 200 GB. It can later be expanded easily in Proxmox and within the guest system to demonstrate dynamic storage growth in a homelab environment.

CPU Configuration

Why host:
The CPU type host passes all features and extensions of the physical host CPU (e.g., AVX, AES-NI) directly to the VM. This provides maximum performance. However, it is only recommended if you do not plan live migration between hosts with different CPU types, as this can cause migration failures.

Memory

Network

The default network configuration can remain unchanged.

Review Configuration

If everything is configured correctly, the VM summary should look similar to this.

Now start the VM and begin the Debian installation.

Step 3: Install Debian

Language & Region

To select Germany:

  1. Other
  2. Europe
  3. Germany

The keyboard layout can then be accepted as proposed.

Hostname & Domain

In this example, I chose:

Set Root Password

Assign a strong root password.

Since direct SSH login as root poses a security risk, we will disable this capability after installation.

Create a Regular User

In addition to the root user, we require a regular user account.
In this example, the username is ncadmin. Assign a strong password here as well.

Partitioning

Then write the changes to disk.

Partitioning Notes

During Debian installation, the commonly selected option is
“Guided – use entire disk.”

An alternative is:
“Guided – use entire disk and set up LVM.”

This creates Logical Volume Manager (LVM) volumes, allowing more flexible resizing of partitions (especially the root filesystem) later without repartitioning the disk.

Swap Area

Regardless of the partitioning method, a swap partition or swap file should be configured. In the screenshot above, a 1.8 GB swap partition is shown.

Typical guidelines:

Package Sources & Updates

Software Selection

We install no desktop environment.

The web server will be installed manually later.

Bootloader

The Debian installation is now complete.

Step 4: Verify Boot Order

Remove the ISO from the VM’s CD/DVD drive and set the boot order to prioritize the hard disk. Otherwise, the VM may continuously attempt to boot from the empty ISO.

If the VM boots from the ISO again:

  1. Power off the VM
  2. Options → Boot Order
  3. Move the system disk to the top
  4. Move the ISO down or disable it

Boot order incorrect

Boot order correct

Result

If everything was completed correctly, you should now see the Debian 13 login console.

Next Step

Continue with:
Part 2: Configure IP, User Permissions, and Second Data Disk

Revision #20
Created 2026-01-30 13:58:09 UTC by Carsten
Updated 2026-02-14 15:08:45 UTC by Carsten