Running an ARM64 VM in ProxMox VE

#Proxmox #Hypervisor #ARM #VM

DISCLAIMER: While running ARM64 architecture VMs on Proxmox works, the performance is not on par with what it would be on a baremetal ARM device. In this example I'll be installing Debian 11 AARCH64 in Proxmox running on Intel x64 based hardware.
 
   01. Log into the ProxMox web UI
   02. Select a storage from the left navigation pane to download the .iso to
   03. Select ISO Images in the left sub-navigation pane
   05. If on ProxMox 7, click Download from URL and paste the download URL from above ≫ Click Query URL ≫ Click Download
   06. Right click the ProxMox node name ≫ Create VM
   07. Type DebianARM64 in the name field set the VM ID to 164 (unless 164 is in use) ≫ Next
   08. Set the Type to Linux, Version to 5.x - 2.6 Kernel and select Do not use any media ≫ Next
   09. On the System tab set the BIOS for OVMF (UEFI), Uncheck the Add EFI Disk checkbox ≫ Next
   10. On the Hard Disk tab, set the Storage device and Disk size to 16 (adjust as needed) ≫ Next
   11. On the CPU tab, set the number Cores to 2 (adjust as needed) ≫ Next
   12. On the Memory tab, set the Memory to 2048 (adjust as needed) ≫ Next
   13. Leave the defaults on the Network tab ≫ Next
   14. Verify the summary and click Finish
   15. Select the DebianARM64 VM in the left navigation pane
   16. Select Hardware from the left navigation sub-menu
   17. Click on the CD/DVD Drive to select it ≫ Click Remove at the top of the main content area ≫ Click Yes to confirm
   18. Click Add ≫ Serial Port ≫ Leave the Port Number 0 ≫ Click Add
   19. Click Add ≫ Select CD/DVD Drive ≫ Set the Bus/Device to SCSI ≫ Select the Storage device where the Debian ARM64 iso is uploaded ≫ Select the uploaded Debian ARM64 iso ≫ Click Create
   20. Double click Display to edit it ≫ Set the Graphic card value to Serial terminal 0 ≫ Click OK
   21. Select Options from the left navigation sub-menu
   22. Double click Boot order to edit it ≫ Drag/drop the SCSI2 device (where the Debian iso is attached) to the top of the list ≫ Click OK
   23. Right click the ProxMox node name ≫ Console
   24. Run the following commands in the terminal
         # edit the VM conf file, change 164 to the VM ID for the DebianARM64 VM
   25. Add the following line to the bottom of the .conf file:
         arch: aarch64
   26. Find the line starting with vmgenid: and comment it out by adding a # to the beginning of the line
   27. Press CTRL+O, Enter, CTRL+X to write the changes to the conf file
   28. Back in the Proxmox web UI, select the DebianARM64 VM from the left navigation menu
   29. Click console in the left sub-navigation menu
   30. Click Start at the top right of the screen to start the VM
   31. Wait a moment for the serial console to initialize
   32. Follow the prompts to complete the OS installation
    NOTE: This will feel slower than normal, allow it time to complete
   33. After the installation completes, select the Shutdown dropdown at the top of the screen ≫ Stop
   34. Select Hardware from the left sub-navigation menu
   35. Double click the CD/DVD Drive to edit it ≫ Select Do not use any media ≫ Click OK
   36. Go back to the VM console
   37. Click Start at the top right of the screen to start the VM again
   38. Enter the following commands to launch Debian from the EFI shell
   39. The GRUB menu should boot and start loading Debian
   40. Welcome to ARM64 based Debian running on Proxmox VE
 
 

### Connect with me and others ###

[dymytar]

Good instructions. Working perfectly.
At the end of the instructions (after successful boot) you can execute following command:

grub-install --target=arm64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --recheck --debug /dev/sda

After that the next boot is automatic, not trough the efi shell

[edwarddolezal]

Hi i just wanted to ask is there a possibility for an updated tutorial on proxmox 8.1?

[karmarrara]

hello, i have the orange pi zero 3 and i have this error on create VM KVM virtualisation configured, but not available. Either disable in VM configuration or enable in BIOS. how i enable the virtualization in orange pi?

[laurentduclos]

Hello @i12bretro, thanks for the detailed instructions, 1 blocking point for me, while wanting to launch the VM, VM refuse to start with below code error :

qemu-system-aarch64: unable to find CPU model 'qemu64'
TASK ERROR: start failed: QEMU exited with code 1
Proxmox running on a mini pc with Celeron N5105 and 16Gb of RAM
pve-edk2-firmware: 4.2023.08-4
qemu-server: 8.2.1
pve-qemu-kvm: 8.1.5-6
Any idea why VM refuse to start?
Thanks

[KiranmanoharChavala]

@i12bretro is there is a way to pass the CPU as host and start the arm64vm.

basically I want to install kvm run some vm's on the arm64 vm

[Prime_Tecnologia_Automacao]

Excellent video, I managed to make it work after some adjustments.

[ricksmith]

I cant get it to start, it tries to boot network I can not get to a place to enter that command

[thomasrowan]

Hi thank you for your guide, How can I configure for Windows 10 ARM UI ?

[JoeVSvolcano]

I'm run Proxmox on my Pi4. Solid little virt!

[saviothecnic]

Can you give me some information about VM 130
I would like to run a backup for testing a machine
raspberry physics on proxmox always installed under raspberry
but I didn't understand how to do it

[davidstrumpf]

Hi, do you think it's possible to run a highly available arm VM on a cluster containing both x86 and arm devices? More specifically I'd like to put one x86 server and 2 raspberry pi-s in a cluster and if the x86 machine goes offline for some reason, the 2 raspberry pis would take over the VMs. The raspberrys can run arm VMs with pimox just fine the question is would it work in a HA cluster? Thanks for the help

[repe]

Thank you for sharing!!!Do you think is possible to virtualize a raspberry Pi?

[_sn]

There is problem with Proxmox 8: After start VM: "TASK ERROR: EFI base image not found" :(

[eugrus]

Would that work for different qemu-supported architectures?

[zaqueu]

Bem detalhado, parabéns pelo conteúdo.