Connect Your Infrastructure

ProxCenter connects to both Proxmox VE (PVE) hypervisors and Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) instances. You can add as many connections as you need -- ProxCenter supports multi-cluster environments out of the box.

Prerequisites

Before adding a connection, ensure:

• Your Proxmox VE instance is version 7.0 or later
• Your Proxmox Backup Server instance is version 3.0 or later
• The ProxCenter server has network access to your Proxmox hosts
• You have API credentials (API token recommended) or a valid username and password

Adding a Proxmox VE Connection

1. Log in to your ProxCenter dashboard
2. Navigate to Settings > Connections in the sidebar
3. Click Add Connection and select Proxmox VE
4. Fill in the connection details:

Field	Description	Example
Name	A friendly display name for this connection	Production Cluster
Hostname / IP	The address of your Proxmox VE host	pve1.example.com or 192.168.1.10
Port	The Proxmox API port	8006 (default)
Authentication	API token (recommended) or username/password	See below

5. Click Test Connection to verify connectivity
6. Click Save to add the connection

info

When you connect to a single node in a Proxmox cluster, ProxCenter automatically discovers all other nodes in that cluster. You only need to add one connection per cluster.

Adding a Proxmox Backup Server Connection

1. Navigate to Settings > Connections in the sidebar
2. Click Add Connection and select Proxmox Backup Server
3. Fill in the connection details:

Field	Description	Example
Name	A friendly display name	Backup Server DC1
Hostname / IP	The address of your PBS instance	pbs1.example.com or 192.168.1.20
Port	The PBS API port	8007 (default)
Authentication	API token (recommended) or username/password	See below

4. Click Test Connection to verify connectivity
5. Click Save to add the connection

Authentication Methods

API Token (Recommended)

API tokens are the preferred authentication method. They provide scoped access without exposing your main credentials, and they do not expire unless you configure them to.

Creating an API token on Proxmox VE:

# Create a token for the root user (full access)
pveum user token add root@pam proxcenter --privsep 0

The command outputs a Token ID and Secret. Save the secret immediately -- it is only shown once.

┌──────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ key          │ value                                │
╞══════════════╪══════════════════════════════════════╡
│ full-tokenid │ root@pam!proxcenter                  │
│ info         │ {"privsep":"0"}                      │
│ value        │ xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx │
└──────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┘

In ProxCenter, enter:

• Token ID: root@pam!proxcenter
• Token Secret: the value from the output above

tip

For production environments, consider creating a dedicated user with only the permissions ProxCenter needs instead of using root@pam. See the Proxmox documentation for details on creating users and roles.

Creating an API token on Proxmox Backup Server:

# Create a token on PBS
proxmox-backup-manager user token add root@pam proxcenter

The process is the same -- save the token secret and enter the Token ID and Secret in ProxCenter.

Proxmox Permissions

The recommended approach is to use root@pam, but you can create a dedicated user with the following minimum permissions:

Feature	Required Permissions
View VMs/CTs	VM.Audit
Start/Stop/Restart	VM.PowerMgmt
Configure VMs	VM.Config.*
Snapshots	VM.Snapshot, VM.Snapshot.Rollback
Migration	VM.Migrate
Backups	VM.Backup
Storage	Datastore.Audit, Datastore.AllocateSpace
Node Info	Sys.Audit
Console (VNC/SSH)	VM.Console + SSH access (PAM user)
Ceph	Sys.Audit on /

Username and Password

You can also authenticate with a Proxmox username and password. This is simpler to set up but less secure than API tokens:

• Passwords may be subject to rotation policies
• No way to scope permissions specifically for ProxCenter
• Multi-factor authentication on the Proxmox account may interfere

warning

If your Proxmox account uses two-factor authentication (2FA), you must use an API token instead. Username/password authentication does not support 2FA.

Connection Verification

After adding a connection, ProxCenter immediately performs a verification:

1. Connectivity check -- Confirms the host is reachable on the specified port
2. Authentication check -- Validates the provided credentials
3. Discovery -- Enumerates nodes, VMs, containers, and storage on the connected host

Once verified, your infrastructure appears in the dashboard within seconds. ProxCenter continuously syncs data from your connected hosts at regular intervals.

Multi-Cluster Support

ProxCenter is built for multi-cluster environments. You can connect:

• Multiple independent Proxmox VE clusters
• Multiple Proxmox Backup Server instances
• A mix of PVE and PBS connections

All connected infrastructure is accessible from the unified dashboard. You can filter views by cluster, node, or connection to focus on specific parts of your environment.

Next Steps

Now that your Proxmox infrastructure is connected, explore the dashboard and start managing your environment.