Enterprise software developer Proxmox Server Solutions announced the release of version 7.1 of the popular server virtualization management platform, Proxmox Virtual Environment. The latest version of Proxmox Virtual Environment is based on Debian Bullseye 11.1, but it uses a newer version of Linux kernel, 5.13.
Windows 11 support
The latest release also includes updates to the latest versions of open-source technologies for virtual environments, including QEMU 6.1, LXC 4.0, Ceph Pacific 16.2.6, and ZFS 2.1. The new version’s features include Windows 11 support, TPM, enhanced creation wizard for VM/container, ability to set backup retention policies per backup job in the GUI. It also comes with a new scheduler daemon supporting more flexible schedules, many improvements for management tasks in the web interface.
What’s new
- Set backup retention per backup job via GUI: This allows users to set up smart backup policies for each backup job not only from the API and CLI, but also from the web interface.
- Advanced scheduling options for backup jobs: Backup jobs in Proxmox VE are now run by a new scheduler daemon, called pvescheduler, which supports more flexible schedule options. This is already known from the verify and garbage collection jobs in Proxmox Backup Server (which in turn are inspired by systemd-timers). Additionally, backups can be marked as protected, which will prevent them from being pruned or manually removed, without first removing the protected flag.
- For virtual machines, this version includes support for adding the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 to any VM. Among other things, this allows users to install and run Windows 11. A TPM can be added easily via a checkbox in the web interface. Additionally, the UEFI secure boot functionality is now built in and enabled in the underlying QEMU package; the updated installation wizard allows you to select TPM v2.0 and UEFI. Newly created VMs have support for secure boot verification, with an option to have Linux distribution and Microsoft keys pre-enrolled.
- Containers in Proxmox VE 7.1 now support Fedora 35 and Ubuntu 21.10 as well as AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux distributions, including templates. Container templates can be compressed with the open-source, lossless compression algorithm Zstandard (Zstd). For new, unprivileged containers created via the web interface, the nesting feature is enabled by default. This ensures better interoperability with modern systemd versions used in newer templates.
- Two-factor authentication (TFA) has been further improved. To improve access control, multiple 2nd factors can be configured for a single account. WebAuthn (superseding U2F) and one-time recovery keys have been added. This can all be configured from the web interface.