How to Create Virtual Machine in ProxMox

Dec 19, 2025

2 min read

I assume you've just installed your ProxMox virtualization. This guide shows you how to set up a virtual machine in ProxMox and install an operating system on it using the default and basic configuration.

Step 1: Upload Your ISO Image

This ISO image is the IOS image of the operating system you wanted to install in Proxmox. A newly installed ProxMox does not come with an ISO image. The simplest way to upload ISO image is via the Web Console. The approach here is different, we need to upload the ISO via SCP that is because there are some browser with timeout or upload limit.

Step 1.1: Upload the ISO image to ProxMox via SCP

In this example, I am uploading a Ubuntu Server

scp ubuntu-24.04.3-live-server-amd64.iso root@192.168.27.5:./

Step 1.2: Move the ISO image to the ISO Directory of ProxMox

The ISO image is uploaded in root home directory. We will now move it to the ISO directory of ProxMox

mv ubuntu-24.04.3-live-server-amd64.iso /var/lib/vz/template/iso/

Step 2: Check the ISO in ProxMox Console

To check the ISO image. Login to your ProxMox console then go to ISO images. See image below.

Step 3: Create the Virtual Machine

To create a virtual machine, the task is to mount the ISO image to the virtual machine in order to do installation. The VM installation of ProxMox is guided. I attached a video here that you can follow on How to Create Virtual Machine in ProxMox.

Step 3.1: Mount the ISO and Create the Virtual Machine in ProxMox