Proxmox

Introduction

With the existing infrastructure relying on separate desktops that lacked communication capabilities, a solution was needed to support student projects and create isolated environments. Proxmox, a powerful virtualization platform, was implemented to address this challenge. By migrating to Proxmox, the infrastructure gained the ability to provide flexible and scalable virtual environments for students, allowing them to work on projects while ensuring the integrity and security of the main infrastructure.

The Need for Proxmox

Proxmox offers an ideal environment for creating isolated systems for students, granting them full access without disturbing the main infrastructure. However, this necessitated the conversion of current desktops to Proxmox.

Transition Challenges

Transitioning to Proxmox presented a major challenge; ensuring no data loss during the process. With multiple docker containers storing crucial data running on the current desktops, it was critical to maintain the integrity of this information.

The Transition Solution

To circumvent data loss and minimize downtime, the decision was made to utilize separate desktops for the transition, allowing the current infrastructure to remain operational simultaneously.

Transition Outcome

The transfer to the Proxmox cluster has been successful, with Docker running in a single container, effectively isolating the infrastructure from others.

Issues

A remaining issue is the inability of the Cloudflare tunnel used in our network to communicate with the virtual environment, a problem that needs addressing before the transition is finalized.

Future Plans

Once all elements are in place and operational, the plan is to automate the process as much as possible by writing an Ansible playbook, further streamlining the deployment and management of the infrastructure.