Provisioning Fedora CoreOS on Proxmox VE

Prerequisites

Before provisioning an FCOS machine on Proxmox VE, you must have an Ignition configuration file containing your customizations. If you do not have one, see Producing an Ignition File.

You also need to have access to a Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) cluster or standalone server with administrative privileges to create VMs and storage configurations. All of the commands will be run as the root user on the Proxmox VE host.

Setting up Proxmox VE Storage

Before provisioning Fedora CoreOS VMs, you need to create a dedicated storage location for FCOS images and Ignition configuration snippets.

Creating the Storage Directory

First, create a directory structure for Fedora CoreOS resources:

mkdir -p /var/coreos

Adding Storage to Proxmox VE

Add the new directory as a Proxmox VE storage location that can hold both VM images and configuration snippets:

pvesm add dir coreos --path /var/coreos --content images,snippets

This command creates a new storage location named coreos that Proxmox VE can use for storing disk images and configuration snippets (including Ignition files). For more details on Proxmox VE storage configuration, see the Proxmox VE Storage documentation.

Downloading Fedora CoreOS Images

Fedora CoreOS provides pre-built images specifically optimized for Proxmox VE. You can download these images using either the coreos-installer binary or via a container.

Fetching the QCOW2 image

Fetch the latest image suitable for your target stream (or download and verify it from the web).

STREAM="stable"
# as an installed binary:
coreos-installer download -s $STREAM -p proxmoxve -f qcow2.xz --decompress -C /var/coreos
# or as a container:
podman run --pull=always --rm -v "/var/coreos/images:/data" -w /data \
    quay.io/coreos/coreos-installer:release download -s $STREAM -p proxmoxve -f qcow2.xz --decompress

Both methods will download the latest Fedora CoreOS image for the specified stream (stable, testing, or next) in QCOW2 format, optimized for Proxmox VE. It will store the image in the /var/coreos/images directory.

Preparing Ignition Configuration

Upload your Ignition configuration file to the snippets directory:

# Upload your ignition to /var/coreos/config.ign
scp /path/to/your/config.ign root@proxmoxve-host:/var/coreos/snippets/config.ign

Setting up a new VM

The following example demonstrates how to create and configure a Fedora CoreOS VM using Proxmox VE command-line tools.

Setting Configuration Variables

Define the VM parameters:

VM_ID=101
NAME=fedora-coreos
QCOW=fedora-coreos-{stable-version}-proxmoxve.x86_64.qcow2
IGN=config.ign
STORAGE=local-lvm
CPU=2
MEMORY=2048
DISK_SIZE=90G

Adjust these variables according to your requirements:

VM_ID: Unique VM identifier in Proxmox VE
NAME: The name for the VM
QCOW: Filename of the downloaded FCOS image
IGN: Filename of your Ignition configuration
STORAGE: Target storage pool for the VM disk
CPU: Number of CPU cores to allocate
MEMORY: RAM allocation in MB
DISK_SIZE: Additional disk space to allocate

Creating and Configuring the VM

Create the VM with the specified configuration:

# Create the initial VM configuration
qm create ${VM_ID} --name ${NAME} --cores ${CPU} --memory ${MEMORY} \
    --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci

# Import the FCOS image as the primary disk
qm set ${VM_ID} --scsi0 "${STORAGE}:0,import-from=/var/coreos/images/${QCOW}"

# Resize the disk to provide additional space
qm resize ${VM_ID} scsi0 +${DISK_SIZE}

# Add cloud-init drive for configuration delivery
qm set ${VM_ID} --ide2 ${STORAGE}:cloudinit

# Set boot order to use the imported disk
qm set ${VM_ID} --boot order=scsi0

# Configure serial console for better compatibility
qm set ${VM_ID} --serial0 socket --vga serial0

# Configure Ignition file delivery via cloud-init
qm set ${VM_ID} --cicustom vendor=coreos:snippets/${IGN}

# Disable automatic upgrades during provisioning
qm set ${VM_ID} --ciupgrade 0

Network Configuration

DHCP Configuration

The basic VM creation above uses DHCP for network configuration, which is suitable for most environments where dynamic IP assignment is acceptable.

Static IP Configuration

For environments requiring static IP addresses, configure the network settings:

# For static IP address
IP="192.168.1.100"
IP_CIDR="${IP}/24"
GATEWAY="192.168.1.1"
qm set ${VM_ID} --ipconfig0 ip=${IP_CIDR},gw=${GATEWAY}

Replace the IP addresses with values appropriate for your network configuration.

Booting and Accessing the VM

Starting the VM

Start the VM and access its console:

# Start and wait for the VM to start
qm start ${VM_ID}

Exploring the OS

You log into the VM from the host with the following command:

# Access the VM console from the host
qm terminal ${VM_ID}

If you set up an SSH key for the default core user, you can SSH into the VM via the IP address:

ssh core@<ip address>

Clean up

For testing purposes, you can easily clean up the VM:

# Stop the VM
qm stop ${VM_ID}

# Remove the VM and its associated storage
qm destroy ${VM_ID}