Managed Kubernetes cluster on Proxmox VE

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Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) & Kubernetes

On-premises Kubernetes with Proxmox VE

Deploying Kubernetes on-premises or at the edge doesn’t have to be complex. By combining the power of Cloudfleet Kubernetes and Proxmox VE, you get a seamless, cost-effective solution for managing containerized workloads. Proxmox VE provides a robust, open-source virtualization platform, while Cloudfleet Kubernetes simplifies cluster deployment, scaling, and management. Together, they enable businesses to run Kubernetes clusters efficiently on their own infrastructure, whether in data centers, remote locations, or edge environments.

Kubernetes has become the de facto standard for container orchestration. Its ability to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications has made it indispensable for modern software development. Although using Kubernetes to deploy applications is a relatively straightforward task, installing and managing a Kubernetes cluster is still a challenge for many.

Proxmox Virtual Environment (Proxmox VE) is an open-source server virtualization management platform that provides a powerful and flexible solution for running virtual machines and containers. It is essentially a management interface and API built on top of Linux’s KVM hypervisor and allows the creation of a virtualization infrastructure completely for free. Proxmox has been gaining popularity in the last few years and has started to find its place in enterprises.

Cloudfleet is a next-generation Kubernetes solution that provides a managed Kubernetes cluster. Cloudfleet allows you to add virtual machines from different public cloud providers and on-premises locations and brings all this compute power under one Kubernetes cluster, allowing you to manage deployment across different infrastructure locations from a single Kubernetes API. Moreover, Cloudfleet is completely free to start with its generous free tier.

Global Kubernetes Control Plane

Cloudfleet delivers a scalable and highly available Kubernetes control plane designed to operate seamlessly across hybrid environments. Whether you’re running on-premises, in the cloud, or a combination of both, Cloudfleet ensures consistent management and orchestration of your Kubernetes clusters. With built-in support for multi-cluster environments, it provides a unified platform for deploying, monitoring, and scaling workloads globally, giving you the flexibility to adapt to any infrastructure.

Esiest way to deploy Kubernetes

With Cloudfleet Kubernetes Engine (CFKE), deploying Kubernetes on-premises with Proxmox VE is effortless and efficient. CFKE manages the provisioning and scaling of the Kubernetes control plane - including API servers and the backend persistence layer - directly on your Proxmox infrastructure. It ensures high availability and fault tolerance by automatically detecting and replacing unhealthy nodes, applying patches, and simplifying cluster management. By leveraging Proxmox VE’s powerful virtualization capabilities, you can deploy Kubernetes clusters on your own hardware while maintaining the flexibility to expand into hybrid or cloud environments.

Burst into the Public Cloud

With Cloudfleet, extending your Proxmox-based on-premises Kubernetes clusters into the public cloud is seamless. This hybrid approach lets you manage both on-premises infrastructure and cloud-hosted environments (like AWS, Azure, and GCP) from one unified dashboard. When your workloads demand additional capacity, Cloudfleet enables your applications to burst into the public cloud, scaling effortlessly to thousands of instances across hundreds of nodes within seconds. This flexibility ensures you can handle spikes in demand with ease, all while maintaining the control and cost-effectiveness of your Proxmox VE environment.

Day 2 operations

Cloudfleet streamlines Day 2 operations by automating essential tasks such as software installations, updates, and patch management. These processes run seamlessly in the background, ensuring your applications stay up-to-date with the latest features and security patches without requiring manual intervention. This automation minimizes downtime, reduces the risk of human error, and frees up your teams to focus on innovation and delivering value, rather than spending time on repetitive maintenance tasks. Whether running on Proxmox VE or in the cloud, Cloudfleet ensures your Kubernetes environment operates smoothly and efficiently.

Cloudfleet Kubernetes Engine on Proxmox VE

Open source standards

CFKE integrates Open Container Initiative (OCI) containers and Cloud Native Computing Foundation-certified Kubernetes for seamless container orchestration, while also leveraging a range of other powerful open-source technologies to ensure flexibility and scalability in your infrastructure.

Advanced security and compliance

Cloudfleet Cluster Security for Kubernetes enhances protection with advanced capabilities like runtime threat detection, full lifecycle vulnerability management, and risk profiling, ensuring your Kubernetes environments are secure from deployment to runtime.

Full cost visibility

Cloudfleet leverages universal metrics, allowing you to easily analyze and forecast expenses across projects, clusters, and deployments.

Consistent deployment experience

Enjoy a consistent deployment experience across all environments, ensuring your applications run smoothly and reliably, no matter where they’re hosted.

Deploy anywhere

Easily deploy your applications anywhere - whether it’s in the cloud, on-premises, or across hybrid environments - ensuring flexibility and scalability without compromise.

Automated installation and upgrades

Automate your installation and upgrades seamlessly, ensuring your systems are always up-to-date with minimal manual intervention and zero downtime.

Cloudfleet Kubernetes adoption

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Questions and answers

Proxmox Virtual Environment is a fully open-source server management platform designed for enterprise virtualization. It combines the KVM hypervisor, software-defined storage, and advanced networking capabilities into a single, cohesive solution. Its intuitive, web-based user interface allows you to effortlessly manage virtual machines and containers, enable high availability for clusters, and utilize built-in disaster recovery tools - all from one centralized platform.

Proxmox VE is the ideal solution for virtualizing your IT infrastructure, offering enterprise-class features with a 100% software-based approach. Optimize your resources, reduce costs, and enhance efficiency with this powerful virtualization platform. Proxmox VE supports demanding Linux and Windows application workloads, making it easy to virtualize and manage complex environments. With dynamic scalability for both computing and storage, it ensures your data center is ready to adapt and grow with your future needs. Perfect for businesses looking to modernize their IT infrastructure with minimal expense.

Combining Kubernetes with Proxmox VE provides a powerful, cost-effective solution for modern IT infrastructure. Proxmox VE offers a robust, open-source virtualization platform with integrated support for VMs, containers, and software-defined storage, making it an ideal foundation for Kubernetes. By deploying Kubernetes on Proxmox VE, you gain full control over your infrastructure, ensuring consistent performance for on-premises or hybrid environments. Proxmox’s ease of use and centralized management complement Kubernetes’ orchestration capabilities, allowing you to efficiently scale workloads, reduce overhead costs, and optimize resource utilization - all while leveraging the flexibility of open-source tools. This pairing is perfect for businesses aiming to modernize their IT operations with a scalable and adaptable solution.

Yes, with Cloudfleet Kubernetes Engine, you can mix and match servers from different data centers within a single cluster. This allows you to optimize infrastructure costs and performance by selecting the best servers for your workloads. Additionally, you can add servers from other cloud providers to your cluster.

Yes, Proxmox Kubernetes is suitable for both homelab and production environments. For homelabs, it provides an efficient, cost-effective way to experiment with Kubernetes using existing hardware. In production, it enables automated, scalable deployments with built-in high availability, advanced networking, and seamless integration with enterprise storage solutions. Its flexibility supports hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, optimizing costs while maintaining full control over infrastructure.

The perception that Proxmox Kubernetes is only for homelabs comes from its strong adoption among self-hosted enthusiasts and its ease of use on consumer hardware. Additionally, Proxmox VE’s open-source nature and lower entry cost compared to traditional enterprise Kubernetes solutions contribute to the misconception, despite its robust capabilities for production workloads.

LXC containers in Proxmox provide system virtualization, allowing you to run a full Linux OS inside a lightweight container. Managed through the Proxmox Container Toolkit (PCT), they integrate seamlessly with Proxmox VE, leveraging shared storage, networking, and high availability features. This makes them ideal for running traditional workloads with full system access. Kubernetes, on the other hand, is designed for orchestrating application containers, which are isolated environments optimized for deploying and scaling microservices. Unlike LXC, Kubernetes abstracts infrastructure management, automating scaling, load balancing, and service discovery across distributed nodes. While LXC containers are closer to lightweight VMs, Kubernetes is built for modern, cloud-native applications that require dynamic orchestration and automation.

A container, virtual environment (VE), or virtual private server (VPS) all refer to operating-system-level virtualization, where multiple isolated instances run on a shared Linux kernel. Unlike traditional VMs, containers do not emulate a full OS, reducing overhead and improving performance. LXC containers in Proxmox provide lightweight system virtualization, ideal for running full Linux distributions with minimal resource usage. However, they are limited to Linux-based workloads, as they rely on the host kernel rather than hardware emulation.

QEMU is an open-source machine emulator and virtualizer that, when combined with KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), enables high-performance virtualization on Linux. In Proxmox, QEMU/KVM guests function as full virtual machines (VMs) with dedicated resources, including CPU, memory, storage, and network interfaces. This allows users to run multiple isolated operating systems efficiently on a single Proxmox host. With advanced features like live migration, snapshots, and hardware passthrough, QEMU/KVM in Proxmox delivers enterprise-grade virtualization while optimizing resource utilization and enabling hybrid or multi-cloud deployments.

Learn more about multi-cloud Kubernetes and Cloudfleet

Documentation

Use cases

Tutorials

Enterprise-ready container platform

SLAs and dedicated support

Data processing and service level agreements (SLAs), dedicated account manager

Identity federation

Flexible Single Sign-On (SSO), SAML support, and role-based access control (RBAC)

Enterprise-grade security

Governance, audit logging, and SOC 2 and ISO 27001 (pending) certifications

Contact sales

Built to empower. Designed to scale.

Multi-cloud

Comprehensive support for major cloud providers and regions, ready for multi-cloud deployments.

Unlimited scalability

Expand servers, increase storage, or migrate to a different provider with zero downtime - at the push of a button.

99.99% uptime

High availability is included in the open-source feature set, ensuring reliability for mission-critical applications.

Integrations

Monitor and manage your cloud infrastructure effortlessly with your preferred tools.

World-class support

Expert 24/7 support, available 365 days a year. We're here whenever you need us.

Built-in security

End-to-end encryption, isolated networking, dedicated VMs, and full compliance certifications.

Kubernetes 1.31 Release: Key Features, Enhancements, and Deprecations

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