Proxmox/Install Arch Linux as a guest
Proxmox Virtual Environment also known as Proxmox VE is an open-source hypervisor used to run operating systems in a special environment, called a virtual machine, on top of the existing operating system. It comes with a WebUI interface.
This article is about installing Arch Linux in Proxmox.
Virtual machine installation
To create a virtual machine, first you need to upload an image to Proxmox. This can be done by going to one of the storage entries in the GUI, like local, and selecting ISO Images.
After this is done you can create a virtual machine either by clicking on the blue Create VM button and going through the installer or running the following command:
qm create 100 --memory 8192 --cdrom local:iso/archlinux-2025.08.01-x86_64.iso --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 --scsi0 local-lvm:32 --start
Available install images can be listed with
pvesm list local
Container installation
First a container template should be downloaded
pveam update pveam available pveam download local archlinux-base_20240911-1_amd64.tar.zst
As of writing, Proxmox 9 has not configured any Arch templates to be downloadable through its tools so they must be downloaded manually through http://download.proxmox.com/images/system/ and placed in /var/lib/vz/template/cache
Then a container can be created from the template either by clicking on the blue Create CT button and going through the installer or running the following command:
pct create 100 local:vztmpl/archlinux-base_20240911-1_amd64.tar.zst --rootfs local-lvm:4 --memory 8192 --net0 name=eth0,bridge=vmbr0,ip=dhcp --features nesting=1
Once configured, a template can be created out of the container which can then be cloned
pct template 100 pct clone 100 101 --hostname cloned_name