Proxmox consulting and support in Pittsburgh and Cleveland

Cluster design and high availability

A Proxmox cluster is a group of nodes that share configuration and agree on membership through a quorum. That is why a cluster needs at least three votes to keep working when one node is lost.

High availability needs disks reachable from more than one node, a redundant cluster network, and spare capacity to absorb a failed host. We size the cluster to carry its workloads with one host down.

Migrating from VMware or Hyper-V

Many businesses call us after a hypervisor licensing change. We plan the move guest by guest:

• Inventory: list every virtual machine, its operating system, disks, network, and the applications that depend on it.
• Conversion: import disks, switch to VirtIO drivers where it makes sense, and confirm the guest boots and behaves.
• Cutover: schedule each move around your business hours, keep the old copy until the new one is proven, then retire it.

Storage and backup

ZFS on local disks is simple and dependable, and it supports scheduled replication between nodes. For three or more nodes that need shared, self-healing storage, we build Ceph clusters on Proxmox.

Backups use Proxmox Backup Server, which stores only changed data and can verify what it holds. We schedule test restores and write down the recovery steps. See our backup and disaster recovery services for offsite copies and recovery planning.

Upgrades and day-to-day operations

Proxmox moves through major versions, and we plan each upgrade: read the release notes, upgrade one node at a time, and migrate guests away first so they keep running. We handle host patching, disk replacement, and monitoring with Grafana dashboards and uptime checks.

For containers or Kubernetes on top of Proxmox, see our Linux and Kubernetes consulting. For Azure and hybrid designs that connect to your cluster, see cloud and hybrid infrastructure.

How an engagement works

1. Discovery call. A short talk about your workloads and hardware.
2. Written scope. We document the design or migration plan, the order of work, and the rollback path.
3. Implementation. We build or migrate, test failover and restores, and hand over documentation.
4. Ongoing support. Optional, with a named engineer and no lock-in.

Our offices are in Coraopolis and Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Cleveland-area work combines remote support with on-site visits arranged around the project. We reply within one business day.

Questions about Proxmox support

Can you support a cluster someone else built?

Yes. We review the configuration, health, backups, and documentation first, then take over operations or fix specific problems.

Do we need a cluster, or is one Proxmox server enough?

One server is a reasonable choice for a small office, with Proxmox Backup Server on separate hardware. It has no failover, so a hardware failure means downtime until you restore. A cluster is for businesses that cannot accept that.

Can you migrate our VMware environment with little downtime?

Usually. Each guest is down only for its own cutover window, which we plan per application and agree with you in advance.