Later: Proxmox and Incus

Once the dedicated server installs cleanly, RAID is healthy, and you can read df/free, you can turn the same box into a hypervisor. This page is the map, not the full install runbook.

What a hypervisor is

Today you log into one Ubuntu or Debian. A hypervisor lets that machine host many guests: virtual machines (full OS) and containers (lighter isolation). You still have one physical server, one RAID, one public IP to plan around.

Proxmox VE

Debian-based platform with a web UI on port 8006. KVM virtual machines and LXC containers. Very common on Hetzner dedicated.

Incus

Successor to LXD. System containers and VMs from the command line or API. Fits well if you already like Ubuntu/Debian tooling.

Do this first (you are here)

Boot Rescue and inspect disks with lsblk.
Install Debian (best for Proxmox) or Ubuntu (fine for Incus).
Use RAID1 on two OS disks unless you have a hardware RAID card.
Confirm virtualization flags: egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo must not be 0.
Know free -h and df -h so guests do not starve the host.

Publishing a guest website on the public IP is port forwarding (DNAT), not a second bind on the same host port.

Tip

Leave headroom. If the server has 64 GB RAM, do not promise 64 GB to VMs. The host needs RAM for RAID, ZFS (if you use it), and the hypervisor itself.

Proxmox on Hetzner (overview)

Two common paths:

Debian then Proxmox packages — installimage a minimal Debian, then add the Proxmox VE repository and install proxmox-ve. You must replace Debian’s kernel with Proxmox’s and fix networking for a single public IPv4 (routed extra IPs or a private bridge).
Unattended ISO from Rescue — community tutorials build a Proxmox auto-install ISO in Rescue and write it to the NVMe drives. See Hetzner Community: “Unattended Proxmox VE Installation on a Hetzner Dedicated Server”.

After Proxmox exists, you will use

root@pve ~ # pveversionroot@pve ~ # qm listroot@pve ~ # pct listroot@pve ~ # df -hroot@pve ~ # zpool status

Web UI: https://YOUR.SERVER.IP:8006. First login is root with the password you set at install. Hetzner networking (single IPv4, extra IPs, IPv6) is the part people get stuck on — follow a current Hetzner-specific guide when you are ready, do not copy random /etc/network/interfaces from old forum posts.

Important note

ZFS on Proxmox is popular with RAID1 mirrors. ZFS wants extra RAM. If you already used mdadm RAID + ext4 via installimage, do not mix that with ZFS on the same disks without a planned reinstall.

Incus on Hetzner (overview)

On an already-installed Ubuntu or Debian:

Typical direction (run when you are ready)

root@server ~ # apt updateroot@server ~ # apt install -y incusroot@server ~ # incus admin initroot@server ~ # incus list

incus admin init is a wizard: storage pool (dir, ZFS, btrfs, LVM), network bridge, and clustering. Start with a directory or LVM pool on your existing RAID until you know you want ZFS.

There is also IncusOS, a dedicated image that can be installed from Rescue on some Hetzner models with TPM and UEFI Secure Boot. That path needs a KVM session from Hetzner support. Official notes: Installing IncusOS on a Hetzner dedicated server.

When you come back to this page

Bring a written plan: Debian vs Ubuntu, mdadm vs ZFS, how guests get IP addresses, and where backups go. The Rescue, RAID, and partitioning chapters still apply — a hypervisor sits on top of those decisions.