{
"meta": {
"title": "Glossary | ProxMenux Documentation",
"description": "Definitions of the technical terms used throughout the ProxMenux documentation — Proxmox concepts (VM, LXC, qm, pct, pmxcfs), virtualization fundamentals (KVM, IOMMU, VFIO, OVMF), storage (ZFS, ARC, LVM, vzdump, PBS), network (bridge, VLAN, nftables) and ProxMenux-specific terminology.",
"ogTitle": "Glossary | ProxMenux Documentation",
"ogDescription": "Quick reference for the technical terms used across the ProxMenux documentation."
},
"header": {
"title": "Glossary",
"description": "Definitions of the technical terms used throughout the ProxMenux documentation. Covers Proxmox concepts, virtualization fundamentals, storage, networking, Linux internals and ProxMenux-specific terminology.",
"section": "Glossary"
},
"callout": {
"title": "How to use this page",
"bodyRich": "Each entry has a category badge and a short definition. See also links jump to the doc page where the term is most relevant. Use the A–Z navigation below to scroll directly to a letter."
},
"jumpHeading": "Jump to letter",
"seeAlsoLabel": "See also:",
"aliasesLabel": "also:",
"missingCallout": {
"title": "Missing a term?",
"leadRich": "If a term in the docs isn't defined here, open an issue or PR on GitHub — the glossary lives in web/app/docs/glossary/page.tsx as a simple data array."
},
"entries": [
{
"term": "ACS",
"aliases": [
"Access Control Services",
"ACS override"
],
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "PCIe extension that prevents direct peer-to-peer traffic between devices, ensuring each device sits in its own IOMMU group. The ACS override kernel patch loosens this so devices in the same IOMMU group can be passed to different VMs — useful but a security trade-off.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Add Controller or NVMe to VM",
"href": "/docs/disk-manager/add-controller-nvme-vm"
}
]
},
{
"term": "ARC",
"aliases": [
"Adaptive Replacement Cache"
],
"category": "Storage",
"definitionRich": "ZFS's in-memory read cache. Holds recently and frequently used data blocks; size scales with available host RAM. Defaults are aggressive — Proxmox post-install lets you cap it.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Post-Install: Storage",
"href": "/docs/post-install/storage"
},
{
"label": "ZFS commands",
"href": "/docs/help-info/zfs-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Bind mount",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "A Linux feature that exposes one part of the filesystem at another path. ProxMenux uses bind mounts to share host directories with LXC containers via pct set -mpN.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "LXC Mount Points",
"href": "/docs/storage-share/lxc-mount-points"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Bond",
"aliases": [
"Network bond",
"Link aggregation"
],
"category": "Network",
"definitionRich": "Combines multiple physical network interfaces into one logical interface — for redundancy (active-backup), throughput (LACP / 802.3ad) or both. Configured in /etc/network/interfaces."
},
{
"term": "Bridge",
"aliases": [
"vmbrX",
"vmbr0",
"Linux bridge"
],
"category": "Network",
"definitionRich": "A virtual layer-2 switch on the host. vmbr0 is the default Proxmox bridge that connects VMs and containers to the physical network. Multiple bridges (vmbr1, vmbr2...) isolate groups of guests.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Bridge analysis & guided repair",
"href": "/docs/network/bridge-analysis"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Ceph",
"category": "Storage",
"definitionRich": "Distributed storage system tightly integrated with Proxmox for hyper-converged clusters. Provides object, block and file storage backed by OSDs (Object Storage Daemons). PVE 9 requires Ceph 19.x (Squid).",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Upgrade PVE 8 to PVE 9",
"href": "/docs/utils/upgrade-pve8-pve9"
}
]
},
{
"term": "CT",
"aliases": [
"Container",
"LXC container"
],
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "Short for \"container\" — Proxmox terminology for an LXC instance. Has a numeric CTID that maps to /etc/pve/lxc/<CTID>.conf. See also LXC.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "VM and CT Management",
"href": "/docs/help-info/vm-ct-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "deb822",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Modern format for APT repository sources, using .sources files with structured key/value blocks (Types, URIs, Suites, Components, Signed-By). Replaces the legacy single-line .list format. Standard from PVE 9 / Debian Trixie onward.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Upgrade PVE 8 to PVE 9",
"href": "/docs/utils/upgrade-pve8-pve9"
}
]
},
{
"term": "dGPU",
"aliases": [
"Discrete GPU"
],
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "A standalone graphics card on its own PCIe slot (e.g. NVIDIA RTX, AMD Radeon). Contrasts with iGPU. Typically used for VFIO passthrough to a single VM, not for sharing across LXCs.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Add GPU to VM (Passthrough)",
"href": "/docs/hardware/gpu-vm-passthrough"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Dialog",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "ncurses-based tool for drawing menus, prompts and progress bars in a terminal. ProxMenux is built around dialog menus."
},
{
"term": "DKMS",
"aliases": [
"Dynamic Kernel Module Support"
],
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Framework that automatically rebuilds out-of-tree kernel modules (NVIDIA, ZFS, custom drivers) when the kernel is upgraded. Avoids modules being left behind after kernel updates.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Install Coral TPU (Host)",
"href": "/docs/hardware/install-coral-tpu-host"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Fail2Ban",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Intrusion prevention service that watches log files for repeated authentication failures and bans the offending IPs at the firewall layer. ProxMenux ships pre-configured jails for SSH, the Proxmox UI and the Monitor.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Fail2Ban",
"href": "/docs/security/fail2ban"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Fastfetch",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "ASCII-art system info tool that runs on shell login (the \"system summary banner\"). Replaces the older neofetch; available as an opt-in option in ProxMenux Post-Install.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Post-Install: Optional",
"href": "/docs/post-install/optional"
}
]
},
{
"term": "GRUB",
"aliases": [
"GRand Unified Bootloader"
],
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Boot loader for most Linux distributions. Configuration lives in /etc/default/grub + /boot/grub/. Modified for IOMMU enablement, kernel parameters and EFI boot entries. Run update-grub after edits.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "GPU Passthrough commands",
"href": "/docs/help-info/gpu-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "iGPU",
"aliases": [
"Integrated GPU"
],
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "Graphics processor built into the CPU package (Intel UHD / Iris, AMD Radeon Vega in Ryzen APUs). Typically shared across multiple LXC containers via /dev/dri rather than passed through to a single VM.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Add GPU to LXC",
"href": "/docs/hardware/igpu-acceleration-lxc"
}
]
},
{
"term": "ifupdown / ifupdown2",
"category": "Network",
"definitionRich": "The classic Debian network configuration system that reads /etc/network/interfaces. ifupdown2 is the rewritten version Proxmox uses by default — supports live reload via ifreload -a."
},
{
"term": "initramfs",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Initial RAM filesystem the kernel uses at boot before the real root filesystem is mounted. Contains drivers needed early (storage, encryption, RAID). Rebuilt with update-initramfs -u -k all after VFIO, IOMMU or storage driver changes."
},
{
"term": "IOMMU",
"aliases": [
"Input/Output Memory Management Unit",
"VT-d",
"AMD-Vi"
],
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "Hardware feature (Intel VT-d / AMD-Vi) that lets PCIe devices be safely assigned directly to guest VMs. Required for GPU and disk-controller passthrough. Must be enabled both in BIOS / UEFI and in the kernel command line (intel_iommu=on or amd_iommu=on).",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Post-Install: Virtualization",
"href": "/docs/post-install/virtualization"
},
{
"label": "Add GPU to VM (Passthrough)",
"href": "/docs/hardware/gpu-vm-passthrough"
}
]
},
{
"term": "IOMMU group",
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "The smallest unit of devices that the IOMMU can isolate from each other. All devices in a group must be passed through together — usually one device, but multi-function cards or shared root-port devices land in the same group. Listed via find /sys/kernel/iommu_groups/ -type l | sort -V."
},
{
"term": "iSCSI",
"aliases": [
"Internet SCSI"
],
"category": "Storage",
"definitionRich": "Network protocol that exposes block storage over IP — a remote disk appears as a local SCSI device. Registered as Proxmox storage via pvesm add iscsi.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Add iSCSI target as Proxmox storage",
"href": "/docs/storage-share/host-iscsi"
}
]
},
{
"term": "KVM",
"aliases": [
"Kernel-based Virtual Machine"
],
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "Linux kernel module that turns the host into a hypervisor. Combined with QEMU for device emulation, it's the foundation Proxmox uses to run VMs."
},
{
"term": "LVM",
"aliases": [
"Logical Volume Manager"
],
"category": "Storage",
"definitionRich": "Linux storage stack that abstracts physical disks into volume groups (VG) of logical volumes (LV). Proxmox uses LVM-thin pools for VM disks by default. Concise tools: pvs, vgs, lvs.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Storage and Disks commands",
"href": "/docs/help-info/storage-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "LXC",
"aliases": [
"Linux Containers"
],
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "OS-level virtualization technology — multiple isolated user-space instances share the host's kernel. Lighter and faster than VMs but less isolated. Proxmox manages LXC containers via the pct CLI.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "VM and CT Management",
"href": "/docs/help-info/vm-ct-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Lynis",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Open-source security auditor (by CISOfy) that scans the host and prints a hardening score plus concrete remediation hints. ProxMenux installs the latest from upstream GitHub rather than the (older) Debian package.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Lynis",
"href": "/docs/security/lynis"
}
]
},
{
"term": "MAC address",
"aliases": [
"Hardware address"
],
"category": "Network",
"definitionRich": "48-bit identifier burnt into a NIC's firmware. Used by Proxmox Persistent Network Names to pin interface names (eno1, enp3s0) so they survive PCI re-enumeration.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Persistent interface names",
"href": "/docs/network/persistent-names"
}
]
},
{
"term": "MOTD",
"aliases": [
"Message of the Day"
],
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Text shown after SSH login. Stored in /etc/motd. ProxMenux Post-Install can add a banner here; the uninstaller restores the backup if you applied it."
},
{
"term": "NFS",
"aliases": [
"Network File System"
],
"category": "Storage",
"definitionRich": "Unix-native network file sharing protocol. Registered as Proxmox storage via pvesm add nfs; also usable as an LXC client / server via dedicated ProxMenux flows.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Storage & Share Manager",
"href": "/docs/storage-share"
}
]
},
{
"term": "nftables / iptables",
"category": "Network",
"definitionRich": "Linux firewall systems. nftables is the modern engine; iptables is the legacy front-end (still works as a translation layer). Proxmox's pve-firewall emits nftables rules from the cluster firewall config.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Network commands",
"href": "/docs/help-info/network-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "nouveau",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Open-source NVIDIA driver bundled with the Linux kernel. Must be blacklisted before installing the proprietary NVIDIA driver, otherwise both load and the install fails.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "NVIDIA installation guide",
"href": "/guides/nvidia"
}
]
},
{
"term": "no-subscription repo",
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "Free Proxmox repository for users without an enterprise subscription. Less polished QA than the enterprise repo (slightly riskier for production) but free. Set up automatically by the ProxMenux Post-Install.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Post-Install: Basic Settings",
"href": "/docs/post-install/basic-settings"
}
]
},
{
"term": "OVA / OVF",
"aliases": [
"Open Virtualization Format"
],
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "DMTF-standard packaging formats for portable VMs. OVA is a single TAR archive; OVF is a directory with an XML descriptor + external VMDK files. Importable on VMware, VirtualBox and Proxmox.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Export VM to OVA / OVF",
"href": "/docs/utils/export-vm"
},
{
"label": "Import VM from OVA / OVF",
"href": "/docs/utils/import-vm"
}
]
},
{
"term": "OVMF",
"aliases": [
"UEFI firmware",
"Open Virtual Machine Firmware"
],
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "UEFI firmware implementation for VMs. Set with qm set <vmid> -bios ovmf. Required for Windows 11, Secure Boot, and most modern OS installs. Pair with an efidisk0 to persist EFI variables.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Add GPU to VM (Passthrough)",
"href": "/docs/hardware/gpu-vm-passthrough"
}
]
},
{
"term": "PBS",
"aliases": [
"Proxmox Backup Server"
],
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "Standalone product from Proxmox for incremental, deduplicated, encrypted VM / CT backups. Recommended over plain vzdump when you have a separate machine to host it on."
},
{
"term": "pct",
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "CLI tool for managing LXC containers in Proxmox: pct list / start / stop / shutdown / config / enter / exec / push / pull / destroy.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "VM and CT Management",
"href": "/docs/help-info/vm-ct-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "pmxcfs",
"aliases": [
"Proxmox Cluster Filesystem"
],
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "FUSE-based virtual filesystem mounted at /etc/pve/. Replicates configuration changes across all cluster nodes in real time. Editing a file under /etc/pve/ propagates automatically."
},
{
"term": "pveam",
"aliases": [
"Proxmox VE Appliance Manager"
],
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "CLI for managing the local catalog of CT templates. pveam update refreshes the index; pveam available lists templates; pveam download <storage> <template> downloads one."
},
{
"term": "pveproxy",
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "The HTTPS service that serves the Proxmox web UI on port 8006 and the web terminal. Restarted automatically during major upgrades — which is why ProxMenux refuses to run the PVE 8 → 9 upgrade from the web terminal."
},
{
"term": "pvesm",
"aliases": [
"Proxmox Storage Manager"
],
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "CLI tool for managing Proxmox storage. pvesm status shows all configured storages; pvesm add <type> registers new ones (NFS, Samba, iSCSI, dir, ZFS, LVM, …).",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Storage and Disks commands",
"href": "/docs/help-info/storage-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Privileged container",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "LXC container where the root user inside the container is root on the host (UIDs not shifted). Required for hardware passthrough (USB devices, GPU sharing) and Samba / NFS server inside the CT. Less secure than unprivileged — use only when needed."
},
{
"term": "ProxMenux Monitor",
"category": "ProxMenux",
"definitionRich": "Optional web dashboard installed alongside ProxMenux. Serves real-time host stats (CPU / RAM / disk / network), VM and LXC overview, login + 2FA, on TCP port 8008.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "ProxMenux Monitor",
"href": "/docs/settings/proxmenux-monitor"
}
]
},
{
"term": "qcow2",
"aliases": [
"QEMU Copy-On-Write v2"
],
"category": "Storage",
"definitionRich": "Default VM disk image format on Proxmox directory storage. Supports thin provisioning, snapshots, and copy-on-write. Convert with qemu-img convert -O qcow2 ...."
},
{
"term": "qm",
"aliases": [
"QEMU Manager"
],
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "CLI tool for managing VMs in Proxmox: qm list / start / stop / shutdown / config / set / destroy / importdisk / migrate. Sister command of pct for containers.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "VM and CT Management",
"href": "/docs/help-info/vm-ct-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Q35",
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "Modern QEMU machine type emulating an Intel Q35 chipset with PCIe support. Recommended over the older i440FX for VMs that need PCIe passthrough or modern guest OS support. Set with qm set <vmid> -machine q35."
},
{
"term": "QEMU",
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "Generic, open-source machine emulator and virtualizer. Combined with KVM in Proxmox to run VMs at near-native speed."
},
{
"term": "rclone",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Command-line tool that talks to ~50 cloud storage providers (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Mega, S3, …). Used in the Proxmox cloud-backup guide to mount a personal cloud as a directory the host can write vzdump archives to.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Backup to Personal Cloud",
"href": "/guides/backup_cloud"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Samba / SMB / CIFS",
"category": "Storage",
"definitionRich": "Microsoft's file-sharing protocol family. SMB is the protocol; Samba is the open-source Linux implementation; CIFS is an older SMB dialect. Registered as Proxmox storage via pvesm add cifs.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Storage & Share Manager",
"href": "/docs/storage-share"
}
]
},
{
"term": "SeaBIOS",
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "Open-source legacy BIOS implementation used by QEMU. Default firmware for new VMs unless you switch to OVMF. Suitable for older OSes and simple Linux installs that don't need UEFI."
},
{
"term": "smartctl / SMART",
"aliases": [
"Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology"
],
"category": "Storage",
"definitionRich": "Built-in disk diagnostics that report drive health, error counts and self-test results. smartctl (from smartmontools) is the CLI; for NVMe drives, the nvme-cli package adds NVMe-specific commands.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "SMART Disk Health & Test",
"href": "/docs/disk-manager/smart-disk-test"
},
{
"label": "Storage commands → SMART section",
"href": "/docs/help-info/storage-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "systemd / systemctl / journalctl",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Modern init system used by Debian / Proxmox. systemctl manages services (start / stop / enable / status). journalctl reads the binary log written by systemd-journald."
},
{
"term": "sysctl",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Kernel parameter management. Reads /etc/sysctl.conf + /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf at boot. ProxMenux Post-Install ships a curated sysctl tuning profile.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Post-Install: Network",
"href": "/docs/post-install/network"
}
]
},
{
"term": "trixie",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Codename for Debian 13, the OS base for Proxmox VE 9. Predecessor: bookworm (Debian 12 / PVE 8).",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Upgrade PVE 8 to PVE 9",
"href": "/docs/utils/upgrade-pve8-pve9"
}
]
},
{
"term": "udev",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "Linux device manager. Reacts to hardware events and creates / removes entries under /dev. Custom rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/ persistently map MAC addresses to interface names, set up NVIDIA device nodes on driver load, etc."
},
{
"term": "UID / GID idmap",
"aliases": [
"UID shift"
],
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "In unprivileged LXC containers, UIDs and GIDs are shifted by +100000 on the host. Container UID 0 = host UID 100000, container UID 1000 = host UID 101000, etc. Affects file ownership on bind mounts.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "LXC Mount Points",
"href": "/docs/storage-share/lxc-mount-points"
}
]
},
{
"term": "Unprivileged container",
"category": "Linux",
"definitionRich": "LXC container where root inside is mapped to an unprivileged UID on the host (UID shift +100000). Safer than privileged but can't do hardware passthrough or run kernel-level services. Default for most use cases."
},
{
"term": "VFIO",
"aliases": [
"Virtual Function I/O"
],
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "Linux kernel framework for safe userspace device drivers — used to bind PCIe devices to VMs for direct passthrough. Enabled by loading the vfio, vfio_iommu_type1 and vfio_pci kernel modules, configured via /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Post-Install: Virtualization",
"href": "/docs/post-install/virtualization"
}
]
},
{
"term": "VirtIO",
"category": "Virtualization",
"definitionRich": "Family of paravirtualized device drivers (network, storage, balloon, GPU) that run faster than emulated legacy hardware (e.g. e1000 NICs, IDE disks). The guest needs the matching VirtIO driver — kernel-native on Linux, separate ISO install on Windows."
},
{
"term": "VLAN",
"aliases": [
"Virtual LAN"
],
"category": "Network",
"definitionRich": "802.1Q tags that segment one physical network into multiple logical networks. Configured per-bridge or per-NIC in /etc/network/interfaces."
},
{
"term": "VM",
"aliases": [
"Virtual Machine"
],
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "A full machine emulation managed by Proxmox via QEMU/KVM. Has a numeric VMID that maps to /etc/pve/qemu-server/<VMID>.conf. Heavier than LXC containers but fully isolated.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "VM and CT Management",
"href": "/docs/help-info/vm-ct-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "vzdump",
"category": "Proxmox",
"definitionRich": "Proxmox's built-in backup tool for VMs and CTs. Not incremental — every backup is a full snapshot. Configure modes (snapshot / suspend / stop), compression (zstd / pigz / lzo), retention and notification per job.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "Backup and Restore commands",
"href": "/docs/help-info/backup-commands"
}
]
},
{
"term": "ZFS",
"aliases": [
"Zettabyte File System"
],
"category": "Storage",
"definitionRich": "Combined filesystem and volume manager known for snapshots, send/receive replication, end-to-end checksums, compression and self-healing. Memory-hungry (see ARC) but extremely robust.",
"seeAlso": [
{
"label": "ZFS Management commands",
"href": "/docs/help-info/zfs-commands"
}
]
}
]
}