Connect Your Infrastructure

ProxCenter connects to both Proxmox VE (PVE) hypervisors and Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) instances. You can add as many connections as you need -- ProxCenter supports multi-cluster environments out of the box.

Prerequisites

Before adding a connection, ensure:

• Your Proxmox VE instance is version 7.0 or later
• Your Proxmox Backup Server instance is version 2.0 or later
• The ProxCenter server (or hosted platform) has network access to your Proxmox hosts
• You have API credentials (API token recommended) or a valid username and password

Adding a Proxmox VE Connection

1. Log in to your ProxCenter dashboard
2. Navigate to Infrastructure in the sidebar
3. Click Add Connection and select Proxmox VE
4. Fill in the connection details:

Field	Description	Example
Name	A friendly display name for this connection	Production Cluster
Hostname / IP	The address of your Proxmox VE host	pve1.example.com or 192.168.1.10
Port	The Proxmox API port	8006 (default)
Authentication	API token (recommended) or username/password	See below

5. Click Test Connection to verify connectivity
6. Click Save to add the connection

info

When you connect to a single node in a Proxmox cluster, ProxCenter automatically discovers all other nodes in that cluster. You only need to add one connection per cluster.

Adding a Proxmox Backup Server Connection

1. Navigate to Infrastructure in the sidebar
2. Click Add Connection and select Proxmox Backup Server
3. Fill in the connection details:

Field	Description	Example
Name	A friendly display name	Backup Server DC1
Hostname / IP	The address of your PBS instance	pbs1.example.com or 192.168.1.20
Port	The PBS API port	8007 (default)
Authentication	API token (recommended) or username/password	See below

4. Click Test Connection to verify connectivity
5. Click Save to add the connection

Authentication Methods

API Token (Recommended)

API tokens are the preferred authentication method. They provide scoped access without exposing your main credentials, and they do not expire unless you configure them to.

Creating an API token on Proxmox VE:

# Create a token for the root user (full access)
pveum user token add root@pam proxcenter --privsep 0

The command outputs a Token ID and Secret. Save the secret immediately -- it is only shown once.

┌──────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ key          │ value                                │
╞══════════════╪══════════════════════════════════════╡
│ full-tokenid │ root@pam!proxcenter                  │
│ info         │ {"privsep":"0"}                      │
│ value        │ xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx │
└──────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┘

In ProxCenter, enter:

• Token ID: root@pam!proxcenter
• Token Secret: the value from the output above

tip

For production environments, consider creating a dedicated user with only the permissions ProxCenter needs instead of using root@pam. See the Proxmox documentation for details on creating users and roles.

Creating an API token on Proxmox Backup Server:

# Create a token on PBS
proxmox-backup-manager user token add root@pam proxcenter

The process is the same -- save the token secret and enter the Token ID and Secret in ProxCenter.

Username and Password

You can also authenticate with a Proxmox username and password. This is simpler to set up but less secure than API tokens:

• Passwords may be subject to rotation policies
• No way to scope permissions specifically for ProxCenter
• Multi-factor authentication on the Proxmox account may interfere

warning

If your Proxmox account uses two-factor authentication (2FA), you must use an API token instead. Username/password authentication does not support 2FA.

Connection Verification

After adding a connection, ProxCenter immediately performs a verification:

1. Connectivity check -- Confirms the host is reachable on the specified port
2. Authentication check -- Validates the provided credentials
3. Discovery -- Enumerates nodes, VMs, containers, and storage on the connected host

Once verified, your infrastructure appears in the dashboard within seconds. ProxCenter continuously syncs data from your connected hosts at regular intervals.

Multi-Cluster Support

ProxCenter is built for multi-cluster environments. You can connect:

• Multiple independent Proxmox VE clusters
• Multiple Proxmox Backup Server instances
• A mix of PVE and PBS connections

All connected infrastructure is accessible from the unified dashboard. You can filter views by cluster, node, or connection to focus on specific parts of your environment.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues when adding a connection, refer to the table below:

Issue	Possible Cause	Solution
Connection refused	Proxmox service not running, or wrong port	Verify pveproxy (PVE) or proxmox-backup-proxy (PBS) is running. Confirm the port is correct (8006 for PVE, 8007 for PBS).
Connection timeout	Firewall blocking traffic	Ensure the ProxCenter server can reach the Proxmox host. Check firewall rules on both sides. For self-hosted: curl -k https://proxmox-host:8006/api2/json
SSL / TLS certificate error	Self-signed certificate on Proxmox	Enable Skip TLS Verification in the connection settings. This is safe on private networks with self-signed certificates.
Authentication failed (401)	Invalid credentials or token	Double-check the Token ID format (user@realm!tokenname) and the secret. For username/password, verify the account exists and is not locked.
Permission denied (403)	Token has insufficient privileges	Ensure the API token was created with --privsep 0, or that the associated user has the required roles assigned.
Host not found	DNS resolution failure	Use the IP address directly instead of a hostname, or verify DNS resolution from the ProxCenter server.

tip

You can re-test any existing connection at any time from the Infrastructure page. Click the connection and select Test Connection to re-validate connectivity and authentication.

Next Steps

Now that your Proxmox infrastructure is connected, explore the dashboard and start managing your environment.