Windows Server 2022 is the latest version of Microsoft's server operating system. It offers good performance and a more cloud-centric design. Windows Server is typically installed as a virtual machine and can be virtualized on almost every hypervisor out there.
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Can Windows 2022 be installed on Proxmox?
Windows 2022 is now publicly available for download in ISO or VHD file format. When installing Windows 2022 on Proxmox, you must ensure that you provide the recommended hardware requirements for the server to run smoothly. Also install compatible VirtIO drivers. After installing the operating system together with the VirtIO drivers, you can use Windows Server 2022 on Proxmox without any problems.
Is TPM a requirement for Windows Server 2022?
When the Windows 11 client operating system came out, Microsoft made TPM and Secure Boot a mandatory requirement to install the operating system on any PC hardware. However, this is not the case with Windows Server 2022. Although you can install Windows 2022 without a TPM, certain features will not work and will require Secure Boot and TPM.
In this blog post, we will install Windows Server 2022 with TPM and boot securely. If you are planning an installationWindows Server 2019 you can follow the article here.
Before you begin, you should have the following:
An ISO image of the Windows Server 2022 operating system- clickhereto download the software image.
From the software selection, select Download ISO.
You will be prompted to enter the details to download the Windows Server ISO file. After completing the form, you can choose the language and download the image from the server.
Note: The image size is approximately 4.3 GB, so please be careful when using the Internet.
- VirtIO controller– You can download the latestVirtIO Driver from here.
- Proxmox VE server installed and running.
Upload the Windows Server 2022 ISO file.
We already downloaded the Windows Server 2022 ISO image file on our management PC. Let's go ahead and upload it to the Proxmox server.
Log in to the Proxmox server and select the node where you want to install the operating system.
Select Local Storage -> ISO Images.
Click onmove upand a new upload wizard window opens.
Choose the ISOimage by clicking on a selected file,and then clickmove up.
Create the Windows Server 2022 virtual machine.
To create the virtual machine, click Create VM at the top right of the Proxmox VE server. You will access the virtual machine installation wizard.
General configuration.
In the general settings, configure the following.
node: Select the Proxmox node where you want to install Windows Server 2022.
virtual machine id: A new ID will be automatically created, starting from 100. If you want to change it, you can, otherwise leave the default.
Name: Enter the name of the virtual machine.
Click Continue.
Operating system configuration.
Here you should refer to the ISO image that we uploaded to the Proxmox server.
Use a CD/DVD image file
storage: Local
ISO image: Select the Windows Server 2022 ISO image file.
guest operating system:
Type: Microsoft Windows
performance: 11/2022.
Note: If you do not have 11/2022, which means you are not running the latest version of the Proxmox server, you can select the latest version from the list, which should be 10/2016/2019. That will also work fine.
system configuration.
I usually leave the default system settings. Since we are adding Secure Boot and TPM2.0 to the server, we need to make a few changes.
In Bios select OVMF (UEFI)., which allows a secure boot.
memoria TPM: local-lvm
performance: Elijah v2.0
Click onNext.
Set up the virtual disk.
BUS/device: Change it to VirtIO block.
disk size: By default, Proxmox allocates around 32 GB of disk space to the virtual machine. You can leave the default settings. Since I need more storage space, I choose 60 GB. So you can choose the size according to your needs.
CPU configuration.
Choose two cores in CPU settings as the default single CPU, which will suffice.
Memory.
You can keep the default 2 GB of RAM if you don't plan to perform other tasks inside the virtual machine. I specified 4 GB based on my requirements.
Configure the network.
Every Proxmox server setup would be different. Some use VLANs, some don't.
You can learn more about VLAN tagging on the Proxmox serverhere.
In my setup, I configured vmbr0 with the management network and vmbr1 with the VM traffic, separated with VLANs and VLAN 40 specifically for Windows workloads.
Bridge – Choose the VMnetwork Bridge interface.
VLAN Tag – If you are not using VLAN, you can leave this field blank; otherwise, specify the VLAN tag.
Finally, you will get the confirmation screen that will show you the setup snapshot of what you just did. If you want to make changes, you can.
make suredeactivatedie OptionStart after create.
Click onFinish.
Attach the VirtIO drivers to the Windows Server 2022 virtual machine.
For the Windows server installation to work properly, you must attach the previously downloaded VirtIO driver.
You will now see the Proxmox server deployed on Windows Server 2022. Select the virtual machine and click Hardware->Add->CD/DVD Drive.
I am emerging;
Use a CD/DVD image file.
storage: local
ISO image: Mount the VirtIO ISO file from your local computer and clickcreate.
Start installing Windows Server 2022 on Proxmox.
We have completed the setup on the Proxmox side. Now let's move on to installing the operating system.
Select the virtual machine and click Start VM. Proxmox boots to the virtual hard drive. Since it contains nothing, it switches to the second boot device, which is the Windows Server 2022 ISO CD/DVD we attached.
Now the VM installation wizard will open.
Select the following;
Language
time and money format
Keyboard Layout and click Next.
Click Install Now.
Select the addition of Windows Server.
Windows Server is available in two extensions, Standard or Datacenter, and CLI and GUI based installations are available in these extensions.
Since I need Datacenter with GUI access, I selected Datacenter with Desktop Experience and then clicked Next.
Accept the license agreement and click Next.
Choose the custom installation.
Set up the virtual disk.
We have set the virtual hard drive size to 60 GB in Proxmox. However, it is not available in the Windows setup wizard. This is because there is no driver to detect the virtual disk.
Click Load Driver.
Since we have already added the VirtIO driver as a CD/DVD in the Windows Server VM in Proxmox, you can click OK, which will automatically detect the driver from the CD drive.
Select Windows Server 2022 from the list and click Next.
After a few seconds, the automatically added virtual hard drive should appear.
Select the hard drive and click Next.
The installation will start and will take some time to complete.
After a few reboots, you will see that the installation is complete and you will be asked to set the administrator password. Set the password and click Finish.
Log in to Proxmox on Windows Server 2022.
You will be taken to the Windows lock screen and asked to press CTRL+ALT+DEL.
Pressing that on your Windows host takes you to the Windows host computer's settings. So from the console screen press the A key and select Ctrl and Alt from there.
And press the Delete key on your keyboard.
You will be prompted for the password. Since we already have CTRL and ALT selected in the Proxmox VNC console, we need to disable them to enter the password.
Disable Ctrl and Del and enter the administrator password.
Update the driver on Windows Server 2022.
Using the VirtIO driver we added, we need to update the drivers for the Windows Server virtual machine.
Click the Start menu and search for Computer Management.
Alternatively, you can go to Server Manager->Tools->Computer Management.
In the Computer Management window, select Device Manager.
You can see that a driver is missing in Other Devices -> PCI Device.
Right-click on the device and click Update Driver.
In the pop-up window, click Browse my computer for drivers.
And select the VirtIO CD drive for the driver by clicking Browse and clicking Next.
In my setup it is drive D.
After a few seconds, you will receive a message that the installation has been completed successfully.
As you can see there are no more drivers to install and everything looks good.
Install the guest agent on Windows Server 2022.
Finally, we need to install the KVM guest agent on the Windows server.
Open the VirtIO CD drive in Windows Explorer.
While we are installing 64-bit OS, you can double click qemu-ga-x86_64 to install qemu agent on Windows 2022.
You can now restart the virtual machine and it should boot directly into Windows Server 2022.
And it's ready to use on the Proxmox VE.
