Installation

Proxmox Offline Mirror is released as standard Debian package and is available in the Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server and Proxmox Mail Gateway package repositories.

System Requirements

  • CPU: 64bit (x86-64 or AMD64), ideally 2+ Cores

  • Debian based system (physical host, VM or container)

  • Sufficient storage space for the local mirrors. For a basic Debian and Proxmox VE we recommend at least 150 GiB

  • A file system supporting hard links for both, the local host and the external medium. Note that most Linux derived file systems support hard links, but Windows derived ones (for example, *FAT) do not support hard links.

Installation via APT

If the host you want to install the proxmox-offline-mirror tools on, already has a package repository from a Proxmox solution configured, you can simply install the offline mirror tool with apt:

# apt update
# apt install proxmox-offline-mirror

If you do not have any Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server or Proxmox Mail Gateway repositories set up, see SecureApt and Set up the Repository on non Proxmox based systems for how to do so before using the commands above.

Debian Package Repositories

All Debian based systems use APT as a package management tool. The lists of repositories are defined in /etc/apt/sources.list and the .list files found in the /etc/apt/sources.d/ directory. Newer systems will also use .sources file in the new deb822 format found at the same location. Updates can be installed directly with the apt command line tool, or via the GUI.

APT sources.list files list one package repository per line, with the most preferred source listed first. Empty lines are ignored, and a # character anywhere on a line marks the remainder of that line as a comment. The information available from the configured sources is acquired by apt update.

SecureApt

The Release files in the repositories are signed with GnuPG. APT is using these signatures to verify that all packages are from a trusted source.

Tip

If you install Proxmox Offline Mirror on an existing Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server or Proxmox Mail Gateway, the verification key will already be present.

If you install Proxmox Offline Mirror on top of Debian Bookworm, download and install the key with the following commands:

# wget https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-archive-keyring-trixie.gpg -O /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

Note

The wget command above adds the keyring for Proxmox releases based on Debian Trixie. Once the proxmox-archive-keyring package is installed, it will manage this file. At that point, the hashes below may no longer match the hashes of this file, as keys for new Proxmox releases get added or removed. This is intended, apt will ensure that only trusted keys are being used. Modifying this file is discouraged once `proxmox-archive-keyring` is installed.

Verify the SHA256 checksum afterwards with the expected output below:

# sha256sum /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg
136673be77aba35dcce385b28737689ad64fd785a797e57897589aed08db6e45 /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

and the md5sum, with the expected output below:

# md5sum /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg
77c8b1166d15ce8350102ab1bca2fcbf /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

Note

Make sure that the path that you download the key to, matches the path specified in the Signed-By: lines in your repository stanzas below.

Set up the Repository on non Proxmox based systems

If you do not have an internet facing installation of a Proxmox solution, or want to set up a dedicated system for Proxmox Offline Mirror, you need to configure the repository first.

This should work on any Linux distribution using apt as package manager, such as Debian, Ubuntu or derivatives thereof.

To configure the repository, you first need to set up the Proxmox release key. After that, add the repository URL to the APT sources lists.

We recommend re-using the pbs-client repository for installing the Proxmox Offline Mirror on non Proxmox systems.

Hint

While you could also use a Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server or Proxmox Mail Gateway repository, those ship some updated packages from Debian native packages, which would get pulled in, even if not required for the offline mirroring.

Repository for Debian 13 (Trixie) based releases

Here are the actual steps for a generic Debian 13 (Bookworm) based system.

First edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pbs-client.sources and add the following snippet:

File: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pbs-client.sources
Types: deb
URIs: http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pbs-client
Suites: trixie
Components: main
Signed-by: /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

Now you should be able to install the proxmox-offline-mirror package, see Installation via APT.

Repository for Debian 12 (Bookworm) based releases

Here are the actual steps for a generic Debian 12 (Bookworm) based system.

First edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pbs-client.list and add the following snippet:

File: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pbs-client.list
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pbs-client bookworm main

Now you should be able to install the proxmox-offline-mirror package, see Installation via APT.