Buy servers

Proxmox VE runs on any 64-bit x86 server with virtualisation extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V), so a Dell PowerEdge R660 or a Lenovo SR650 V4 will do the job. The parts that need careful sizing are memory, which is the first thing to run out as your virtual machines grow, and storage: both ZFS and Ceph want the controller in HBA mode, with no hardware RAID, and enterprise-grade SSDs with power-loss protection.

High availability needs three nodes; a two-node cluster also works if you add a QDevice to break quorum ties. If your storage runs on Ceph, the minimum is three nodes plus a dedicated network of 10 GbE or faster for its traffic. Looking at VMware alternatives? See our VMware to Proxmox migration service.

From a quiet tower for a small office to a GPU node, what drives the cost is memory, drives and, above all, GPUs, which is why we don’t publish list prices. The configurator gets you a quote with the exact components.

Between Dell PowerEdge and Lenovo ThinkSystem, the deciding factor is usually which vendor you already have a support contract with and what runs in the rest of your data centre, because living with two management tools (iDRAC on Dell, XClarity on Lenovo) is a daily cost. Supermicro pays off when you want to choose every component, as in a Ceph cluster or a GPU platform.

We install the server in your data centre, take it into production if you need us to, and look after it afterwards with third-party support.

With AI demand soaking up memory and SSDs, lead times across the industry run at three to six months. The models we keep in stock, including the Dell PowerEdge T360, R660, R760 and XE9680, Lenovo ThinkSystem and IBM Power10 and Power11, are delivered in under 30 days; see the full list of servers in stock with guaranteed delivery.

We work across Europe and support customers in English, Spanish and French.