proxmox
DockNimbus vs Proxmox VE
Both target self-hosters, but they work at different layers:
| DockNimbus | Proxmox VE | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Self-hosted cloud platform / IaC orchestrator | Hypervisor & virtualization management platform |
| Workloads | Docker containers, K3s pods, Compose stacks | Full VMs (KVM) + system containers (LXC) |
| Abstraction | Platform-level (manages infra + workloads) | Hypervisor-level (manages VMs/containers on hosts) |
| Target audience | Homelabbers, small teams, edge/IoT | Homelabbers, SMBs, enterprises |
| UI | CLI only | Full web UI + CLI |
| Cluster model | Central API + per-node agents | Peer cluster (Corosync) |
| Node provisioning | Automated via SSH | Manual Proxmox installation on each node |
| Networking | WireGuard mesh, EasyHAProxy, dnsmasq | Linux bridges, VLANs, OVS, SDN |
| Storage | NFS volumes, MinIO S3 | ZFS, Ceph, LVM, NFS, iSCSI, GlusterFS |
| IaC | Built-in YAML manifests | Not built-in — needs Terraform provider or Ansible |
| Container orchestration | Docker Swarm + K3s built-in | None — LXC containers are standalone |
| Live migration | Not supported | VM live migration between nodes |
| Backup | Not included | Built-in (vzdump) + Proxmox Backup Server |
| HA | Service replicas via Swarm/K3s | VM HA via fencing + automatic restart |
| GPU passthrough | Not supported | Full PCIe/GPU passthrough |
| Snapshots | Not included | VM/container snapshots |
| Minimum resources | Single RPi, ~256MB RAM | x86 server, ~2GB RAM (no ARM support) |
| ARM support | First-class (RPi + x86 mixed) | x86 only |
| Cost | Free | Free (community) or paid subscription |
| Base OS | Any Linux with SSH | Proxmox's Debian-based OS (replaces your OS) |
When to use which
DockNimbus — You want to deploy containerized applications across heterogeneous hardware (especially ARM) with minimal setup. You think in terms of services and workloads, not VMs.
Proxmox — You want full virtualization: run Windows VMs, pass through GPUs, snapshot and migrate VMs, or need workload isolation at the hypervisor level. You have x86 hardware and want a web UI.
Key philosophical difference
- Proxmox gives you virtual machines — you still need to set up everything inside them
- DockNimbus gives you a running platform — workloads deploy directly without an intermediate VM layer
They're actually very complementary: many people run Docker/K8s inside Proxmox VMs. DockNimbus cuts out that middle layer and goes straight from bare metal to workloads.