Proxmox VM Optimizer

A comprehensive optimization tool specifically designed for Linux virtual machines running on Proxmox VE. This tool automatically detects your system configuration and applies optimal settings for memory management, disk I/O, network performance, and Proxmox-specific features.

Author: David Touzeau [email protected] License: MIT Language: Go 1.21+

Features

Memory Optimization
- Dynamic swappiness adjustment based on available RAM
- Cache pressure tuning
- Transparent hugepages configuration
- Dirty page ratio optimization
- Optional cache dropping for cleanup
Disk I/O Optimization
- Automatic SSD/HDD detection
- Optimal I/O scheduler selection (none/mq-deadline for SSD, mq-deadline/bfq for HDD)
- Read-ahead buffer tuning
- I/O queue depth optimization
- Persistent udev rules creation
Network Performance
- TCP buffer size optimization
- BBR/CUBIC congestion control
- TCP Fast Open enablement
- Connection tracking optimization
- IPv6 optimizations
Proxmox VM Specific
- QEMU Guest Agent installation and configuration
- VirtIO driver optimization (multi-queue support)
- VirtIO balloon driver support
- Hardware RNG optimization
- CPU governor tuning
- Unnecessary service disabling
Safety Features
- Automatic backup before changes
- Full rollback capability
- Dry-run mode
- Persistent configuration across reboots

Installation

Prerequisites

Go 1.21 or higher
Root/sudo access
Linux kernel 4.0+ (recommended 5.0+)
Running on a Proxmox VM (for VM-specific optimizations)

Build

cd proxmox-optimizer
go mod init proxmox-optimizer
go mod tidy
go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o proxmox-optimizer

Install System-wide

sudo cp proxmox-optimizer /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/proxmox-optimizer

Usage

Basic Usage

Show system information:

sudo proxmox-optimizer -info

Apply all optimizations with automatic backup:

sudo proxmox-optimizer

Dry-run to see what would be changed:

sudo proxmox-optimizer -dry-run

Optimization Profiles

Apply specific optimization categories:

# Memory optimizations only
sudo proxmox-optimizer -optimize memory

# Disk I/O optimizations only
sudo proxmox-optimizer -optimize disk

# Network optimizations only
sudo proxmox-optimizer -optimize network

# Proxmox VM specific optimizations only
sudo proxmox-optimizer -optimize proxmox

# All optimizations (default)
sudo proxmox-optimizer -optimize all

Aggressive Mode

For high-performance systems (use with caution):

sudo proxmox-optimizer -aggressive

Aggressive mode applies:

Swappiness = 1 (minimal swapping)
Smaller dirty page ratios
BBR congestion control
Performance CPU governor
Cache dropping
Higher buffer sizes

Configuration File

Generate a sample configuration:

proxmox-optimizer -generate-config > optimizer-config.json

Use custom configuration:

sudo proxmox-optimizer -config optimizer-config.json

Example configuration file:

{
  "memory": {
    "swappiness": 10,
    "cache_pressure": 100,
    "dirty_ratio": 15,
    "dirty_background_ratio": 10,
    "enable_hugepages": true,
    "drop_caches": false
  },
  "disk": {
    "ssd_scheduler": "mq-deadline",
    "hdd_scheduler": "mq-deadline",
    "readahead_ssd": 256,
    "readahead_hdd": 2048,
    "nr_requests": 128,
    "enable_write_cache": false
  },
  "network": {
    "rmem_max": 16777216,
    "wmem_max": 16777216,
    "tcp_mem_min": 4096,
    "tcp_mem_default": 87380,
    "tcp_mem_max": 16777216,
    "congestion_control": "cubic",
    "netdev_max_backlog": 2000,
    "somaxconn": 1024,
    "enable_ipv6": true
  },
  "proxmox": {
    "enable_guest_agent": true,
    "optimize_virtio": true,
    "enable_balloon": true,
    "optimize_rng": true,
    "enable_timesync": true,
    "disable_unnecessary_services": false,
    "cpu_governor": "ondemand"
  }
}

Backup and Restore

Create backup without applying changes:

sudo proxmox-optimizer -backup -dry-run

Disable automatic backup:

sudo proxmox-optimizer -backup=false

Restore from backup:

sudo proxmox-optimizer -restore /var/backups/proxmox-optimizer/backup-20250114-120000.tar.gz

List available backups:

ls -lh /var/backups/proxmox-optimizer/

What Gets Optimized

Sysctl Parameters

The tool modifies the following kernel parameters:

Memory:

vm.swappiness - Controls swap usage preference
vm.vfs_cache_pressure - Inode/dentry cache reclaim pressure
vm.dirty_ratio - Percentage of RAM that can be filled with dirty pages
vm.dirty_background_ratio - Background writeback threshold
vm.min_free_kbytes - Minimum free memory reserved
vm.page-cluster - Swap readahead pages (0 for SSD)

Network:

net.core.rmem_max / net.core.wmem_max - Maximum socket buffer sizes
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem / net.ipv4.tcp_wmem - TCP buffer sizes
net.ipv4.tcp_mem - TCP memory allocation
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control - Congestion control algorithm
net.core.netdev_max_backlog - Network device backlog
net.core.somaxconn - Socket listen backlog
net.ipv4.tcp_fastopen - TCP Fast Open
net.ipv4.tcp_mtu_probing - Path MTU discovery
Many more TCP/IP optimizations...

Disk Settings

Per-device optimizations:

I/O scheduler (/sys/block/*/queue/scheduler)
Read-ahead buffer (/sys/block/*/queue/read_ahead_kb)
I/O queue depth (/sys/block/*/queue/nr_requests)
Write cache settings (/sys/block/*/queue/write_cache)
Entropy collection (/sys/block/*/queue/add_random)

Persistent rules:

Udev rules created at /etc/udev/rules.d/60-proxmox-optimizer-disk.rules

System Services

Installed/Enabled:

qemu-guest-agent - Communication with Proxmox host
rng-tools - Hardware RNG utilization
systemd-timesyncd - Time synchronization

Potentially Disabled (in aggressive mode):

bluetooth.service
ModemManager.service
avahi-daemon.service
cups.service

Verification

Check applied settings:

# Check sysctl values
sysctl vm.swappiness
sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control

# Check disk scheduler
cat /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

# Check QEMU guest agent
systemctl status qemu-guest-agent

# View all custom settings
cat /etc/sysctl.d/99-proxmox-optimizer.conf

Performance Testing

Before and after benchmarks:

# Disk I/O
sudo fio --name=randread --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=16 --rw=randread --bs=4k --direct=1 --size=1G --numjobs=4 --runtime=60 --group_reporting

# Network throughput
iperf3 -c <server-ip>

# Memory bandwidth
sysbench memory run

Compatibility

Tested on:

Debian 11/12
Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04
Proxmox VE 7.x/8.x guests
Kernel 5.4+

Should work on any systemd-based Linux distribution.

Safety & Warnings

Always test in a development environment first
Backups are created automatically at /var/backups/proxmox-optimizer/
Aggressive mode may cause issues on systems with limited resources
Some optimizations require reboot to take full effect
BBR congestion control requires kernel module support

Troubleshooting

BBR not available

# Check if BBR module is available
modprobe tcp_bbr
lsmod | grep bbr

# If not available, use cubic (default)

Permission denied errors

# Ensure you're running as root
sudo proxmox-optimizer -info

Changes not persisting after reboot

# Verify sysctl config
cat /etc/sysctl.d/99-proxmox-optimizer.conf

# Manually reload
sudo sysctl --system

Udev rules not applying

# Reload udev
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Uninstall

Remove all optimizations:

# Restore from latest backup
LATEST_BACKUP=$(ls -t /var/backups/proxmox-optimizer/backup-*.tar.gz | head -1)
sudo proxmox-optimizer -restore "$LATEST_BACKUP"

# Or manually remove
sudo rm /etc/sysctl.d/99-proxmox-optimizer.conf
sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/60-proxmox-optimizer-disk.rules
sudo sysctl --system
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

Contributing

This tool is part of a larger system optimization toolkit. Improvements welcome!

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Author

David Touzeau [email protected]

Created for optimizing Proxmox VE virtual machines in production environments.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 2 Commits
ProxMoxDetector		ProxMoxDetector
DEPLOYMENT.md		DEPLOYMENT.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
QUICKSTART.md		QUICKSTART.md
README.md		README.md
backup.go		backup.go
config.go		config.go
disk.go		disk.go
go.mod		go.mod
go.work		go.work
install.sh		install.sh
main.go		main.go
memory.go		memory.go
network.go		network.go
optimizer-config-aggressive.json		optimizer-config-aggressive.json
optimizer-config.json		optimizer-config.json
proxmox.go		proxmox.go
sysinfo.go		sysinfo.go
utils.go		utils.go

License

dtouzeau/proxmox-optimizer

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Proxmox VM Optimizer

Features

Installation

Prerequisites

Build

Install System-wide

Usage

Basic Usage

Optimization Profiles

Aggressive Mode

Configuration File

Backup and Restore

What Gets Optimized

Sysctl Parameters

Disk Settings

System Services

Verification

Performance Testing

Compatibility

Safety & Warnings

Troubleshooting

BBR not available

Permission denied errors

Changes not persisting after reboot

Udev rules not applying

Uninstall

Contributing

License

Contributing

Author

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