Run Docker containers natively in Proxmox 9.1 (OCI images)

Summary

Proxmox VE is a virtualization platform, like VMWare, but open source, based on Debian. It can run KVM virtual machines and Linux Containers (LXC). I've been using it for over 10 years, the first article I wrote mentioning it was in 2012. At home I have a 2 node Proxmox VE cluster consisting of 2 HP EliteDesk Mini machines, both running with 16 GB RAM and both an NVMe and SATA SSD with ZFS on root (256 GB). It's small enough (physically) and is just enough for my homelab needs specs wise. Proxmox VE 9.1 was released recently and this new version is able to run Docker containers / OCI images natively, no more hacks or VM's required to run docker. This post shows you how to run a simple container from a docker image. Recently I removed all Google Ads from this site due to their invasive tracking, as well as Google Analytics. Please, if you found this content useful, consider a small donation using any of the options below. It means the world to me if you show your appreciation and you'll help pay the server costs: GitHub Sponsorship PCBWay referral link (You get $5, I get $20 after you've placed an order) Digital Ocea referral link ($200 credit for 60 days. Spend $25 after your credit expires and I'll get $25!) Introduction and info on Proxmox VE 9.1's OCI image feature Linux Containers (LXC) in Proxmox VE behave more like a virtual machine than Docker containers, most of the time. A Docker container runs one application, an LXC container runs a whole slew (init system, ssh, an entire distribution). For as long as I can remember, Proxmox VE has no official way of running Docker containers natively. They recommend to run docker inside a Proxmox QEMU virtual machine. Sometimes (recently), Docker-inside-LXC actually breaks. But nobody wants to manage an entire VM just to play around with some containers and running Docker directly on your Proxmox VE host is a bad idea as well. They did something quite clever. They sort of convert the container image to a full fledged LXC...