Proxmox: Deleting a VM

Proxmox is an open-source server virtualization platform that uses a modified Ubuntu kernel to deploy and manage multiple virtualized environments on a single bare metal server. It tightly integrates two virtualization technologies, KVM for full virtual machines (VM) and LXC for lightweight containers, all managed through a central, web-based interface.

In this article, you will learn how to delete a VM in Proxmox, as well as how to remove a VM disk and snapshot.

Prerequisites

• A running Proxmox Virtual Environment.
• A virtual machine set up on Proxmox.

Delete a VM in Proxmox

There are two ways to delete a virtual machine in Proxmox:

• Using the graphical user interface (GUI).
• Using the command line.

Deleting a VM via GUI

To delete a VM using the Proxmox graphical user interface, follow the steps outlined below:

1. Log in to the Proxmox web console.

2. Select the VM you want to delete.

3. If the machine is running, click the Shutdown button before moving on to the next step. The VM has to be shut down or stopped.

4. Select More to open a drop-down menu and click Remove.

5. To confirm, enter the VM ID and click Remove.

Deleting a VM via Command Line

To delete a Proxmox VM using the command line:

1. Log into the node.

2. Find the VMID (virtual machine ID) in the VM list by running the command:

cat /etc/pve/.vmlist

The output lists information about the VMs created, including their IDs. In the example below, there is only one VM with the ID 100.

3. Shut down or stop the VM by running:

qm shutdown [vmid]

Alternatively, type the following command:

qm stop [vmid]

4. Copy the ID number and add it to the following command to remove the virtual machine:

qm destroy [vmid]

Delete a VM Disk on Proxmox

In most cases, Proxmox deletes the associated disks when a virtual machine is deleted. To remove a disk manually, use the GUI or the terminal.

Delete a VM Disk via GUI

To delete a VM disk using graphical interface:

1. Select the virtual machine from the resource tree and open the Hardware tab.

2. Click the disk you want to delete.

3. Use the Remove button to instruct Proxmox to delete the disk.

4. Confirm you want to remove the disk and permanently erase all data with Yes.

Delete a VM Disk via Command Line

Below is the procedure for deleting a VM disk using CLI:

1. List basic information of all the datasets on the system with:

zfs list

The output displays the names of the datasets and the values of their used, available, referenced, and mounted properties. For instance:

rpool/data/vm-100-disk-1      10G  5G  10G  -

2. To delete a disk via the command line, run:

zfs destroy -f [disk_path]

Therefore, to delete the above mentioned sample disk, run:

zfs destroy -f rpool/data/vm-100-disk-1

Delete VM Snapshots on Proxmox

Delete a VM snapshot in Proxmox via GUI or command line.

Remove a VM Snapshot via GUI

Follow the steps below to remove a VM snapshot using the graphical interface:

1. Select the VM in the menu on the left and open the Snapshots tab from the panel.

2. Select the snapshot you want to delete.

3. Confirm you want to remove the selected snapshot with Yes.

Remove a VM Snapshot via Command Line

To remove a VM snapshot using CLI:

1. List all snapshots of the specified virtual machine by running the command:

qm listsnapshot [vmid]

Replace [vmid] with the virtual machine's ID.

The sample output below shows that VM 100 includes snapshot1 and the virtual machine's current state.

2. To delete a snapshot, use:

qm delsnapshot [vmid] [snapshot_name]

In the example below, Proxmox deletes the specified snapshot (snapshot1) and the data related to it.

3. To confirm the snapshot has been removed, run the qm listsnashot command again.

Conclusion

In this article, you learned how to delete VMs in Proxmox, their disks, and snapshots. To see how Proxmox compares to other type-1 hypervisors, check out Proxmox vs. Hyper-V and Proxmox vs. ESXi.