Windows Users "Employees"

• Proxmox VMs for Users
• DNS Configurations
• Adding Users

Proxmox VMs for Users

Use, the following configurations to set up VMs for Windows 11 on Proxmox...

Name your machine, then move on to Operating System:

• Select your ISO and change the Type and Version accordingly.

• Select q35, OVMF, and QEMU agent.
• More importantly, make sure you select VirtIO SCSI

Next, configure Disks:

• Make sure you select VirtIO  Block as BUS device. Everything else can remain as default.
  

After configuring your CPU and Memory, configure your network as follows:

• Before starting your machine, you need to add the VirtIO driver as a CD/DVD. To do this, navigate to Hardware ---> Add ---> CD/DVD

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You can now boot up the machine. You should see the default Windows Installer Pop Up:

Select "I don't have a product key" and walk through the default setup. Once you reach the Installation Type, select Custom Install, then Load Driver:

Select "Browse":

Select your VirtIO CD ---> amd64 ---> w11:

Install the RedHat driver:

Continue through the set up and create a User for this machine. I'll be creating 4 VMs total, and this one will be User2. 

When setting up your machine, you'll be asked to connect to the network. To bypass this enter the following in CMD prompt:

• To get to CMD prompt, click SHIFT + F10
• You should now be able to select "I don't have internet" as an option:

Almost Done! Let your Device Finish Setting Up and then log in and open up File Explorer. Select your VirtIO drive and run the installer to install all components:

After finishing the install, you should now be connected to the internet. To verify this, navigate to your router (OPNsense in my case) and check to see if your computer is being assigned an IP.

• You can see that my VM now has an IP of 192.168.2.25
  • There are several other ways to check the internet connection. I did this so I could assign static IP and change the DNS route to point this machine to my Domain Controller so that I could add it to a Workgroup.
• You're all set, don't forget to update your Windows VM!

DNS Configurations

After setting up your VM and installing Windows 11 Pro, you'll need to configure some DNS routing to make sure your VMs can reach your Domain Controller. I've done this via my OPNsense router and I'll be using "User 2" to demonstrate, Windows 11 Pro VM I've set up. To do this, I configured DNS leases for the VMs via the web GUI as follows:

Navigate to Services ---> ISC DHCPv4 ---> Leases and find the IP of your Windows 11 Pro VM:

Next, select the "+" icon to add a static mapping:

To assign a static IP, enter the IP in the IP Address box:

Save and Apply Changes. You should know see the IP Assignment type change to "Static":

You may  note that there are now 2 listings for the same device. We now need to change the Adapter settings on the VM. To do this, navigate to Settings --> Network & Internet ---> Advanced Network Settings. Select "Edit" next to More Adapter Options:

Select IPv4 Properties, and assign it the static IP. We'll also assign it the DNS of Domain Controller we set up earlier. My Domain Controller is at 192.168.2.100, so I'll change properties accordingly:

After making these changes, you'll see only one assignment for this VM's mac address, a static one:

You're now ready to add it to your workgroup. Check the next page for how to add it! 

Adding Users

With everything configured properly, you should now be able to join your User VM to the Domain/Workgroup. To do this, navigate to Settings ---> About ---> Domain or workgroup in your Windows Settings:

Select Change and enter your Domain details. You will be prompted to enter admin credentials. Use your server admin credentials:

If successfully done, you should receive the following Welcome screen:

Repeat this on your other "Employee VMs" and you're all set!