According to XDA-Developers, experienced tech journalist Anurag outlines four practical methods for managing multiple Proxmox VE nodes without clustering them. The official Proxmox Datacenter Manager (PDM) provides a central Rust-based dashboard to manage thousands of endpoints. Using a Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) as a data hub enables reliable, cross-network VM migration and centralized disaster recovery. For nodes using ZFS, the pve-zsync tool allows scheduled replication over SSH, providing rollback capabilities. Finally, employing Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and Ansible enforces configuration consistency across all independent nodes, replacing the need for a shared cluster database.
The cluster conundrum
Here’s the thing: everyone hears “high availability” and thinks they need a cluster. But the requirements are brutal. Corosync demands sub-5ms latency, which basically kills any cross-site or geo-distributed setup. And let’s be honest, who hasn’t had a mini-heart attack worrying about split-brain scenarios or quorum loss locking up your whole infrastructure? The author’s point is spot-on: sometimes, chasing the “perfect” clustered setup creates more problems than it solves. Independent nodes can be a feature, not a bug. They let you mix hardware, separate failure domains, and avoid a single, fragile system that can take everything down.
Building a federated system
So what does this look like in practice? It’s about building a federated system with smart glue. PDM is that official glue—a single pane of glass. The PBS strategy is genuinely clever, turning a backup server into a universal data exchange. It solves the tricky “how do I move this VM between two nodes that can’t even talk directly?” problem. And pve-zsync? It’s a workhorse for ZFS users that gives you near-cluster replication without any of the cluster drama. You’re trading automatic failover for simplicity and reliability, which is a trade-off worth making for a huge number of workloads.
Code as your source of truth
This is where it gets really powerful. The Infrastructure as Code (IaC) approach with Terraform and Ansible isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the secret sauce. Without a cluster’s shared config database, you need a single source of truth. Your code becomes that. Think about it: user management on independent nodes is a nightmare. Ansible fixes that. Want identical VMs deployed across three different data centers? Terraform with provider aliasing handles it elegantly. This method arguably gives you more consistency and auditability than a traditional cluster. It’s a modern ops philosophy applied to a virtualization platform.
Is this the future of Proxmox ops?
Maybe. For edge deployments, branch offices, or just homelabs with mixed hardware, this “clusterless” architecture is incredibly compelling. It embraces the reality of distributed systems. The tools are all there, and they’re mature. You get geographic flexibility, hardware freedom, and operational simplicity. The trend in IT is towards declarative, code-driven infrastructure anyway. So, while the big, centralized cluster will always have its place for certain workloads, this federated model feels like the smarter path for a lot of real-world scenarios. It turns Proxmox’s flexibility into its greatest strength.
