Proxmox_VMs_Update

Ansible role to update Proxmox VE hypervisor nodes, LXC containers, and VM guests.

What it does

Target	Method	Requires
Proxmox host nodes	apt dist-upgrade via SSH	SSH access to Proxmox host as root
LXC containers	pct exec <vmid> -- apt-get upgrade	Running on the Proxmox host
VM guests	apt dist-upgrade via SSH	SSH access to each VM guest

LXC containers are discovered automatically via pct list — no inventory entry needed.

Requirements

• Ansible >= 2.12
• Proxmox VE 7.x or 8.x (Debian Bullseye / Bookworm)
• SSH access to Proxmox nodes as root
• VM guests must be reachable via SSH and have apt (Debian/Ubuntu)

Quick start

# 1. Copy the example inventory and edit it
cp inventory/hosts.yml.example inventory/hosts.yml
$EDITOR inventory/hosts.yml

# 2. Dry-run (no changes applied)
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts.yml playbook.yml --check

# 3. Apply updates
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts.yml playbook.yml

Role variables

Variable	Default	Description
proxmox_update_reboot	false	Reboot after upgrade if /var/run/reboot-required exists
proxmox_update_reboot_timeout	600	Seconds to wait for host to come back after reboot
proxmox_update_upgrade_type	dist	apt upgrade type: safe, full, or dist
proxmox_update_autoremove	true	Run apt autoremove after upgrade
proxmox_update_autoclean	true	Run apt autoclean after upgrade
proxmox_update_cache_valid_time	0	Seconds before apt cache is stale (0 = always refresh)
proxmox_update_lxc	true	Update LXC containers via pct exec
proxmox_update_skip_stopped_lxc	true	Skip LXC containers that are stopped
proxmox_update_lxc_timeout	300	Per-container apt command timeout in seconds

Override any variable on the command line:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts.yml playbook.yml \
  -e proxmox_update_reboot=true \
  -e proxmox_update_upgrade_type=full

Selective execution with tags

# Update Proxmox hosts only (no LXC, no VMs)
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts.yml playbook.yml --tags host

# Update LXC containers only
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts.yml playbook.yml --tags lxc

# Update VM guests only
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts.yml playbook.yml --tags vms

# Run everything but skip reboots
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts.yml playbook.yml --skip-tags reboot

Directory structure

Proxmox_VMs_Update/
├── playbook.yml                   # Top-level playbook
├── inventory/
│   └── hosts.yml.example          # Copy → hosts.yml and edit
├── defaults/
│   └── main.yml                   # User-facing role variables
├── vars/
│   └── main.yml                   # Internal role constants
├── tasks/
│   ├── main.yml                   # Task orchestrator
│   ├── update_proxmox_host.yml    # Host apt upgrade tasks
│   ├── update_lxc_containers.yml  # LXC update tasks (via pct exec)
│   └── update_vms.yml             # VM guest apt upgrade tasks
├── handlers/
│   └── main.yml
└── meta/
    └── main.yml

License

Apache 2.0