Deploying PASM on Proxmox VE and Nutanix AHV

PASM is officially distributed as preconfigured virtual appliances for VMware, Hyper-V, and VirtualBox. This guide describes a tested migration method for deploying the PASM appliance on KVM-based virtualization platforms such as Proxmox VE and Nutanix AHV. This procedure has been successfully tested on Proxmox VE. Nutanix AHV has not yet been formally validated; however, due to both platforms being based on the KVM/QEMU virtualization stack, the same deployment approach is expected to work on Nutanix AHV. Since the PASM appliance is converted to the native QCOW2 disk format and deployed using standard virtual hardware, the same deployment approach is expected to work on Nutanix AHV as well.

Prerequisites

• Access to the HEIMDAL Dashboard
• Oracle VirtualBox
• QEMU tools (qemu-img)
• Access to Proxmox VE or Nutanix AHV

Step 1 – Download the PASM VirtualBox Appliance

Download the VirtualBox OVA version of the PASM appliance from the HEIMDAL Dashboard.

Note: Use only the VirtualBox appliance. VMware and Hyper-V appliances contain platform-specific dependencies and may not function correctly when migrated to KVM-based hypervisors.

Step 2 – Import the Appliance into VirtualBox

Import the OVA into VirtualBox.

The appliance contains two virtual disks:

• heimdal-pasm-virtualbox-disk001.vdi
• heimdal-pasm-virtualbox-disk002.vdi

Step 3 – Install QEMU Tools

Install QEMU on a system capable of performing the disk conversion.

macOS

brew install qemu

Windows

Install QEMU for Windows and ensure qemu-img is available from the command line.

Step 4 – Convert the VDI Files to QCOW2

Convert both VDI disks to QCOW2 format.

qemu-img convert -p -f vdi -O qcow2 heimdal-pasm-virtualbox-disk001.vdi heimdal-pasm-virtualbox-disk001.qcow2
qemu-img convert -p -f vdi -O qcow2 heimdal-pasm-virtualbox-disk002.vdi heimdal-pasm-virtualbox-disk002.qcow2

Wait until both conversions complete successfully.

Step 5 – Upload the Images

Proxmox VE

Upload both QCOW2 files to the desired storage location.

Nutanix AHV

Upload both QCOW2 files to the Nutanix Image Service.

Step 6 – Create a New Virtual Machine

Create a new virtual machine on the target platform.

Firmware

Configure the VM to use:

• UEFI

Disk Controller

Do not use the default SCSI controller.

The original VirtualBox appliance uses IDE-attached disks. Using SCSI may cause the appliance to boot into Linux Emergency Mode because required storage volumes cannot be located during startup.

Configure:

• IDE Controller

Step 7 – Attach the PASM Disks

Attach both QCOW2 disks to the IDE controller. Recommended order:

Ensure that disk001 is configured as the boot disk.

Step 8 – Start the Virtual Machine

Start the VM. The appliance should boot normally and complete startup using both virtual disks.

Troubleshooting

If the appliance boots into emergency mode, this typically indicates one of the following:

• The second PASM disk is not attached.
• The disks are attached in the wrong order.
• The disks are attached to a SCSI controller instead of an IDE controller.

Verify:

• Both disks are attached.
• disk001 is configured as the boot disk.
• Both disks are connected to an IDE controller.

Note: The appliance may boot successfully with only the first disk attached but will enter Linux Emergency Mode because the second disk is required for normal operation.

If the appliance Does Not Boot, verify:

• UEFI is enabled.
• Both QCOW2 files were converted successfully.
• The correct boot disk is selected.