AlmaLinux is a stable, community-driven fork of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It works well for home labs. Whether you’re already comfortable with Linux or just getting started, this post covers why I use it and how to get it running on Proxmox.
Why AlmaLinux#
It’s stable. It’s based on RHEL, so you get long-term support and security updates. That means your servers aren’t randomly breaking six months in because of some package upgrade.
If you’re planning to do Red Hat certifications or work in production RHEL environments, AlmaLinux is basically identical. Skills transfer directly.
The community around it is solid. When you hit a problem, there are people who’ve already solved it and documented it.
Installing on Proxmox#
I run this on a Proxmox cluster, so I’ll walk through that setup.
- Download the AlmaLinux ISO from their downloads page.
- Create a new VM in the Proxmox web interface. Pick your CPU cores, RAM, and disk size.
- Boot the VM. AlmaLinux will walk you through installation in a GUI. Pick your language and set a root password.
- Choose your base environment. I usually go with Server. Pick whatever extra packages you want or just keep it minimal.
- Confirm your choices and let it finish.
That’s it. Your VM will boot into AlmaLinux when it’s done.
What you can do with it now#
The command line is your main tool. Learn to move around with cd, see what’s in directories with ls, and read docs with man.
Package management happens through dnf. Want to install something, update everything, or remove a package? That’s dnf install, dnf update, and dnf remove.
Managing users means creating accounts that people or services can actually use. useradd to create them, passwd to set passwords, userdel to remove them. Be careful with the root account. It has all permissions.
The firewall is your network gatekeeper. firewall-cmd controls what gets through.
Next up#
Part 2 covers managing users properly and giving them sudo access without giving them everything.