Important disclaimer
This guide is intended strictly for lab, testing, and learning purposes.

Cisco does not officially support running Nexus Dashboard (ND) on Proxmox.
For production deployments, always use Cisco-supported platforms such as VMware ESXi or bare-metal / supported KVM environments.

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VM Creation on Proxmox

Create a new VM in Proxmox with the following characteristics:

One critical requirement is to add a Serial Port to the VM hardware. This is needed because Nexus Dashboard completes part of its installation via SOL (Serial Over LAN).

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Monitoring the Installation via Serial Console

When you boot the VM, the graphical console will stop and display a message indicating that installation continues over SOL.

On the Proxmox host, connect to the VM’s serial console:

qm terminal <vmid>

Example:

qm terminal 137

You should see output similar to:

starting serial terminal on interface serial0 (press Ctrl+O to exit)
<lines removed>
Installing for i386-pc platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.
<lines removed>
Reached target Shutdown

=========================================================
Installation completed successfully. Node is powered off
Please unmount vMedia and power on
=========================================================

At this point:

1. Remove the Nexus Dashboard ISO from the virtual CD-ROM
2. Boot the VM normally

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NIC Naming Issue on Proxmox (Important)

Nexus Dashboard expects specific NIC names in virtualized environments:

• mgmt0, mgmt1
• fabric0, fabric1

This works automatically on VMware, but not on Proxmox.
Without fixing this, the node will boot but have no network connectivity.

Workaround: Rename Interfaces Using systemd .link Files

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Boot into Rescue Mode

At the MBR menu, press E to edit the boot entry.

Find the line starting with:

linux /vmlinuz...

Make the following changes only:

• Replace ro with rw
• Append: systemd.unit=rescue.target

Do not modify anything else.

Boot using Ctrl+X or F10.

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Enter Maintenance Mode

When prompted with:

Press Enter for maintenance
(or press Control-D to continue):

Press Enter.

Remount the root filesystem as read/write:

mount -o remount,rw /

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Identify Current Interface Names and MAC Addresses

Run:

ip link

Example output:

2: ens18: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 state DOWN
    link/ether bc:24:11:c0:52:ff
3: ens19: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 state DOWN
    link/ether bc:24:11:bf:96:96
4: ens20: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 state DOWN
    link/ether bc:24:11:08:7d:1c
5: ens21: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 state DOWN
    link/ether bc:24:11:e8:94:59

Make note of each MAC address — this is crucial.

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Create systemd Network Link Files

Create four .link files, one per interface, under:

/etc/systemd/network/

Example filenames:

• 10-mgmt0.link
• 10-mgmt1.link
• 10-fabric0.link
• 10-fabric1.link

Filenames must:

• Start with 10-
• End with .link

Only vi is available, so use it to create the files.

Example: mgmt0

vi /etc/systemd/network/10-mgmt0.link

Contents:

[Match]
MACAddress=bc:24:11:c0:52:ff

[Link]
Name=mgmt0

Repeat this process for:

• mgmt1
• fabric0
• fabric1

?? Be careful to match the correct MAC address for each interface.
Copy/paste errors here are very common.

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Reboot the VM

Once all files are created:

reboot

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First Boot Nexus Dashboard Setup

Wait for the console message:

Press any key to run first-boot setup on this console...

Press any key and follow the setup wizard.

Example session:

Starting Nexus Dashboard setup utility
Welcome to Nexus Dashboard 4.1.1g

Admin Password:
Reenter Admin Password:

Management Network:
  IP Address/Mask: x.x.x.124/24
  Gateway: x.x.x.1

Is Cluster Leader? (Y/n): y

Important
Make sure you assign an IP address that is reachable from your LAN.

Confirm the configuration and continue.

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System Initialization

After a few minutes, you should see:

System initialized successfully
System UI online, please login to https://x.x.x.124

Log in on the console using:

• Username: rescue-user
• Password: the one you configured earlier

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Final Verification

Verify interface names:

ip link

You should now see:

• mgmt0
• mgmt1
• fabric0
• fabric1

At this point, networking should be fully functional.

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Access Nexus Dashboard

Open a browser and navigate to:

https://<your-ip-address>

Done!
You now have Cisco Nexus Dashboard running on Proxmox for lab and learning purposes.

Happy labbing!