Automated Proxmox Subscription Handling with Ansible

When deploying Proxmox VE in enterprise environments, whether for new locations, expanding existing clusters, or migrating from platforms like VMware, automation becomes essential. These scenarios typically involve rolling out dozens or even hundreds of nodes across multiple sites. Manually activating subscriptions through the Proxmox web interface is not practical at this scale.

To ensure consistency and efficiency, every part of the deployment process should be automated from the beginning. This includes not just the installation and configuration of nodes, automated cluster creation, but also the activation of the Proxmox subscription. In the past, this step often required manual interaction, which slowed down provisioning and introduced unnecessary complexity.

Now there is a clean solution to this. With the introduction of the new Ansible module proxmox_node, the subscription management is fully integrated. This module allows you to handle subscription activation as part of your Ansible playbooks, making it possible to automate the entire process without ever needing to open the web interface.

This improvement is particularly valuable for mass deployments, where reliability and repeatability matter most. Every node can now be automatically configured, licensed, and production-ready right after boot. It is a great example of how Proxmox VE continues to evolve into a more enterprise-friendly platform, while still embracing the flexibility and openness that sets it apart.

Ansible Module: proxmox_node

With automation becoming more critical in modern IT operations, managing Proxmox VE infrastructure through standardized tools like Ansible has become a common practice. Until now, while there were various community modules available to interact with Proxmox resources, node-level management often required custom workarounds or direct SSH access. That gap has now been closed with the introduction of the new proxmox_node module.

This module was developed by our team at credativ GmbH, specifically by our colleague known in the community under the handle gyptazy. It has been contributed upstream and is already part of the official Ansible Community Proxmox collection, available to anyone using the collection via Ansible Galaxy or automation controller integrations.

The proxmox_node module focuses on tasks directly related to the lifecycle and configuration of a Proxmox VE node. What makes this module particularly powerful is that it interacts directly with the Proxmox API, without requiring any SSH access to the node. This enables a cleaner, more secure, and API-driven approach to automation.

The module currently supports several key features that are essential in real-world operations:

• Managing Subscription Licenses
  One of the standout features is the ability to automatically upload and activate a Proxmox VE subscription key. This is incredibly helpful for enterprises rolling out clusters at scale, where licensing should be handled consistently and automatically as part of the provisioning workflow.
• Controlling Power States
  Power management of nodes can now be handled via Ansible, making it easy to start (via Wake-on-Lan) or shutdown nodes as part of playbook-driven maintenance tasks or during automated cluster operations.
  
• Managing DNS Configuration
  DNS settings such as resolvers and search domains can be modified declaratively, ensuring all nodes follow the same configuration policies without manual intervention.
  
• Handling X509 Certificates
  The module also allows you to manage TLS certificates used by the node. Whether you’re deploying internal PKI-signed certificates or using externally issued ones, the proxmox_node module lets you upload and apply them through automation in a clean and repeatable way.

By bringing all of this functionality into a single, API-driven Ansible module, the process of managing Proxmox nodes becomes much more reliable and maintainable. You no longer need to script around pveproxy with shell commands or use SSH just to manage node settings.

Subscription Integration Example

Adding a subscription to a Proxmox VE node is as simple as the following task. While this shows the easiest way for a single node, this can also be used in a loop over a dictionary holding the related subscriptions for each node.

- name: Place a subscription license on a Proxmox VE Node
  community.proxmox.node:
    api_host: proxmoxhost
    api_user: gyptazy@pam
    api_password: password123
    validate_certs: false
    node_name: de-cgn01-virt01
    subscription:
        state: present
        key: ABCD-EFGH-IJKL-MNOP-QRST-UVWX-YZ0123456789

Conclusion

For us at credativ, this module fills a real gap in the automation landscape around Proxmox and demonstrates how missing features in open-source projects can be addressed effectively by contributing upstream. It also reinforces the broader movement of managing infrastructure declaratively, where configuration is versioned, documented, and easily reproducible.

In combination with other modules from the community Proxmox collection like our recent proxmox_cluster module, proxmox_node helps complete the picture of a fully automated Proxmox VE environment — from cluster creation and VM provisioning to node configuration and licensing. If you’re looking for help or assistance for creating Proxmox VE based virtualization infrastructures, automation or custom development to fit your needs, we’re always happy to help! Feel free to contact us at any time.

About the author

gyptazy

Senior DevOps Consultant

zur Person

In my tech repertoire, FreeBSD and federated services stand not just as a personal preference but as a symbol of a commitment to the ethos of open-source. I am a fervent believer in the symbiotic relationship between developers including DevOps, SysOps and the open source community. As I continue to lead teams in the ever-evolving landscape of technology, their dedication to open-source contributions and advocacy for decentralized and federated services echoes not only in the code they write but in the ethos they instill within the teams.

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