Update Proxmox Without Subscription

Apr 20, 2022 · 2 mins read

In the video below, we show you how to update Proxmox 7 without a subscription

By default, to upgrade Proxmox you need to pay for a subscription which gives you access to enterprise updates

But if you are not running a production version of Proxmox, for example you’re using it in a lab or at home, you can re-configure Proxmox to take advantage of non-subscription updates

They haven’t been as thoroughly tested but they do seem to be quite stable

Useful links:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Downloads
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Package_Repositories#sysadmin_no_subscription_repo

Methods covered

Upgrade via GUI
One option is to re-configure Proxmox via the GUI
Select the server, then navigate to Updates | Repositories
Click Add then click OK and from the drop down menu select No-Subscription
Now click Add
While here, select the pve-enterprise repository at the bottom of the list and click Disable; If we don’t have access to these, there’s point trying to use them
Click Update and then click Refresh
Close the window when it has finished updating the package information
Click Upgrade, type in y and hit enter to continue
Once the upgrade has finished, reboot the server
I would suggest running the Refresh and Upgrade again until there are no more updates available
Upgrade via CLI
Another option is to use the command line to update the repositories file
You can do this through SSH or via the Shell
We need to edit the sources.list file
```
nano /etc/apt/sources.list  
```
Paste in the following lines just above the # security updates line
```
# PVE pve-no-subscription repository provided by proxmox.com,  
# NOT recommended for production use  
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bullseye pve-no-subscription  
```
We’ll also disable the enterprise updates as we can’t access them anyway
```
nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list  
```
Then comment out the line by placing a # at the beginning

Now run the following command to update the server with the latest package details
```
apt update  
```
And then run the following command to upgrade the packages as well as tidy things up, for example removing packages if they would cause a problem for the upgrade
```
apt full-upgrade  
```
NOTE: apt full-upgrade is the equivalent of apt-get dist-upgrade which is what the GUI uses

Linux can usually tolerate updates on the fly, but to be certain everything is upgraded, especially if there is a kernel update, it’s best to reboot the server afterwards
I would suggest repeating this upgrade process until there are no more updates