Project

pve-microvm

active

Firecracker-like microVMs for Proxmox VE — KVM isolation, under 200 ms boot.

Overview

Debian package that adds QEMU microvm machine type to the Proxmox UI. microvm VMs boot in under 200 ms, use only virtio-mmio, and give full KVM isolation. Uninstall restores original files.

How it works

Patches two qemu-server files to add microvm as a selectable machine type. A standard Proxmox VM emulates a full x86 PC with PCI bus and BIOS, but a microvm skips all that — direct kernel load, virtio-mmio only, much smaller attack surface. The result is KVM-grade isolation at LXC-comparable boot times. Currently the only Proxmox integration for QEMU microvm.

Features
Under 200 ms boot

No emulated PCI, no BIOS. Direct kernel load.

🛡
Full KVM isolation

Own kernel per VM. No shared kernel.

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Proxmox UI

Appears as a machine type option. Managed like any VM.

Fully reversible

dpkg -r restores original qemu-server files.

Architecture
OCI registry Docker Hub / ghcr extract rootfs pve-microvm libkrun VMM sub-second start vsock / virtio agent comms any OCI image → microVM
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