Automate Proxmox Subscriptions, Nodes, and Certificates with Ansible

Managing Proxmox VE subscription licenses at scale is a long-standing pain point for administrators. In enterprise environments, manually assigning licenses across dozens or hundreds of nodes is slow, error-prone, and nearly impossible to audit properly. With the new proxmox_node Ansible module, Proxmox license and node management can now be automated end-to-end using the official API—bringing subscriptions, power control, and certificates into modern Infrastructure as Code workflows.

The proxmox_node Module

The proxmox_node module, now part of the community.proxmox Ansible collection, enables full lifecycle management of Proxmox VE nodes through the official API.

Key capabilities include:

• Bulk import and management of Proxmox subscription licenses
• Node power state control (start, shutdown, Wake-on-LAN)
• DNS configuration
• SSL / TLS certificate management
• Full support for Ansible check_mode (dry runs)

This allows Proxmox node configuration, licensing, and maintenance tasks to become fully automated, repeatable, and version-controlled as Infrastructure as Code.

Examples

In this section, you can find more real-world examples how to use thise new module.

Add a Proxmox Subscription License

Assigning a subscription license to a Proxmox VE node is straightforward and fully API-driven:

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

With this task, you can execute an outer loop to easily assing subscriptions to multiple nodes.

Start a Proxmox VE Node

Nodes can also be powered on programmatically, for example after maintenance or a controlled shutdown:

- name: Start a Proxmox VE node
  community.proxmox.node:
    api_host: proxmoxhost
    api_user: root@pam
    api_password: password123
    validate_certs: false
    node_name: de-cgn01-virt01
    power_state: online

Note: Wake-on-LAN must be configured and supported by the node hardware.

Update SSL Certificates

Custom X.509 certificates can now be deployed or updated directly via the Proxmox API:

- name: Update SSL certificates on a Proxmox VE node
  community.proxmox.node:
    api_host: proxmoxhost
    api_user: root@pam
    api_password: password123
    validate_certs: false
    node_name: de-cgn01-virt01
    certificates:
      key: /opt/ansible/key.pem
      cert: /opt/ansible/cert.pem
      state: present
      force: false

Bulk updating Proxmox VE certificates without ACME protocol beocomes an easy process.

Conclusion

The proxmox_node module closes a critical gap in Proxmox automation by enabling supported, API-driven subscription and node management. It significantly reduces operational overhead, improves consistency across clusters, and integrates seamlessly into modern CI/CD and infrastructure pipelines.

By embracing open-source automation, organizations are no longer constrained by vendor-specific tooling or roadmaps. With modules like proxmox_node, migrating from proprietary virtualization platforms becomes easier, safer, and more transparent.

You may also want to explore related Ansible modules for Proxmox:

• proxmox_storage – manage storage backends such as iSCSI, NFS, and Ceph
• proxmox_node – handle subscriptions, power state, and certificates
• proxmox_cluster – automate cluster creation and joining
• Automated Proxmox installation images with cloud-init support

Resources

• proxmox_node module source code