Proxmox VE ESXi import wizard & qm import

What it is good at

Since PVE 8.2 you can add an ESXi host as a storage source and import VMs straight from the web UI, with disk conversion handled for you. qm importovf / importdisk cover everything else.

Where it falls down

Cold migration - the guest is off during the copy. No changed-block tracking, so a large VM means a long window. Windows guests need VirtIO drivers staged before the move.

Capabilities

• Agentless operation
• Automatic driver / guest tools injection
• API / CLI automation

Cost and licensing

Cost category

Open source — Free and open source; paid support optional.

Indicative price

Free; optional support subscription from ~EUR 115 per CPU socket per year

Licence model

Proxmox VE is AGPLv3 and free to use, including the import wizard. Subscriptions buy the enterprise repository and support, not features.

How to license it

Download the ISO and run it with no key. For production, buy a per-socket annual subscription (Community, Basic, Standard, Premium tiers) from Proxmox or a reseller and paste the key into the web UI.

Lifecycle

Current

Vendor page

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migrate_to_Proxmox_VE

Pricing and licensing last reviewed 2026-09-18. Indicative only - confirm with the vendor.

Supported sources

• VMware vSphere / ESXi (vCenter)
• VMware Workstation / Fusion / Player
• Microsoft Hyper-V (Windows Server)
• Oracle VirtualBox
• XCP-ng + Xen Orchestra
• Plain KVM / libvirt (RHEL, Ubuntu, SUSE)

Supported targets

• Proxmox VE