{"id":11030,"date":"2025-08-21T14:01:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/seamlessly-share-host-directories-with-vms-in-proxmox-using-virtiofs\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T14:01:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:01:02","slug":"seamlessly-share-host-directories-with-vms-in-proxmox-using-virtiofs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/seamlessly-share-host-directories-with-vms-in-proxmox-using-virtiofs\/","title":{"rendered":"Seamlessly Share Host Directories with VMs in Proxmox Using VirtioFS"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the launch of Proxmox VE 8.4<\/em>, users can now create host-level shared directories<\/strong>, giving virtual machines (VMs) access to files from the Proxmox host without utilizing network protocols like SMB or NFS. This feature utilizes the VirtIOFS<\/strong> file system, which facilitates direct connections to shared directories, similar to shared folders in VMware Workstation.<\/p>\n

Setting Up a Shared Directory<\/h3>\n

To enable shared folders, first, check that your Proxmox version is 8.4 or higher:<\/p>\n

# pveversion -v<\/code><\/pre>\n
If your version is older, you will need to update Proxmox. Next, verify if virtiofsd<\/strong> is installed:<\/p>\n
# dpkg -l | grep virtiofsd<\/code><\/pre>\n
Now you can create a shared directory on your Proxmox host:<\/p>\n
# mkdir \/mnt\/VMShare<\/code><\/pre>\n
Navigate to the Proxmox web UI, go to Datacenter<\/strong> \u2192 Directory Mappings<\/strong>, and create a new directory mapping using the local directory \/mnt\/VMShare<\/code>.<\/p>\n
Configuring the Virtual Machine<\/h3>\n
Next, you\u2019ll need to add a shared VirtioFS directory to the VM settings. Open the VM\u2019s settings \u2192 Hardware<\/strong> \u2192 Virtiofs<\/strong> and choose the local directory to pass through to the VM.<\/p>\n
For Linux VMs, ensure the kernel version is 5.4 or higher, and verify that the VirtIOFS driver is loaded:<\/p>\n
# lsmod | grep virtiofs<\/code><\/pre>\n
To mount the shared directory temporarily within a Linux guest VM, run:<\/p>\n
# mount -t virtiofs VMShare \/mnt\/hostshare<\/code><\/pre>\n
For a permanent mount, add an entry to \/etc\/fstab<\/code>:<\/p>\n
VMShare \/mnt\/hostshare virtiofs rw,relatime 0 0<\/code><\/pre>\n
Troubleshooting Mount Issues<\/h3>\n
If you encounter an error when mounting, such as:<\/p>\n
mount: \/mnt\/hostshare: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on vmshare, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.<\/code><\/pre>\n
ensure that the VM has been powered off at least once. Simply rebooting the VM is insufficient; powering it off allows the VirtioFS device to show in the hardware configuration.<\/p>\n
Setting Up Windows Guests<\/h3>\n
For Windows VMs, install the VirtioFS Guest Tools<\/strong> to enable access to the shared directory. Mount the latest version of the Virtio ISO (virtio-win-0.1.271.iso or later), run the installer, and ensure the viofs<\/strong> drivers are installed. After installation, check that the Virtio FS service is running with these commands:<\/p>\n
Get-Service VirtioFsDrvGet-PnpDevice | Where { $_.FriendlyName -like "*VirtioFS*" -or $_.FriendlyName -like "*Virtio FS*" }<\/code><\/pre>\n
To mount the VirtioFS directory in Windows, install the WinFSP<\/strong> tool, which allows user-mode file system mounting akin to FUSE on Linux. Download it from WinFSP Releases<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Restart the VirtIO-FS Service<\/strong> (VirtioFsSvc<\/code>) to mount the shared folder via WinFSP. The shared directory will appear as a separate network drive in the Windows guest VM.<\/p>\n
Important Note<\/h3>\n
Keep in mind that live migration between hosts is not supported for virtual machines with a mounted Virtio shared folder. For more detailed instructions on deploying Windows guest virtual machines on Proxmox, refer to this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the launch of Proxmox VE 8.4, users can now create host-level shared directories, giving virtual machines (VMs) access to files from the Proxmox host without utilizing network\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,93,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux","category-proxmox","category-windows-server-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}