Proxmox Finally Has a Real RVTools-Style Report (This is What Was Missing)

Introduction

If you spent any meaningful time in VMware environments, RVTools was likely one of the first utilities you installed on every new vSphere deployment. One command, a few seconds of API queries, and suddenly you had a complete Excel workbook documenting every virtual machine, datastore, network, snapshot, cluster configuration, and hardware detail in your environment. It was the kind of tool that earned its place by solving the single most annoying problem in virtualization management: getting a clear, structured, exportable picture of everything that exists in your infrastructure.

When the great migration away from VMware accelerated in 2024 and 2025 — driven by Broadcom’s dramatic pricing changes — Proxmox VE became the most common landing zone. It is powerful, free, open source, and technically excellent. But for administrators who had grown dependent on RVTools for inventory documentation, auditing, and migration planning, there was a conspicuous gap. Proxmox has a capable web UI and a rich API, but until recently, there was no single tool that produced the kind of structured, multi-tabbed, exportable inventory report that RVTools made routine in VMware environments.

Why Proxmox Reporting Has Been a Pain Point

The frustration with Proxmox reporting is not about Proxmox being a bad platform — it is not. The web interface is clean, functional, and genuinely good for managing a handful of VMs and containers. For a single-node home lab running ten or fifteen workloads, the built-in UI gives you everything you need at a glance.

The problem emerges as the environment grows. A three-node cluster with shared Ceph storage, fifty VMs, thirty LXC containers, multiple storage pools, and complex networking configurations creates an inventory management challenge that the web UI was not designed to solve. Answering basic questions — how much storage is allocated across all VMs, which containers are running which IP addresses, what are the memory and CPU allocations across the entire cluster, which VMs have snapshots that have not been cleaned up — requires clicking through multiple nodes and multiple configuration panels. There is no built-in export, no unified inventory view, and no easy way to produce documentation that captures the current state of the environment.

What Made RVTools So Valuable? Understanding the Benchmark

To understand why cv4pve-report matters, it helps to understand specifically what made RVTools a fixture in VMware environments rather than just another utility. RVTools was not technically sophisticated — it did not do anything that a skilled administrator could not accomplish with a collection of PowerCLI commands. What it did was package all of that capability into a single operation that produced a consistently structured, immediately actionable output.

The cv4pve Toolkit: Corsinvest’s Proxmox Utility Ecosystem

cv4pve-report does not exist in isolation — it is part of the cv4pve toolkit, a broader collection of open source utilities developed by Corsinvest (Corinvest) specifically for Proxmox VE environments. Understanding the ecosystem helps frame where cv4pve-report fits and what else is available alongside it.

cv4pve-report vs cv4pve-diag vs RVTools: Side by Side

Understanding where each tool fits helps you choose the right one — or the right combination — for your specific needs:

Feature / Aspect	cv4pve-report	cv4pve-diag	RVTools (VMware)
Platform	Proxmox VE	Proxmox VE	VMware vSphere
Output Format	Multi-tab XLSX workbook	Terminal / CLI output	Multi-tab XLSX workbook
Shareable Report	Yes — Excel file	Limited — text output	Yes — Excel file
VM Inventory	Yes — complete with resources	Yes — with diagnostics	Yes — comprehensive
Storage Inventory	Yes — capacity and usage	Yes — with health checks	Yes — datastore detail
Network Inventory	Yes — bridge, VLAN, IP	Partial	Yes — port group detail
Snapshot Audit	Yes — age and count	Yes — flags stale snaps	Yes — comprehensive
Backup Status	Yes — job and last backup	Yes — backup health check	No native backup view
Ceph/Storage Health	Yes — when Ceph present	Yes — cluster health	N/A
Diagnostic Intelligence	No — inventory focus	Yes — surfaces issues	Limited
Installation	Binary from GitHub	Binary from GitHub	Windows installer
License	Free / Open Source	Free / Open Source	Free (with registration)
OS Support	Linux (inc. Proxmox node)	Linux (inc. Proxmox node)	Windows only

How to Install cv4pve-report

cv4pve-report is distributed as a self-contained binary through the Corsinvest GitHub releases. It can be installed on any Linux system that has network access to your Proxmox API — including directly on a Proxmox node, on a dedicated management workstation, or on a separate Linux VM in your environment.

Option 1: Install Directly on Your Proxmox Node

Installing directly on the Proxmox node is the most convenient option for home lab and small business environments. The binary is small, and running it locally means it can reach the Proxmox API without any additional network configuration:

# Download the latest release from GitHub
LATEST_URL=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/Corsinvest/cv4pve-report/releases/latest \
  | grep browser_download_url \
  | grep linux-x64 \
  | cut -d '"' -f 4)

# Download the binary
wget "$LATEST_URL" -O cv4pve-report.zip

# Extract the archive
unzip cv4pve-report.zip

# Make executable and move to system path
chmod +x cv4pve-report
mv cv4pve-report /usr/local/bin/cv4pve-report

# Verify installation
cv4pve-report --version

Option 2: Install on a Management Workstation

If you prefer to keep management tools off your Proxmox nodes — a sound security practice in production environments — install cv4pve-report on a separate Linux workstation or management VM. The tool communicates with the Proxmox API over the network and does not need to run locally on the node:

# Same download process on any Linux system
LATEST_URL=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/Corsinvest/cv4pve-report/releases/latest \
  | grep browser_download_url | grep linux-x64 | cut -d '"' -f 4)
wget "$LATEST_URL" -O cv4pve-report.zip && unzip cv4pve-report.zip

chmod +x cv4pve-report && sudo mv cv4pve-report /usr/local/bin/

Generating Your First Report

With cv4pve-report installed, generating the XLSX inventory report requires a single command specifying your Proxmox host, credentials, and output file path. The tool connects to the Proxmox API, queries all cluster components, and writes the multi-tab workbook to the specified output path:

# Basic report generation — replace with your Proxmox details
cv4pve-report --host 192.168.248.10 \
  --username root@pam \
  --password 'YourProxmoxPassword' \
  --output /tmp/proxmox-inventory-$(date +%Y%m%d).xlsx

The date suffix in the output filename is a useful convention — it automatically dates each report file so you can build a historical archive of inventory snapshots by running the command regularly. After the command completes, the XLSX file is available at the specified path and can be opened in Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets, or any compatible spreadsheet application.

Using an API Token Instead of Root Credentials

In production environments, passing the root@pam password in a command is a security concern — the password may appear in shell history and process lists. Proxmox VE supports API tokens, which can be created with read-only permissions and used instead of full credentials:

# Create an API token in Proxmox (Datacenter > Permissions > API Tokens)
# Then use the token in cv4pve-report:

cv4pve-report --host 192.168.248.10 \
  --api-token 'reporting-user@pam!report-token=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx' \
  --output /reports/proxmox-$(date +%Y%m%d).xlsx

Scheduling Regular Reports

The real value of an inventory tool comes from running it regularly, not just on demand. A cron job that generates a dated report weekly or monthly builds a historical archive that lets you see how the environment has changed over time:

# Add to crontab with: crontab -e
# Run every Sunday at 02:00 — generates a weekly dated report
0 2 * * 0 cv4pve-report --host 192.168.248.10 \
  --api-token 'reporting-user@pam!report-token=...' \
  --output /var/reports/proxmox/proxmox-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).xlsx

Pair this with a simple rotation script that removes reports older than 90 days to prevent unbounded storage consumption:

# Also add to crontab — clean up reports older than 90 days
0 3 * * 0 find /var/reports/proxmox/ -name '*.xlsx' -mtime +90 -delete

Key Highlights Summary

• cv4pve-report fills the most significant reporting gap in the Proxmox ecosystem — a structured, multi-tab Excel workbook that documents the complete inventory of your Proxmox VE server or cluster.
• It is built on top of the Proxmox API and requires no special Proxmox configuration beyond standard API access credentials or an API token.
• The XLSX output format makes reports shareable with non-technical stakeholders, filterable in Excel or LibreOffice, and archivable as dated baseline snapshots.
• Worksheets cover every major infrastructure layer: cluster configuration, nodes, VMs, LXC containers, storage pools, networking, snapshots, backup status, and Ceph (when present).
• The snapshot and backup status worksheets are particularly valuable for surfacing common Proxmox maintenance issues — stale snapshots consuming storage and unprotected workloads without backup jobs.
• cv4pve-report is part of the broader cv4pve toolkit from Corsinvest, which includes cv4pve-diag (diagnostic CLI tool) and cv4pve-cli (Kubernetes-style Proxmox management).
• Installation is a simple binary download from GitHub and requires no package manager or compilation.
• API token support with read-only permissions enables secure automated scheduled reporting without exposing root credentials.

Conclusion

The arrival of cv4pve-report closes one of the most consistently mentioned gaps for administrators who have migrated from VMware to Proxmox VE. The ability to generate a structured, multi-tab Excel inventory of your entire Proxmox environment — VMs, containers, nodes, storage, networking, snapshots, backup status, and Ceph in a single command was previously something that required custom scripting or manual compilation across multiple CLI tools and web UI panels.