Assessing the Capabilities of Several Raspberry Pi Models for Virtualization with Proxmox VE

Single-board computers (SBCs) are becoming increasingly popular in home, industrial, and academic environments. They were originally marketed for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, DIY projects, and educational purposes. However, more powerful models have been developed over the years, paving the way for resource-intensive applications such as virtualization. This paper explores the feasibility and limitations of using the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (RPi 4B) and the Raspberry Pi 5 (RPi 5) to create affordable virtual environments with Proxmox VE. The study considers various memory configurations and storage mediums for the evaluated SBCs, including microSD cards, SATA SSDs connected through USB 3.0, and NVMe SSDs connected through PCIe x1. To assess and analyze the potential of the proposed virtual environment, exhaustive experiments were conducted, focusing on VM cloning time, startup efficiency, scalability, live migration, and network performance.