Yes, but the VM’s virtual network interface needs to be configured to pass VLAN tags. In Proxmox, this means the bridge the VM uses must be VLAN-aware, and the VM’s interface should either be on a trunk or have the specific VLAN tag set. See the Proxmox VLAN configuration guide for the full setup. If you’re just getting started with Docker in Proxmox, setting up Docker in Proxmox via a VM is worth reading first.
Proxmox VE is a free and open-source virtualization platform built on Debian. It supports KVM virtual machines, LXC containers, ZFS storage, clustering, backups, live migration, and high-availability features. For home labs, the big advantage is flexibility. You can run a Windows VM, a Linux server, Home Assistant, Docker, Pi-hole, Plex, Jellyfin, TrueNAS, or even pfSense on the same physical system. For small businesses or more advanced users, Proxmox can scale into multi-node clusters with shared storage and centralized management. The main tradeoff is that Proxmox is infrastructure software
Docker macvlan gives containers their own MAC address and IP address on your physical network, eliminating the need for NAT or port mapping. It’s most useful when a container needs to appear as a real device on a specific subnet — common for Wake-on-LAN tools, network scanners, and IoT management containers that need to be on a dedicated VLAN.
Can a Docker macvlan container communicate with the host?
Not by default. Macvlan isolates the container from the host at the network level, so the container can talk to other devices on the VLAN but not the machine it’s running on. To work around this, you can create a macvlan interface on the host side as well (sometimes called a shim interface), which gives the host an IP on the macvlan network.