Supported virtualization platforms and build types

TurnKey works well with all the major virtualization platforms (e.g., VMWare, VirtualBox, Parallels, Xen, QEMU/KVM, etc.). It provides appliances in a range of build types optimized and pre-tested for various popular virtualization platforms.

If you don't already have virtualization software installed, VirtualBox is available in a free open source edition for most major OSs. VMWare Player and Server products are proprietary but free to download. KVM is 100% free software built into the Linux kernel which supports many front-end management tools. Proxmox Virtual Environment is a free, open source enterprise grade hypervisor which provides both KVM and LXC.

Build type	Headless	Packaging	Installation	Kernel	Extras	Works best with...
Generic hybrid ISO	No	ISO Live CD/USB image	Custom installer (di-live)	linux-generic		Bare metal hardware (via CD or USB flash drive) Any virtual machine (e.g., KVM, Hyper-V, XenServer) that can install from CD or ISO image.
VM optimized (OVA)	No	Stream-able OVA archive file containing a read-only, compressed ("type 3") VMDK disk image and an OVF VM configuration file	Import OVA; VirtualBox and VMware support "double-click" import	linux-generic	open-vm-tools	VirtualBox VMWare products (Player, Workstation, Server, ESX, vSphere)
VM optimized (VMDK)	No	ZIP file containing a writeable VMDK disk image and a VMX VM configuration file	None (pre-installed, ready-to-run hard disk image)	linux-generic	open-vm-tools	VirtualBox (use existing hard disk) Low-end VMWare products (Player, Workstation, Server) QEMU/KVM also it has been reported that VMDK works with Xen HVM although not confirmed
OpenStack	Yes	Tarball containing filesystem image, kernel and initrd files	Extract tarball, register AMI with Glance (blog post) (links to tutorial videos)	linux-generic	headless initialization fence, userdata integration, ebsmount, preseeding	OpenStack
Proxmox	Yes	Tarball containing appliance filesystem optimized to run on Proxmox VE (LXC)	Download & import template via the "TurnKey channel" within the webUI or manually download tarball and upload to PVE Supports v4.x (LXC) probably v3.x too (OpenVZ)	n/a	headless initialization fence, preseeding	Proxmox VE Other container (i.e. OpenVZ/LXC) based cloud and virtualization solutions....
Xen	Yes	Tarball containing appliance filesystem optimized to run as a Xen domU guest	Varies between Xen setups	n/a	headless initialization fence, preseeding	Any Xen based private or public cloud...
LXC	Yes	Tarball of container (LXC) build (see Proxmox build)	TurnKey LXC template (news announcement)	n/a		TurnKey LXC appliance Any Linux distribution that supports LXC (undocumented)
Docker	Yes	Docker images hosted on the docker index	Docker (news announcement)	n/a	headless initialization fence, preseeding, preconfigured run and expose	Any Linux distribution that supports Docker

Other virtualization platforms

Whilst other VM platforms aren't specifically supported, many support VMDK and/or there is often a way to use an existing format (e.g. install from ISO). Often tools are provided with your virtualization software of choice to convert images to the one required. Examples that have been documented are:

• KVM
• OpenNebula (KVM backed)
• XenServer (install from ISO)
• Hyper-V (install from ISO)

Headless vs non-headless builds

In a conventional installation (e.g., from a Live CD ISO) the user has interactive access to the virtual console during deployment and first boot. 

By contrast, headless builds are not expected to provide the user with interactive access to the virtual console.

The main difference this creates is when and how the system interacts with the user to set passwords, basic application configurations:

1. In non-headless builds, the appliance is setup by the user on first boot.
2. In headless builds, the appliance is setup by the user on first login.

For further details see the inithooks documentation.

VM optimized images

These are images optimized for deployment on Virtual Machines, using popular virtualization software (e.g., VirtualBox, VMWare, Parallels).

Features

• Pre-installed: Appliance is pre-installed to a VMDK hard disk image.
• Includes open-vm-tools: VMWare tools contain drivers which improves performance when running an appliance under VMWare. When running under VirtualBox or other virtualization platforms, the included open-vm-tools are not used.

Pros and cons

• The main advantage: easier setup as no installation step is required. Better performance on VMWare out of the box.
• The main disadvantage: can't be deployed to non-virtualized bare metal hardware.

Flavors

VM optimized images are available in two closely related formats:

1. OVA build: as of v14.0 this is the new recommended VM build. It is a single file (.ova) archive built from our VMDK; processed with VMWare's OVFtool. It contains:
   • Disk image: read-only, compressed VMDK hard disk image.
   • OVF VM configuration file: OVF is a standards-based Virtual Machine configuration format.
   • Compatibility:
     • VirtualBox: supports OVA import via "double-click" or via an import appliance wizard which converts the OVA to a native VirtualBox format. The conversion process takes a few minutes.
     • VMWare products: OVA is supported by all current VMware products such as Player, Workstation, Server, ESX and vSphere. It too will import with "double-click" or via the import wizard.
2. VMDK VM build: previously this was the primary VM build offered for download. We continue to offer it as it can be imported into KVM without conversion (and possibly others such as Xen HVM). It can also be used with VirtualBox and VMware if preferred. It is a zip archive which includes:
   • Disk image: Ready-to-run, writeable VMDK hard disk image.
   • VMX VM configuration file: VMX is a legacy VMware-only Virtual Machine configuration format.
   • Compatibility:
     • VirtualBox: supports adding the VMDK as a virtual hard disk. The VM hardware (e.g., RAM) has to be configured by hand as VMX is not supported by VirtualBox. See the virtualbox installation tutorial.
     • Low-end legacy VMWare products: VMX is point-and-click on VMWare Player, VMWare Workstation, VMWare Server.

Generic ISO

This is a single master image format that can be installed anywhere.

Features

• Custom installer (di-live): can install appliance to any available storage device.
• Live CD demo mode: allow users to try appliance without installing.
• Generic kernel: includes bare metal hardware support, and most types virtual machines (e.g., VMWare, VirtualBox, Xen HVM, Parallels).

Pros and cons

• The main advantage: a single universal image format that works (almost) anywhere.
• The main disadvantage: an ISO needs to be installed by hand and includes no out of the box virtualization optimizations.

OpenStack builds

These are TurnKey builds for the OpenStack cloud platform.

Features:

• EBS auto-mounting support: we've updated our custom EBSmount mechanism for OpenStack, which automatically mounts EBS devices when attached.
• Support for automating instance setup: via the user-data scripts mechanism.
• Automatic APT configuration on boot: saves bandwidth costs by using the closest package archive for maximum performance.
• SSH key support: instances that are launched with a key-pair will be configured accordingly.
• SSH host key fingerprints displayed in system log: verification of server to prevent man-in-the-middle (mitm) attacks.
• Randomly generated root password: is set on first boot, and displayed in the system log **.
• Randomly generated mysql/postgres passwords: the MySQL root and/or PostgreSQL postgres passwords are set to to the same random password as root **.
• Instance metadata python library and CLI: used internally, but useful for advanced users. (learn more).

** Because OpenStack builds are used in headless deployments (without a console), they include an inithook which preseeds default values, and random passwords.

See the OpenStack builds announcement for more details.

Proxmox builds

TurnKey Proxmox builds are optimized for container-based lightweight virtualization (LXC) via Proxmox v4.x+. They are available directly from the "TurnKey channel" within the Proxmox VE webUI. They should also work on v3.x (OpenVZ - or vanilla OVZ) but have not been extensively tested.

See also LXC or the OpenVZ builds announcement (historic info).

OpenNode builds

These are TurnKey builds optimized to run in OpeNode as lightweight OpenVZ containers. OpenNode supports automatic download and deployment of TurnKey solutions through opennode-tui - its textual user interface.

See the related OpenNode news announcement for details.

Xen builds

These are TurnKey filesystem tarballs optimized to run as domU guests in Xen based private or public cloud setups.

See the Xen builds announcement for details.

LXC builds

The TurnKey LXC template is the same as the Proxmox build. The TurnKey LXC appliance leverages TurnKey these builds and patches them on the fly for deployment. They should work with vanilla LXC or OpenVZ but it's currently not documented.

See the TurnKey LXC announcement for details.

Docker builds

These are TurnKey builds optimized to run as docker containers, supporting automatic download via the docker public index.

See the TurnKey Docker docs for details.