Supported virtualization platforms and build types

TurnKey servers are available in three build types: a generic ISO that installs on bare metal or in any virtual machine, a container template for Proxmox VE and other LXC hosts, and Amazon Web Services images launched with the TurnKey Hub or AWS Marketplace.

The ISO works with all the major virtualization platforms, including VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels, Hyper-V, XenServer and QEMU/KVM. If you don't already have virtualization software installed, VirtualBox is available in a free open source edition for major OSs. 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	Works best with...
Generic hybrid ISO	No	ISO CD/USB image (install or run live)	Custom installer (di-live)	Bare metal hardware (via CD or USB flash drive) Any virtual machine (e.g., VirtualBox, VMware, KVM, Hyper-V, XenServer) that can install from CD or ISO image.
Proxmox / LXC	Yes	Tarball containing server filesystem optimized to run as an LXC container	Download & import template via the "TurnKey channel" within the Proxmox webUI or manually download tarball and upload to PVE	Proxmox VE Other LXC based virtualization solutions
Amazon Web Services	Yes	Amazon Machine Image (AMI)	Launch with the TurnKey Hub or AWS Marketplace	Amazon EC2

Older releases were also published as OVA, VMDK, OpenStack (QCOW2), Xen and Docker builds. These build types are no longer produced. To run a current release in a virtual machine, install it from the ISO.

Other virtualization platforms

Platforms that run a full virtual machine can install TurnKey from the ISO. Examples that have been documented are:

• KVM
• OpenNebula (KVM backed)
• XenServer (install from ISO)
• Hyper-V (install from ISO) (may still require "Gen1" VM).

Headless vs non-headless builds

In a conventional installation (e.g., from 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 server is setup by the user on first boot.
2. In headless builds, the server is setup by the user on first login.

Assuming that the user has access to the raw filesystem, headless installs can be pre-seeded. Alternatively, they can be interactively initialized on first login. Interactive initialization requires SSH access to the TurnKey root account. Many systems (e.g. Proxmox) support pre-setting the root password and/or addition of SSH keys prior to firstboot. Other systems may require the user to read the randomly generated root password from the syslog.

For further details see the inithooks documentation.

Generic ISO

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

Features

• Custom installer (di-live): can install server to any available storage device.
• Live CD/USB demo mode: allow users to try server without installing.
• Generic kernel: includes bare metal hardware support, and most types virtual machines (e.g., VMware, VirtualBox, KVM, 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. When running under VMware you may wish to install open-vm-tools, and under VirtualBox the Guest Additions.

Proxmox builds

TurnKey Proxmox builds are optimized for OS container-based lightweight virtualization (LXC) via Proxmox VE. They are available directly from the "TurnKey channel" within the Proxmox VE webUI (under Storage >> Templates). See TurnKey on Proxmox for details.

Please note, if you prefer to launch a "full VM" (i.e. KVM) on Proxmox, then please download the relevant ISO. Either download to your local computer and upload the ISO via Proxmox webUI, or log in via commandline and download the ISO to /var/lib/vz/template/iso/.

LXC builds

The TurnKey LXC template is the same as the Proxmox build. It should also work with vanilla LXC or Incus, but this is currently undocumented.

Amazon Web Services

TurnKey servers can be launched on Amazon EC2 from the TurnKey Hub, which also manages backups and dynamic DNS, or directly from your AWS account via AWS Marketplace. See the EC2 documentation for details.