is it possible to run Debian Etch as a virtual machine within a Turnkey system?

As you are probably aware, you need a modified kernel to run OVZ containers. And AFAIK that is not an option available with EC2. But LXC should be able to achieve the same ends (as OVZ), and it will allow you to use a standard Wheezy kernel.

TurnKey have a LXC (host) appliance although TBH I haven't played with it much so can't really give you any pointers. Once you have your system running on TurnKey then you have the option of using TKLBAM (TurnKey's custom backup tool).

I think that answers your question??

And Etch would have been EOL before LXC went mainstream (it could be seen as a fork/subset of OVZ - although technically I don't think it is). So I doubt that many people have ever tried to do it. But like I say I suspect that an OVZ Etch template would nearly run on LXC... IIRC there was a TurnKey user that modified the TurnKey OVZ templates to run on LXC (before we officially supported it). I think that this is the thread that I was thinking of...

As for VirtualBox; yes you can run VirtualBox headlessly on TurnKey. There is even a pretty neat php WebUI for it if you are that way inclined... Again some time ago a TurnKey community member created and shared a TurnKey VirtualBox appliance (but it never made it into the library).

Hello Jeremy

 thank you for the response.

 I'll need to test running etch in in lxc.   I researched before posting here but found no trace of anyone doing so.

 Another question -  can virtualbox or vmware run in a turnkey system?   I have had Etch running inboth sometime ago..

Not a realistic one anyway... AFAIK AWS requires a tweaked Xen kernel to run (IIRC they use a customised version of Xen) so you would need to start with an existing AWS kernel source and then apply the OVZ patches. Even if it were possible I think it sounds like major headaches...

Have you tried running your existing OVZ container under LXC though? LXC does not require a patched kernel (LXC containers run under the default Debian Wheezy (basis of TurnKey) kernel and I reckon that it wouldn't take too much to get going; although it is somewhat uncharted territory...

Headless virtualBox may be a path of least resistance...

Hello Jeremy

 On a local host I was able to follow  https://wiki.openvz.org/Installation_on_Debian

and get a openvz  etch system working on a core system.     That systen runs linux kernel 2.6.32-openvz-042stab104.1-amd64

 So I backed that up and restored on to a new core server on https://hub.turnkeylinux.org/servers/ .

 I restored the backup,  then added the openvz  kernel.      Now the system will not reboot.

 So I think that only Turnkey kernels can be used at Amazon EC2 ?   Or should the vz enabled kernel work?

thanks for your help on this.

PS - I was able to get at console.  there is def a kernel issue.   I suppose I could build my own, however that is not something I want to get in to doing again.

 Looks like I'll try  virtualbox headless on core.

.....

[    1.155290] waiting module removal not supported: please upgradeBegin: Loading essential drivers ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-premount ... done.
Begin: Mounting root file system ... Begin: Running /scripts/local-top ... 

[    1.211980] device-mapper: uevent: version 1.0.3
[    1.212697] device-mapper: ioctl: 4.27.0-ioctl (2013-10-30) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
done.
Begin: Waiting for root file system ... done.
Gave up waiting for root device.  Common problems:
 - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
   - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
   - Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
 - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT!  /dev/xvda1 does not exist.  Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.20.2 (Debian 1.20.0-7ubuntu3+turnkey+2+gbe130c2) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

AFAIK anything that will require kernel module/rebuild/patching/etc isn't going to work on AWS.

Like I said it shouldn't actually take too much tweaking to convert yout existing OVZ container to LXC. They are very similar...

so I tried virtualBox on amazon ec2 .  the result was:

    Starting VirtualBox kernel modules ...failed!
  (Running VirtualBox in a Xen environment is not supported)

So next I installed LXC, set up a test lxc wheezy system.  that was easy.   

Next  I've got to figure  out how to make a debian etch lxc .   

Jeremy -   I was able to get etch working.  I made a  new lxc for wheezy , then copied  and edited the config file to use with etch .   

thank you for the help.