silence444's picture

Hi there. Can I download the Turnkey Core and then install appliances on it as i need them? I read about tklpatch but get quite lost when I try to use it. I have google and searched forums but can't find an answer.

Any help would be most appreciated

regards, Adrian

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Jeremy Davis's picture

Core is just the common base of all the appliances and is somewhat comparable to a minimal Ubuntu Server install (but IMO infinitely more useful as it has all the stuff you want to communicate with a headless server all set up, eg SSH, SFTP,etc). It is intended as a base should you wish to build your own custom appliance.

The appliances themselves are standalone installed OSs with a particular function preconfigured (eg LAMP). So if you wish to run a single server with multiple functions then you have 2 choices:

  1. Install a TKL appliance and add the other functions manually. You will need to do lots of research and I strongly suggest that you take careful notes as you develop in case something goes wrong. Keep in mind that the current TKL stable is based on Ubuntu Server 8.04/Hardy.
  2. (my preferred option) Install a hypervisor OS to your hardware. If your hardware is capable (64bit capable and handles virtual CPU extensions) then I highly recommend ProxmoxVE but there are plenty of other options. Then install multiple TKL appliances.

Both options have some advantages and disadvantages but I think the second option is vastly superior as it is much more versatile and scalable. Let us know how you go.

silence444's picture

Unfortunately the server that have was loaded with Winblows 2003 64bit and i can't take it of :( . So what i started to doing is loading the VM images into Sun Virtualbox. Seems to be working nicely. Atleast now i know that Core isn't quite what i needed :) 

So if i wanted to use TKL for a firewall, squid, squidGaurd then i would use TKL Core?

Thanks again! much appreciated.


Jeremy Davis's picture

Then in your case VirtualBox is probably not a bad option. (Although its 'Oracle" VirtualBox now!) Whilst servers don't restart that often, but Windows being Windows there are those pesky updates that require reboot. If I were you I would do some investigation around running VBox as a service and auto starting (and cleanly shutting down) virtual servers at boot (and shutdown). It reuires a bit of mucking around at the commandline but AFAIK is quite possible. I like VirtualBox better (for a number of reasons), but in your scenario you may find VMware Server an easier option to set up. Its free (of charge) but you need to register to get a download link. Also it only has a web interface (no GUI) and doesn't seem to play nice with Firefox (its pretty much the only thing I use IE for).

To answer your other question, yes TKL Core would be a good option for installing all that stuff. But if you want to, you may want to try Adrian's Web Filter Proxy TKLPatch but you'll need to use TKL Core Lucid beta (rather than the current stable TKL Core). If its not quite what you're after, please feel free to put in your 2c over there :) Details about using TKLPatches can be found here in the documentation.

silence444's picture

Thank you for all the help. It is really nice when a person can get so much info from a simple question. Much appreciated. I will check out the Web TKLPatch. Might be what i am after

Once again thank you.

regards, Adrian


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