TurnKey Linux Virtual Appliance Library
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| OS family | Linux |
|---|---|
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source |
| Update method | APT |
| Package manager | dpkg |
| Supported platforms | IA-32 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux) |
| License | Free software licenses |
| Official website | www.turnkeylinux.org |
The Turnkey Linux Virtual Appliance Library is an open source project developing a free virtual appliance library of pre-packaged servers based on Ubuntu that can be deployed on virtual machines, in cloud computing infrastructures or installed in physical computers.
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[edit] Features
Each virtual appliance is a ready-to-use solution that's optimized for ease of use in server-type usage scenarios.[1] Each appliance is designed to "just work" with little to no configuration required.
The project currently maintains 40 virtual appliances, which are packaged in multiple build formats:
- Amazon Machine Image: provisioned on-demand via the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.
- Virtual appliance: a ready-to-run VMDK disk image with OVF support. Does not require installation.
- Installable Live CD: an ISO image which installs on both bare metal (I.e., a non-virtualized physical machine) and virtual machines, including VMware, Xen, VirtualBox, and KVM. This image can also run live in non-persistent demo mode.
Pre-integrated server applications include LAMP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MySQL, MediaWiki, Domain controller, File server, Ruby on Rails, phpBB, and many others.
[edit] History
Founded by engineers of an Israeli startup,[2] the project was conceived in mid-2008 as a community-oriented open source project that would focus on helping users piece together turnkey solutions from open source components in the largest Linux distributions. According to one of TurnKey Linux's co-founders, the project was in part inspired by a desire to provide open source alternatives to proprietary virtual appliance vendors that would be aligned with user interests and could engage the community.[3]
The project launched in September 2008 with three prototype appliances for Drupal, Joomla and LAMP, based on the Ubuntu 8.04.1 build.[4] In the following months usability was improved and a dozen additional appliances were released including Ruby on Rails, MediaWiki and Django.[5]
In October 2009, the project released 40 appliances based on Ubuntu 8.04.3 including 25 new additions to the virtual appliance library. The release included support for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, and a new Virtual Machine image format with OVF support.
TurnKey Linux was listed as a winner of the 2009 "Bossies" by InfoWorld as one of the "Top 40 open source products" of that year.[6][7]
[edit] Design
TurnKey's virtual appliances are a series of "stripped down" versions of Ubuntu.[5] To this they add the TurnKey Core, which includes all the common features for the project's virtual appliances,[8] including:
- di-live: a live installer, derived from debian-installer.
- A configuration console: developed in Python for the project to allow users to perform basic configuration tasks (for example, networking configuration, reboots)
- An automatic mechanism that installs security patches on a daily basis.
- Web administration interface based on Webmin which includes a selection of generic add-on control and configuration modules.
The TurnKey Core has a footprint of approximately 110 MB, and is available as a separate download. Application software is installed on top of the Core, which typically increases the size of a virtual appliance up to approximately 160 MB.[9] By downloading and installing the appliance package to the hard drive, it is intended by the developers that administrators would gain an easy method of setting up a dedicated server.[5]
TurnKey's virtual appliances can be customized and extended using TKLPatch,[10] a simple appliance modification mechanism. New virtual appliances can be built as high-level patches to the closest starting point in the library.
TurnKey Linux is designed to run as a virtual machine with VirtualBox and VMWare, although the former has been described as having been provided with more documentation.[11]
[edit] Screenshots
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Configuration console
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Web management interface - System overview
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Web management interface - Firewall
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AJAX web shell
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Software Appliance". TurnKey Linux. http://www.turnkeylinux.org/. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ^ Scannell, Ed (March 10, 2009). "TurnKey Linux Delivers Open Source Appliances". InformationWeek. http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=215801604&subSection=Integration. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ^ Panettieri, Joe (March 12, 2009). "12 Ubuntu Server Appliances Meet the Cloud". WorksWithU. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/12/12-ubuntu-server-appliances-meet-the-cloud/. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ^ "TurnKey Linux: new project builds Ubuntu based Live CD appliances". Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter (108). 2008. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue108#TurnKey%20Linux:%20new%20project%20builds%20Ubuntu%20based%20Live%20CD%20appliances. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ^ a b c Fransen, Matto (February 25, 2009). "Kant-en-klare open source bedrijfsapplicaties". Infoworld. http://www.infoworld.nl/web/Artikel/Kant-en-klare-open-source-bedrijfsapplicaties.htm. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ^ Dineley, Doug; Borck, James R.; Mobley, High (August 31, 2009). "Best of Open Source Software Awards 2009". InfoWorld. http://infoworld.com/d/open-source/best-open-source-software-awards-2009-628?page=0,2. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
- ^ 2009 BOSSie for Open Source Platforms and Middleware, see Slide 7
- ^ "TurnKey Linux Core - Common Base Appliance". TurnKey Linux. http://www.turnkeylinux.org/core. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ^ "Open source server appliances ship". LinuxDevices.com. March 9, 2009. http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9199443802.html. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ^ TKLPatch - a simple appliance customization mechanism
- ^ Proffitt, Brian (February 15, 2010). "Virtual Appliances Offer Fast Sandboxes, Production Environments". ITWorld. http://www.itworld.com/open-source/96666/virtual-appliances-offer-fast-sandboxes-production-environments. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
[edit] External links
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