TurnKey Linux Virtual Appliance Library

The TurnKey Linux Virtual Appliance Library is a free open-source software project that creates ready-to-use packages of server programs. These packages are built using Debian and are called virtual appliances. They can be used in many different ways, such as inside a special kind of computer called a virtual machine. This means you can try out different servers without having to set everything up from scratch.

TurnKey appliances work with many types of software that help run computers and services. You can use them on actual computers, or in places called cloud computing services like Amazon Web Services. This makes it easy for anyone to get started with complex server tasks quickly.

Because these appliances are open-source, anyone can use, change, or share them. This helps people around the world to build and improve software together. Whether you are learning about servers or setting up a new business, TurnKey provides handy tools to make things easier.

Features

The TurnKey Linux project offers around 100 different types of ready-to-use software setups, all available for free. These setups get automatic updates for safety and can make copies of your data. They come in formats that work on many different computers and systems.

These setups can be used in several ways:

• As virtual machines for programs like VirtualBox and VMware
• As files for use with KVM and QEMU
• For use with OpenStack, Proxmox, and Docker
• As a special type of file for installing on real computers or USB drives
• Ready-to-use setups for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud through the TurnKey Linux Hub or Amazon Marketplace

These setups include many useful tools like LAMP, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Redmine, MySQL, MediaWiki, and others.

History

TurnKey Linux was started by engineers from an Israeli company in mid-2008. They wanted to create an open-source project to help people easily set up complete solutions using the most popular Linux distributions.

The project began in September 2008 with three basic tools for building websites. Over the next few months, more tools were added, making it easier for people to use these solutions. By October 2009, there were 40 tools available, and the project added support for cloud services and a new way to save and share these tools.

TurnKey Linux kept growing. In 2012, it switched from using one type of Linux to another that was known for its security. The project also moved its tools to a place where anyone could help improve them. By 2015, there were even more tools available, making it easier than ever for people to use TurnKey Linux for their projects.

Design

TurnKey's virtual appliances begin with a simple version of Debian (older versions used Ubuntu). They add TurnKey Core, which includes useful tools like a live installer from debian-installer, a configuration console made in Python, and a web-based interface using Webmin. It also has a daily security update system and a web-based shell.

The core is about 110 MB, and adding applications usually brings the size to around 160 MB. These appliances can be downloaded and installed to set up a dedicated server easily. New or custom appliances can be created using code from GitHub and built with TKLDev, or changed using TKLPatch. TurnKey Linux can run as a virtual machine with VirtualBox and VMWare, with more documentation for VirtualBox.

Screenshots

This section shows some pictures of tools you can use with TurnKey Linux. There is a special console to help set things up. There are also web tools to manage databases and servers.

Configuration console

Adminer - Web based Database administration tool

Webmin - Web based server administration tool