TurnKey Linux Virtual Appliance Library

The TurnKey Linux Virtual Appliance Library is a free open-source software project. It creates ready-to-use packages of server programs. These packages are built using Debian and are called virtual appliances.

You can use these appliances in many ways, such as inside a special kind of computer called a virtual machine. This lets you try out different servers without setting everything up from scratch.

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

Because these appliances are open-source, anyone can use, change, or share them. This helps people around the world 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 about 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 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 started in mid-2008 by engineers from an Israeli company. They wanted to create an open-source project to help people easily set up complete solutions using popular Linux distributions.

The project began in September 2008 with three basic tools for building websites. More tools were added over the next few months, 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 to a different type of Linux 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 start with a simple version of Debian. Older versions used Ubuntu. They include TurnKey Core, which has helpful tools. These tools include a live installer from debian-installer, a configuration console made in Python, and a web-based interface using Webmin. It also has a system for daily security updates and a web-based shell.

The core is about 110 MB. Adding applications usually makes the size around 160 MB. These appliances can be downloaded and installed to set up a 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 help 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