Virtual Machine on TrueNAS Scale (2024)

Creating a Network Bridge

A network bridge will be needed for running a VM inside of SCALE and to be able to reach the host-machine.To create a Bridge. Open your TrueNAS Scale WebUI and go to the Network tab.

Aquiring Interface Settings

1. Note down the interface IP Address and the Subnet mask of your currently used Interface.

2. Click on Edit on the currently used Interface.

3. Disable DHCP and remove all Alias by Clicking on the x next to them.

4. Create the Network Bridge like described in the following section.

The Network Interface should now look like this:

Creating the Network Bridge

1. Click on Add in the Top Right Corner of the Interfaces Section.

2. Select Type Bridge and give it a Name. The name cannot be changed afterwards. You might want to add a meaningful description to it.

3. Add your network interface as a Bridge Member. (Example here: enp6so)

4. Set the MTU to 1500.

5. In the Alias section click on Add to create a new IP Address Field.

6. Enter the IP-Address and Subnet mask you previously took note off.

7. Click Test Changes and confirm the prompt. Wait a bit for the ui to get responsive again.

8. Click on Save Changes to save the changes you have made.

   

9. If something goes wrong and the UI stays unresponsive the changes will be reverted in 60 seconds.

The bridge should look similar to this one when done:

Creating the ZVOL for the VM

1. Start by going to the Datasets section of your TrueNAS Scale WebUI.

2. The size should be between 500GiB and 1000GiB.

3. Make sure to select the Sparse option

4. We do not recommend to encrypt the dataset.

5. Set the block size to 128KiB

6. After you are done it should look similar to this:

Creating the VM

1. Start by going to the Virtualization section of your TrueNAS Scale WebUI.

2. If you want to assign a GPU to the VM, make sure to isolate the GPU first.

3. Click on Add Virtual Machines

4. We also highly suggest users to set a fixed DHCP-Lease (fixed dhcp IP) for your VM inside your Router.

   See Also

   Cobia to DragonFish Storage Migration

Operating System

Select the options like shown below:

Make sure to remember the password you have selected.

CPU And Memory

1. Select the amount of Cores and Set the Threads to 2 if your CPU support HyperThreading like in the example below.We suggests you to add available Host-Cores minus 1 for your host system.

2. Make sure to allocate enough RAM towards your VM with the Memory Size setting.

   Minimum Amount of RAM: 8gbMinimum Recommended Amount of RAM. 16GB

Disks

Select the previously created Zvol for your VM like shown below:

Network Interfaces

Change the Atach NIC to the Bridge you have created in the beginning of the guide.

Installation Media

1. Download the Talos Linux Image here and save it to your pc.

2. Click on Upload New Image File in the VM Creation Screen and choose Choose File and select the downloaded ISO. Make sure to select an location where you want to save your ISO to. An example can be seen below:

   

GPU

Make sure your GPU is isolated before you try to assign it towards your VM.If you don’t want to assign a GPU to your VM just click Next and skip this part of the guide.

Confirm Options

If you followed this guide closely the options shown should look similar to the screenshot below.Make sure everything is correct and then click on Save to finish the VM settings.

GPU Isolation

1. Go to System Settings > Advanced in your SCALE UI and scroll down to the section Isolated GPU Device(s).

2. Click on Configure on the top right of the section and close the warning.

3. Select the GPU you want to Isolate and use for your VM in the dropdown. Like shown here

4. Click Save. This can take a bit.

5. It should now show your Isolated GPU in the Section. (Might need to refresh and clear your cache for it to show up.)

Fixed DHCP Lease

Below you can find 2 examples on how to set a fixed DHCP Lease for Unify and Fritzbox.

Unify

1. Open your Unify UI and go to the Client View (highlighted in blue on the screenshot)

2. Click on the Client that represents your VM (not your Host).

3. Select Fixed IP-Address in the pop-up menu on the right.

Fritzbox

1. Go to your fritzbox web-interface. Go to Home Network> Network and select the running VM (not your Host).

2. Click on the Edit-Button and scroll down to the IP-Address in Home Network section.

3. Check Always give this device the same IP

(screenshot in german)

TalConfig Examples

Here are a few examples you can copy-paste into talconfig to setup the above VMs to run Talos.

Single-Node Cluster or Master-Node

By default we ensure qemu guest additions are always loaded for all master-nodes.Its important to note that for master nodes, we use static IPs for referencing them after they are initially initiallised using a Fixed DHCP lease.

 - hostname: k8s-control-1
 ipAddress: ${MASTER1IP}
 controlPlane: true
 nameservers:
 - 8.8.8.8
 - 1.1.1.1
 installDiskSelector:
 size: <= 100TB
 networkInterfaces:
 - interface: eth0
 addresses:
 - ${MASTER1IP}/24
 routes:
 - network: 0.0.0.0/0
 gateway: ${GATEWAY}
 vip:
 ip: ${VIP}

Worker Node

By default we ensure qemu guest additions are always loaded for all worker-nodes.Workernodes can be pretty basic and should “just work”

 - hostname: k8s-worker-1
 ipAddress: 192.168.10.111
 nameservers:
 - 8.8.8.8
 - 1.1.1.1
 installDiskSelector:
 size: <= 600GB