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QNAP Virtualization Station

QNAP's Virtualization Station runs the image as an ordinary virtual machine on your NAS. You import the OVA, attach a seed ISO with your SSH key to its CD/DVD drive, and start it.

Before you start​

  • Virtualization Station 4, installed from the App Center.
  • A model with an Intel or AMD processor and virtualization switched on. The image is amd64 only, so models with an ARM processor cannot run it. QNAP's compatibility list for Virtualization Station names the models.
  • Room on the NAS: 2 vCPU and 4 GB of memory free for the machine, and 40 GB or more of disk, as Hardware describes.
  • A virtual switch attached to your network. Virtualization Station connects machines through the virtual switches in Network & Virtual Switch. The machine needs one that is bound to a physical port of the NAS, so it gets an address on your network.
  • The file: the OVA, antelao-ohm-<version>-amd64.ova.

Download​

Download the OVA from the table on the overview page, then check it before you import it. Run this in the folder you downloaded it to:

curl -fsSLO https://packages.antelao.io/raw/cosign.pub
sha256sum cosign.pub
curl -fsSLO https://images.antelao.io/ohm/stable/0.23.0/SHA256SUMS
curl -fsSLO https://images.antelao.io/ohm/stable/0.23.0/SHA256SUMS.sig
cosign verify-blob --key cosign.pub --signature SHA256SUMS.sig \
  --insecure-ignore-tlog=true SHA256SUMS
sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS

Verify the download says what must come out right, and how to check on Windows or a Mac.

Importing from a folder on the NAS is faster than uploading from your computer during the import. Copy the OVA to a shared folder first, through File Station or a network share.

Import​

  1. Open Virtualization Station. Click the arrow next to Create Virtual Machine and choose Import Virtual Machine.
  2. Choose where the file is: PC for your computer, or Local device for a folder on the NAS. Select antelao-ohm-<version>-amd64.ova and click Next.
  3. In the general settings, name the machine and choose the folder it is stored in. Keep 2 CPU cores or more and 4 GB of memory or more. The OVA asks for exactly that.
  4. In the advanced settings, check the network adapter: Connect to must be the virtual switch attached to your network. Do not choose User Mode Networking: it hides the machine behind the NAS, where nothing on your network can reach it. VirtIO is the best Model; the image also has drivers for the others.
  5. Leave Automatically start the VM after creation cleared: the seed ISO goes in first.
  6. Check the summary and click Create. The import converts the disk and takes a few minutes.

Converting it yourself. If the import refuses the OVA, unpack it and create the machine from its disk instead. An OVA is a tar archive; this command unpacks it on Windows 10 and 11, macOS and Linux:

tar -xf antelao-ohm-<version>-amd64.ova

Create a new machine with Create Virtual Machine, and use the .vmdk file it writes as the machine's existing disk.

Give it your SSH key​

Virtualization Station shows none of the OVA's VMware properties, so you hand the key over on a seed ISO.

  1. Build seed.iso with the seed ISO builder on the overview page, and copy it to a shared folder on the NAS.
  2. With the machine powered off, open its settings with Edit.
  3. Click CD/DVD ROM. If the machine has no drive yet, click Add > Add CD/DVD ROM and choose a controller.
  4. Click the browse icon next to Disc (.iso), select seed.iso in the Connect CD-ROM window, click OK, then Apply.
  5. Under Boot Options, make sure the machine boots from its hard disk first. The seed is a data disc, not a boot disc. The boot mode, UEFI or legacy BIOS, can stay as the import set it: the disk boots both.

No seed? The machine's own screen shows the console address and a one-time sign-in code after the first boot.

Start it and wait for the first boot​

  1. Select the machine and click Start.
  2. Click Console to watch its screen.

The screen shows the usual Linux boot messages, then a login prompt. Among the messages, cloud-init prints a table of the network devices, its lines starting with ci-info, with the address the machine received. Your router's list of DHCP leases shows the same address.

The login prompt appearing does not mean the work is done. The first boot installs the server in the background, which takes about 10 minutes, longer on a slow connection or slow disks. Sign in over SSH meanwhile and the login message says how far it is.

Reach the console​

Sign in over SSH as debian with your key, using the machine's address or its DNS name:

ssh debian@192.168.1.50

Once the first boot is done, the login message shows the console's address. Read the administrator's first password:

sudo cat /root/antelao-ohm-handoff.json

With a password on the seed instead of a key, sign in as debian on the machine's Console. SSH keeps refusing passwords.

Then open the console through an SSH tunnel from your own computer, which opens no port on the machine:

ssh -N -L 5322:127.0.0.1:5322 debian@192.168.1.50

Browse to https://localhost:5322/ and accept the self-signed certificate once. From here, carry on with the installation page:

  1. Check the server
  2. Reach the console
  3. Sign in and finish the setup
  4. Create your first instance

Platform notes and troubleshooting​

  • The OVA is described for VMware. Its disk controller and network adapter are VMware's. Virtualization Station uses its own in their place, and the image's kernel has drivers for them. If the machine does not find its disk, set the disk's controller to VirtIO or SATA under Edit > Storage.
  • More disk. Grow the disk under Edit > Storage before the first start; the first boot uses the space.
  • The machine does not boot. Switch the boot mode under Edit > Boot Options between UEFI and legacy BIOS, and check that the hard disk comes before the CD/DVD drive.
  • No address appears. Check Connect to under Edit > Network, and that the virtual switch is bound to a connected port in Network & Virtual Switch.
  • Nothing reaches the server from outside your network. Your router has to forward ports 80 and 443 to the machine's address before Let's Encrypt can issue certificates for your instances. Never forward the console's port 5322.
  • The first boot failed. The login message says FAILED with the reason. See What the first boot does for how to run it again.
  • The seed ISO afterwards. Leave it attached: a machine whose seed disappears looks new to cloud-init at its next start, as Keep the seed attached explains. It holds a hash of your password, if you gave one, so keep the ISO file where only administrators can reach it.
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