The TurnKey Linux Virtual Appliance Library - Powered by Drupal

1zero1.net runs on Ubuntu Linux using the Drupal CMS system.

The guys at TurnkeyLinux have an incredible selection of custom Virtual Appliances built for specific purposes. In my case they assembled a Drupal package with useful features configured and ready to go:

SSL support out of the box.
Postfix MTA (bound to localhost) to allow sending of email (e.g., password recovery, user registration).
PHPMyAdmin administration frontend for MySQL (listening on port 12322 - uses SSL).
Webmin modules for configuring Apache2, PHP and MySQL.
Search engine friendly out of the box
Popular and useful Drupal modules

What this did for us was flatten the learning curve. We were able to start designing what we wanted the blog site to look like, and spend less time just setting up the plumbing.

When downloading an appliance you have three different choices of delivery:

1. Download an ISO to create the virtual machine in a traditional way.
2. Download a pre-configured VM that you can import into VMware Workstation or ESX server, as well as other virtual servers VirtualBox, Parallels and Xen. I did need to use VMware Converter to import them into vSphere.
3. Deploy directly to Amazon EC2 AMI (assuming you have an account setup and ready to go)

The last option is intriguing because it really points to the direction that virtualization is heading. The idea that you can locate an appliance like Drupal or MySQL, “deploy” it directly from a website instead of downloading it, and have it running live with minimal time with minimal configuration is outstanding. It reminds me of a product company “drop shipping” their products to the retailers.

With VMware Project Redwood envisioned to make self service provisioning on VMware platforms a reality, along with the ability to cloud-hop to and from various Cloud Service providers, this type of distribution system is right on target.

For Microsoft administrators the Turnkey suite of Linux based apps shines on another level as well. With the addition of the Webmin interface, many command line tasks are easy to execute on the fly and allow for a gradual introduction to the underlying Linux system (for those not familiar) while simply speeding things up on other levels.

Here are a few links to my favorite appliances:

Last but not least, TurnkeyLinux also runs their own site on Drupal.

Give them a test spin and see what you think. Oh yeah, if you find them useful, buy the guys a beer by clicking on a link on their page! :)