My rough guide to build Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server based VM base image for various homelabs which are running on QNAP (currently on Virtualization Station 3 based on QTS 4.4.1 firmware).
Download Ubuntu server iso-image from
https://ubuntu.com/download/server
Create VM by using QNAP Virtualization Station. In 'Create VM' window use following settings (to be adjusted in future)
- CPU Cores: 2
- Memory: 2 GB
- HDD Storage: 32 GB
During installation, pay attention to following (Important! Virtual disk, logical volume and filesystem resizing procedures during VM cloning are based on this assumption.
- Disc partitioning: Choose entire disc and use LVM
Set hostname for the base image VM (/etc/hostname and /etc/hosts)
$ hostnamectl
$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname <new-hostname>
$ sudo sed -i 's/\b<old-hostname>\b/<new-hostname>/g' /etc/hosts
Make hostname change persistant by changing 'preserve_hostname' from 'false' to 'true'
$ sudo nano /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg
Reboot
$ sudo reboot
Update packages within VM to the latest versions
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt list --upgradable
$ sudo apt upgrade
Install VM helper tools (qemu-guest-agent) to make it possible for host to communicate with guest VM e.g. to obtain IP address and show it in QNAP Virtualization Station.
$ sudo apt install qemu-guest-agent
Install bridge-utils to manage bridge devices.
$ sudo apt install bridge-utils
Print a system boot-up statistic and optimize boot-up time (nothing really done ... yet ... for TO-DO)
$ systemd-analyze blame
# Remove snap service
$ sudo rm -rf /var/cache/snapd/
$ sudo apt autoremove --purge gnome-software-plugin-snap snapd snap
$ rm -fr ~/snap
Clean up unused packages
$ sudo apt auto-remove
Print MAC address, to be used to configure fixed IP address mapping in DHCP server.
$ ip address
Reboot (to finalize base image configuration)
$ sudo reboot
References:
https://ubuntu.com/download/server
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Minimal
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/minimal/releases/bionic/release/
https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/ubuntu-lts-minimal-server/
https://www.serverlab.ca/tutorials/linux/administration-linux/how-to-change-an-ubuntu-18-04-server-hostname/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo
https://wiki.debian.org/MachineId
https://wiki.qemu.org/Features/GuestAgent
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/
https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-manage-packages-with-apt-on-ubuntu/
Study if anything needs to be installed from QNAP guest-tools.iso. It is distributed as part of Virtualization Station package for QNAP and its location can be found within QNAP with command 'find / -name guest_tools.iso'
Study how DUID is used as dhcp-client-identifier / Client-ID in DHCP queries and is there a convinient command to print it. Machine-ID which can be printed using 'hostnamectl' or 'cat /etc/machine-id' seems to be used to construct DUID. A goal is to optimize IP address allocation for VM images.
Build even further downscaled, cloud optimized base image from Ubuntu Minimal (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Minimal). A goal is to optimize VM bootup time and decrease footprint of a base image. Parked for timebeing. Deploying Ubuntu Minimal requires converting .img to able to use it within QNAP Virtualization Station. Need to work with toolchain and environment as conversion tools are not natively available for QNAP.
Create VM (Ubuntu Minimal cloud image)
Download Ubuntu Minimal 18.04 LTS image from (choose .img file)
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/minimal/releases/bionic/release/
Create VM by using QNAP Virtualization Station. In 'Create VM' window use following settings
- CPU Cores: 2
- Memory: 2 GB
- HDD Storage: 32 GB
- HDD Location: Choose 'Use existing image' and point location to downloaded .img file.
- Network: Choose virtual switch available.
References:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Minimal
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/minimal/