Creating a Network Bridge
A network bridge will be needed for running a VM inside of SCALE and to be able to reach the SCALE host-machine. To create a Bridge network, open your TrueNAS Scale WebUI and go to the Network tab.
Acquiring Interface Settings
Note down the interface IP Address and the Subnet mask of your currently used interface
Click on
Edit
on the currently used interfaceDisable “DHCP” and remove all “Aliases” by clicking on the x next to them
Create the Network Bridge as described in the following section
The Network Interface should then look like this:
Creating the Network Bridge
Click on
Add
in the top-right corner of the interfaces sectionSelect the type
Bridge
and give it a Name. Note that this name cannot be changed afterwards, so you might want to add a meaningful description to itAdd your network interface as a Bridge Member. (In this example: enp6so)
Set the
MTU
to “1500”In the Alias section, click on
Add
to create a new IP address fieldEnter the IP address and Subnet mask you previously took note of
Click
Test Changes
and confirm the prompt. Wait a bit for the UI to become responsive again
Click on
Save Changes
to save the changes you have madeIf something goes wrong and the UI stays unresponsive, the changes will be reverted after 60 seconds.
The bridge should now look similar to this one when done:
Creating the ZVOL storage for the VM
Start by going to the
Datasets
section of your TrueNAS Scale WebUIThe size should be between
500GiB
and1000GiB
Make sure to select the
Sparse
optionWe do not recommend to encrypt the dataset
Set the block size to
128KiB
After you are done it should look similar to this:
Creating the VM
Start by going to the
Virtualization
section of your TrueNAS Scale WebUIIf you want to assign a GPU to the VM, make sure to isolate the GPU first
Click on
Add Virtual Machines
We also highly suggest users to set a fixed DHCP-Lease (aka static IP) for your VM inside your modem/router.
Operating System
Select the options like shown below:
Make sure to remember the password you have selected
CPU And Memory
Select the amount of
Cores
and set theThreads
to2
if your CPU supports HyperThreading like in the example below. We suggest you to add available Host-Cores minus 1 for your host systemMake sure to allocate enough
RAM
towards your VM with theMemory Size
setting.
Minimum Amount of RAM: 8GB
Minimum Recommended Amount of RAM: 16GB
Disks
Select the previously created ZVOL for your VM as shown below:
Network Interfaces
Change the Attach NIC
to the Bridge you created in the beginning of the guide
Installation Media
Download the Talos Linux Image here and save it to your PC
Click on
Upload New Image File
in the VM Creation Screen and chooseChoose File
and select the downloaded ISO. Make sure to select a location on your SCALE host 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 to 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 correctly, the options shown should look similar to the screenshot below. Make sure everything is correct and then click on Save
to finish the VM setup.
GPU Isolation
Go to
System Settings
>Advanced
in your SCALE UI and scroll down to the sectionIsolated GPU Device(s)
Click on
Configure
on the top right of the section and close the warningSelect the GPU you want to Isolate and use for your VM in the dropdown. Like shown here
Click
Save
. This might take a bitIt should now show your isolated GPU in the section. You may need to hard-refresh your browser’s page with CTRL + F5 for it to update due to SCALE GUI issues.
Fixed DHCP Lease
Below you can find 2 examples on how to set a fixed DHCP Lease for UniFi and Fritzbox hardware.
UniFi
Open your UniFi UI and go to the Client View (highlighted in blue on the screenshot)
Click on the Client that represents your VM (not your SCALE Host System)
Select
Fixed IP-Address
in the pop-up menu on the right, enter the IP address you’d like to reserve for the VM, and hitApply Changes
. Note that you will need to restart the VM from within SCALE to get it to update its IP address if you changed it.
FritzBox
Go to your FritzBox web-interface. Navigate to
Home Network
>Network
and select the running VM (not your SCALE Host System)Click on the
Edit
button and scroll down to the IP-Address in Home Network sectioCheck
Always give this device the same IP
.
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.It’s important to note that for master nodes, we use static IPs for referencing them after they are initially initialised using a Fixed DHCP lease.
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”.