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Recommendations for running VMs on a headless server?

Quick overview of my setup: Synology NAS running a whole bunch of Docker containers and a couple of full blown VMs, and an N100 based mini PC running Ubuntu Server for those containers that benefit from hardware acceleration.

On the NAS I have a Linux Mint VM that I use for various desktoppy things, but performance via RDP or NoMachine and so on is just bad. I think it’s ultimately due to the lack of acceleration, so I’d like to try running it from the mini PC instead but I’m struggling to find hypervisor options.

VirtualBox can be done headless, apparently, but the package installed via Apt wants to install X/Wayland and the entire desktop experience. LXC looks like it might be a viable option with its web frontend but it appears to be conflicting with Docker atm and won’t run the setup.

Another option is to redo the machine with UnRaid or TrueNAS Scale but as they’re designed to be full fledged NAS OSes I don’t love that idea.

So what would you do? Does anyone have a similar setup with advice?

Thanks all!

Edit: Thanks for everyone’s comments. I still can’t get LXC to work, which is a shame because it has a nice web frontend, so I’ll give KVM a go as my next option. Failing that I might well backup my Docker volumes, blat the whole thing and see what Proxmox can do.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

XCP-ng is pretty cool

TedZanzibar OP ,

Yes, big fan of XCP-ng, we use it extensively in work, but I’m not convinced it’s my best option in this case.

just_another_person , (edited )

You’re overthinking this. You don’t need an actual VM for services. Containers are fine. If you’re worried about security, go down the Katanor gvisor rabbithole, but you definitely don’t need an entire OS and VM running for simple services.

There’s no reason containers can’t be hardware accelerated. I’m confused by what that statement means.

TedZanzibar OP ,

I’m using plenty of containers, accelerated and otherwise, but I also want a full-blown desktop that I can access from wherever. Even on a wired LAN, streaming that desktop is slow and laggy when it’s hosted on my NAS, which I think is due to the lack of hardware acceleration on that system. I want to move the VM to a host that has that feature (currently running Ubuntu Server) but I need a hypervisor that doesn’t require its own desktop system to be installed in order to manage it.

Plenty of good replies here to help me though.

BlueEther , (edited )
@BlueEther@no.lastname.nz avatar

I say go with proxmox on the n100 (I use it), there are alternatives kvm/QEMU managers that I heard good things about as well (namely Incus github.com/lxc/incus)

sugar_in_your_tea , (edited )

I’ve heard good things about Proxmox, but I have no direct experience with it. That would be a separate box that manages the VMs and everything, and it has a remote GUI option (webpage I think?).

If you want something on an existing box, just use KVM directly, or a simple frontend like GNOME boxes. I don’t know about remote configuration, but once it’s set up, do you really need to check in on things remotely? KVM will do hardware acceleration (definitely CPU acceleration, GPU if you configure it properly), and it has no GUI by default.

BearOfaTime ,

It uses some form of VNC (forget the name). Performance is fine for the VMs for non-video stuff.

You can run whatever you want inside a VM too.

lud ,

No VNC

catloaf ,

You want KVM.

But I’d check the performance on the NAS first. They’re not really built for VMs so you might be missing hardware features, but I’d check resource usage to see if you’re maxing anything out. And try reducing resolution, color depth, etc. to make it easier.

TedZanzibar OP ,

Well indeed, that’s why I want to move the VM off the NAS and onto something with some hardware acceleration. Are there any remote frontend options for KVM?

we_avoid_temptation ,

Virtual Machine Manager is what you’re looking for I think

scottmeme ,

Proxmox has a full webui with almost every feature you could want, except for some more advanced zfs features

just_another_person ,

Uhhhh, why?

catloaf ,

Why what?

just_another_person , (edited )

Why would this person want KVM? They don’t need anything a full VM provides, they’re just trying to run many services easily on a single host.

catloaf ,

They already have several VMs, containers, and want a full desktop on one. If it sounded like going down to one physical server would be appropriate, I would have recommended it. But condensing whatever they’ve got now would be a huge pain, especially if they find out it doesn’t work and they have to start over and go back to VMs and containers.

just_another_person ,

See your own answer for why that isn’t needed.

catloaf ,

It’s not needed because it’s currently mostly working for them? You’re going to need to use full sentences if you want to communicate, I’m afraid.

just_another_person ,

You altered, bruh? Read the response. No idea what you’re talking about.

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