Quick Start Guide

In this guide you will set up your first Gallium Edge hypervisor. For the purposes of demonstration you can choose to user either Server or Desktop class hardware. It is also possible to try Gallium inside a Virtual Machine or on a hosting provider. We recommend about 15 minutes to complete this guide.

Requirements

  • USB Flash Disk to use as Boot Media

  • Desktop or Server Hardware

    • Minimum 8GB Memory

    • 1 or 2 Storage Disks

    • UEFI Boot Capable

  • DHCP must be available

  • Clear line of sight to the Gallium API (No SSL Inspection)

Tip: Gallium runs in RAM and does not write to the boot media on a regular basis. Therefore, a high-endurance device is not required.

Create a Gallium Account

You can skip this step if you already have a Gallium Account.

  1. Navigate to the Gallium Sign Page

  2. Fill out the sign-up form, entering a unique Organisation Short Name. The Short Name is used in certain API contexts and cannot contain any spaces.

  3. Create your account

Prepare Boot Media and Boot Server

  1. Download the Gallium Image from the Hypervisors > Add Hypervisor page

  2. Flash the image to a USB Flash Disk using your preferred tool. We recommend Balena Etcher for ease of use. But Rufus (on Windows) or DD (On Linux) works just as well.

  3. Once complete install the USB Flash Disk into your test computer. You will need to ensure the following settings:

    • UEFI Boot Enabled

    • Boot from USB Flash Disk enabled and set as the highest priority.

    • Secure Boot must be Disabled.

  4. Boot the computer and after a short time you should see a Join Code

Join & Configure Storage

  1. From another computer go to the Hypervisor > Add Hypervisor page in the Gallium Console. Input your Join Code and name your new Hypervisor.

  2. Once the Hypervisor is joined you can configure a Storage Pool by navigating to the Storage > Add Storage Pool wizard

  3. If you have two disks in your test computer, you can place them in a Mirror. Otherwise, you can use a Single Disk Pool.

    Tip: You can use Gallium with Hardware RAID by exposing a Virtual Disk to the OS and then selecting Single Disk. However, Gallium will not monitor disk health in this scenario.

  4. Complete the New Storage Pool Wizard

Deploy a VM

  1. You can now deploy your first Virtual Machine by selecting Create New VM

  2. Chose an appropriate image for your new VM, we recommend Debian11 for the purposes of this guide.

  3. Accept the default CPU, Memory, and Disk settings for this example VM. Select the "Default NAT" network for the VM's network adaptor.

  4. Click Deploy, and after a short while your new VM will be ready

    Tip: Gallium downloads machine templates on demand and caches them until an updated image is released. Subsequent VMs using the same template will deploy from the local cache.