Is it possible to deploy MailCleaner onto a Linode?
Linode
Linode Staff
Does anyone know if I can deploy MailCleaner onto a Linode using one of the latest images:
3 Replies
Britchey
Linode Staff
I don't believe that any of those VM types will work on a Linode as they don't have an MBR (master boot record) and rely on the hypervisor to boot. If the older .iso version of MailCleaner contains an MBR you should be able to deploy it using the Linode "Custom Distribution" guide.
Thanks @Britchey but obviously I don't want to install a 4 year old version when there is a recent version available. Given that the guide you link to reference that Linode runs KVM and that there is a KVM compatible disk image of MailCleaner available I'm a little confused why this would be a problem.
I can run up a MailCleaner image using VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation and log into that. Would it not be possible to make any configuration changes required on that image and then export a prepared disk to Linode?
It seems to be quite possible to run these images on Google Cloud or Azure though the setup stages are a bit of fiddle requiring disk images of exact GB multiples etc. I'm a little confused why it would be more difficult on Linode.
Given that the guide you link to reference that Linode runs KVM and that there is a KVM compatible disk image of MailCleaner available I'm a little confused why this would be a problem.
Linode utilizes KVM as a technology, but that doesn't mean that the experience is 1:1 with what you'd encounter if you were actually running KVM on your own hardware. There are a lot of reasons why that's not possible.
I can run up a MailCleaner image using VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation and log into that. Would it not be possible to make any configuration changes required on that image and then export a prepared disk to Linode?
Probably, yes. It's going to require some work though, and really you're well outside of the scope of Linode's support on that. Linode's "Direct Disk Boot" mode relies upon a master boot record in order to boot your custom image. If the image doesn't have one, you'll need to create it:
https://pagefault.blog/2016/11/13/how-to-create-master-boot-record-mbr-to-file-on-linux/
An alternative option would be to boot up the image in virtualbox, give it a working Grub config for Linode, and then dd it to a fresh ext4 disk. Since this appears to just be Debian anyway, you might have more luck going that route. Linode's docs have some Grub2 mode info for this.