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Talos Hypervisor runs on a Talos Linux host, which can be a physical server or a virtual machine with nested virtualization enabled. This page lists the requirements for the host, the Talos Linux image, and the machine that runs talosctl.

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Host hardware requirements

The host must meet the following hardware requirements:
  • Architecture: Talos Hypervisor runs on both architectures that Talos Linux supports, x86-64 (amd64) and Arm (arm64). Each virtual machine runs on the same architecture as its host. Virtual machines on amd64 hosts can use BIOS or UEFI firmware, and virtual machines on arm64 hosts must use UEFI.
  • Hardware virtualization: Virtual machines run as KVM guests, so hardware virtualization must be available to the host. On a physical server, it is enabled in the firmware. This is Intel VT-x or AMD-V on x86-64 processors, and the virtualization extensions on arm64 processors.
  • Nested virtualization: A host that runs as a virtual machine, such as a cloud instance, needs nested virtualization enabled. Platforms that support it on specific instance types or configurations include AWS, Google Cloud, and Proxmox. Many cloud networks also block traffic from the MAC addresses of the host’s virtual machines.
  • Disk space: The host’s Talos volumes must have enough space for the content library that stores virtual machine images and the storage pools that store virtual machine disks.
  • Network: The host needs an Ethernet link, such as a physical interface, a bond, or a VLAN, for virtual machines to connect to.

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Host software requirements

The host must run Talos Linux v1.15 or later. The machine configuration documents that declare content libraries, storage pools, and virtual machines were introduced in Talos Linux v1.15. The Talos Linux image installed on the host must also include the libvirtd system extension, which provides libvirt and QEMU. Talos uses them to run the virtual machines. To learn how to add an extension to an image, see System Extensions and Image Factory.

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Client requirements

The talosctl commands for content libraries, the virtual machine consoles, and console history were introduced in Talos Linux v1.15, so talosctl must be v1.15 or later. Using the same talosctl version as the Talos Linux version on the host is recommended. The console commands and talosctl logs --kind=vm require the Admin role and target one node at a time. The serial console command is available on macOS and Linux clients, but not on Windows.

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Next steps

To set up a host that meets these requirements, see Install a hypervisor host.