Kubernetes teams looking for an immutable, minimal operating system can now deploy Talos Kubernetes clusters on OpenNebula, with Talos serving as the OS foundation. TrueFullstaq has released talos-opennebula, an open source integration that lets operators deploy Talos Kubernetes clusters as native OneFlow services on OpenNebula.

The integration uses OpenNebula’s native OneFlow and OneGate capabilities to automate cluster deployment while keeping Talos nodes clean and, of course, immutable. Once installed, the Talos cluster can be instantiated as a standard OneFlow service directly from OpenNebula Sunstone.

The project was developed in response to organizations looking to run Talos on OpenNebula without introducing an additional automation layer around the Kubernetes nodes. TrueFullstaq built and tested the implementation in OpenNebula environments before releasing it under the Apache 2.0 license.

Why Run Talos on OpenNebula?

Talos Linux is a minimal, immutable operating system designed specifically for Kubernetes. Nodes are managed through the Talos API rather than SSH or an interactive shell, making immutability and predictable infrastructure a core part of the architecture.

talos-opennebula brings this approach to OpenNebula while using OpenNebula’s existing service orchestration capabilities.

Key benefits include:

• Native OpenNebula service management: OneFlow manages the lifecycle of the multi-VM Kubernetes service.
• Immutable Kubernetes nodes: Talos nodes remain minimal and API-managed, with no SSH or OpenNebula agent required.
• Lightweight architecture: The integration relies on OneFlow and OneGate rather than introducing a separate automation stack.
• Repeatable deployments: Once the service template is installed, operators can deploy additional Talos clusters from Sunstone.
• Open source: The implementation is available under the Apache 2.0 license for operators and the community to inspect, adapt, and extend.

How It Works

The integration combines Talos with OpenNebula’s native service components.

OneFlow manages the lifecycle of the virtual machines that make up the Kubernetes cluster, while OneGate provides service discovery and exchanges non-secret state between components.

A dedicated gateway exposes the Kubernetes API, while a lightweight orchestrator handles the initial Talos configuration and cluster bootstrap. The Talos control-plane and worker nodes themselves remain clean and immutable.

In practice, the architecture consists of:

• OneFlow: multi-VM service lifecycle management.
• OneGate: service discovery and status exchange.
• Gateway: Kubernetes API access.
• Orchestrator: Talos configuration and initial cluster bootstrap.
• Talos nodes: immutable Kubernetes control-plane and worker nodes.

Once the service template is installed, operators can instantiate a cluster through Sunstone → OneFlow → Service Templates. The project also includes a wizard for installing the template and launching a verification cluster.

Complementing OpenNebula’s Kubernetes Capabilities

OpenNebula already provides OneKS, its integrated Kubernetes-as-a-Service solution based on Cluster API, CAPONE, and RKE2.

talos-opennebula addresses a different use case: environments where Talos itself is an architectural requirement. It provides a lightweight, OpenNebula-native way to run Talos without changing the operating system model that makes Talos attractive in the first place.

The current release is a proof of concept and reference implementation, providing a foundation for further development and experimentation.

Get Started

The complete source code, documentation, architecture, and setup instructions are available in the talos-opennebula GitHub repository under the Apache 2.0 license.

Interested in running Kubernetes on an open source cloud platform? Explore Kubernetes on OpenNebula.