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Virtual Environments

Virtual environments​

Virtual environments are ideal for prototyping and operator practice. Aim to keep networking and names close to production.

Parallels on macOS​

Virtual environment on macOS using Parallels.

  • Use bridged networking instead of shared NAT, so your VMs receive addresses on your LAN.
  • Reserve DHCP leases as static in the home router and create matching DNS records.
  • Allocate the load balancer VIPs from your LAN subnet but outside the DHCP pool.
  • Keep VM CPU and RAM allocations modest to avoid contention and false performance signals.
warning

Avoid Parallels “Shared” networking for cluster nodes. NAT can mask routing issues and break service discovery.

Virtualization Station on QNAP NAS​

Virtual environment on a NAS.

  • Use bridged networking on a dedicated VLAN where possible.
  • Pin VM storage to SSD pools if available to reduce I/O latency during etcd and image pulls.
  • Treat the NAS as shared infrastructure. Back up VM definitions and export images regularly.