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Basic Operating System Compatibility Guide

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bystuart.lawson

Overview

Protectli Vault and Vault Pro products can install and utilize a wide range of Operating Systems (OS). This article is made to give a broad overview of what OS's you can install on Protectli Vault Products. This article will outline which OS's can be installed by us directly when purchasing a Vault or Vault Pro from our webstore as well as OS's you can install yourself. 

Operating Systems That Can Be Installed By Protectli During Purchase

Operating Systems that can be installed by Protectli directly during purchase are*:

  • OPNsense
  • Ubuntu Desktop
  • Ubuntu Server
  • XCP-ng
  • OpenWrt

We strive to install the latest stable version available for each OS option, but we sometimes offer a slightly older version while we work on fully qualifying the newest version. Although we can preinstall these Operating Systems, we are not responsible for software configuration or troubleshooting support.

*Some OS's maybe not be able to be installed on every single Vault. If you do not see it as an option during checkout, it has been specifically omitted for a particular reason. For example, XCP-ng is not an option on Vaults like the FW2B because they are not powerful enough to reliably run as a hypervisor.

Operating Systems That You Can Install Manually

In general, any x86 OS can be attempted to install on Protectli Vault and Vault Pro products. We highly encourage reviewing the recommended specifications directly from the developer's website for any OS before installing. Some OS may require specific hardware, storage/RAM capacities, CPU generations, and similar. If you want to install a Linux based Operating System, the chances of it being usable are quite high.

The list below consists of OS's we have installed previously, but we cannot guarantee that every single version of the OS can be installed on every single Vault. This should establish a guideline, and you should refer to the Operating System's developer's website for specification recommendations, or any pertinent KB articles we have relating to the OS. 

  • Proxmox VE
    • We encourage installing on Vaults with at least 16GB of RAM + decent SSD capacity + a CPU that can reliably handle virtualization.
  • ESXi VMWare
    • Please note that this OS is generally reccomended to be installed on hardware that has been specifically qualified by Broadcom. It can run on a majority of our hardware, but unexpected issues can potentially arise as the OS continues to be developed and updated. Vault Pro products are recommended.
  • Arista NG Firewall
    • This OS can effectively be installed on any of our Vault and Vault Pro products assuming you are installing version 17.4.1 or newer.
  • pfSense® CE
    • Under no circumstance will we preinstall this OS for any customer due to Netgate®'s terms/conditions of use, but it can be installed on any Vault or Vault Pro product.
  • FreeBSD
  • OpenBSD
  • IPFire
  • Debian
    • Newer Vault products may need to install newer versions of Debian for proper driver and kernel support.
  • Fedora Workstation
  • RedHat
    • Please refer to the developer's website on recommended specs and requirements.
  • openSUSE
    • The rolling release is typically recommended but we do not closely follow the development cycle.
  • Windows
    • Windows 11 requires a TPM, and Windows 10 is no longer recommended to install due to it reaching end of support by Microsoft. It is highly encouraged to run all updates available!
  • Windows Server
    • Windows Server typically expects the OS to be installed on enterprise hardware with enterprise grade NICs and other components. Driver support for some of the NICs in our lineup may not be included by default, and long term stability is relatively unknown. With that being said, many customers have reached out stating they have used it on our Vault Pro products successfully.
  • Sophos
    • This OS is picky with what it can be installed on. The developers of the OS are slowly rolling out updates that have improved compatibility with more modern devices including the hardware we sell. It is generally recommended to be installed on Vaults that have legacy BIOS opposed to UEFI.
  • VyOS
  • CentOS
    • Version 10 or newer recommended.

Many of these Operating Systems have guides on our Knowledge Base on how to be installed. Please navigate to our OS/Software section of our knowledge base to find any pertinent articles: https://kb.protectli.com/?top-category=softwareoperating-system-articles

Final Words

The Vault ecosystem can reliably install a plethora of different OS, and many are not included in this article. Linux based Operating Systems have a very good track record with our hardware, and at the end of the day, Vaults and Vault Pros are small form factor computers that aren't locked into using specific Operating Systems. Feel free to reach out to us if you installed something not mentioned here.

We can be reached at support@protectli.com [US], support@eu.protectli.com [Europe], support@ca.protectli.com [Canada], or you can navigate to the Contact page on our website. 

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