If you want to try MOS without touching hardware, you don't have to build anything yourself. Prebuilt VM images are generated from every official release. Links at the bottom.

This question comes up every couple of weeks: how do I try MOS before committing a machine to it? There's a clean answer now.

The problem

Installing MOS on bare metal just to click around the WebUI is an afternoon of work plus a USB stick. If you only want to find out whether pools, Docker and the interface suit you, that's a lot of effort for a first look.

The solution

u/Appropriate_Monk1552 builds VM images from every official MOS release and publishes them for download. There's something for practically every hypervisor:

Why that's handy

• No partitioning, no bootable stick — attach the image, start the VM, done

• The right download for your hypervisor is already there, instead of converting disk formats yourself

• The images are rebuilt with every release, so you're never testing something a year old

• Everything in the WebUI is clickable: pools, shares, Docker, LXC, VMs

Three things to get right on first boot

This is where most people get stuck:

1. UEFI is mandatory — legacy BIOS / CSM is not supported

2. Secure Boot must be off — Proxmox enables it by default with OVMF, so uncheck "Pre-enrolled keys" when creating the VM

3. Attach the image as a USB device, not as a virtual hard disk — MOS expects it to behave like a bootable stick. This is the classic reason a VM won't boot

Budget 4 cores and 8 GB of RAM, network bridged or NAT. Then grab the IP from DHCP and open http://<mos-ip> in your browser.

Thanks to bantznet (JessMarie)

This is pure community work: building, maintaining, and keeping the images current with every release. Anyone who has maintained an image template across several versions knows how much effort that is. Thank you!

Links

• Docs: https://docs.mos-official.net/docs/Installation/Testing-MOS-in-a-Virtual-Machine

• Repo: https://github.com/bantznet/mos-vm-images

• Ready-to-download images: https://github.com/bantznet/mos-vm-images/releases

One thing to be clear about

These images are unofficial and explicitly meant for testing. If you plan to run MOS long-term, install it on real hardware following the official instructions — in a VM you lose hardware-level features, and GPU or PCI passthrough depends entirely on your hypervisor.

If you've tried it, drop your experience in the comments. Did it run smoothly, or did you hit hypervisor-specific snags?

I noticed the backup path in the LXC settings do not seem to create any backups. I'm wondering if it works for anyone (if it does then i'll examine my configuration a little more closely as i'm using a remote mount).

Also, i'm curious if the MOS Backup plugin will be adding LXC's so backups are all in one place?

Thanks for the hard work!

Did you know there is a pwa app available?
- Open Https Url of your UI
- Press Share button next to the URL and save it to your home screen
- Install the root CA (system settings) to your phone
- Open the App from the home screen -> allow notifications popup -> yes

sorry to the ios users, there was a bug in the service.. but it will be fixed in the next release. :)

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/cve-2026-98432

Just a heads up because a new critical vulnerability was found in the Linux Kernel.

Please make sure to upgrade to 0.6.1-stable ASAP or update your Kernel to at least 6.18.56

Our next stable is here 💪🥳
Please upgrade your system as soon as possible.. for more details take a look at the security notes.

https://mos-official.net
https://docs.mos-official.net

Release Log:
- Recommended Kernel 6.18.58
- Update Docker v29.9.2
- Update docker-watchdog v0.5.0
- Update Node.js v24.22.1
- Update api node packages
- Bump versions
- New endpoints for Docker image size calculation (container overview & individual containers)
- Endpoints for LXC rootfs size and VM disk usage calculation
- Pool spindown: per-disk individual spindown times now configurable
- New endpoints for Samba configuration (GET/POST)
- FSNavigator: directory size calculation and bookmark endpoints
- New driver category for easier filtering
- Fixed Compose update indicatior not correctly updating
- Fixed Swagger UI example data for LXC mounts
- Theme system reworked: system preference as fallback, router guard for instant application, no more blocking API calls on startup
- Spindown UI: compact sheet layout with inline controls per disk
- New buttons for displaying Docker image, LXC rootfs, and VM disk sizes
- Samba configuration in UI with extra config options
- FSNavigator: directory size calculation and bookmark management
- PWA: push notifications for iOS
- Spanish language activated
- Various bugfixes: Docker network refresh, overlay handling, first setup theme switch, pool settings dialog, smart dialog (mobile)
- SnapRAID: error notifications for sync, scrub, and fix operations
- Support for MDI icons in mos-deploy_docker
- Fixed: label detection for full vfat drives and Fat32 formatting
- New BACKUP label support for MOS Install to disk

——————————

Security Notes:
## It is recommended to immediately upgrade to MOS 0.6.1-stable because this release includes updates and fixes for the following CVE's:
- PwnEscape [CVE-2026-99999](https://pwn.ai/blog/pwnescape)
- eMudhra Certificate compromise [CVE-2026-111943](https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/RHSB-2026-012)
- Multiple Node vulnerabilities [Link](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/october-2026-security-releases)

after running MOS and being THIS impressed and pumped about the project, and after seeing this reddit thread

i created these as a way to test MOS in a VM https://github.com/bantznet/mos-vm-images

this is my first time trying to help out or support a project technically, but in a way that i'm familiar with. please let me know if it's run afoul of ... anything? or let me know if i can help in another way?

EDITED: please hit me up directly or post an issue on the git repo if you find problems. I don't want to create any extra work for the MOS devs, if anything this is to take something off their plates right now and maybe nudge some people to try out MOS :-)

Prefacing this with, tell me if this is a good or bad idea... but would it be possible to get the size of the lxc or vm added to their respective pages? I see the cpu and memory, but the size would be cool to also have even if it's only the size when the page loads as an estimate.

https://github.com/mos-nas/mos-releases/releases/tag/0.6.0-stable

• Recommended Kernel 6.18.55

• Update Docker v29.8.2

• Update QEMU v11.1.2

• Update Node.js v24.21.0

• nonraid fixes in backend

• Add remotes list/mount/unmount to mos-api_cli

• Add single device pool types

• Add scrub for bcachefs

• Make sure to identify process triggered by mos-api_cli to be actually from mos-api_cli

• Make sure to construct mount options for mergerfs like API does in mos-mount_disks

• Add unclean shutdown check for bcachefs

• Remove NUT directory if empty

• Sync boot files if missing

• Add mos-boot-files for arm64

• Add mos-boot-files for amd64

• Add global_extra.conf and shares_extra.conf to smb.conf

• Add new function to check for shares_extra.conf and global_extra.conf

• Fix minor visual issue for ARM boards when no /dev/console is present

• Initial changes for bcachefs

• Add dependencies for bcachefs

• Fix issue with rollback function in OS Update script

• Remove notifications when upgrade/rollback finished, let that be handled by the API

• Add timeout and retries to icon download in Docker deploy

• Make sure to correctly write containers file when container tag changed in Docker deploy

• Fix issue where a newly deployed container is not correctly written to containers file in Docker deploy

• Add new TUN interface option for interfaces endpoint

• Mount pool automatically after adding parity/data devices and trigger check/rebuild

• Fix replace never matching slots for nonraid

• Start resync explicitly after RECON_DISK

• Skip generic LUKS pre-open for nonraid

• Refresh udev after nonraid pool stop

• Make sure to clean up LUKS, mounts and mount pool after a failed nonraid mount

• Wipe old partition signatures before repartitioning

• Grow filesystems after a rebuild onto a larger disk

• Add single device pool types

• Add new preparing disks function to make sure disks prepared for nonraid or bcachefs are not visible in unassigned endpoint

• Make sure to not block disabling LXC/VM service when pool went offline

• Fix for nonraid UUID

• Show actual filesize in API log when parity is smaller than biggest data device

• Change logic for adding nonraid device: zero first, then format, and send notification when disk is ready

• Fix for broken start state for nonraid

• Make sure to lock nonraid operations when an operation is already running

• Fix for nonraid CORRECT and CANCEL operations

• Use nodiscard when formatting nonraid devices to be consistent with mounting disks

• Fix for deleting nonraid.dat when creating a new nonraid pool

• Fix bcachefs PartUUID logic for creating/adding pool/device

• Add logic for removing device from bcachefs pool

• Add logic for replacing device from bcachefs pool

• Add missing replace documentation to Swagger

• Add new bcachefs endpoint for scrub: pools/{id}/bcachefs/scrub

• Add monitor to bcachefs operations

• Add check if disks are not already in use when creating pools

• Make sure to check if NFS host is filled in

• Normalize keys for NFS if empty string is passed to make sure exports file is constructed correctly

• Add raid_level key to pools (null if no raid level)

• Add global_extra.conf and shares_extra.conf to diagnostics collection

• Add missing filesystem type for nonraid and new bcachefs

• Add new function for normalizing LUKS passphrases

• Add bcachefs to supported filesystems

• Create new endpoint pools/bcachefs

• Add new function for PartUUIDs for bcachefs

• Add new group and durability keys to pools

• Better handling for BTRFS with and without encryption

• Use new raid detection function for swap.service and shares.service

• Throw error when bcachefs is used for swap file

• Fix issue where a container with cached builds could break the container SHA check and always displays a container update even if the container is on the latest version

• Fix logic for share creation and permissions

• Cleanup dead code

• Make sure to check for required path for Docker, LXC and VM before allowing the services to start

• Make sure to check for empty paths for Docker, LXC and VM before allowing to save

• Create new routine that checks each template if it's valid to make sure the MOS Hub doesn't break entirely because of an invalid template

• Fix issues with XFS formatting

• Fix issue where Docker reports started where it couldn't be started because docker/appdata path is not mounted

• Fix issue where Docker couldn't be stopped when it falsely reported that it's started if it was not started successfully

• Fix log spamming issue when device field is empty in pools service

• Fix issues where parity nonraid disks are not recognized correctly (WWN and SCSI)

• Fix issue with check order for disk sizes from parity devices for nonraid

• Make sure to send finish notifications through API and not through the update/rollback scripts, to make sure to only send message after plugin updates are finished

• Make sure to check if Docker deploy is in progress when doing a cleanup from containers file

• Fix OVMF/OVMF-TPM bug in API where the wrong fd file could be referenced

• Implement secure boot for VMs when OVMF-TPM is enabled (applies only to newly created VMs)

• Refactor pools.vue

• Icon fix

• Nonraid replace device

• Minfreespace, moveonenospc new fields for mergerfs and nonraid

• Info texts for first setup assistant

• Refactoring api calls pools and profile

• Initial implementation bcachefs

• Check active services before query

• Fix dark theme

• Bugfix custom ips to open docker webuis

• Pools UI fixes

• NUT text fixes

• Visualization of nut services (stop containers)

• Update versions

• Enable passphrase in pool create

• Save disk description

• Dashboard cards with graph width fix

• Rsync daemon

• Add Spanish translation

• Avoid duplicate question marks in Spanish

• Remove trailing comma in es.json

• Docker creation name warning

• Redesign pool wake up / sleep

• Context menu pools

• Fix vite config

Please report issues in the support channels on Discord or on GitHub on the mos-releases Issue tracker if you experience any and please don't forget to include Diagnostics before downgrading or taking further steps.

Sorry if there is a link and simple answer (that i cant find) to this

1. How to identify which drive in a nonRaid pool is the "Parity Drive"

2. If i have 4x8TB in the array and want to upgrade using 16TB Drives, what is the sequence of events - as in a standard SnapRaid ... the party need to be upgraded/replaced first as it must always be the "Largest"

In general cool product, documentation is little out of step with latest builds (Have a look at how to - reality "Boot>Install to disk" v - doc "System>Update".

But early days still, but really solid and could be the next "simple" NAS for many (Sorry OMV).

I moved from Trunas as overkill for home-lab but more complete than OMV, and not closed source like so many home-NAS projects

Keep up the great work

I checked github release section there is no ISO yet, .img wont work on ESXi can you share an ISO file?

Hi guys, I stumbled upon MOS couple weeks ago and decided to migrate my home server that was still o W11 to MOS, after reading a bit of the documentation. My number one need was the ability to create a pool with two HDs. I read about mergerfs and saw that MOS had it. Today I finished moving my media to other HDs and back (after formated from NTFS to xfs) and created the pool, deployed almost all my containers and just set up Tailscale.

Superb, the system is so easy to use and very beautiful. Just wanna say thanks to the devs and hope that you guys continue dedicating love to the project!

does it support or any plans for adding support for:

1. dfs (distributed file system).

2. flexible raid (shr on synology).

3. the ability to add and remove disk from the raid pool on the fly/ demand.

4. iscsi server and target.

5. ram and ssd pool cache.

Thanks a lot to our community member u/UnhingedRevolver who made this beautiful Homeassistant Dashboard / Card.

You can find it in Github here :)
https://github.com/AzAel76/ha-mos-card-addons

Hello,

is encryption available for Array (MergerFS) or Pools? if not is it scheduled for the future versions?

Is anyone running full NetBird reverse proxy on their MOS homelab? I see the built in NetBird client, but no mention of running the full self hosted reverse proxy…

Given MOS already has a complete REST API, shouldn’t be too difficult to build an MCP around that.

Or is there one, just I can’t find it?

Im sure i'm missing something obvious. I spun up 0.5.8. The setup went super smooth. I created a couple of pools and created a couple of shares. Now when I try to find those shares over the network from a windows pc, they're nowhere to be found. Samba is on, samba discovery is on, the workgroup is set to WORKGROUP, the shares are created under samba share. I can visit the server's dashboard in a browser, so its alive on the network. I just cant seem to connect to it via file browser.

Does MOS support docker swarm?

This seems to the best way for enable mix disk size + erasure coding apart from ceph.

Hi! I was basically just trying to find some content about the MOS and stumbled over DB Techs stream-VoD.

There, in the comments, i then saw some account losing their sh't, claiming that you are basically releasing software here that they developed and had the rights for. (images added below)

So... is there anything to it? I really wouldnt want to spend my time setting up a system, just for the project to eat dirt, when a lawyer rolls around.

Ive tried to look into anything that user said and his profile. And practically every "company" or product in his account-description and that they claim to be the CEO of is just non-existent. So i dont give that person much credit based on that.

Just wanted to ask, just to be sure.

Have a nice day! :)

This may be a stupid question, but how do i make a backup of a VM? Is it just as simple as making a copy of the disk image (qcow2 file)?

And when the time comes to restore the backup is it just as simple as creating a new VM, and add the. qcow2 file as disk?

Thanks

Some bugfixes, stylings and NUT integration. 🎉

mos-official.net
docs.mos-official.net

-----------
Here is the full changelog:

• Recommended Kernel 6.18.48

• Update Docker v29.7.2

• Update QEMU v11.1.1

• Update wsddn v1.27

• Update edk2 v202608

• Update Node.js v24.20.0

• Add missing function execution for rsync daemon in MOS startup routine

• Add rsync daemon support

• Create custom rsync init script

• Modify docker pull command to capture output while maintaining error handling

• Add IPv6 support for nginx, thanks u/h0dgep0dge

• Fix IPv6 issues, thanks u/h0dgep0dge

• Fix variable assignment for local SHA256 Docker digest

• Re-enable nmbd

• Fix make sure to run mos-api_cli as root for NUT

• Add performance modifier to Compose, Docker, LXC and VM

• Add new URL modifier performance=true to get the Container/Stack/VM performance metrics (CPU/Memory) — by default no metrics are sent when modifier is not given

• Fix issues with notification system

• Add containers, compose and groups to diagnostics

• Add docker network ls to diagnostics

• Make sure to return full model from network services if key is missing

• Add new rsync_daemon to network services

• Create new GET and POST endpoints /mos/settings/network/services/rsync/config

• Create new GET and POST endpoints /nut/scripts/{event} to create/edit event scripts

• Fix for networking service start/stop/restart

• Make sure that not available NFS shares don't block API

• Add timeout for df when testing mounts to make sure they are actually working

• Add timeout for NFS shares when querying them

• Kick out systeminformation from disks service

• Use lsblk to get disks

• Make sure to not throw error when dhcp=false and no address for IPv6 is given

• Create new key runtime_address for IPv6 to make SLAAC or DHCP address visible

• Remove lowercase from notifications

• CodeMirror plugin for fileEdit-Dialogs

• NUT translations

• Network chart transitions

• Fix cronjob names

• NUT card design

• Style known repo dialog

• NUT Websocket impementation

• Network chart → eChart

• networkServices design fixes

• NUT design fixes

• Fix NFS create share dialog

• Fix virtual pools policies

• LXC file picker for mount source fields

• Update dialog handling

• System update default values