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Windows — first-class Windows VMs

KubeVirt VMs default to a Linux-tuned device set that Windows Setup can't boot from without extra help. corral windows sets up everything Windows actually needs: UEFI, TPM, q35, Hyper-V enlightenments, and the virtio-win driver ISO.

corral plugin install windows
corral windows create win11 --iso <url> --cpu 4 --mem 8Gi

Getting a Windows ISO​

Microsoft's eval-center download links are interactive/session-based, not stable direct URLs — the corral web UI's Create VM dialog offers quick-pick presets on the ISO field (select "Windows" as the boot source) for known- working, verified-resolvable mirrors:

  • An official Windows 11 build (full, ~7.2GB)
  • tiny10 / tiny11 / core11 — debloated Windows 10/11 builds, smaller and faster to import

These are the same public mirrors the dockur/windows project uses in production. For the CLI, paste a direct ISO URL with --iso.

PVC sizing is automatic

Corral detects the ISO's real size via an HTTP HEAD request and sizes its import PVC accordingly, with a safety margin. (Older versions hardcoded a 6GB PVC for every ISO — harmless for small Linux install images, broken for anything bigger. Fixed after a real Windows 11 import crash-looped for hours against an undersized PVC before anyone noticed — see corral#72.)

What gets set up​

  • q35 machine type, UEFI firmware (secureBoot: false), a TPM device
  • Hyper-V enlightenments (relaxed, vapic, spinlocks, etc.) for better guest performance
  • The installer ISO imported via CDI as the first CD-ROM, boot order 2
  • The virtio-win driver ISO attached as a second CD-ROM, so Windows Setup can see and load virtio disk/network drivers mid-install (without this, Setup can't find a disk to install to)
  • SSH/VNC/RDP exposed through the standard Corral tailnet proxy

Installing​

  1. corral start win11
  2. Open the console — corral web → the VM → Console tab (VNC), or corral viewer win11
  3. In Windows Setup, when it can't find a disk: Load driver → browse the second CD-ROM (E:\amd64\<your Windows version>) → the virtio disk driver appears → select it, disk shows up, continue install

Attaching drivers to an existing VM​

If you created a Windows VM outside corral windows create (or need to add the driver ISO after the fact):

corral windows drivers <name>

Requirements​

  • CDI (for ISO import via --iso)
  • A StorageClass supporting your disk size (default 64Gi boot disk)