--- title: "Hugo on KVM: Installing an Ubuntu VM for a Static Site" description: "How to install an Ubuntu 24.04 VM on KVM with libvirt, deploy Hugo Extended with the LoveIt theme, and configure nginx as a reverse proxy on a NUC8i3BEH." url: "https://www.arleo.eu/en/posts/hugo-vm-installation/" language: "en" datePublished: "2026-05-03T09:00:00+02:00" dateModified: "2026-05-15T23:51:25+02:00" tags: ["infrastructure","nginx","homelab","mcp"] categories: ["infrastructure"] contentSignal: "ai-train=no, search=yes, ai-input=yes" --- # Hugo on KVM: Installing an Ubuntu VM for a Static Site How to install an Ubuntu 24.04 VM on KVM with libvirt, deploy Hugo Extended with the LoveIt theme, and configure nginx as a reverse proxy on a NUC8i3BEH. ## ⚡ In short Progressive migration from **Grav CMS** to **Hugo** — a static site generator. The goal is to isolate Hugo in a dedicated KVM VM on the NUC8i3BEH, with nginx on the host as a reverse proxy. The generated static site is served by nginx inside the VM — no PHP, no database, no application attack surface. - 🖥️ **Host**: NUC8i3BEH Ubuntu 24.04 — nginx proxy + KVM - 🗄️ **VM disk**: Samsung X5 external NVMe (exFAT → ext4 loop image) - 🌐 **Access**: [hugo-test.arleo.eu](https://hugo-test.arleo.eu) - 🎨 **Theme**: [LoveIt](https://github.com/dillonzq/LoveIt) ## 🧠 Why Grav CMS is excellent but relies on PHP — a non-negligible attack surface. Hugo generates pure static HTML: no PHP, no database, no application vulnerability. Performance is also radically better — HTML is served directly by nginx without dynamic processing. Isolation in a KVM VM provides an additional advantage: if the VM is compromised, the host remains intact. The host's nginx proxy simply forwards requests to the VM without exposing other services. ### Final architecture ``` Internet → Cloudflare → nginx (NUC host) → KVM VM (192.168.122.69) ↓ Hugo + nginx (static HTML) ``` ## 🔧 What was done ### 1. KVM installation on Ubuntu 24.04 host ```bash sudo apt install -y \ qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients \ virtinst bridge-utils cloud-image-utils \ cockpit-machines iptables sudo usermod -aG libvirt jm sudo usermod -aG kvm jm sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd # Enable the default NAT network sudo virsh net-start default sudo virsh net-autostart default ``` ### 2. exFAT issue — ext4 loop image on the NVMe The Samsung X5 external NVMe is formatted as **exFAT** — this filesystem does not support Unix permissions (`chown`). QEMU therefore cannot read disk images stored directly on it. Solution: create an ext4 image file inside the exFAT volume: ```bash # Create a 25 GB ext4 image on the exFAT NVMe sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/X5/libvirt-pool.img bs=1G count=25 status=progress sudo mkfs.ext4 /mnt/X5/libvirt-pool.img # Mount the image sudo mkdir -p /mnt/libvirt-kvm sudo mount -o loop /mnt/X5/libvirt-pool.img /mnt/libvirt-kvm # Persist across reboots echo "/mnt/X5/libvirt-pool.img /mnt/libvirt-kvm ext4 loop,nofail 0 0" \ | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab # Permissions for QEMU sudo chown libvirt-qemu:kvm /mnt/libvirt-kvm sudo chmod 755 /mnt/libvirt-kvm # Dedicated libvirt pool sudo virsh pool-define-as kvm-pool dir --target /mnt/libvirt-kvm sudo virsh pool-autostart kvm-pool sudo virsh pool-start kvm-pool ``` ### 3. VM creation with cloud-init ```bash # Download the Ubuntu 24.04 cloud image wget -O /mnt/libvirt-kvm/ubuntu-24.04-server.img \ https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/noble-server-cloudimg-amd64.img # Create the VM disk (20 GB, backing file) qemu-img create \ -F qcow2 -b /mnt/libvirt-kvm/ubuntu-24.04-server.img \ -f qcow2 /mnt/libvirt-kvm/hugo-vm.qcow2 20G sudo chown libvirt-qemu:kvm /mnt/libvirt-kvm/hugo-vm.qcow2 # Cloud-init with SSH key SSH_KEY=$(cat /home/jm/.ssh/authorized_keys | head -1) cat > /tmp/user-data << EOF #cloud-config hostname: hugo-vm users: - name: jm sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL shell: /bin/bash lock_passwd: false ssh_authorized_keys: - $SSH_KEY packages: - nginx - git - curl runcmd: - systemctl enable nginx - systemctl start nginx EOF cloud-localds /mnt/libvirt-kvm/hugo-vm-cloud-init.img \ /tmp/user-data /tmp/meta-data ``` ### 4. Starting the VM ```bash sudo virt-install \ --name hugo-vm \ --ram 1024 \ --vcpus 1 \ --disk path=/mnt/libvirt-kvm/hugo-vm.qcow2,format=qcow2,bus=virtio \ --disk path=/mnt/libvirt-kvm/hugo-vm-cloud-init.img,device=cdrom \ --os-variant ubuntu24.04 \ --network network=default,model=virtio \ --graphics none \ --import \ --noautoconsole \ --autostart # Get the VM IP sudo virsh net-dhcp-leases default # → 192.168.122.69 ``` ### 5. Installing Hugo Extended in the VM ```bash ssh jm@192.168.122.69 HUGO_VERSION="0.147.0" wget -q -O /tmp/hugo.deb \ "https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases/download/v${HUGO_VERSION}/hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_linux-amd64.deb" sudo dpkg -i /tmp/hugo.deb hugo version # hugo v0.147.0+extended linux/amd64 ``` ### 6. Hugo site initialization with LoveIt ```bash mkdir -p ~/hugo-site && cd ~/hugo-site hugo new site . --force git init git submodule add https://github.com/dillonzq/LoveIt.git themes/LoveIt ``` ### 7. nginx configuration in the VM ```nginx server { listen 80 default_server; server_name _; root /var/www/hugo; index index.html; location = / { return 302 /fr/; } location / { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; } } ``` ### 8. Deployment script ```bash cat > ~/deploy.sh << 'EOF' #!/bin/bash cd ~/hugo-site hugo --minify sudo rsync -a --delete public/ /var/www/hugo/ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/hugo/ echo "Deployed — $(date)" EOF chmod +x ~/deploy.sh ``` ### 9. nginx reverse proxy on the host ```nginx server { listen 443 ssl http2; server_name hugo-test.arleo.eu; include snippets/ssl.conf; location / { proxy_pass http://192.168.122.69:80; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; } } ``` ### Issues encountered | Problem | Cause | Solution | |---|---|---| | libvirt network inactive | iptables missing | `apt install iptables` | | Permission denied on qcow2 | exFAT disk → no chown | ext4 loop image inside exFAT file | | Cloud-init does not create user | No SSH key on host | `virt-customize` to inject directly | | SSH refused (publickey) | No private key on host | Generate `hugo_vm` key + inject via virt-customize | | nginx 404 | jm home permissions (750) | Move public/ to /var/www/hugo | ## 🏁 Conclusion The Hugo VM is operational at [hugo-test.arleo.eu](https://hugo-test.arleo.eu). The static site is served by nginx inside the VM, proxied by the host. The next step is migrating content from Grav to Hugo and developing a Hugo MCP to enable page management directly from Claude.ai. **Next steps:** - 💡 Develop a Hugo MCP (FastAPI + OAuth) modeled on [grav-mcp-server](https://arleo.eu/en/grav-mcp-server) - 💡 Automate Hugo rebuilds via Git webhook - 💡 Configure VM backup to the QNAP NAS ## Tags - infrastructure - nginx - homelab - mcp ## Categories - infrastructure