vm-bhyve

Templates define guest hardware specifications like CPU, memory, and networking. They are stored in $vm_dir/.templates/.

Installing Sample Templates: Copy the provided examples to your template directory:

cp /usr/local/share/examples/vm-bhyve/* /your/vm/path/.templates/

Template Format Example: A template file (e.g., web-server.conf) uses simple key-value pairs:

guest="freebsd"
loader="bhyveload"
cpu=1
memory=256M
disk0_type="virtio-blk"
disk0_name="disk0.img"
network0_type="virtio-net"
network0_switch="public"

You can add multiple network interfaces by incrementing the index (e.g., network1_type, network1_switch).

# Copy sample templates to your VM directory
cp /usr/local/share/examples/vm-bhyve/* /my/vm/path/.templates/

You can provide cloud-init configuration to a guest during creation. Use the -C flag with the vm create command to enable cloud-init support. Additionally, you can inject public SSH keys into the guest using the -k <file> option. The specified file should contain one public SSH key per line in the standard authorized_keys format.

Example

# vm create -t linux -i xenial-server-cloudimg-amd64-uefi1.img -C -k ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub cloud-init-ubuntu
# vm start cloud-init-ubuntu

After installation, you must define a directory (or ZFS dataset) to store virtual machines and configuration. This directory is referred to as $vm_dir.

1. Create the storage location:

   • For standard directories: mkdir /somefolder/vm
   • For ZFS: zfs create pool/vm

2. Enable in /etc/rc.conf:

   • For standard directories:

     vm_enable="YES"
     vm_dir="/somefolder/vm"

   • For ZFS:

     vm_enable="YES"
     vm_dir="zfs:pool/vm"

3. Initialize: Run vm init to create required directories and load kernel modules. This should be run once after each host reboot (though rc.d usually handles this).

# Example for ZFS
zfs create pool/vm
sysrc vm_enable="YES"
sysrc vm_dir="zfs:pool/vm"
vm init

You can install vm-bhyve via the FreeBSD package manager or by building from source.

Dependencies:

• For Linux or guests requiring a Grub bootloader: pkg install grub2-bhyve
• For UEFI guests: pkg install bhyve-firmware
• For tmux console access: pkg install tmux
• For cloud image support (RAW/QCOW2): pkg install qemu-tools

# Install via pkg
# pkg install vm-bhyve

# Or build from source
# make install

To add a new virtual disk to an existing VM, especially if the disk needs to reside on a different ZFS pool, follow these steps:

1. Create a sparse-zvol on the target pool: zfs create -sV <size> -o volmode=dev "<zpool>/<path>/<disk_name>"

2. Update the VM configuration using vm configure <vm_name>. You must define the device name, type, and set the device to custom.

Important for Windows guests: Use diskX_type="ahci-hd" instead of virtio-blk, as Windows guests may lack virtio-blk drivers.

3. Restart the VM to apply changes.

Example (Linux/Virtio)

# zfs create -sV 50G -o volmode=dev "zpool2/vm/yourvm/disk1"
# vm configure yourvm
# disk1_name="/dev/zvol/zpool2/vm/yourvm/disk1"
# disk1_type="virtio-blk"
# disk1_dev="custom"

If you use the default csh or tcsh shell in FreeBSD, you can enable autocomplete for vm commands, switches, ISO files, and guest names.

To make this permanent, add the following block to your $HOME/.cshrc file. Note: You must replace all three occurrences of /path/to/vm with the actual directory where your virtual machines are stored.

complete vm \
 'p@1@(list create install start stop console configure reset poweroff destroy clone snapshot rollback add switch iso)@' \
 'n@create@n@' \
 'n@list@n@' \
 'n@iso@n@' \
 'n@switch@(list create add remove destroy vlan nat)@' \
 'N@switch@`sysrc -inqf /path/to/vm/.config/switch switch_list`@' \
 'N@install@`ls -1 /path/to/vm/.iso`@' \
 'N@nat@(off on)@' \
 'p@2@`ls -1 /path/to/vm | grep -v "^\." | grep -v "^images"`@'

You can download and deploy cloud images (RAW or QCOW2) using the vm img command. This requires the qemu-tools package.

Workflow:

1. Download/Uncompress image: vm img <url>
2. Create VM from image: vm create -t <template> -i <image_name> <name>
3. Start VM: vm start <name>

Example (FreeBSD Cloud Image):

pkg install qemu-tools
vm img https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/VM-IMAGES/14.2-RELEASE/amd64/Latest/FreeBSD-14.2-RELEASE-amd64.raw.xz
vm create -t freebsd-zvol -i FreeBSD-14.2-RELEASE-amd64.raw freebsd-cloud
vm start freebsd-cloud

# Download and create from cloud image
vm img https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/VM-IMAGES/14.2-RELEASE/amd64/Latest/FreeBSD-14.2-RELEASE-amd64.raw.xz
vm create -t freebsd-zvol -i FreeBSD-14.2-RELEASE-amd64.raw freebsd-cloud
vm start freebsd-cloud

Use the following commands to control running guests:

• List all VMs: vm list (shows name, guest type, CPU, memory, and state)
• Start a VM: vm start <name>
• Stop a VM: vm stop <name>
• Stop all running VMs: vm stopall
• Configure a VM: vm configure <name> (opens the guest's configuration file in your default editor. Changes require a full shutdown/restart to take effect).

Autostart Configuration: To start specific machines on host boot, add these to /etc/rc.conf:

• vm_list="vm1 vm2": List of machines and their start order.
• vm_delay="5": Seconds to wait between starting each machine (5s recommended).

# Start and stop
vm start testvm
vm stop testvm

# Bulk operations
vm stopall

# Edit configuration
vm configure testvm

Virtual switches connect guest network interfaces to each other or to physical network interfaces.

Common Tasks:

• Create a switch: vm switch create <name>
• Attach a physical interface: vm switch add <switch_name> <interface> (e.g., em0)
• Configure VLANs:
  • Set a VLAN: vm switch vlan <switch_name> <vlan_id>
  • Disable VLANs: vm switch vlan <switch_name> 0
• List switches: vm switch list

# Create and attach a switch to em0
vm switch create public
vm switch add public em0

# Set VLAN 10 on the switch
vm switch vlan public 10