FreeBSD Guest Notes

Setting up a FreeBSD Guest on PVE.

Note: This has been tested with FreeBSD 13.1 RELEASE.

Pre-Install

• Find the downloadable (amd64 dvd1.iso version).
• Mimimum hardware (requirements)
  • 2-4GB RAM
  • 8 GB drive space
    • Full install without jails will use at least 5GB
    • If you will be using jails and building kernel from source, use at least 35GB

Create Install Media

• Option 1: (IDEAL) Using Proxmox GUI, local Storage > Download from URL, copy in (ISO link), query it to get file name, and use the contents of the provided (CHECKSUM file) to verify the download
• Option 2: Using Proxmox GUI, local Storage > Upload file from your non-Proxmox machine
• Option 3: (for server without internet) Download ISO image and burn to DVD or save to USB drive then transfer to server

Create VM

• Use "Create VM" in GUI
• In "Create: Virtual Machine" use these settings
  • "General" - default settings
  • "OS"
    • Set "ISO Image" to your downloaded ISO file
  • "System" - default settings
  • "Disks"
    • Set "Disk Size" to 8GB (or higher)
  • "CPU"
    • dual-socket and/or dual-core
  • "Memory" - 2GB (minimum)
  • "Network" - Virtio

Install FreeBSD

• Start the VM.
• Boot menu with countdown will show - just wait and it should boot to the optical drive by default and start the installation
• (Installation guide)
• (System Components)
  • If you will be installing jail templates, make sure to check "System source tree"
• Network
  • Choose vtnet0 VirtIO Networking Adapter
  • Use ipv4 ONLY, unless you also use ipv6
• Disks
  • Auto (ZFS) Guided Root-on-ZFS, stripe virtual device, choose vtbd0 VirtIO Block Device
  • If you are planning to also transfer the image to another cloud host as a standalone OS, make sure they support ZFS, or change your selections accordingly
• Services: Add ntpd.
• Change any other configurations offered. When you get to "Final Configuration" you can select Exit
• This should leave you with FreeBSD 13.1 RELEASE installed on the primary drive
• Reboot
• After reboot, check:
  • In VM > Hardware remove the ISO from the VM's optical drive (set to empty)
  • Verify in VM > Options the boot order is set to the primary hard disk first

First Boot

• Power on the VM and log in.
• Set the time:

ntpdate -s pool.ntp.org

• Update the system:

freebsd-update fetch
freebsd-update install

• Reboot

reboot