FreeBSD Guest Notes

From Proxmox VE
Revision as of 19:03, 6 January 2023 by GarrettB (talk | contribs) (Add note regarding space required for jails and building from source)
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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