FreeBSD as VM?

Toxik

Toxik

Well-Known Member
Jul 11, 2019
64
7
48
Germany
Hi,

should I expect problems when running FreeBSD as VM? Serious bugs, performance issues, etc.?
Or should it run fine like any Linux VM?

Thanks
 
Toxik said:
should I expect problems when running FreeBSD as VM? Serious bugs, performance issues, etc.?
Or should it run fine like any Linux VM?
Click to expand...

I haven't tried for a long time, but QEMU/KVM is used for years to virtualize all kinds of OSes and if there are problems, they should be addressed by now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Toxik
I've installed a FreeBSD test VM, wgich works so far. I've also installed qemu inside the VM (pkg install qemu), but I cannot start the qemu guest agent:
Code: 
root@freebsd-test ~# qemu-ga -v
1584543339.176037: debug: disabling command: guest-suspend-disk
1584543339.176059: debug: disabling command: guest-suspend-ram
1584543339.176068: debug: disabling command: guest-suspend-hybrid
1584543339.176076: debug: disabling command: guest-network-get-interfaces
1584543339.176084: debug: disabling command: guest-get-vcpus
1584543339.176091: debug: disabling command: guest-set-vcpus
1584543339.176098: debug: disabling command: guest-get-memory-blocks
1584543339.176106: debug: disabling command: guest-set-memory-blocks
1584543339.176113: debug: disabling command: guest-get-memory-block-size
1584543339.176121: debug: disabling command: guest-get-fsinfo
1584543339.176129: debug: disabling command: guest-fsfreeze-status
1584543339.176136: debug: disabling command: guest-fsfreeze-freeze
1584543339.176143: debug: disabling command: guest-fsfreeze-freeze-list
1584543339.176150: debug: disabling command: guest-fsfreeze-thaw
1584543339.176158: debug: disabling command: guest-get-fsinfo
1584543339.176165: debug: disabling command: guest-fstrim
1584543339.176596: critical: error opening channel: No such file or directory
1584543339.176610: critical: error opening channel
1584543339.176618: critical: failed to create guest agent channel
1584543339.176625: critical: failed to initialize guest agent channel
 
Did you enable the Guest Agent in the VMs option panel? Might need a restart of the VM to take effect.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stoiko Ivanov
Yes, I did enable it during VM setup.
But when I have a look at the verbose output: Is there any use of the guest agent if all these features are disabled anyway?
 
Toxik said:
I've installed a FreeBSD test VM, wgich works so far. I've also installed qemu inside the VM (pkg install qemu), but I cannot start the qemu guest agent:
Code: 
root@freebsd-test ~# qemu-ga -v
1584543339.176037: debug: disabling command: guest-suspend-disk
1584543339.176059: debug: disabling command: guest-suspend-ram
1584543339.176068: debug: disabling command: guest-suspend-hybrid
1584543339.176076: debug: disabling command: guest-network-get-interfaces
1584543339.176084: debug: disabling command: guest-get-vcpus
1584543339.176091: debug: disabling command: guest-set-vcpus
1584543339.176098: debug: disabling command: guest-get-memory-blocks
1584543339.176106: debug: disabling command: guest-set-memory-blocks
1584543339.176113: debug: disabling command: guest-get-memory-block-size
1584543339.176121: debug: disabling command: guest-get-fsinfo
1584543339.176129: debug: disabling command: guest-fsfreeze-status
1584543339.176136: debug: disabling command: guest-fsfreeze-freeze
1584543339.176143: debug: disabling command: guest-fsfreeze-freeze-list
1584543339.176150: debug: disabling command: guest-fsfreeze-thaw
1584543339.176158: debug: disabling command: guest-get-fsinfo
1584543339.176165: debug: disabling command: guest-fstrim
1584543339.176596: critical: error opening channel: No such file or directory
1584543339.176610: critical: error opening channel
1584543339.176618: critical: failed to create guest agent channel
1584543339.176625: critical: failed to initialize guest agent channel
Click to expand...
Hi, did you install all the dependencies (wayland xorg-fonts...) ?

Is it working?

Or is the installation of qemu to run vm inside the vm ;-) ?
 
The guest-agent FreeBSD port is not complete, it does not support fsfreeze/thaw (for consistent backups), so this, the most important feature is missing.
The only advantage you will get, is have the network/ip data shown in PVE - VM summary, if this is worth to compile and run an unstable piece of software in your VM?
https://github.com/aborche/qemu-guest-agent/blob/master/supported_command_reference.md
sadly there is not more support in development
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Toxik and nullu
More than a year and half later...

In order to circumvent the fsfreeze/thaw issue, would be ok to backup a TRUENAS VM using the "suspend" mode then?

Thanks.
Regards.
 
Zamana said:
More than a year and half later...
Click to expand...
It also doesn't got a single update in 17 months. It's really a bummer that FreeBSD won't support fsfreeze.
With OPNsense I use stop-mode to backup my VMs but there it isn't a big problem as I got two of them running HA.
But this won't work with a TrueNAS VM, as most other VMs and LXCs rely on TrueNAS so that all SMB/NFS shares are available all the time.
 
Last edited:
Hi!

Thanks for replying, but I don't quite get from your reply if the suspend mode is ok or no to use.

Yesterday I tried STOP (it doesn´t) and SNAPSHOT( fs-freeze warning), but it seems that SUSPEND was done with no issues/warnings, apparently...
 
Stop mode will gracefully shutdown the VM before backing it up so there is no need for fsfreeze for integrity as that way the guest OS will flush the caches anyway.

Not sure about suspend.
 
That's the point: STOP mode didn't stopped the VM. The job hangs trying to do it...
 
You have guestagend disabled in the options of your *BSD VM? Because if you don't, it doesn't send an ACPI event to the VM to shutdown, but tries to do it via GA, which is not installed in your VM. Always disable GA, when you can't install guest agent in the guest OS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zamana
flames said:
You have guestagend disabled in the options of your *BSD VM? Because if you don't, it doesn't send an ACPI event to the VM to shutdown, but tries to do it via GA, which is not installed in your VM. Always disable GA, when you can't install guest agent in the guest OS.
Click to expand...
Got it. GuestAgent was enable in the PVE, but not inside the VM, of course.

Solved.

Thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back