freebsd-proxmox-packer

FreeBSD installation on Proxmox hypervisor using Hashicorp Packer. This template has cloud-init support.

Prerequisites

• Proxmox VE hypervisor - where the template will be stored in.
• Hashicorp Packer.
• xorriso - because it will be necessary to use additional_iso_files.

How to create a VM template?

1. Clone this repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/maykopetersen/freebsd-proxmox-packer.git

2. Install all the missing plugins required in a Packer config:

$ cd freebsd-proxmox-packer
$ packer init .

3. Change the variable's values (see more in the next topics).
4. Build the template:

$ packer build .

Variables

The most important values that you MUST change are:

• proxmox_api_url: refers to proxmox_url argument from Proxmox ISO. You can remove this argument and use PROXMOX_URL environment variable.
• node: refers to node argument.
• zfs_pool: refers to storage_pool and cloud_init_storage_pool arguments. Usually is local-lvm.
• network_bridge: refers to network_adapters{bridge} argument.
• network_vlan: refers to network_adapters{vlan_tag} argument. The network vlan tag.
• network_mac_address: refers to network_adapters{mac_address} argument. If your DHCP server assigns addresses based on MAC address, you must configure this argument.
• network_static {} map: This map contains IP, netmask and gw if you use static address. If you use DHCP, these values must be "". The dns_server_ip is the nameserver value in /etc/resolv.conf; the src_domains is the search value in /etc/resolv.conf (both are necessary to install qemu-guest-agent package).
  • optional(_type_) doesn't work in Packer like Terraform. Because of this, these arguments MUST exist.
• users {} map: Map with users and their passwords.

Local Variables

You must change all values in this file.

• proxmox_user: The user with access to create templates in your Proxmox cluster. You can remove this argument and use PROXMOX_USERNAME environment variable.

Important

The user must have the following privileges:

• SDN.Use
• VM.Allocate
• VM.Audit
• VM.Config.CDROM
• VM.Config.CPU
• VM.Config.Cloudinit
• VM.Config.Disk
• VM.Config.HWType
• VM.Config.Memory
• VM.Config.Network
• VM.Config.Options
• VM.Console
• VM.Monitor
• VM.PowerMgmt
• Datastore.AllocateSpace
• Datastore.AllocateTemplate
• Datastore.Audit
• Datastore.Allocate

• proxmox_pass: User's pass from proxmox_user. You can remove this argument and use PROXMOX_PASSWORD environment variable.
• root_inicial_pass: The initial root pass used by Packer to SSH the FreeBSD.
• root_pass: The root pass stored in final VM template.

As these arguments are local variables, they can be defined by vault functions.

How to use the VM template?

1. Clone the template to a VM using Proxmox UI.
2. Configure Cloud-init options, putting your public key in SSH Public Key field.
3. Do other configurations (HD, RAM, CPUs, Network devices, etc).
4. Start your VM.
5. Access your VM from your machine:

$ ssh -i <your-private-key-file> freebsd@<VM_IP>

6. Become root:

freebsd@machine:~ % sudo su -
root@machine:~ #

About qemu-guest-agent installation in bsdinstaller

It's important to install the agent in the early process because if it is disabled, you will see the following error in a build debug process:

[DEBUG] Error getting SSH address: 500 QEMU guest agent is not running

Packer needs to know the VM's IP address to connect it using SSH. Packer does this using qemu-guest-agent.

If you don't want to install any package or if you don't want to bootstrap pkg from a remote repository in the bsdinstaller process, you must configure ssh_host in source block with a fixed IP (defined by var.network_static) used by this template.

About FreeBSD installation file types

You can't use the bootonly FreeBSD image in Packer like you could do with a Debian netinstall image, for example. This occurs because FreeBSD first needs to install the OS base before performing any operation. The bootonly image doesn't contain the OS base, so you have to go online and download it. Since the DNS configuration is done AFTER the OS base has been installed, it is impossible to resolve any external names. Even if you put the IP in the BSDINSTALL_DISTSITE field as instructed in the bsdinstall manual and get an IP from your DHCP server with internet access, it won't work.

License

Simplified BSD License. Copyright (c) 2024-2024, Mayko Petersen [email protected].

Acknowledgements

Tsiry Sandratraina

help me with some ideas from this repository.