Virtualized FreeBSD 7.0

HiltonT

HiltonT

G'day All,

I've been having some fun trying to get FreeBSD 7.0 installed in a virtualized environment. First, a bit of an overview of what I have here. I have both a running Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 system (currently still running our internal Windows servers) and also a Hyper-V Server (the free MS Hypervisor) that's on a test machine which will serve as a temporary location for our internal servers when I blow away the WS2K3 Ent + VS 2K5 R2 SP1 environment and replace it with Hyper-V. I cannot move to ESXi until VMWare coughs up for the fee for MS to test and list it on their SVVP site, and because we deal with SMB clients, the additional cost of VMWare ESX 3.5 U2 means that we go with Hyper-V. We want to run here what we're running at client sites so a) we become more familiar with it and b) eating your own dog food is a good way to ensure the solution we implement is a valid one.

So, all ill feelings towards MS operating systems and products aside, I want to get FreeBSD 7.0 running in a Hyper-V environment.

What I've tried and found is listed below:

1. Install FreeBSD 7.0-Release on Hyper-V
- Will not install, locks up at "can't load kernel"

2. Found a 7.0-Stable 200807 in snapshots, try this on Hyper-V
- Loads, installs, fails to shutdown/reboot properly, requiring a Hyper-V Server reboot to get the system back - unacceptable.

3. Found a patch for FreeBSD 7.1 200808 to fix the reboot issue, but that is unlikely to help much with 7.0 - so still stuck with a FreeBSD 7.0 system that cannot reboot nor shutdown properly in a Hyper-V environment

4. Install FreeBSD-Stable 200807 on Virtual Server
- System installs, reboots, boots and works as expected.

So, if there's anyone who knows of a way to get FreeBSD 7.0 running reliably and able to reboot properly without (effectively) taking out the Hypervisor, I'm all ears! :)

Also, can I say that I like FreeBSD more than Linux. I like the firewalling functionality it has, the reliability (except in Hyper-V) and basically the whole design of it compared to Linux. So *please* don't think I'm dumping on FreeBSD here - I'm quite far from that. We run a few FreeBSD servers and have a number of clients running m0n0wall firewalls, which are based on FreeBSD. All I want to do is get FreeBSD 7.0 running in a Hyper-V environment properly.
 
G'day Maurovale,

As I mentioned in the original post, I cannot run something here that I cannot get full support from Microsoft with - and this means that right now, the Hypervisor must be Hyper-V because this is what we'll be running for our clients, as explained in the original post. None of the alternatives you suggested are "better" if you look at the reasoning for Hyper-V as presented in my original post.

It looks like the issue is with the ACPI configuration in the FreeBSD 7.0 code. As I also mentioned, there seems to be a fix available for FreeBSD 7.1 RC, but as I want to run released code, not pre-release code, I'm after a similar patch for the FreeBSD 7.0 release. FreeBSD 8.0 is even further from release than 7.1 is, and I'd not consider running production servers on FreeBSD 8.0 right now.

It seems that FreeBSD 7.0 STABLE 200807 shuts down all the way right up until an ACPI Shutdown is issued, when it crashes. I'm trying a reinstall on Hyper-V without ACPI to see if that helps.

Either way, this seems to be an ACPI bug in FreeBSD 7.0 to me, rather than in the Hypervisor - a lot of other ACPI-enabled OSes can shut down just fine in Hyper-V.
 
... and nope, changing FreeBSD 7.0 to "acpi=disabled" makes no real difference - I get to see "The operating system has halted. Please press any key to reboot." and when I try to tuen off the VM it crashes just like it does with ACPI enabled. :(

OK - so its maybe not ACPI-related code issues in FreeBSD, but there's something bad going on here. :(
 
HiltonT said:
G'day All,

2. Found a 7.0-Stable 200807 in snapshots, try this on Hyper-V
- Loads, installs, fails to shutdown/reboot properly, requiring a Hyper-V Server reboot to get the system back - unacceptable.
Click to expand...

What do you mean when you say it fails to shutdown/reboot properly?
What command and option are you using to shutdown?

Also, what do you mean the VM crashes? Does it generate a "Windows Error Dialog" (or whatever it is called) or just disappear?
 
You mention a patch, could you provide a pointer to the patch?

Could you try the now-released FreeBSD 7.1?
 
HiltonT said:
As I mentioned in the original post, I cannot run something here that I cannot get full support from Microsoft with
Click to expand...
MS can't be supporting you very well if you're here asking for help. FreeBSD behaves perfectly on real hardware and other emulators. It sounds more like Hyper-V's emulation is what's buggy...

You should contact MS and ask them to tell you precisely what FreeBSD is allegedly doing wrong and then relay this information here. If their support is worth your endorsement they should be able to shed light on the matter, and in turn help the FreeBSD developers track the problem down.
 
I am also interested in making FreeBSD work under Hyper-V. On a side note can anyone explain me how to get physical NIC interface to work with FreeBSD? In particular I am interested in port forwarding from NIC to virtualized FreeBSD.
 
The patch

Here's the patch
http://shell.peach.ne.jp/aoyama/archives/40

I can't see this fix in FreeBSD CVS, so either it's not fixed, or it's fixed in another way (I hope).

Dear FreeBSD people -- please help our poor souls that must install this beautiful operating system onto Microsoft's hypervisor. Please include that fix for us. :)

Thanks in advance!
 
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