# FreeBSD as a virtual server



## brisonic (Nov 19, 2009)

I am interested in FreeBSD as the virtual server, not as the guest OS, but it doesn't seem there are as many options for that?  It seems most people use Linux, doze, or something else?


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## FBSDin20Steps (Nov 19, 2009)

You want FreeBSD as a host to serve virtualbox guest os's?


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## brisonic (Nov 19, 2009)

*virtual servers*

That is what I am hoping for, I am much more familiar with bsd than with Linux, so I would prefer to use that as the VM server OS.  I saw elsewhere someone recommended NetBSD.


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## ProServ (Nov 19, 2009)

*FreeBSD Host System*

Hi,

Install qemu and then you can install whatever you want as guest OS's.


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## dennylin93 (Nov 19, 2009)

There's Jails. It's one of the best options available in my opinion, but it's limited to FreeBSD guests.

There's also VirtualBox and QEMU, but the performance isn't that good.


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## FBSDin20Steps (Nov 19, 2009)

IMHO Qemu is history. Virtualbox is the way to go.


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## aragon (Nov 20, 2009)

VirtualBox performance is excellent, actually.  Far far better than QEMU at least...

But for FreeBSD guests you probably want jail(8).


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## Penel (Nov 20, 2009)

brisonic said:
			
		

> I am interested in FreeBSD as the virtual server, not as the guest OS, but it doesn't seem there are as many options for that?  It seems most people use Linux, doze, or something else?



I am a Linux user and now using FreeBSD. Their "jail" system for virtualization is pretty damn impressive compared to my experience with Xen, QEMU, and VirtualBox under a Linux environment.

There is also a port of VirtualBox for FreeBSD which will be handy if you want to virtualize something other than FreeBSD.


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## vivek (Nov 20, 2009)

I really miss vmware server on Freebsd. Older version used to run but they dropped the support after version 4. Virtualbox is good choice. XEN will run in dom0 under FreeBSD 8.0.


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## brisonic (Nov 22, 2009)

Many I know recommend xen on Linux as the server, I'll have to re-evaluate this some, thanx for the feedback all.


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## ProServ (Nov 22, 2009)

*FreeBSD as Host System*

Well under FreeBSD, you are a bit limited and as other people here are saying to you, you might want to just use jail. If you do, try using ezjail-admin it makes management somewhat easier.

I have tried vmware server under ubuntu but when running XP the keyboard/mouse is a true nitemare. It would be nice if vmware would run natively in FreeBSD.


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## phoenix (Nov 23, 2009)

brisonic said:
			
		

> Many I know recommend xen on Linux as the server, I'll have to re-evaluate this some, thanx for the feedback all.



My recommendation, after having used Xen 3.0-3.2 and KVM 7x-8x (before it became known as kvm-kmod/qemu-kvm) on multiple host systems running 32-bit and 64-bit guests (Debian, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003):

use AMD Opteron systems for the host, as every single Opteron out there supports hardware virtualisation, whereas trying to figure out exactly which Intel CPUs support which virtualisation extensions can be a royal pain
use a Linux distro for the host OS, with support for current versions of Linux-VServer/OpenVZ and KVM.  That gives you support for lightweight jail-like setups using the host kernel, and the ability to run any other guest OS in a full-fledged VM.  KVM is a lot easier to manage, understand, and use than Xen.
pick a management framework early, as it's hard to shoehorn running VMs into one later on.  If you like RedHat systems, have a look at oVirt.  If you like Debian systems, have a look at Proxmox VE.

If you just need to run the odd VM here and there, VirtualBox 3.1 is shaping up quite nicely.  Especially if you have an AMD CPU (or an Intel one that supports hardware virt).


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