How To Run FreeBSD 12 on OpenStack

How can i add FreeBSD 12 Cloud image to OpenStack?, How do i create FreeBSD 12 instances on OpenStack platform. FreeBSD is an open source Unix based operating system used to power embedded systems, modern servers and desktops. The FreeBSD has a large community which continues to develop it for more than thirty years now. It comes with advanced security, networking, and storage features which fits to all types of systems – Embedded, busy websites, storage devices e.t.c.

In this guide, we will look at how you can run FreeBSD 12 on OpenStack.

Step 1: Download FreeBSD 12 qcow2 image

There are pre-installed virtual machine images available for the amd64 (x86_64), i386 (x86_32), and AArch64 (arm64) architectures in QCOW2, VHD, and VMDK disk image formats, as well as raw (unformatted) images.

I’ll download the latest release for amd64 (x86_64).

wget https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/VM-IMAGES/12.0-RELEASE/amd64/Latest/FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64.qcow2.xz

Step 2: Upload FreeBSD 12 image to OpenStack Glance

After the file is downloaded, we’ve to upload it to OpenStack Glance image service. The file format is .xz, check our guide on

How to extract .xz files on Linux – CenOS / Ubuntu / Debian

With unxz installed, extract the file.

xz --decompress FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64.qcow2.xz

After extraction, a file with .qcow2 extension is created.

$ file FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64.qcow2
FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64.qcow2: QEMU QCOW Image (v2), 33286062080 bytes

Upload the image to Glance – From CLI or GUI

openstack image create  \
 --container-format bare \
 --disk-format qcow2     \
 --file FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64.qcow2 \
 FreeBSD12

If the upload was successful, the image should be viewable.

$ openstack image list
+--------------------------------------+-----------+--------+
| ID                                   | Name      | Status |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+--------+
| b8d75f31-fb6b-428b-8b83-f3904b0bd114 | CentOS-7  | active |
| 92c5d5c5-5ca7-4adc-8244-456189ffdae1 | CentOS8   | active |
| fbcf16a0-c7cc-42c1-b836-a39bc34c9666 | Cirros    | active |
| d900bcad-047a-4d01-bcbc-42426bb4315d | CoreOS    | active |
| f0ac705b-ee73-4de8-95f7-4e06569f0f5c | Debian-10 | active |
| 01e6f07b-ca99-439d-9cd0-ab28c2573abf | Fedora-30 | active |
| 1953e548-779c-4fe5-86c1-854d71f35d14 | FreeBSD12 | active |
| 7bd462ad-cc11-4d89-8b85-9aab0cfe114b | Ubuntu-18 | active |
| 86e42aae-d959-4b79-b9a4-b899d85ba303 | fed31     | active |
| 3a56d733-de76-490a-9dac-1419219b5803 | manageiq  | active |
| 47b5b6ed-5599-420a-a602-35d964e86de5 | rhcos     | active |
| 6b3dc49b-a53f-4cfc-98e0-9eb6925219de | rhel-7    | active |
| 965cb833-b97e-4488-9bc6-84495b9a9b7b | rhel-8    | active |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+--------+

Step 3: Create FreeBSD 12 Instance on OpenStack

With the FreeBSD 12 image uploaded, we can create a FreeBSD 12 server on OpenStack.

openstack server create \
 --image FreeBSD12 \
 --key-name jmutai \
 --flavor m1.medium \
 --security-group  7fffea2a-b756-473a-a13a-219dd0f1913a  \
 --network private  \
 FreeBSD12

Your server should be created in a few seconds. Our next guide will convert how to create FreeBSD Qemu/KVM Virtual Machine template.

In the meantime, check other FreeBSD guides:

How to Install pgAdmin4 on FreeBSD 12

How to Install PostgreSQL 11 on FreeBSD 12

How to Install PHP 7.3 on FreeBSD 12

How to Install MariaDB 10.3 on FreeBSD 12