VMware Communities: openBSD in ESX

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12 Replies Last post: Jul 13, 2007 2:09 PM by xAyiDe

openBSD in ESX

Jan 27, 2006 8:47 AM

xAyiDe 222 posts since
Apr 3, 2005

hi,

Anyone actualy got openBSD runing under ESX?
I tried the m0n0wall for use as a firewall but it was VERY unstable.
Högs CPUs and is hard to even get it past the si0 init.

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Jan 27, 2006 9:05 AM

jballon 188 posts since
Apr 14, 2005

Yes I have got OpenBSD 3.5 to run in ESX, have to select FreeBSD as the OS. Also use the LSI Logic SCSI Controller rather the the Bus Logic SCSI Controller, which can be changed after initial creation.

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Jan 27, 2006 9:25 AM

in response to: jballon

boydd 5,707 posts since
Jun 15, 2004 Moderator

I run a few 4.1x vm's - backup DNS servers etc.... Very stable

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Jan 28, 2006 1:13 PM

in response to: boydd

xAyiDe 222 posts since
Apr 3, 2005

So how did you get OBSD 3.5 to run in vmware ESX except the things you already said? What version of ESX?

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Jan 29, 2006 9:27 AM

in response to: xAyiDe

xAyiDe 222 posts since
Apr 3, 2005

Hi,

I got 3.8 to install with lsilogic adapter. Now only thing left is ti get the vmwaretools to work. AFAIK openbsd is binary compatible with freebsd which there is tools for. But still it will not install in OpenBSD due to some permittion settings. I get "Operation not permitted"

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Jan 29, 2006 9:32 AM

in response to: xAyiDe

boydd 5,707 posts since
Jun 15, 2004 Moderator

Sudo - root? Does the script have the permissions?

DB

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Feb 2, 2006 11:45 AM

in response to: boydd

xAyiDe 222 posts since
Apr 3, 2005

Yeah it has all these. I talked to some guys over at #openbsd on irc they told me maybe I need to do the alternate root thing with a lib folder and freebsd libs to make it work. So I think I skip it and wait for official support or if someone else has a solution.

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Jun 21, 2006 12:30 AM

AJansson 2 posts since
May 31, 2006

Looks like the vic driver made it into the source tree. It *should* be in 3.9 but havent found it. There is some info about it on the -current dev page (http://www.openbsd.org/plus.html :: Some repair to vic(4) so that it might soon work for VMWARE.) so it might included in the 4.0 release.

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Nov 7, 2006 7:40 PM

in response to: AJansson

reyk 1 posts since
Nov 7, 2006

OpenBSD's vic(4) has been fixed and enabled in 4.0-current. It works fine with VMWare
Server and has been tested with VMWare Workstation 4.5.2 as well. Nobody tested it with
ESX yet. It should also work in 64bit amd64 mode but this is neither tested nor enabled in OpenBSD-current.

ESX testers wanted! Please report to the misc@ OpenBSD mailing list or to directly to the developers dlg@ and reyk@.

---snip---
CVSROOT: /cvs
Module name: src
Changes by: dlg@cvs.openbsd.org 2006/11/02 13:45:17

Modified files:
sys/arch/i386/conf: GENERIC RAMDISK_CD

Log message:
enable vic(4) now that it works.
---snap---

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Dec 11, 2006 1:45 PM

in response to: reyk

ForgeFlakshack 27 posts since
Oct 6, 2005

I'd be happy to test on ESX 3.0, but I can't figure out how to get VMWare to tell OpenBSD to use vmxnet instead of vlance. In ESX 3.0, the network driver is "flexible" which seems to mean that even if I edit the .vmx file so that
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"

as soon as the VM starts, it changes it back to:

ethernet0.virtualDev = "vlance".

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Dec 13, 2006 2:17 PM

ReverendDeuce 153 posts since
Jul 15, 2005

OpenBSD 4.0 works flawlessly in ESX now (minus vmtools, of course). No special configs are needed. Just configure the VM as "Other" OS, and away you go.

I've been doing a lot of testing with OpenBSD in ESX as we use OpenBSD for our firewalls. It's nice to have a test environment to try out new settings without having to worry about our production HA pair.

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Mar 1, 2007 2:56 PM

in response to: ForgeFlakshack

krz 1 posts since
Mar 1, 2007

I've just fought with this for three hours. Googling around - found nothing. But I was sure there has to bo "the way". So this is what you have to do to change virtualDev to "vmxnet"

1. Power off the VM
2. Edit manually .vmx file
3. Using Virt. Infr. Client connect directly to esx host . Not to Virt. Center service ! Log in as root to service console.
4. Power on OpenBSD VM from there.
5. Voila

Reply Re: openBSD in ESX Jul 13, 2007 2:09 PM

in response to: krz

xAyiDe 222 posts since
Apr 3, 2005

I woukd give a go with e1000 instead

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