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formulator
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

People using FreeBSD on ESX 3

Just some questions for those doing this:

1. what version of freebsd?

2. vm in production? if so how busy is the vm and how long has it been up for on ESX 3.

3. any issues so far?

4. any special configuration mods to make it work?

Thanks

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37 Replies
formulator
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I've had the production FreeBSD guests I migrated running for over a month now without any problems.

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darkuncle
Contributor
Contributor

ditto - we've been running high load (> 5Mbps per VM of mail processing, for instance) on FreeBSD-6-STABLE, in ESX-3.0.1, with the e1000 driver, with very reliable results for about a month now. 3.0.1 contained the fixes we needed, apparently.

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oreeh
Immortal
Immortal

you're right

no more problems with ESX 3.0.1 and the e1000 driver

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paul_tsc
Contributor
Contributor

Hi could you tell me what config files I have to update to change the FreeBSD Guest to use the e1000 network card driver

Thank you

Paul

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darkuncle
Contributor
Contributor

shut down your VM, edit the .vmx file and change your network adapter type from "vmxnet" to "e1000". Save and then start up your VM again.

/sf

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tuifei
Contributor
Contributor

i'm useing 3.01 & freebsd 6.2 ,but i can't find vmxnet in .vmx file. my .vmx file like this

vi /vmfs/volumes/storage1/Freebsd/Freebsd.vmx

#!/usr/bin/vmware

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "4"

floppy0.present = "true"

nvram = "Freebsd.nvram"

powerType.powerOff = "default"

powerType.powerOn = "default"

powerType.suspend = "default"

powerType.reset = "default"

displayName = "Freebsd"

extendedConfigFile = "Freebsd.vmxf"

numvcpus = "2"

scsi0.present = "true"

scsi0.sharedBus = "none"

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"

memsize = "1024"

scsi0:0.present = "true"

scsi0:0.fileName = "Freebsd.vmdk"

scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"

ide0:0.present = "true"

ide0:0.clientDevice = "true"

ide0:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

ide0:0.startConnected = "false"

floppy0.startConnected = "false"

floppy0.clientDevice = "true"

ethernet0.present = "true"

ethernet0.allowGuestConnectionControl = "false"

ethernet0.networkName = "VM Network"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

ethernet1.present = "true"

ethernet1.allowGuestConnectionControl = "false"

ethernet1.networkName = "VM Network"

ethernet1.addressType = "generated"

guestOS = "other"

toolScripts.afterPowerOn = "true"

toolScripts.afterResume = "true"

toolScripts.beforeSuspend = "true"

toolScripts.beforePowerOff = "true"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:36:f1:2d"

ethernet1.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:36:f1:37"

uuid.location = "56 4d bc 6a 86 c9 19 08-d0 45 8a eb 87 36 f1 2d"

uuid.bios = "56 4d bc 6a 86 c9 19 08-d0 45 8a eb 87 36 f1 2d"

sched.swap.derivedName = "/vmfs/volumes/45a3b194-2f7684a8-a4c0-00137261bb6f/Freebsd/Freebsd-decc670d.vswp"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

ethernet1.generatedAddressOffset = "10"

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darkuncle
Contributor
Contributor

you don't appear to have an ethernet device type assigned - does your VM pass traffic at all? You are looking for "ethernet0.virtualDev" - that is the line that gets the e1000 assignment.

/sf

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tuifei
Contributor
Contributor

Add ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000" to your .vmx file, and you can use the Intel adapter (virtual)

now ok.

before this ,freebsd can connect LAN but bug like above.

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Ub
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Ive tried as suggested : ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000" however this keeps getting changed to ethernet0.virtualDev = "vlance" when the VM boots. Any ideas ?

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darkuncle
Contributor
Contributor

if you don't actually \_have_ an Intel PRO/1000 NIC, chances are ESX will not allow you to use that driver. Smiley Happy What hardware are you running on? What ESX version (you'll want 3.0.1)? What FreeBSD version?

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oreeh
Immortal
Immortal

you have to unregister the VMn first, then change the NIC and re-register it

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oreeh
Immortal
Immortal

this isn't true

ESX presents the e1000 regardless of the real NIC (thats why we virtualize Smiley Happy )

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darkuncle
Contributor
Contributor

when I made the change from vmxnet/vlance to E1000 I didn't have to unreg/re-reg any of the VMs - simply powered off, edited config files and restarted the VM ... this was ESX-3.0.1 and FreeBSD-6.2-RC1 (July 2006 snapshot).

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oreeh
Immortal
Immortal

sometimes it works, sometimes not (don't know why)

My practice on this: if you change a VM configuration by manually editing a vmx file, unregister first then re-register.

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Ub
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks,

Un-registering it, editing it and RE-Registering has done the trick

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ReverendDeuce
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

For what it's worth...

We, too, have numerous FreeBSD systems. 6.2 (both amd64 and i386) builds seem to work just fine with ESX 3.0.1.

e1000 + LSI for teh win!

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karthy
Contributor
Contributor

Hi

We also have many FreeBSD-6.2 guests running on a bunch of 3.0 ESX servers. But - we use DRS and the servers migrate around quite a bit - once in a while we loose network connection to FreeBSD servers being migrated. The guest claims a timeout in the em0 card and even if the status of the network card is up and the everything seems to work, no traffic will actually pass. Even a reboot of FreeBSD does not restore network connectivity. The solution is to power off/on the virtual server, then everything works again.

The problem is, that this behavior is not consistent but happens lige every 3 or 5 migrations or something like that - often enough to make big problems for us...

Anyone have similar experience and/or solutions?

Best regards,

Karsten

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JonRoderick
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks - had the same issue and the unregister/re-register trick worked for me.

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