FreeBSD The Power to Serve

OpenStack on FreeBSD

Links:
OpenStack URL: https://www.openstack.org/
OpenStack on FreeBSD URL: https://github.com/openstack-on-freebsd

Contact: Chih-Hsin Chang <starbops@hey.com>
Contact: Li-Wen Hsu <lwhsu@FreeBSD.org>

This project aims to port key OpenStack components so that FreeBSD can function as an OpenStack host.

In 2023 Q1, the big news is that we’re able to spawn FreeBSD instances with bhyve(8) on the OpenStack platform. But there are still some major limitations regarding the capabilities of the spawned instances that need to be resolved:

  • No self-service networks (only support the flat network)

  • No network connectivity inside the instance

  • Only support FreeBSD raw images (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64.raw tested)

  • No disk resize

  • No console integration (need to use cu(1) command manually)

The step-by-step documents for constructing a POC site can be found in the docs repository. The patched version of each OpenStack component is under the same GitHub organization.

Also, we attended AsiaBSDCon 2023 at the end of March and gave a short talk about the current project status at the developer summit. We got precious feedback at the event and will focus on the following for the next quarter:

  • Resolve the Open vSwitch networking issue

  • Convert each OpenStack component into FreeBSD ports

People interested in helping with the project can first help check the documentation by following the installation guide. And here is an open task for the project:

  • FreeBSD-specific implementation for the oslo.privsep library

Feedback and help are always welcome.

Sponsor: The FreeBSD Foundation

Last modified on: April 12, 2023 by Ceri Davies