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FreeBSD#

FreeBSD is identified with freebsd kind in the topology file. It is built using vrnetlab project and essentially is a Qemu VM packaged in a docker container format.

Getting FreeBSD image#

To build FreeBSD docker container image you will need to download a custom-built qcow2 VM image with pre-installed cloud-init from https://bsd-cloud-image.org/.

If, for some reason, you're unable to obtain an image from https://bsd-cloud-image.org/, you can build it yourself with the script from this repository.

Managing FreeBSD nodes#

Note

Containers with FreeBSD inside will take ~1-2 min to fully boot.
You can monitor the progress with docker logs -f <container-name>.

FreeBSD node launched with containerlab can be managed via the following interfaces:

to connect to a bash shell of a running FreeBSD container: 

docker exec -it <container-name/id> bash

to connect to the FreeBSD shell (password admin) 

ssh admin@<container-name>

serial port (console) is exposed over TCP port 5000: 

# from container host
telnet <container-name> 5000
You can also connect to the container and use telnet localhost 5000 if telnet is not available on your container host.

Info

Default user credentials: admin:admin

Interfaces mapping#

  • eth0 - management interface (vtnet0) connected to the containerlab management network
  • eth1+ - second and subsequent data interfaces (vtnet1, vtnet2, etc.)

When containerlab launches FreeBSD node, it will assign IPv4/6 address to the eth0 interface. These addresses are used to reach the management plane of the router.

Data interfaces eth1+ need to be configured with IP addressing manually using CLI.

Features and options#

Node configuration#

FreeBSD nodes come up with a basic configuration where only the management interface and a default user are provisioned.

Configuration save#

Containerlab's save command will perform a configuration backup for FreeBSD nodes via SCP. The entire /etc directory of each node will be archived and saved under backup.tar.gz file and can be found at the node's directory inside the lab parent directory:

# assuming the lab name is "freebsd01"
# and node name is "fbsd1"
ls clab-freebsd01/fbsd1/config/
backup.tar.gz

If the backup file is present upon the node's boot, it will be transferred to the node and extracted. The node will then reboot to apply the restored configuration.

Lab examples#

The following simple lab consists of two Linux hosts connected via one FreeBSD host: