FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an open-source Unix-like operating system used to power modern servers, personal computers, and embedded platforms. A large community has been collaborating on the FreeBSD project for more than 30 years to ensure advanced networking, security, and performance. FreeBSD is used on high-traffic websites, popular embedded network devices, and data storage systems.

1. Get an SSH key pair to connect to a virtual machine (VM).

2. Create a VM from a public image. Under Image/boot disk selection, go to the Cloud Marketplace tab and select FreeBSD. Under Access:

   • Enter freebsd in the Username field.
   • Paste the contents of the public SSH key file in the SSH key field.

   Save the VM public IP address.

3. Connect to the VM over SSH. To do this, use the freebsd username and the private SSH key you created earlier.

Instead of the standard freebsd username, you can specify a custom one when creating a VM. To do this:

1. Create a configuration file for the cloud-init utility, such as config.yaml.

2. Copy and add the following metadata to the file:

   #cloud-config
   datasource:
     Ec2:
       strict_id: false
   system_info:
     distro: freebsd
     default_user:
       name: <username>
       ssh_authorized_keys:
         - <public_part_of_SSH_key>
       groups: [wheel]
       sudo: ["ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL"]
       shell: /usr/local/bin/bash
     network:
         renderers: ['freebsd']
   bootcmd:
     - rmuser -y freebsd
   

   Where:

   • name: Username.
   • ssh_authorized_keys: Contents of the public SSH key file.

   In FreeBSD, bash is stored in /usr/local/bin/.

3. Create a VM using the CLI and provide the user metada:

   yc compute instance create \
     --name <VM_name> \
     --zone <availability_zone> \
     --network-interface subnet-name=<subnet_name>,nat-ip-version=ipv4 \
     --create-boot-disk name=disk1,size=20,image-id=fd8t7dhq1pt5gidofilh \
     --metadata-from-file <config.yaml_file_path>
   

   Where:

   • name: VM name.
   • zone: Availability zone.
   • subnet-name: Subnet name.
   • image-id: FreeBSD image ID.
   • metadata-from-file: Path to the metadata file with user settings.

You can also use cloud-init to manage SSH keys, create multiple users, and install software packages.

Sample cloud-init configuration file for managing user SSH keys:

#cloud-config
datasource:
  Ec2:
    strict_id: false
users:
  - gecos: freebsd
    name: freebsd
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - <public_part_of_SSH_key>
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    groups: [wheel, sudo]

Where ssh_authorized_keys stands for the contents of the public SSH key file.

Sample cloud-init configuration file for creating multiple users and installing software packages:

#cloud-config
datasource:
  Ec2:
    strict_id: false
users:
  - gecos: <user_details>
    name: <username>
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - <public_part_of_SSH_key>
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    groups: [wheel, sudo]
  - gecos: <user_details>
    name: <username>
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - <public_part_of_SSH_key>
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    groups: [wheel, sudo]
packages:
  - curl
  - py39-pip
package_update: true
package_upgrade: false

Where:

• gecos: Information about the user.
• name: Username.
• ssh_authorized_keys: Contents of the public SSH key file for each user.
• packages: List of software packages to be installed.

• Developing and testing web services.
• Prototyping new service components.
• Administering VM or DB clusters.
• Creating VPNs to provide remote access to resources or connect physical and cloud infrastructures.
• Protecting sites and applications.
• Translating addresses.
• Filtering traffic.
• Routing.

OpenNix
OpenNix provides technical support to FreeBSD users in Yandex Cloud. You can contact technical support by email at support@opennix.ru. Support engineers are available on business days from 9 am to 6 pm GMT+3.

Yandex Cloud
Yandex Cloud does not provide technical support for this product. If you have any issues, please refer to the respective developer’s information resources.