1.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 2021 John H. Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> 4.\" 5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 7.\" are met: 8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 9.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 10.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 12.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 13.\" 14.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 15.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 16.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 17.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 18.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 19.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 20.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 21.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 22.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 23.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 24.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 25.\" 26.\" Portions Copyright 2022 OmniOS Community Edition (OmniOSce) Association. 27.\" 28.Dd February 26, 2022 29.Dt BHYVE_CONFIG 5 30.Os 31.Sh NAME 32.Nm bhyve_config 33.Nd "bhyve configuration variables" 34.Sh DESCRIPTION 35.Xr bhyve 8 36uses a hierarchical tree of configuration variables to describe global and 37per-device settings. 38Internal nodes in this tree do not have a value, 39only leaf nodes have values. 40This manual describes the configuration variables understood by 41.Xr bhyve 8 . 42If additional variables are defined, 43.Xr bhyve 8 44will ignore them and will not emit errors for unknown variables. 45However, these additional variables can be referenced by other 46variables as described below. 47.Sh VARIABLE VALUES 48Configuration variable values are stored as strings. 49A configuration variable value may refer to one or more other 50configuration values by name. 51Instances of the pattern 52.Sq % Ns Pq Ar var 53are replaced by the value of the configuration variable 54.Va var . 55To avoid unwanted expansion, 56.Sq % 57characters can be escaped by a leading 58.Sq % . 59For example, 60if a configuration variable 61.Va disk 62uses the value 63.Pa /dev/zvol/bhyve/%(name) , 64then the final value of the 65.Va disk 66variable will be set to the path of a ZFS volume whose name matches 67the name of the virtual machine on the pool 68.Pa bhyve . 69.Pp 70Some configuration variables may be interpreted as a boolean value. 71For those variables the following case-insensitive values may be used to 72indicate true: 73.Pp 74.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact 75.It 76true 77.It 78on 79.It 80yes 81.It 821 83.El 84.Pp 85The following values may be used to indicate false: 86.Pp 87.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact 88.It 89false 90.It 91off 92.It 93no 94.It 950 96.El 97.Pp 98Some configuration variables may be interpreted as an integer. 99For those variables, 100any syntax supported by 101.Xr strtoul 3C 102may be used. 103.Sh GLOBAL SETTINGS 104.Ss Architecture Neutral Settings 105.Bl -column "memory.guest_in_core" "integer" "Default" 106.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 107.It Va name Ta string Ta Ta 108The name of the VM. 109.It Va cpus Ta integer Ta 1 Ta 110The total number of virtual CPUs. 111.It Va cores Ta integer Ta 1 Ta 112The number of virtual cores in each virtual socket. 113.It Va threads Ta integer Ta 1 Ta 114The number of virtual CPUs in each virtual core. 115.It Va sockets Ta integer Ta 1 Ta 116The number of virtual sockets. 117.It Va memory.size Ta string Ta 256M Ta 118Guest physical memory size. 119The size argument may be suffixed with one of K, M, G or T (either upper 120or lower case) to indicate a multiple of kibibytes, mebibytes, gibibytes, 121or tebibytes. 122If no suffix is given, the value is assumed to be in mebibytes. 123.It Va memory.wired Ta bool Ta false Ta 124Wire guest memory. 125.It Va acpi_tables Ta bool Ta false Ta 126Generate ACPI tables; these tables are 127.Em not 128used on illumos. 129.It Va destroy_on_poweroff Ta bool Ta false Ta 130Destroy the VM on guest-initiated power-off. 131.It Va gdb.address Ta string Ta localhost Ta 132Hostname, IP address, or IPv6 address for the debug server. 133.It Va gdb.port Ta integer Ta 0 Ta 134TCP port number for the debug server. 135If this is set to a non-zero value, a debug server 136will listen for connections on this port. 137.It Va gdb.wait Ta bool Ta false Ta 138If the debug server is enabled, wait for a debugger to connect 139before starting the guest. 140.It Va rtc.use_localtime Ta bool Ta true Ta 141The real time clock uses the local time of the host. 142If this is set to false, the real time clock uses UTC. 143.It Va uuid Ta string Ta Ta 144The universally unique identifier (UUID) to use in the guest's 145System Management BIOS System Information structure. 146If an explicit value is not set, a valid UUID is generated from 147the host's hostname and the VM name. 148.It Va virtio_msix Ta bool Ta true Ta 149Use MSI-X interrupts for PCI VirtIO devices. 150If set to false, MSI interrupts are used instead. 151.It Va config.dump Ta bool Ta false Ta 152If this value is set to true then, after parsing command line options, 153.Xr bhyve 8 154will write all of its configuration variables to 155.Dv stdout 156and exit. 157No VM will be started. 158.It Va privileges.debug Ta bool Ta false Ta 159Enable debug messages relating to privilege management. 160These messages are sent to 161.Dv stdout . 162.It Va rfb.debug Ta bool Ta false Ta 163Enable debug messages relating to the RFB 164.Pq VNC 165server. 166These messages are sent to 167.Dv stderr . 168.El 169.Ss x86-Specific Settings 170.Bl -column "x86.vmexit_on_pause" "integer" "Default" 171.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 172.It Va x86.mptable Ta bool Ta true Ta 173Generate an MPTable. 174.It Va x86.x2apic Ta bool Ta false Ta 175Configure guest's local APICs in x2APIC mode. 176.It Va x86.strictio Ta bool Ta false Ta 177Exit if a guest accesses an I/O port that is not emulated. 178By default, writes are ignored and reads return all bits set. 179.It Va x86.strictmsr Ta bool Ta true Ta 180Inject a general protection fault if a guest accesses a Model Specific 181Register (MSR) that is not emulated. 182If this is false, writes are ignored and reads return zero. 183.It Va x86.vmexit_on_hlt Ta bool Ta false Ta 184Force a VM exit when a guest CPU executes the 185.Dv HLT 186instruction. 187This allows idle guest CPUs to yield the host CPU. 188.It Va x86.vmexit_on_pause Ta bool Ta false Ta 189Force a VM exit when a guest CPU executes the 190.Dv PAUSE 191instruction. 192.El 193.Sh DEVICE SETTINGS 194Device settings are stored under a device node. 195The device node's name is set by the parent bus of the device. 196.Ss PCI Device Settings 197PCI devices are described by a device node named 198.Dq pci . Ns Ar bus . Ns Ar slot . Ns Ar function 199where each of 200.Ar bus , 201.Ar slot , 202and 203.Ar function 204are formatted as decimal values with no padding. 205All PCI device nodes must contain a configuration variable named 206.Dq device 207which specifies the device model to use. 208The following PCI device models are supported: 209.Bl -tag -width indent 210.It Li hostbridge 211Provide a simple PCI-Host bridge device. 212This is usually configured at pci0:0:0 and is required by most guest 213operating systems. 214.It Li ahci 215AHCI storage controller. 216.It Li e1000 217Intel e82545 network interface. 218.It Li fbuf 219VGA framebuffer device attached to VNC server. 220.It Li lpc 221LPC PCI-ISA bridge with COM1-COM4 16550 serial ports, 222a boot ROM, 223and an optional debug/test device. 224This device must be configured on bus 0. 225.It Li nvme 226NVM Express (NVMe) controller. 227.It Li passthru 228PCI pass-through device. 229.It Li uart 230PCI 16550 serial device. 231.It Li virtio-9p 232VirtIO 9p (VirtFS) interface. 233.It Li virtio-blk 234VirtIO block storage interface. 235.It Li virtio-console 236VirtIO console interface. 237.It Li virtio-net-viona 238Accelerated VirtIO network interface. 239.It Li net-viona 240Legacy VirtIO network interface. 241.It Li virtio-rnd 242VirtIO random number generator interface. 243.It Li xhci 244Extensible Host Controller Interface (XHCI) USB controller. 245.El 246.Ss USB Device Settings 247USB controller devices contain zero or more child USB devices 248attached to slots. 249Each USB device stores its settings in a node named 250.Dq slot. Ns Va N 251under the controller's device node. 252.Va N 253is the number of the slot to which the USB device is attached. 254Note that USB slot numbers begin at 1. 255All USB device nodes must contain a configuration variable named 256.Dq device 257which specifies the device model to use. 258The following USB device models are supported: 259.Bl -tag -width indent 260.It Li tablet 261A USB tablet device which provides precise cursor synchronization 262when using VNC. 263.El 264.Ss Block Device Settings 265Block devices use the following settings to configure their backing store. 266These settings are stored in the configuration node of the respective device. 267.Bl -column "sectorsize" "logical[/physical]" "Default" 268.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 269.It path Ta string Ta Ta 270The path of the file or disk device to use as the backing store. 271.It nocache Ta bool Ta false Ta 272Disable caching on the backing file by opening the backing file with 273.Dv O_DIRECT . 274.It nodelete Ta bool Ta false Ta 275Disable emulation of guest trim requests via 276.Dv DIOCGDELETE 277requests. 278.It sync Ta bool Ta false Ta 279Write changes to the backing file with synchronous writes. 280.It direct Ta bool Ta false Ta 281An alias for 282.Va sync . 283.It ro Ta bool Ta false Ta 284Disable writes to the backing file. 285.It sectorsize Ta Va logical Ns Op / Ns Va physical Ta Ta 286Specify the logical and physical sector size of the emulated disk. 287If the physical size is not specified, it is set to be equal to the logical 288size. 289.El 290.Ss virtio-net-viona Network Backend Settings 291Viona network devices use the following settings to configure their backend. 292.Bl -column "feature_flags" "string" "Default" 293.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 294.It vnic Ta string Ta Ta 295The VNIC to use for the network connection. 296.It feature_mask Ta integer Ta 0 Ta 297Specify a mask to apply to the virtio features advertised to the guest. 298.El 299.Ss Other Network Backend Settings 300Other network devices use the following settings to configure their backend. 301.Bl -column "feature_flags" "string" "Default" 302.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 303.It vnic Ta string Ta Ta 304The VNIC to use for the network connection. 305.It promiscphys Ta bool Ta false Ta 306Enable promiscuous mode at the physical level. 307.It promiscsap Ta bool Ta true Ta 308Enable promiscuous mode at the SAP level. 309.It promiscmulti Ta bool Ta true Ta 310Enable promiscuous mode for all multicast addresses. 311.It promiscrxonly Ta bool Ta true Ta 312The selected promiscuous modes are only enabled for received traffic. 313.El 314.Ss UART Device Settings 315.Bl -column "Name" "Format" "Default" 316.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 317.It Va path Ta path Ta Ta 318Backend device for the serial port. 319Either the pathname of a character device or 320.Dq stdio 321to use standard input and output of the 322.Xr bhyve 8 323process. 324.El 325.Ss Host Bridge Settings 326Host Bridge devices use the following settings. 327When configuring parameters, either the 328.Va model 329by itself, or both of 330.Va vendor 331and 332.Va devid 333must be specified. 334.Bl -column "vendor" "integer" "Default" 335.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 336.It Va model Ta string Ta netapp Ta 337Specify a hostbridge model to emulate. 338Valid model strings, and their associated vendor and device IDs are: 339.Sy amd Pq 0x1022/0x7432 , 340.Sy netapp Pq 0x1275/0x1275 , 341.Sy i440fx Pq 0x8086/0x1237 342and 343.Sy q35 Pq 0x8086/0x29b0 . 344.It Va vendor Ta integer Ta 0x1275 Ta 345PCI vendor ID. 346.It Va devid Ta integer Ta 0x1275 Ta 347PCI device ID. 348.El 349.Ss AHCI Controller Settings 350AHCI controller devices contain zero or more ports each of which 351provides a storage device. 352Each port stores its settings in a node named 353.Dq port. Ns Va N 354under the controller's device node. 355The 356.Va N 357values are formatted as successive decimal values starting with 0. 358In addition to the block device settings described above, each 359port supports the following settings: 360.Bl -column "model" "integer" "generated" 361.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 362.It Va type Ta string Ta Ta 363The type of storage device to emulate. 364Must be set to either 365.Dq cd 366or 367.Dq hd . 368.It Va nmrr Ta integer Ta 0 Ta 369Nominal Media Rotation Rate, also known as RPM. 370A value 1 of indicates a device with no rate such as a Solid State Disk. 371.It Va ser Ta string Ta generated Ta 372Serial number of up to twenty characters. 373A default serial number is generated using a hash of the backing 374store's pathname. 375.It Va rev Ta string Ta 001 Ta 376Revision number of up to eight characters. 377.It Va model Ta string Ta Ta 378Model number of up to forty characters. 379Separate default model strings are used for 380.Dq cd 381and 382.Dq hd 383device types. 384.El 385.Ss Frame Buffer Settings 386.Bl -column "password" "[IP:]port" "127.0.0.1:5900" 387.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 388.It Va wait Ta bool Ta false Ta 389Wait for a remote connection before starting the VM. 390.It Va rfb Ta Oo Ar IP Ns \&: Oc Ns Ar port Ta 127.0.0.1:5900 Ta 391TCP address to listen on for remote connections. 392The IP address must be given as a numeric address. 393IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in square brackets and 394support scoped identifiers as described in 395.Xr getaddrinfo 3SOCKET . 396A bare port number may be given in which case the IPv4 397localhost address is used. 398.It Va unix Ta string Ta Ta 399UNIX socket to listen on for VNC connections. 400.It Va vga Ta string Ta io Ta 401VGA configuration. 402More details are provided in 403.Xr bhyve 8 . 404.It Va w Ta integer Ta 1024 Ta 405Frame buffer width in pixels. 406.It Va h Ta integer Ta 768 Ta 407Frame buffer height in pixels. 408.It Va password Ta string Ta Ta 409Password to use for VNC authentication. 410This type of authentication is known to be cryptographically weak and is not 411intended for use on untrusted networks. 412.El 413.Ss LPC Device Settings 414The LPC bridge stores its configuration under a top-level 415.Va lpc 416node rather than under the PCI LPC device's node. 417The following nodes are available under 418.Va lpc : 419.Bl -column "pc-testdev" "Format" "Default" 420.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 421.It Va bootrom Ta path Ta Ta 422Path to a boot ROM. 423The contents of this file are copied into the guest's 424memory ending just before the 4GB physical address. 425If a boot ROM is present, a firmware interface device is 426also enabled for use by the boot ROM. 427.It Va com1 Ta node Ta Ta 428Settings for the COM1 serial port device. 429.It Va com2 Ta node Ta Ta 430Settings for the COM2 serial port device. 431.It Va com3 Ta node Ta Ta 432Settings for the COM3 serial port device. 433.It Va com4 Ta node Ta Ta 434Settings for the COM4 serial port device. 435.It Va pc-testdev Ta bool Ta false Ta 436Enable the PC debug/test device. 437.El 438.Ss NVMe Controller Settings 439Each NVMe controller supports a single storage device. 440The device can be backed either by a memory disk described by the 441.Va ram 442variable, or a block device using the block device settings described above. 443In addition, each controller supports the following settings: 444.Bl -column "ioslots" "Format" "Default" 445.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 446.It Va maxq Ta integer Ta 16 Ta 447Maximum number of I/O submission and completion queue pairs. 448.It Va qsz Ta integer Ta 2058 Ta 449Number of elements in each I/O queue. 450.It Va ioslots Ta integer Ta 8 Ta 451Maximum number of concurrent I/O requests. 452.It Va sectsz Ta integer Ta Ta 453Sector size. 454Can be one of 512, 4096, or 8192. 455Devices backed by a memory disk use 4096 as the default. 456Devices backed by a block device use the block device's sector size 457as the default. 458.It Va ser Ta string Ta Ta 459Serial number of up to twenty characters. 460A default serial number is generated using a hash of the device's PCI address. 461.It Va eui64 Ta integer Ta Ta 462IEEE Extended Unique Identifier. 463If an EUI is not provided, a default is generated using a checksum of the 464device's PCI address. 465.It Va dsm Ta string Ta auto Ta 466Whether or not to advertise Dataset Management (DSM) support. 467One of 468.Dq auto , 469.Dq enable , 470or 471.Dq disable . 472The 473.Dq auto 474setting only advertises support if the backing store supports 475resource freeing, for example via TRIM. 476.It Va ram Ta integer Ta Ta 477If set, allocate a memory disk as the backing store. 478The value of this variable is the size of the memory disk in megabytes. 479.El 480.Ss PCI Passthrough Settings 481.Bl -column "Name" "integer" "Default" 482.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 483.It Va path Ta string Ta Ta 484Path to a PCI passthrough device in the form 485.Pa /dev/ppt Ns Ar N 486where 487.Ar N 488is the device number. 489.El 490.Ss VirtIO 9p Settings 491Each VirtIO 9p device exposes a single filesystem from a host path. 492.Bl -column "sharename" "Format" "Default" 493.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 494.It Va sharename Ta string Ta Ta 495The share name exposed to the guest. 496.It Va path Ta path Ta Ta 497The path of a directory on the host to export to the guest. 498.It Va ro Ta bool Ta false Ta 499If true, the guest filesystem is read-only. 500.El 501.Ss VirtIO Block Device Settings 502In addition to the block device settings described above, each 503VirtIO block device supports the following settings: 504.Bl -column "model" "integer" "generated" 505.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 506.It Va ser Ta string Ta generated Ta 507Serial number of up to twenty characters. 508A default serial number is generated using a hash of the backing 509store's pathname. 510.El 511.Ss VirtIO Console Device Settings 512Each VirtIO Console device contains one or more console ports. 513Each port stores its settings in a node named 514.Dq port. Ns Va N 515under the controller's device node. 516The 517.Va N 518values are formatted as successive decimal values starting with 0. 519Each port supports the following settings: 520.Bl -column "Name" "Format" "Default" 521.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 522.It Va name Ta string Ta Ta 523The name of the port exposed to the guest. 524.It Va path Ta path Ta Ta 525The path of a UNIX domain socket providing the host connection for the port. 526.El 527.Sh SEE ALSO 528.Xr strtoul 3C , 529.Xr getaddrinfo 3SOCKET , 530.Xr bhyve 8 531