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 April 6, 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. 166.It Va xhci.debug Ta bool Ta false Ta 167Enable debug messages relating to the emulated XHCI 168.Pq USB 169controller. 170These messages are sent to 171.Dv stderr . 172.El 173.Ss x86-Specific Settings 174.Bl -column "x86.vmexit_on_pause" "integer" "Default" 175.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 176.It Va x86.mptable Ta bool Ta true Ta 177Generate an MPTable. 178.It Va x86.x2apic Ta bool Ta false Ta 179Configure guest's local APICs in x2APIC mode. 180.It Va x86.strictio Ta bool Ta false Ta 181Exit if a guest accesses an I/O port that is not emulated. 182By default, writes are ignored and reads return all bits set. 183.It Va x86.strictmsr Ta bool Ta true Ta 184Inject a general protection fault if a guest accesses a Model Specific 185Register (MSR) that is not emulated. 186If this is false, writes are ignored and reads return zero. 187.It Va x86.vmexit_on_hlt Ta bool Ta false Ta 188Force a VM exit when a guest CPU executes the 189.Dv HLT 190instruction. 191This allows idle guest CPUs to yield the host CPU. 192.It Va x86.vmexit_on_pause Ta bool Ta false Ta 193Force a VM exit when a guest CPU executes the 194.Dv PAUSE 195instruction. 196.El 197.Sh DEVICE SETTINGS 198Device settings are stored under a device node. 199The device node's name is set by the parent bus of the device. 200.Ss PCI Device Settings 201PCI devices are described by a device node named 202.Dq pci . Ns Ar bus . Ns Ar slot . Ns Ar function 203where each of 204.Ar bus , 205.Ar slot , 206and 207.Ar function 208are formatted as decimal values with no padding. 209All PCI device nodes must contain a configuration variable named 210.Dq device 211which specifies the device model to use. 212The following PCI device models are supported: 213.Bl -tag -width indent 214.It Li hostbridge 215Provide a simple PCI-Host bridge device. 216This is usually configured at pci0:0:0 and is required by most guest 217operating systems. 218.It Li ahci 219AHCI storage controller. 220.It Li e1000 221Intel e82545 network interface. 222.It Li fbuf 223VGA framebuffer device attached to VNC server. 224.It Li lpc 225LPC PCI-ISA bridge with COM1-COM4 16550 serial ports, 226a boot ROM, 227and an optional debug/test device. 228This device must be configured on bus 0. 229.It Li nvme 230NVM Express (NVMe) controller. 231.It Li passthru 232PCI pass-through device. 233.It Li uart 234PCI 16550 serial device. 235.It Li virtio-9p 236VirtIO 9p (VirtFS) interface. 237.It Li virtio-blk 238VirtIO block storage interface. 239.It Li virtio-console 240VirtIO console interface. 241.It Li virtio-net-viona 242Accelerated VirtIO network interface. 243.It Li net-viona 244Legacy VirtIO network interface. 245.It Li virtio-rnd 246VirtIO random number generator interface. 247.It Li xhci 248Extensible Host Controller Interface (XHCI) USB controller. 249.El 250.Ss USB Device Settings 251USB controller devices contain zero or more child USB devices 252attached to slots. 253Each USB device stores its settings in a node named 254.Dq slot. Ns Va N 255under the controller's device node. 256.Va N 257is the number of the slot to which the USB device is attached. 258Note that USB slot numbers begin at 1. 259All USB device nodes must contain a configuration variable named 260.Dq device 261which specifies the device model to use. 262The following USB device models are supported: 263.Bl -tag -width indent 264.It Li tablet 265A USB tablet device which provides precise cursor synchronization 266when using VNC. 267.El 268.Ss Block Device Settings 269Block devices use the following settings to configure their backing store. 270These settings are stored in the configuration node of the respective device. 271.Bl -column "sectorsize" "logical[/physical]" "Default" 272.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 273.It path Ta string Ta Ta 274The path of the file or disk device to use as the backing store. 275.It nocache Ta bool Ta false Ta 276Disable caching on the backing file by opening the backing file with 277.Dv O_DIRECT . 278.It nodelete Ta bool Ta false Ta 279Disable emulation of guest trim requests via 280.Dv DIOCGDELETE 281requests. 282.It sync Ta bool Ta false Ta 283Write changes to the backing file with synchronous writes. 284.It direct Ta bool Ta false Ta 285An alias for 286.Va sync . 287.It ro Ta bool Ta false Ta 288Disable writes to the backing file. 289.It sectorsize Ta Va logical Ns Op / Ns Va physical Ta Ta 290Specify the logical and physical sector size of the emulated disk. 291If the physical size is not specified, it is set to be equal to the logical 292size. 293.El 294.Ss virtio-net-viona Network Backend Settings 295Viona network devices use the following settings to configure their backend. 296.Bl -column "feature_flags" "string" "Default" 297.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 298.It vnic Ta string Ta Ta 299The VNIC to use for the network connection. 300.It feature_mask Ta integer Ta 0 Ta 301Specify a mask to apply to the virtio features advertised to the guest. 302.El 303.Ss Other Network Backend Settings 304Other network devices use the following settings to configure their backend. 305.Bl -column "feature_flags" "string" "Default" 306.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 307.It vnic Ta string Ta Ta 308The VNIC to use for the network connection. 309.It promiscphys Ta bool Ta false Ta 310Enable promiscuous mode at the physical level. 311.It promiscsap Ta bool Ta true Ta 312Enable promiscuous mode at the SAP level. 313.It promiscmulti Ta bool Ta true Ta 314Enable promiscuous mode for all multicast addresses. 315.It promiscrxonly Ta bool Ta true Ta 316The selected promiscuous modes are only enabled for received traffic. 317.El 318.Ss UART Device Settings 319.Bl -column "Name" "Format" "Default" 320.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 321.It Va path Ta path Ta Ta 322Backend device for the serial port. 323Either the pathname of a character device or 324.Dq stdio 325to use standard input and output of the 326.Xr bhyve 8 327process. 328.El 329.Ss Host Bridge Settings 330Host Bridge devices use the following settings. 331When configuring parameters, either the 332.Va model 333by itself, or both of 334.Va vendor 335and 336.Va devid 337must be specified. 338.Bl -column "vendor" "integer" "Default" 339.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 340.It Va model Ta string Ta netapp Ta 341Specify a hostbridge model to emulate. 342Valid model strings, and their associated vendor and device IDs are: 343.Sy amd Pq 0x1022/0x7432 , 344.Sy netapp Pq 0x1275/0x1275 , 345.Sy i440fx Pq 0x8086/0x1237 346and 347.Sy q35 Pq 0x8086/0x29b0 . 348.It Va vendor Ta integer Ta 0x1275 Ta 349PCI vendor ID. 350.It Va devid Ta integer Ta 0x1275 Ta 351PCI device ID. 352.El 353.Ss AHCI Controller Settings 354AHCI controller devices contain zero or more ports each of which 355provides a storage device. 356Each port stores its settings in a node named 357.Dq port. Ns Va N 358under the controller's device node. 359The 360.Va N 361values are formatted as successive decimal values starting with 0. 362In addition to the block device settings described above, each 363port supports the following settings: 364.Bl -column "model" "integer" "generated" 365.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 366.It Va type Ta string Ta Ta 367The type of storage device to emulate. 368Must be set to either 369.Dq cd 370or 371.Dq hd . 372.It Va nmrr Ta integer Ta 0 Ta 373Nominal Media Rotation Rate, also known as RPM. 374A value 1 of indicates a device with no rate such as a Solid State Disk. 375.It Va ser Ta string Ta generated Ta 376Serial number of up to twenty characters. 377A default serial number is generated using a hash of the backing 378store's pathname. 379.It Va rev Ta string Ta 001 Ta 380Revision number of up to eight characters. 381.It Va model Ta string Ta Ta 382Model number of up to forty characters. 383Separate default model strings are used for 384.Dq cd 385and 386.Dq hd 387device types. 388.El 389.Ss Frame Buffer Settings 390.Bl -column "password" "[IP:]port" "127.0.0.1:5900" 391.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 392.It Va wait Ta bool Ta false Ta 393Wait for a remote connection before starting the VM. 394.It Va rfb Ta Oo Ar IP Ns \&: Oc Ns Ar port Ta 127.0.0.1:5900 Ta 395TCP address to listen on for remote connections. 396The IP address must be given as a numeric address. 397IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in square brackets and 398support scoped identifiers as described in 399.Xr getaddrinfo 3SOCKET . 400A bare port number may be given in which case the IPv4 401localhost address is used. 402.It Va unix Ta string Ta Ta 403UNIX socket to listen on for VNC connections. 404.It Va vga Ta string Ta io Ta 405VGA configuration. 406More details are provided in 407.Xr bhyve 8 . 408.It Va w Ta integer Ta 1024 Ta 409Frame buffer width in pixels. 410.It Va h Ta integer Ta 768 Ta 411Frame buffer height in pixels. 412.It Va password Ta string Ta Ta 413Password to use for VNC authentication. 414This type of authentication is known to be cryptographically weak and is not 415intended for use on untrusted networks. 416.El 417.Ss LPC Device Settings 418The LPC bridge stores its configuration under a top-level 419.Va lpc 420node rather than under the PCI LPC device's node. 421The following nodes are available under 422.Va lpc : 423.Bl -column "pc-testdev" "Format" "Default" 424.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 425.It Va bootrom Ta path Ta Ta 426Path to a boot ROM. 427The contents of this file are copied into the guest's 428memory ending just before the 4GB physical address. 429If a boot ROM is present, a firmware interface device is 430also enabled for use by the boot ROM. 431.It Va com1 Ta node Ta Ta 432Settings for the COM1 serial port device. 433.It Va com2 Ta node Ta Ta 434Settings for the COM2 serial port device. 435.It Va com3 Ta node Ta Ta 436Settings for the COM3 serial port device. 437.It Va com4 Ta node Ta Ta 438Settings for the COM4 serial port device. 439.It Va pc-testdev Ta bool Ta false Ta 440Enable the PC debug/test device. 441.El 442.Ss NVMe Controller Settings 443Each NVMe controller supports a single storage device. 444The device can be backed either by a memory disk described by the 445.Va ram 446variable, or a block device using the block device settings described above. 447In addition, each controller supports the following settings: 448.Bl -column "ioslots" "Format" "Default" 449.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 450.It Va maxq Ta integer Ta 16 Ta 451Maximum number of I/O submission and completion queue pairs. 452.It Va qsz Ta integer Ta 2058 Ta 453Number of elements in each I/O queue. 454.It Va ioslots Ta integer Ta 8 Ta 455Maximum number of concurrent I/O requests. 456.It Va sectsz Ta integer Ta Ta 457Sector size. 458Can be one of 512, 4096, or 8192. 459Devices backed by a memory disk use 4096 as the default. 460Devices backed by a block device use the block device's sector size 461as the default. 462.It Va ser Ta string Ta Ta 463Serial number of up to twenty characters. 464A default serial number is generated using a hash of the device's PCI address. 465.It Va eui64 Ta integer Ta Ta 466IEEE Extended Unique Identifier. 467If an EUI is not provided, a default is generated using a checksum of the 468device's PCI address. 469.It Va dsm Ta string Ta auto Ta 470Whether or not to advertise Dataset Management (DSM) support. 471One of 472.Dq auto , 473.Dq enable , 474or 475.Dq disable . 476The 477.Dq auto 478setting only advertises support if the backing store supports 479resource freeing, for example via TRIM. 480.It Va ram Ta integer Ta Ta 481If set, allocate a memory disk as the backing store. 482The value of this variable is the size of the memory disk in megabytes. 483.El 484.Ss PCI Passthrough Settings 485.Bl -column "Name" "integer" "Default" 486.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 487.It Va path Ta string Ta Ta 488Path to a PCI passthrough device in the form 489.Pa /dev/ppt Ns Ar N 490where 491.Ar N 492is the device number. 493.El 494.Ss VirtIO 9p Settings 495Each VirtIO 9p device exposes a single filesystem from a host path. 496.Bl -column "sharename" "Format" "Default" 497.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 498.It Va sharename Ta string Ta Ta 499The share name exposed to the guest. 500.It Va path Ta path Ta Ta 501The path of a directory on the host to export to the guest. 502.It Va ro Ta bool Ta false Ta 503If true, the guest filesystem is read-only. 504.El 505.Ss VirtIO Block Device Settings 506In addition to the block device settings described above, each 507VirtIO block device supports the following settings: 508.Bl -column "model" "integer" "generated" 509.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 510.It Va ser Ta string Ta generated Ta 511Serial number of up to twenty characters. 512A default serial number is generated using a hash of the backing 513store's pathname. 514.El 515.Ss VirtIO Console Device Settings 516Each VirtIO Console device contains one or more console ports. 517Each port stores its settings in a node named 518.Dq port. Ns Va N 519under the controller's device node. 520The 521.Va N 522values are formatted as successive decimal values starting with 0. 523Each port supports the following settings: 524.Bl -column "Name" "Format" "Default" 525.It Sy Name Ta Sy Format Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description 526.It Va name Ta string Ta Ta 527The name of the port exposed to the guest. 528.It Va path Ta path Ta Ta 529The path of a UNIX domain socket providing the host connection for the port. 530.El 531.Sh SEE ALSO 532.Xr strtoul 3C , 533.Xr getaddrinfo 3SOCKET , 534.Xr bhyve 8 535