How To Setup FreeBSD Jails With ezjail

by

FreeBSD jails are a lightweight virtualization technology that allow you to create multiple isolated environments on a single host. Ezjail is a popular utility that makes it easier to create and manage jails on FreeBSD.

Here’s how you can set up FreeBSD jails with ezjail:

  1. Install ezjail:
pkg install ezjail
  1. Create a base jail:
ezjail-admin install

This will download and install a basic FreeBSD system into the /usr/jails/newjail directory. You can replace newjail with the name of your jail.

  1. Configure ezjail:

Edit the /usr/local/etc/ezjail.conf file and set the following options:

ezjail_use_zfs="YES"
ezjail_jailzfs="zroot/jails"
ezjail_jailbase="/usr/jails"
ezjail_jailbase_zfs="zroot/jails/basejail"

This tells ezjail to use ZFS for jail management, and sets the locations of the jail base and jail datasets.

  1. Create a new jail:
ezjail-admin create myjail 'em0|192.168.1.10'

This will create a new jail named myjail and configure its network interface to use the IP address 192.168.1.10. Replace em0 with the name of your network interface.

  1. Start the jail:
ezjail-admin start myjail
  1. Log into the jail:
ezjail-admin console myjail

This will open a console session inside the jail, allowing you to configure and install software as if it were a separate system.

That’s it! You now have a FreeBSD jail running on your host, isolated from the rest of the system. You can create additional jails by repeating steps 4-6 with different names and IP addresses.

Leave a Comment