FreeBSD Home Server - Part 1: OS Install

This is part 1 of my FreeBSD Home Server how-to guide, and it will cover the installation of FreeBSD. It will show how to install FreeBSD 15.1-RELEASE, configure it, and how to set up Jails, Samba and NFS for network file sharing, as well as Bhyve virual machines. Follow the instructions at your own risk. I am still learning, so mistakes will be made. If you have suggestions for improvements or want to give feedback, you can find my information here: www.subnetspider.com/about

Download the FreeBSD Installer

Go to the FreeBSD website and download the Installer:

https://download.freebsd.org/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/15.1/

You can also download the .iso via torrent, if you want to.

I chose the file FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz because it contains all the stuff I need.

All FreeBSD .iso files are usually compatible with booting from USB. To save a bit of bandwidth, I always download the compressed .xz archives.

Before you extract the .xz archive, verify that the checksum matches, by downloading the CHECKSUM file. Open CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64 with a text editor (or cat/grep the contents) and look for the line which contains your downloaded filename.

Verify the checksum

Important: The file hashes for the .xz files will only match the compressed archives.

If you are on Linux or FreeBSD, use the sha256sum command:

~$ sha256sum Downloads/FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz

807b31dc257f8c1b3979cb48f875bc9e198f615ea1dbf5a5ab3a0fefc2115d5f  Downloads/FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz

If you are on Windows, open PowerShell and use the Get-FileHash command:

> Get-FileHash .\Downloads\FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz

Algorithm       Hash                                                                   Path
---------       ----                                                                   ----
SHA256          807B31DC257F8C1B3979CB48F875BC9E198F615EA1DBF5A5AB3A0FEFC2115D5F       C:\Users\Admin\Downloads\Free...

If the checksum matches the hash, you are good to go. Should they not match, the file might be corrupted or manipulated, so you better delete it and start over.

Extract the .xz archive

If you are on Linux or FreeBSD, extract the .xz archive with the unxz command:

~$ unxz Downloads/FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz

If you are on Windows, you can right click on the file and extract it like you would a .zip file.

Prepare the installation media

You can install FreeBSD by flashing it to a USB stick, burning it to a DVD or using PXE network boot. If your host supports it, you can also use the IPMI/BMC to attach the .iso file remotely.

But if your system does have an IPMI / BMC, you can use dd on Linux or FreeBSD to flash it to your USB stick:

~$ doas dd if=Downloads/FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso of=/dev/sdbX bs=1M conv=sync status=progress

Warning: Make sure you select the correct device (e.g. /dev/sdb) or you will encur data loss. Only flash the .iso file onto a USB stick if you have backed up all the files on it first.

If you are on Windows, you can use either BalenaEtcher or Rufus to create a bootable USB stick.

Install FreeBSD

Because the Lenovo ST250 supports it, I chose to use the XCC (XClarity Controller IPMI / BMC) of the server.

Login

Launch Remote Console

Media

Activate

Browse and Mount

Now the .iso file of the FreeBSD Installer is mounted on the remove system and it can be rebooted.

Press F12

HostScreenShot(2)

Select XCC Virtual Media

Install

Select you Keymap

Select the fitting keymap for your physical keyboards language layout.

Set Hostname

Select Installation Type

I chose Packages for pkgbase, as this will be the default for FreeBSD 16 and later releases.

Network Configuration

For now, I will only configure IPv4 networking.

Partitioning

Pool Type/Disks

Select Virtual Device Type

I select ZFS RAID10 for the best speed with some redundancy. As this server only has SSDs, I will install FreeBSD on them. On most servers, I have two small dedicated SSDs for FreeBSD and two or more large HDDs for mass storage.

Select Disks

Proceed with Installation

YES

All data on the selected disks will be destroyed.

Select System Components

I only select base, because I don’t need kernel-debug or lib32. After pressing “OK”, the FreeBSD installer will download all FreeBSD-* base system packages over the Internet.

Boot Configuration

There once was another FreeBSD version installed on the SSDs, otherwise, you will not see this screen. Press “YES”.

Set root password

Set a strong password for your root user. Save it in your password manager so you don’t forget.

Select your Timezone

Time & Date

We can skip both, because we will enable NTP later.

System configuration

I selected sshd, ntpd, ntpd_sync_on_start, and powerd. Note that on system with modern CPUs, powerd might not be needed, as the CPU’s automatically reduce the clock speed when idle.

System Hardening