Adding /dev/ device to a Bhyve VM?

Lastb0isct

Explorer
Joined
Jun 15, 2011
Messages
96
It seems like bhyve supports this but I'm not seeing any options to do this via the GUI. Does anyone know if this is possible? I have an LTO device that is able to be detected by my system:
Apr 1 09:18:26 freenas sa0 at mps2 bus 0 scbus2 target 0 lun 0
Apr 1 09:18:26 freenas sa0: <HP Ultrium 6-SCSI 353D> Removable Sequential Access SPC-4 SCSI device
Apr 1 09:18:26 freenas sa0: Serial Number HUJ5223VCV
Apr 1 09:18:26 freenas sa0: 600.000MB/s transfers
Apr 1 09:18:26 freenas sa0: Command Queueing enabled

And I want to add that to a Bhyve VM so I can backup content...
 

KrisBee

Wizard
Joined
Mar 20, 2017
Messages
1,288
A similar question asked here gives you the answer. https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/sas-tape-drive-lto5-passthrough-to-vm-on-bhyve.71538/

There's no WebUI support as yet for device "passthrough" to bhyve VMs. You could try using the CLi only, but you would have to pass through an entire (separate) drive controller to bhyve, not just the tape drive. See https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/pci_passthru

But when you say "And I want to add that to a Bhyve VM so I can backup content... " are you talking about data accessible only within the VM? If so, perhaps you need to re-think your storage strategy and have the VM write its data to your pool via shares.
 

Lastb0isct

Explorer
Joined
Jun 15, 2011
Messages
96
A similar question asked here gives you the answer. https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/sas-tape-drive-lto5-passthrough-to-vm-on-bhyve.71538/

There's no WebUI support as yet for device "passthrough" to bhyve VMs. You could try using the CLi only, but you would have to pass through an entire (separate) drive controller to bhyve, not just the tape drive. See https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/pci_passthru

But when you say "And I want to add that to a Bhyve VM so I can backup content... " are you talking about data accessible only within the VM? If so, perhaps you need to re-think your storage strategy and have the VM write its data to your pool via shares.

I've seen that it's possible to pass a whole card through. I don't have anymore PCI slots available. It should be possible to pass through a single slot but I haven't found the exact appropriate way to do that. Even within your link to pci_passtheough it specifies a single pptdevs device.i have a dual lsi card and each slot is separate. I just don't know where the loader.conf is.

Data accessible via all of my FreeNAS shares would be what I'm attempting to backup. So I don't care about any local data in the VM
 

KrisBee

Wizard
Joined
Mar 20, 2017
Messages
1,288
If you're sure your tape drive is a recognised as indicated by "dmesg" and "camcontrol devlist" by FreeNAS then have you researched running a "tape backup" via a jail? There seems to be postings both here at the FreeBSD forum on the subject.
 

Lastb0isct

Explorer
Joined
Jun 15, 2011
Messages
96
I have searched jails and only come up with people saying it's not possible or worth it
 
Top