OpenBSD 7.5 via QEMU on Hetzner physical machine (no phys. access / KVM console)
The article details installing OpenBSD 7.5 on a Hetzner server using QEMU, involving RAID1 setup, encrypted partitions, and utilizing Hetzner's rescue system for ISO installation without direct access.
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The article discusses the process of setting up OpenBSD 7.5 on a Hetzner physical server using QEMU, without direct access to the installation images or a KVM console. The author outlines the steps taken to install OpenBSD, including the use of Hetzner's rescue system to download the installation ISO and configure the server. The setup involves creating a RAID1 configuration with two SSDs and an encrypted partition. The author emphasizes the need for a method that allows full control over the server, including access to a rescue mode. The installation process is detailed, including commands for wiping existing data on the SSDs, downloading the OpenBSD installation image, and configuring QEMU to boot from the ISO while using the physical disks. The article also provides hardware specifications of the server, including CPU, memory, and disk information, which are crucial for the installation process. The author concludes with a successful boot into the OpenBSD installation environment, demonstrating the effectiveness of the outlined method.
- OpenBSD 7.5 can be installed on a Hetzner server using QEMU without physical access.
- The setup includes RAID1 on two SSDs and an encrypted partition.
- The process utilizes Hetzner's rescue system to download the installation ISO.
- Commands for wiping existing data and configuring QEMU are provided.
- The article includes hardware specifications relevant to the installation.
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15 commentsIt made me sad to see that Hetzner had discontinued the FreeBSD rescue system. But it seems to be correct: https://community.hetzner.com/tutorials/freebsd-openzfs-via-...
How much did it really cost them to have the mfsbsd image available?
https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-anywhere
I tried it on a Hetzner VPS and was honestly pretty surprised that it even worked. What makes it even cooler is that you can continue to rebuild the machine’s config remotely even after initialization (thanks to NixOS).
The only tweak -- auto-detection of swap space, as it is derived from RAM available and you cannot give all 100% RAM to qemu. So you need to adjust for it.
https://www.dim13.org/Install-OpenBSD-on-remote-host-without...
Trick with qemu works, but is veeeeery slow if you need a lot of disk access (ZFS zmirror scrub, or ZFS `send | receive` pipe or something like this).
I’ve also got OpenBSD 7.5 running on a Hetzner server, but it runs “natively”. By which I mean it’s still a VM from Hetzner, but I don’t have my own nested QEMU layer or anything.
1. https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.5/amd64/bsd.rd
2. installboot also needs /usr/mdec/biosboot and /usr/mdec/boot from base75.tgz.
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