Bhyve tests and findings

[Michael Reifenberger]

Hi,
after waiting for UEFI-GOP and using bhyve (with vm-bhyve as a  
convenient tool) an a new E3-1225 v5 based system,
the following are my findings so far.
(BTW:
   Currently my rational for running bhyve is twofold:
   - Run a Windows 8.1 or 10 instance for accessing different remote  
locations via different VPN solutions
   - Run Centos7/RHEL7 instances with SAP Systems on it
)

But first a huge Thanks to all who worked on bhyve and made it usable  
in its current state.
That alone is quite impressive.

What works so far:
- Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 installs and runs in graphical mode flawlessly.
- Centos7 installs and runs too using the UEFI-GOP Image (Yeah, no  
more Grub fiddling :-)
- I was able to graphically Restore/Reconfigure a Acronis  
Windows-Backup into a Bhyve instance
   using the Acronis Restore-CD (Converting a BIOS Win8.1 to UEFI Win8.1)


What doesn't:
- Only vnclient from FreeBSD can connect to the bhyve VNC Server.
   I havn't found any vncviewer running on Windows which where able to  
work (tried UltraVNC, RealVNC, ...)
- in VNC only most basic Keys work most special characters like (*\@)  
(and of course no german localization)
   but at least a usual US-kbd would be helpful.
   (Is there a way to debug the keystrokes or duplicate a localized  
VNC kbd from some VNC server)
- For the SAP-Systems it seems that only 4 disks get used when the  
disk type is virtio-blk.
   (Is this intentionally or a feature of vm-bhyve? How to provide more disks)
- It seems to miss a way to add an ISO CD/DVD without booting from it  
automatically.
   Also ISO's seem to miss a hot-plug feature (f.e. for inserting  
driver CD's after installation.

Some additional questions:
- Can one over-provisioning/ballooning guest memory's ?
- Is it (speed-wise) better to use ZFS-zvol's or files in regular  
ZFS-directories?
- Are the virtio-blk or ahci-hd disks having the same overhead?
- Can ahci-hd be used paravirtualized in Centos?

Thanks in advance!

All in all it looks quite promising!

Greetings
---
Mike

Gruß
---
Michael Reifenberger