Create and Upload an OpenBSD disk image to Azure

Article
03/29/2023

Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets

This article shows you how to create and upload a virtual hard disk (VHD) that contains the OpenBSD operating system. After you upload it, you can use it as your own image to create a virtual machine (VM) in Azure through Azure CLI.

Prerequisites

This article assumes that you have the following items:

An Azure subscription - If you don't have an account, you can create one in just a couple of minutes. If you have an MSDN subscription, see Monthly Azure credit for Visual Studio subscribers. Otherwise, learn how to create a free trial account.
Azure CLI - Make sure you have the latest Azure CLI installed and logged in to your Azure account with az login.
OpenBSD operating system installed in a .vhd file - A supported OpenBSD operating system (6.6 version AMD64) must be installed to a virtual hard disk. Multiple tools exist to create .vhd files. For example, you can use a virtualization solution such as Hyper-V to create the .vhd file and install the operating system. For instructions about how to install and use Hyper-V, see Install Hyper-V and create a virtual machine.

Prepare OpenBSD image for Azure

On the VM where you installed the OpenBSD operating system 6.1, which added Hyper-V support, complete the following procedures:

If DHCP is not enabled during installation, enable the service as follows:
```
doas echo dhcp > /etc/hostname.hvn0
```

Set up a serial console as follows:

doas echo "stty com0 115200" >> /etc/boot.conf
doas echo "set tty com0" >> /etc/boot.conf

Configure Package installation as follows:

doas echo "https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD" > /etc/installurl

By default, the root user is disabled on virtual machines in Azure. Users can run commands with elevated privileges by using the doas command on OpenBSD VM. Doas is enabled by default.

Install and configure prerequisites for the Azure Agent as follows:

doas pkg_add py-setuptools openssl git
doas ln -sf /usr/local/bin/python2.7 /usr/local/bin/python
doas ln -sf /usr/local/bin/python2.7-2to3 /usr/local/bin/2to3
doas ln -sf /usr/local/bin/python2.7-config /usr/local/bin/python-config
doas ln -sf /usr/local/bin/pydoc2.7  /usr/local/bin/pydoc

The latest release of the Azure agent can always be found on GitHub. Install the agent as follows:

doas git clone https://github.com/Azure/WALinuxAgent
doas cd WALinuxAgent
doas python setup.py install
doas waagent -register-service

Important

After you install Azure Agent, it's a good idea to verify that it's running as follows:

doas ps auxw | grep waagent
root     79309  0.0  1.5  9184 15356 p1  S      4:11PM    0:00.46 python /usr/local/sbin/waagent -daemon (python2.7)
doas cat /var/log/waagent.log

Deprovision the system to clean it and make it suitable for deprovisioning. The following command also deletes the last provisioned user account and the associated data:
```
doas waagent -deprovision+user -force
```

Note

If you are migrating a specific virtual machine and do not wish to create a generalized image, skip the deprovision step.

Now you can shut down your VM.

Prepare the VHD

The VHDX format is not supported in Azure, only fixed VHD. You can convert the disk to fixed VHD format using Hyper-V Manager or the PowerShell convert-vhd cmdlet. An example is as following.

Convert-VHD OpenBSD61.vhdx OpenBSD61.vhd -VHDType Fixed

Create storage resources and upload

First, create a resource group with az group create. The following example creates a resource group named myResourceGroup in the eastus location:

az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus

To upload your VHD, create a storage account with az storage account create. Storage account names must be unique, so provide your own name. The following example creates a storage account named mystorageaccount:

az storage account create --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name mystorageaccount \
    --location eastus \
    --sku Premium_LRS

To control access to the storage account, obtain the storage key with az storage account keys list as follows:

STORAGE_KEY=$(az storage account keys list \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --account-name mystorageaccount \
    --query "[?keyName=='key1']  | [0].value" -o tsv)

To logically separate the VHDs you upload, create a container within the storage account with az storage container create:

az storage container create \
    --name vhds \
    --account-name mystorageaccount \
    --account-key ${STORAGE_KEY}

Finally, upload your VHD with az storage blob upload as follows:

az storage blob upload \
    --container-name vhds \
    --file ./OpenBSD61.vhd \
    --name OpenBSD61.vhd \
    --account-name mystorageaccount \
    --account-key ${STORAGE_KEY}

Create VM from your VHD

You can create a VM with a sample script or directly with az vm create. To specify the OpenBSD VHD you uploaded, use the --image parameter as follows:

az vm create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myOpenBSD61 \
    --image "https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/OpenBSD61.vhd" \
    --os-type linux \
    --admin-username azureuser \
    --ssh-key-value ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Obtain the IP address for your OpenBSD VM with az vm list-ip-addresses as follows:

az vm list-ip-addresses --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myOpenBSD61

Now you can SSH to your OpenBSD VM as normal:

ssh azureuser@<ip address>

Next steps

If you want to know more about Hyper-V support on OpenBSD6.1, read OpenBSD 6.1.

If you want to create a VM from managed disk, read az disk.