This is another entry that is sponsored by fme AG company. If You have multiple Lenovo ThinkServer systems to manage You may do that by hand with entering UEFI/BIOS setup and doing needed things by hand β¦ or You can setup a Lenovo XClarity Administrator VM.
The problem is that this VM from Lenovo comes by default in three versions β¦ and none of them is by default suited for FreeBSD Bhyve hypervisor.
- VHD for Windows Hyper-V hypervisor.
- OVA for VirtualBox and others that support OVA format.
- QCOW2 for Linux KVM based hypervisors.
As usual I decided not to give up at that point and tried harder β¦ and that trying led me to some interesting conclusions.
I downloaded the QCOW2 version listed as lnvgy_sw_lxca_120-4.3.0_kvm_x86-64.qcow2 file β its about 3.2 GB in size.
Then I created the Bhyve VM for that Linux system.
freebsd # vm create lxca
As I had the Lenovo image in QCOW2 format I used qemu-img(1) from the emulators/qemu package to convert it to RAW format that is suitable for FreeBSD Bhyve hypervisor. One important thing to note before doing the conversion β¦ the size of RAW disk will be 192 GB. It will not matter on ZFS with compression enabled β but it can fill Your disk if You have compression disabled.
freebsd # zfs get -d 0 compression NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE zroot compression lz4 local freebsd # du -smh \ lnvgy_sw_lxca_120-4.3.0_kvm_x86-64.qcow2 \ /vm/lxca/disk0.img 3.2G lnvgy_sw_lxca_120-4.3.0_kvm_x86-64.qcow2 4.6G /vm/lxca/disk0.img freebsd # du -smhA \ lnvgy_sw_lxca_120-4.3.0_kvm_x86-64.qcow2 \ /vm/lxca/disk0.img 3.2G lnvgy_sw_lxca_120-4.3.0_kvm_x86-64.qcow2 192G /vm/lxca/disk0.img
Now the conversion.
freebsd # pkg which -o $( which qemu-img ) /usr/local/bin/qemu-img was installed by package emulators/qemu freebsd # \ qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw \ lnvgy_sw_lxca_120-4.3.0_kvm_x86-64.qcow2 \ /vm/lxca/disk0.img
I then investigated what actually is on that raw disk and FreeBSD md(4) driver helped here beautifully. We will also use my mdconfig.sh script to make it easier.
freebsd # mdconfig.sh -c disk0.img IN: created vnode at /dev/md0 freebsd # lsblk md0 DEVICE MAJ:MIN SIZE TYPE LABEL MOUNT md0 1:183 192G MBR - - <FREE> -:- 993K - - - md0s1 1:184 24G linux-data ext2fs/ELR - md0s2 1:205 8G linux-data ext2fs/ELR_VAR_LOG - md0s3 1:206 160G linux-data ext2fs/ELR_LXCA_DATA -
So β¦ now we know that its an MBR partitioning scheme β¦ which means UEFI boot is not possible β and this is where it gets ugly because Bhyve is not VirtualBox (and I admit this is one of the Bhyve downsides) which means we now have to find needed parameters for Bhyve to boot that Linux VM.
We can at least mount these partitions to check what is in them β¦ and also check the GRUB config. We will use lklfuse(8) from the filesystems/lkl package for that β lets try with the 1st partition.
freebsd # pkg which -o $( which lklfuse ) /usr/local/bin/lklfuse was installed by package filesystems/lkl freebsd # mkdir -p /mnt/tmp freebsd # lklfuse -o type=ext4 /dev/md0s1 /mnt/tmp freebsd # ls -l /mnt/tmp total 76 drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 4096 Feb 19 2025 bin drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 4096 Apr 9 2025 boot lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 28 Jun 6 2025 chroot -> /opt/lenovo/lxca/data/chroot drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 4096 Feb 19 2025 dev lrwxrwxrwx 1 800 800 26 Jun 6 2025 dump -> /opt/lenovo/lxca/data/dump drwxr-xr-x 66 root wheel 4096 Aug 28 00:40 etc drwxr-xr-x 12 root wheel 4096 Aug 28 00:40 home drwxr-xr-x 8 root wheel 4096 Feb 19 2025 lib lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 3 Jun 6 2025 lib64 -> lib drwx------ 2 root wheel 16384 Jun 6 2025 lost+found drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 4096 Feb 19 2025 media drwxrwxr-x 2 root wheel 4096 Feb 19 2025 mnt drwxr-xr-x 7 root wheel 4096 Jun 6 2025 opt dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 4096 Feb 19 2025 proc drwxr-xr-x 10 root wheel 4096 Jun 6 2025 run drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 4096 Feb 19 2025 sbin dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 4096 Feb 19 2025 sys lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 8 Jun 6 2025 tmp -> /var/tmp drwxr-xr-x 11 root wheel 4096 Feb 19 2025 usr drwxr-xr-x 11 root wheel 4096 Jun 6 2025 var freebsd # ls -l /mnt/tmp/boot total 14176 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 16 Jun 6 2025 bzImage -> bzImage-5.15.178 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 11837760 Feb 19 2025 bzImage-5.15.178 drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 4096 Jun 6 2025 grub -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2670312 Feb 19 2025 initrd freebsd # cat /mnt/tmp/boot/grub/grub.conf default=0 timeout=1 title System Management Platform root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/bzImage ro console=tty0 console=ttyS0 root=LABEL=ELR clocksource_failover=acpi_pm net.ifnames=0 clocksource_failover=acpi_pm initrd /boot/initrd freebsd # cd / freebsd # umount /mnt/tmp freebsd # mdconfig.sh -d 0 IN: deleted vnode at /dev/md0
So β¦ we know what the GRUB config looks like β lets try to translate that into FreeBSD Bhyve VM config. After playing some time I settled on this lxca VM config as shown below.
freebsd # env EDITOR=cat vm config lxca
loader="grub"
grub_run_partition="msdos1"
grub_run_dir="/boot/grub"
grub_run0="linux /boot/bzImage ro console=tty0 console=ttyS0 root=LABEL=ELR clocksource_failover=acpi_pm net.ifnames=0 clocksource_failover=acpi_pm"
grub_run1="initrd /boot/initrd"
cpu=3
memory=16G
network0_type="e1000"
network0_switch="public"
network0_mac="58:9c:fc:06:2e:71"
network1_type="e1000"
network1_switch="public"
network1_mac="58:9c:fc:02:3b:c0"
disk0_type="virtio-blk"
disk0_name="disk0.img"
uuid="53211072-22f1-43f0-97c4-fae86903b2fc"
Then we need to start the VM with usual command.
freebsd # vm start lxca
You may (and should) trace the boot process with vm console {VM} command of course.
freebsd # vm console lxca
You will see lots of Linux boot messages both first from the Linux kernel itself and later from the booting process of applications/daemons/databases needed to start Lenovo XClarity Administrator appliance. After some time β definitely longer then shorter β You will see something like that below.
**************************************************************
This interface is not for user or customer usage *********
**************************************************************
------------------------------------------
Lenovo LXCA - Version 4.3.0 build 120
------------------------------------------
eth0: flags=4163 mtu 1500
inet 10.1.1.52 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.1.1.255
inet6 fe80::5a9c:fcff:fe06:2e71 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20
ether 58:9c:fc:06:2e:71 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
eth1: Disabled
localhost login:
This means that You can how try to access https://10.1.1.52/ in Your browser β¦ and after I tried that I (of course) needed to accept the self generated certificate and then I saw this.
Voila! It works! π
Now You can configure it from the browser as needed.
Guide that really helped me to setup all these things right was the Lenovo XClarity Administrator β Users Guide that has this in its contents.
It shows TWO network interfaces here β eth0 and eth1 β not just one β and when I used only one β everything failed β after I added 2nd network interface β everything started to work as desired.
I do not have anything more to add here β I am really glad that I persisted hard to try all available options here β take care π
UPDATE 1 β Lenovo XClarity One
Graham Perrin commented on one of the places where I shared the article that XClarity Administrator will not be supported after 2027/06/30 and that XClarity One is now the future β¦ so I tried to setup XClarity One under FreeBSD Bhyve VM and this update will show You the details.
The Lenovo XClarity One can be downloaded as QCOW2 image here β so I did. Now it seams that there are TWO disks instead of just ONE β but that does not bring any problems for Bhyve β we will attach them both.
freebsd # vm create lxco freebsd # cd /vm/lxco freebsd # du -smh ~/lnvgy_sw_xc1_26p.2.0_kvm_indiv.tgz 5.0G /home/vermaden/lnvgy_sw_xc1_26p.2.0_kvm_indiv.tgz freebsd # du -smhA ~/lnvgy_sw_xc1_26p.2.0_kvm_indiv.tgz 5.0G /home/vermaden/lnvgy_sw_xc1_26p.2.0_kvm_indiv.tgz freebsd # tar -xvf ~/lnvgy_sw_xc1_26p.2.0_kvm_indiv.tgz x ./lnvgy_sw_xc1_7909-uat_kvm_x86_64_disk1.qcow2 x ./lnvgy_sw_xc1_7909-uat_kvm_x86_64_disk2.qcow2 freebsd # qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw lnvgy_sw_xc1_7909-uat_kvm_x86_64_disk1.qcow2 disk0.img freebsd # qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw lnvgy_sw_xc1_7909-uat_kvm_x86_64_disk2.qcow2 disk1.img freebsd # ls -l /vm/lxco total 13534815 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 257699151872 Aug 28 21:27 disk0.img -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 536870912000 Aug 28 21:25 disk1.img -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 16380461056 Jul 16 13:58 lnvgy_sw_xc1_7909-uat_kvm_x86_64_disk1.qcow2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 204608 Jul 16 13:58 lnvgy_sw_xc1_7909-uat_kvm_x86_64_disk2.qcow2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 213 Aug 28 21:18 lxco.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 66 Aug 28 21:18 vm-bhyve.log freebsd # ls -lh /vm/lxco total 13534815 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 240G Aug 28 21:27 disk0.img -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 500G Aug 28 21:25 disk1.img -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 15G Jul 16 13:58 lnvgy_sw_xc1_7909-uat_kvm_x86_64_disk1.qcow2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 200K Jul 16 13:58 lnvgy_sw_xc1_7909-uat_kvm_x86_64_disk2.qcow2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 213B Aug 28 21:18 lxco.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 66B Aug 28 21:18 vm-bhyve.log
I believe at least some things could have change β so lets have a look inside π
freebsd # mdconfig.sh -c disk0.img IN: created vnode at /dev/md0 freebsd # lsblk md0 DEVICE MAJ:MIN SIZE TYPE LABEL MOUNT md0 1:182 240G MBR - - -:- 993K - - - md0s1 1:183 2G linux-data gpt/linux-data - md0s2 1:184 20G linux-data gpt/linux-data - md0s3 1:206 20G linux-data gpt/linux-data - md0s4 2:7 198G EBR gpt/ebr - md0s4+00000001 2:9 99G linux-data - - md0s4+03295525 2:11 99G linux-data - - -:- 62K - - - freebsd # lklfuse -o type=ext4 /dev/md0s1 /mnt/tmp freebsd # ls -l /mnt/tmp total 16400 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 16749568 Oct 9 2025 bzImage drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 4096 Oct 9 2025 grub drwx------ 2 root wheel 16384 Oct 9 2025 lost+found freebsd # ls -l /mnt/tmp/grub total 16 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 129 Oct 9 2025 grub.cfg drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 12288 Oct 9 2025 i386-pc freebsd # cat /mnt/tmp/grub/grub.cfg set timeout=10 menuentry 'XClarity Portal' { linux /bzImage root=PARTUUID=f869306a-02 rw net.ifnames=0 loglevel=4 console=tty1 }
So β¦ no more initrd and different linux line β¦ not much. This is how the new vm-bhyve config looks like.
freebsd # cat /vm/lxco/lxco.conf
loader="grub"
grub_run_dir="/grub"
grub_run_partition="msdos1"
grub_run0="linux /bzImage root=PARTUUID=f869306a-02 rw net.ifnames=0 loglevel=4 console=tty1"
cpu=8
memory=16G
network0_type="e1000"
network0_switch="public"
network0_mac="58:9c:fc:0a:cf:eb"
network1_type="e1000"
network1_switch="public"
network1_mac="58:9c:fc:03:25:d7"
disk0_type="virtio-blk"
disk0_name="disk0.img"
disk1_type="virtio-blk"
disk1_name="disk1.img"
uuid="d2eb04ed-1884-45c8-987f-f5df7e412664"
Lets start this thing.
freebsd # vm start lxco
freebsd # vm console lxco
Seems to boot without errors β this is what is visible on the console.
(...)
Welcome to XClarity One Portal 26p.2.0-7909
VM Information:
---------------
- IPv4:
- Netmask: 0.0.0.0
- Gateway:
- Internal CNI: 192.168.255.0/25
- UUID: 89705D12214F40249DB75E00D2D1C522
System Information:
-------------------
- CPU # Cores: 8
- CPU Utilization: 28.83 %
- Memory Utilization: 2.31 % (370 MB of 15999 MB)
- Storage Utilization: 47.25 % (113.41 GB of 240 GB)
xc1p login:
Welcome to XClarity One Portal 26p.2.0-7909
VM Information:
---------------
- IPv4: 10.1.1.36
- Netmask: 255.255.255.0
- Gateway: 10.1.1.1
- Internal CNI: 192.168.255.0/25
- UUID: 89705D12214F40249DB75E00D2D1C522
System Information:
-------------------
- CPU # Cores: 8
- CPU Utilization: 18.96 %
- Memory Utilization: 6.77 % (1083 MB of 15999 MB)
- Storage Utilization: 47.25 % (113.41 GB of 240 GB)
xc1p login:
It generally βrefreshesβ or just βaddsβ new CPU/RAM/β¦ status once in a while. This is how it looks like in the web browser (after accepting self signed certificate warning). As You see it takes a while for it to pick up the DHCP IP address.
Seems to work β¦ till next time.
EOF