Install iocage

iocage is a jail and container manager merging some of the best features and technologies from the FreeBSD operating system. It is geared for ease of use with simple command syntax. Visit the iocage github for more information.

Using binary packages

To install using binary packages on a FreeBSD system, run:

sudo pkg install py38-iocage

Using github

If installing from github, the FreeBSD source tree must be located at $SRC_BASE ( /usr/src by default).

To install from github, run these commands:

pkg install python38 git-lite py38-cython py38-libzfs py38-pip

git clone https://github.com/iocage/iocage

make install as root.

Tip

To install subsequent updates run: make install as root.

Using pkg(8)

It is possible to install pre-build packages using pkg(8) if using FreeBSD 10 or above.

To install using pkg(8), run:

sudo pkg install py38-iocage

Building Ports

iocage is in the FreeBSD ports tree as sysutils/py-iocage.

Build the ports: cd /usr/ports/sysutils/iocage/ ; make install clean

Upgrading from iocage_legacy

This repository replaces iocage_legacy . To upgrade to the current version:

  1. Stop the jails ( Service iocage stop; iocage stop ALL)

  2. Back up your data.

  3. Remove the old iocage package if it is installed ( pkg delete iocage)

  4. Install iocage using one of the methods above.

  5. Migrate the jails by running iocage list as root.

  6. Start the jails ( service iocage onestart).

Migrating from Ezjail to Iocage

Assumptions:

  • ezjail jails are located at /usr/jails

  • iocage jails are located at /iocage/jails

Create Target

Create an empty jail in iocage to act as the target for the migration. The release and networking information will be updated with information from ezjail.

iocage create -e -n NewJail

Copy Old Data

Before data can be copied, another symlink must be created in the root directory. Ezjail relies on symlinks to utlilize the basejail system, however when looking in an existing jail, it’s symlinked to the root.

% ls -ls /usr/jails/OldJail/bin
1 lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  13 Feb 22  2017 /usr/jails/OldJail/bin@ -> /basejail/bin

This would work fine from within a running jail, but on the host filesystem this link doesn’t currently exist. Because of this, create a symlink from the basejail to the root filesystem of the jail host.

ln -s /usr/jails/basejail /basejail

Now that the link exists, copy the data from the ezjail jail directory to the iocage jail directory.

rsync -a --copy-links /usr/jails/OldJail/ /iocage/jails/NewJail/root/

Populate iocage config.json

There are 2 main parts from ezjail that need to be copied into the iocage config:

  • release information

  • IP address

Release

The release info can be found in the old basejail files via the freebsd-update executable.

$ grep USERLAND_VERSION= /usr/jails/basejail/bin/freebsd-version
USERLAND_VERSION="11.1-RELEASE-p6"

This value goes into the “release” line of config.json

"release": "11.1-RELEASE-p6",

IP Address

The IP addresses used in an ezjail jail are found in /usr/local/etc/ezjail/OldJail

$ grep ip= /usr/local/etc/ezjail/OldJail
export jail_OldJail_ip="em0|192.168.1.10"

This goes into the “ip4_addr” line of config.json

"ip4_addr": "em0|192.168.1.10/24",

Remember to append the subnet mask when adding network info to the iocage config.

Start the New Jail

Make sure the old jail is shut down so there won’t be any IP conflicts.

ezjail-admin stop OldJail

Start the new jail with iocage

iocage start NewJail

(Optional) Update fstab

If there are other mounts in use in ezjail, these can be easily copied into iocage as well.

Ezjail fstab entries are located at /etc/fstab.OldJail on the host.

$ cat /etc/fstab.OldJail
/usr/jails/basejail /usr/jails/OldJail/basejail   nullfs   ro   0   0
/path/on/host /usr/jails/OldJail/path/in/jail   nullfs   rw   0   0

The basejail line isn’t needed in iocage if using the default jail type, but the remaining entries need to be updated.

Edit the fstab for the iocage jail and change the paths of the mountpoint.

$ cat /iocage/jails/NewJail/fstab
/path/on/host /iocage/jails/NewJail/root/path/in/jail   nullfs   rw   0   0