Where is the OVA…?
-
jdijulio raises a good point. We use ova's to make deployment easy. I too am curious about the status of the ova installs.
If pfsense will no longer be built in ova format going forward, that would be a slight inconvenience but nothing serious. -
The existing OVA was not very useful as it was, and we are going to make some changes and offer it in a different way in the future (e.g. via the VMware appliance marketplace).
Installing from CD to a custom VM disk is generally better for most people, and the OVA was a convenience that had a ton of backend complexity that breaks easily.
The builder code is still capable of producing OVAs, but we aren't providing them as a standard release image any longer.
Eventually we'll put out some better notes on the change, but it wasn't something that impacted a lot of people and there is a very simple alternative in either installing from ISO and perhaps making your own VM and exporting that for your own internal use.
Eventually we're looking to make, directly or indirectly via customer agreements, images not just for VMware but also things like KVM, EC2, and so on.
-
The existing OVA was not very useful as it was, and we are going to make some changes and offer it in a different way in the future (e.g. via the VMware appliance marketplace).
Installing from CD to a custom VM disk is generally better for most people, and the OVA was a convenience that had a ton of backend complexity that breaks easily.
The builder code is still capable of producing OVAs, but we aren't providing them as a standard release image any longer.
Eventually we'll put out some better notes on the change, but it wasn't something that impacted a lot of people and there is a very simple alternative in either installing from ISO and perhaps making your own VM and exporting that for your own internal use.
Eventually we're looking to make, directly or indirectly via customer agreements, images not just for VMware but also things like KVM, EC2, and so on.
Jimp,
Thanks - That's more along the lines of what I was looking for.
Cool to hear that you guys are considering putting something into the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace down the road.
Is that on a roadmap (i.e., like with 2.2 maybe?) or is it somewhere out there with no target defined yet?
Also, just wanted to say that I appreciate all the hard work you and the other devs put into the project!
-
"and there is a very simple alternative in either installing from ISO and perhaps making your own VM and exporting that for your own internal use."
I'd say that should be the primary way its done.
-
meanwhile, the OVA genius people in your team would want to add a feature or an option for the user to define as to how much the "actual size?" might be, during the installation. As per my experience, I have used OVA since I learned virtualization, and my problem is always the "actual size" that never grows, even if you'll select the "Dynamic" in the VirtualBox installation.
I must agree, ova is the easiest deployment in time of "need" arise. But when installing it via VB, it only presents an option to fill how much virtual disk you need, but it never presents the "actual size"
So I ended up installing via livecd ISO file.
It's just my option though.
-
Now - There is someone who is actually leaning from experiences.
-
Every forum has them…
Another possibility:
If you search for pfSense on the Virtual Marketplace, it comes back to Netgate, who is selling the virtual template for $900. Maybe the freebie version was cutting into their sales... -
There's a very simple way of converting the NanoBSD image file into a virtual disk file.
All you have to do is create a new VM and use it with the converted image as the existing disk. Works perfectly. -
Thats a good tip Robi, thanks! Maybe worth adding to the esxi section on the wiki?
-
Every forum has them…
Another possibility:
If you search for pfSense on the Virtual Marketplace, it comes back to Netgate, who is selling the virtual template for $900. Maybe the freebie version was cutting into their sales...It's supported, too.
