🌅 OpenIndiana Up#

A simple, powerful CLI tool to spin up OpenIndiana virtual machines with QEMU

Preview

✨ Features#

🚀 Quick Start - Launch OpenIndiana VMs with a single command
📦 Auto-Download - Automatically downloads ISO images from official sources
🎯 Version Support - Specify exact OpenIndiana versions or use the latest default
💾 Persistent Storage - Attach virtual disk drives for data persistence
⚡ KVM Acceleration - Native hardware acceleration for better performance
🌐 SSH Ready - Pre-configured port forwarding (host:2222 → guest:22)
🎛️ Customizable - Configure CPU, memory, cores, and disk options
📥 Smart Caching - Skips re-downloading existing ISO files
🎮 VM Management - Start, stop, list, and inspect virtual machines
📊 State Persistence - SQLite database tracks VM state and configuration
🏷️ Auto-naming - Generates unique names for VMs automatically
🌉 Bridge Networking - Support for bridge networking with custom network interfaces
🆔 MAC Address Management - Automatic MAC address generation for network devices

📋 Requirements#

Deno runtime
QEMU with KVM support
Linux host with KVM enabled

🛠️ Installation#

Run the following command to install the CLI:

deno install -A -g -r -f --config deno.json ./main.ts -n openindiana-up

🚀 Quick Start#

# Use default OpenIndiana version (20251026)
openindiana-up

# Specify a version
openindiana-up 20251026

# Use a local ISO file
openindiana-up /path/to/openindiana.iso

# Download from a custom URL
openindiana-up https://dlc.openindiana.org/isos/hipster/20251026/OI-hipster-text-20251026.iso

🎮 Usage#

openindiana-up [path-or-url-to-iso-or-version] [options]

Options#

Option	Description	Default
`-o, --output <path>`	Output path for downloaded ISO	ISO filename
`-c, --cpu <type>`	CPU type to emulate	`host`
`-C, --cpus <number>`	Number of CPU cores	`2`
`-m, --memory <size>`	RAM allocation	`2G`
`-i, --image <path>`	Path to virtual disk image	None
`--disk-format <format>`	Disk format (qcow2, raw, etc.)	`raw`
`--size <size>`	Size of the VM disk image to create if it does not exist	`20G`
`-b, --bridge <name>`	Name of the network bridge to use for networking (e.g., br0)	None

VM Management Commands#

Command	Description
`openindiana-up ps`	List all running virtual machines
`openindiana-up ps --all`	List all virtual machines (including stopped)
`openindiana-up start <vm-name>`	Start a stopped virtual machine
`openindiana-up stop <vm-name>`	Stop a running virtual machine
`openindiana-up inspect <vm-name>`	Inspect virtual machine configuration

💡 Examples#

Basic VM with defaults#

openindiana-up

VM with custom resources#

openindiana-up -C 4 -m 4G

VM with persistent storage#

# Create a disk image first
qemu-img create -f qcow2 openindiana-disk.qcow2 20G

# Launch with the disk attached
openindiana-up -d openindiana-disk.qcow2 --disk-format qcow2

Download to specific location#

openindiana-up -o ~/isos/openindiana.iso

VM Management Examples#

# List all running VMs
openindiana-up ps

# List all VMs (including stopped ones)
openindiana-up ps --all

# Start a specific VM
openindiana-up start my-vm-name

# Stop a running VM
openindiana-up stop my-vm-name

# Inspect VM configuration
openindiana-up inspect my-vm-name

Bridge Networking#

# Use bridge networking (requires bridge setup)
openindiana-up --bridge br0

Automatic Disk Creation#

# Automatically create a 50GB disk if it doesn't exist
openindiana-up --image my-disk.qcow2 --disk-format qcow2 --size 50G

🖥️ Console Setup#

When OpenIndiana boots, you'll see the boot menu. For the best experience with the serial console:

Select option 3. Escape to loader prompt

Configure console output:

set console=ttya
set osconsole=ttya
set ttya-mode=115200,8,n,1,-
boot

This enables proper console redirection to your terminal.

⚙️ VM Configuration#

The script creates a VM with the following default specifications:

CPU: Host CPU with KVM acceleration (configurable with --cpu)
Memory: 2GB RAM (configurable with --memory)
Cores: 2 virtual CPUs (configurable with --cpus)
Storage: ISO-only by default; optional persistent disk (configurable with --image)
Network: User mode networking with SSH forwarding
Console: Enhanced serial console via stdio with proper signal handling
Default Version: OpenIndiana 20251026 (when no arguments provided)

Available CPU Types#

Common CPU types you can specify with --cpu:

host (default) - Use host CPU features for best performance
qemu64 - Generic 64-bit CPU for maximum compatibility
Broadwell - Intel Broadwell CPU
Skylake-Client - Intel Skylake CPU
max - Enable all supported CPU features

Available Disk Formats#

Common disk formats you can specify with --disk-format:

raw (default) - Raw disk image format for maximum compatibility
qcow2 - QEMU Copy On Write format with compression and snapshots
vmdk - VMware disk format
vdi - VirtualBox disk format

🔌 SSH Access#

The VM is configured with port forwarding for SSH access:

# After OpenIndiana is installed and SSH is configured
ssh -p 2222 user@localhost

📝 Notes#

The script uses text-based installer ISOs for better headless compatibility
Downloaded ISOs are cached and won't be re-downloaded if they exist
KVM acceleration requires /dev/kvm access on your host system
Serial console is connected to stdio for direct interaction
VM state is automatically persisted in a SQLite database at ~/.openindiana-up/state.sqlite
Each VM gets a unique randomly generated name using the Moniker library
MAC addresses are automatically generated for network devices
Bridge networking requires proper bridge configuration and may need sudo privileges
VMs can be managed independently with start/stop/inspect commands

📜 License#

See LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Contributing#

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome!

Made with ☀️ for OpenIndiana enthusiasts

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