Deploying OpenBSD 6.3 on AWS

Here are the steps on deploying OpenBSD 6.3 on Amazon Web Service, I use it as SMTP/IMAP server, also it can be used as secure Jump Server.

Roadmap

  • Create a VM on VirtualBox (VBox) running OpenBSD 6.3
  • Prepare the OpenBSD VBox VM to be deployed on AWS
  • Upload the OpenBSD VBox VM to AWS as volume
  • Snapshot and create AMI from the uploaded volume

Steps

Create a VM on VirtualBox (VBox)

I use /vbox directory as backend storage for VBox disk images, so first I create disk image for OpenBSD:

$ vboxmanage createhd --format VHD --filename /vbox/openbsd/obsd-disk0 --size 8196
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Medium created. UUID: 75a6caa8-c6ea-4e36-9768-002944d846e7

Create the VBox VM:

$ vboxmanage createvm --name "openbsd-6.3" --ostype OpenBSD_64 --register
Virtual machine 'openbsd-6.3' is created and registered.
UUID: 2760b9d6-1c35-4783-9090-c0cb5f3b35f4
Settings file: '/home/te/VirtualBox VMs/openbsd-6.3/openbsd-6.3.vbox'

Create SATA controller and attach OpenBSD VM virtual disk to it:

$ vboxmanage storagectl openbsd-6.3 --name "SATA Controller" --add sata --controller IntelAHCI
$ vboxmanage storageattach openbsd-6.3 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium /vbox/openbsd/obsd-disk0.vdi

Create IDE controller and attach OpenBSD installation ISO to it:

$ vboxmanage storagectl openbsd-6.3 --name "IDE Controller" --add ide
$ vboxmanage storageattach openbsd-6.3 --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium /vbox/ISO/openbsd/6.3/amd64/install63.iso

Now set some configuration for the VM to work:

$ vboxmanage modifyvm openbsd-6.3 --ioapic on
$ vboxmanage modifyvm openbsd-6.3 --boot1 dvd --boot2 disk --boot3 none
$ vboxmanage modifyvm openbsd-6.3 --memory 768
$ vboxmanage modifyvm openbsd-6.3 --vram 128
$ vboxmanage modifyvm openbsd6.3 --cpus 2
$ vboxmanage modifyvm openbsd6.3 --uart1 0x3F8 4

Notes:

  • It’s important to set CPU count to 2 for the OpenBSD installer to install SMP kernel
  • It’s important to set COM1 (UART1) to be able to to view the console messages

Review:

$ vboxmanage showvminfo openbsd-6.3
Name: OpenBSD 6.3
Groups: /
Guest OS: OpenBSD (64-bit)
UUID: 2760b9d6-1c35-4783-9090-c0cb5f3b35f4
Config file: /home/te/VirtualBox VMs/openbsd-6.3/openbsd-6.3.vbox
Snapshot folder: /home/te/VirtualBox VMs/openbsd-6.3/Snapshots
Log folder: /home/te/VirtualBox VMs/openbsd-6.3/Logs
Hardware UUID: 2760b9d6-1c35-4783-9090-c0cb5f3b35f4
Memory size: 768MB
Page Fusion: off
VRAM size: 8MB
CPU exec cap: 100%
HPET: off
Chipset: piix3
Firmware: BIOS
Number of CPUs: 1
...
IOAPIC: on
BIOS APIC mode: APIC
Time offset: 0ms
RTC: local time
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Nested Paging: on
Large Pages: off
VT-x VPID: on
...
Storage Controller Name (0): SATA Controller
Storage Controller Type (0): IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0): 30
Storage Controller Port Count (0): 30
Storage Controller Bootable (0): on
Storage Controller Name (1): IDE Controller
Storage Controller Type (1): PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1): 2
Storage Controller Port Count (1): 2
Storage Controller Bootable (1): on
SATA Controller (0, 0): /vbox/openbsd/obsd-disk0.vdi (UUID: 75a6caa8-c6ea-4e36-9768-002944d846e7)
IDE Controller (0, 0): /vbox/ISO/openbsd/6.3/amd64/install63.iso (UUID: bef3fcaf-31c1-47e4-96bc-6596ce0dc07c)
NIC 1: MAC: 0800274874D9, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings: MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 2: disabled
...
Pointing Device: PS/2 Mouse
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1: I/O base: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4, disconnected
UART 2: disabled
UART 3: disabled
UART 4: disabled
LPT 1: disabled
LPT 2: disabled
...
...

Now start the VM and then follow OpenBSD installation

$ vboxmanage startvm openbsd6.3

Inside the OpenBSD VBox VM

create ec2-user and add to /etc/doas.conf to be able to use doas tool:

permit nopass keepenv ec2-user as root

Download the file ec2-init.sh from the below URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ajacoutot/aws-openbsd/master/ec2-init.sh

Install the ec2-init.sh it to the path /usr/local/libexec/ec2-init and set necessary ownership and permissions:

# chmod 0555 /usr/local/libexec/ec2-init
# chown root.bin /usr/local/libexec/ec2-init

In the file /etc/ttys replace line that reads:

#tty0 ...

With:

tty00 /usr/libexec/getty std.9600\" vt220 on secure

Add the following file to /etc/boot.conf:

stty com0 9600
set tty com0

Create the network configuration file /etc/hostname.xnf0 with mode 0640 that reads:

dhcp
!/usr/local/libexec/ec2-init

The /usr/local/libexec/ec2-init is a cloud-init help for OpenBSD responsible for passing instance information to AWS OpenBSD instance and  setting hostname, instance-id, SSH public key etc.

Disallow root and password login in SSH /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no

And finally do any necessary package installation and configuration in the OpenBSD VBox VM, this will be our default image for OpenBSD instances create in AWS.

Uploading OpenBSD image to AWS

I use Ubuntu 18.04 for my personal laptop, to upload the OpenBSD VBox disk image to AWS the following software is needed:

$ sudo apt install ec2-api-tools ec2-ami-tools

Then execute the following command to upload the image to AWS:

$ export AWS_KEY="YOUR_AWS_KEY"
$ export AWS_SEC="YOUR_AWS_KEY_SECRET"
$ ec2-import-volume --format vhd --volume-size 12 --region \
   us-east-1 --availability-zone us-east-1c \
   --bucket openbsd-tmp-folder --owner-akid $AWS_KEY \
   --owner-sak $AWS_SEC --aws-access-key $AWS_KEY \
   --aws-secret-key $AWS_SEC /vbox/openbsd/obsd-disk0.vhd

The “us-east-1” and “us-east-1c” is region and availability zone desired.

The above command upload the OpenBSD disk image in chucks to S3 bucket “openbsd-tmp-folder” and then convert them to AWS volume of size 12 GB. Conversion process can be monitored with the command:

$ ec2-describe-conversion-tasks --aws-access-key $AWS_KEY \
   --aws-secret-key $AWS_KEY

Then depending on preference, we can login to AWS console and create a snapshot from the OpenBSD volume and then chose to make an AMI from that snapshot or using the following command to create them:

$ ec2-create-snapshot \
   --aws-access-key $AWS_KEY" \
   --aws-secret-key $AWS_SEC \
   --region us-east-1 \
   <VOLUME-NAME>

$ ec2-register \
   --name "OpenBSD 6.3 AMI" \
   --aws-access-key $AWS_KEY \
   --aws-secret-key $AWS_SEC \
   --region us-east-1 \
   --architecture x86_64 \
   --root-device-name /dev/sda1 \
   --virtualization-type hvm \
   --snapshot <SNAPSHOT-NAME>

Then launch instance in AWS from that AMI and login with ec2-user keys, here is my OpenBSD dmesg:

ip-172-30-2-198$ dmesg
OpenBSD 6.3 (GENERIC.MP) #107: Sat Mar 24 14:21:59 MDT 2018
deraadt@amd64.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC.MP
real mem = 1056964608 (1008MB)
avail mem = 1017905152 (970MB)
mpath0 at root
scsibus0 at mpath0: 256 targets
mainbus0 at root
bios0 at mainbus0: SMBIOS rev. 2.7 @ 0xeb01f (11 entries)
bios0: vendor Xen version "4.2.amazon" date 08/24/2006
bios0: Xen HVM domU
acpi0 at bios0: rev 2
acpi0: sleep states S3 S4 S5
acpi0: tables DSDT FACP APIC HPET WAET SSDT SSDT
acpi0: wakeup devices
acpitimer0 at acpi0: 3579545 Hz, 32 bits
acpimadt0 at acpi0 addr 0xfee00000: PC-AT compat
ioapic0 at mainbus0: apid 1 pa 0xfec00000, version 11, 48 pins
, remapped to apid 1
cpu0 at mainbus0: apid 0 (boot processor)
cpu0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2676 v3 @ 2.40GHz, 2399.73 MHz
cpu0: FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,HTT,SSE3,PCLMUL,SSSE3,FMA3,CX16,PCID,SSE4.1,SSE4.2,MOVBE,POPCNT,DEADLINE,AES,XSAVE,AVX,F16C,RDRAND,HV,NXE,RDTSCP,LONG,LAHF,ABM,FSGSBASE,BMI1,AVX2,SMEP,BMI2,ERMS,INVPCID,MELTDOWN
cpu0: 256KB 64b/line 8-way L2 cache
cpu0: smt 0, core 0, package 0
mtrr: Pentium Pro MTRR support, 8 var ranges, 88 fixed ranges
cpu0: apic clock running at 100MHz
acpihpet0 at acpi0: 62500000 Hz
acpiprt0 at acpi0: bus 0 (PCI0)
acpicpu0 at acpi0: C1(@1 halt!)
"ACPI0007" at acpi0 not configured
pvbus0 at mainbus0: Xen 4.2
xen0 at pvbus0: features 0x705, 32 grant table frames, event channel 3
xbf0 at xen0 backend 0 channel 5: disk
scsibus1 at xbf0: 2 targets
sd0 at scsibus1 targ 0 lun 0: <Xen, phy hda 768, 0000> SCSI3 0/direct fixed
sd0: 12288MB, 512 bytes/sector, 25165824 sectors
xnf0 at xen0 backend 0 channel 6: address 0e:ac:b7:ee:8a:2a
"console" at xen0: device/console/0 not configured
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0 "Intel 82441FX" rev 0x02
pcib0 at pci0 dev 1 function 0 "Intel 82371SB ISA" rev 0x00
pciide0 at pci0 dev 1 function 1 "Intel 82371SB IDE" rev 0x00: DMA, channel 0 wired to compatibility, channel 1 wired to compatibility
pciide0: channel 0 disabled (no drives)
pciide0: channel 1 disabled (no drives)
piixpm0 at pci0 dev 1 function 3 "Intel 82371AB Power" rev 0x01: SMBus disabled
vga1 at pci0 dev 2 function 0 "Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446" rev 0x00
wsdisplay0 at vga1 mux 1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 1-5 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
xspd0 at pci0 dev 3 function 0 "XenSource Platform Device" rev 0x01
isa0 at pcib0
isadma0 at isa0
fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0/6 irq 6 drq 2
com0 at isa0 port 0x3f8/8 irq 4: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
com0: console
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5 irq 1 irq 12
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
pms0 at pckbc0 (aux slot)
wsmouse0 at pms0 mux 0
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
spkr0 at pcppi0
vscsi0 at root
scsibus2 at vscsi0: 256 targets
softraid0 at root
scsibus3 at softraid0: 256 targets
root on sd0a (02307a84259f2d52.a) swap on sd0b dump on sd0b
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: density unknown
fd1 at fdc0 drive 1: density unknown

References