For years, the FreeBSD ecosystem has had powerful tools for virtualization and containers, but always with the same caveat: great under the hood, limited at the surface. Panels like BVCP or ClonOS, and frameworks such as CBSD, brought functionality but fell short in terms of modern user experience, clustering, and the intuitive workflows that end-users expect today.
That gap is precisely what Sylve is aiming to close — and according to early testers, it may well be the breakthrough FreeBSD needed to stand alongside Proxmox and other polished Linux virtualization platforms.
What Is Sylve?
Sylve is a modern web-based management layer for FreeBSD, designed to simplify virtualization and containerization while preserving the platform’s strengths. Its core stack includes:
- bhyve for full virtualization (VMs).
- FreeBSD Jails for lightweight containerization.
- ZFS for advanced storage management.
- Go (backend) and SvelteKit (frontend) for a modern, responsive interface.
The result is a tool that feels instantly familiar to anyone who has used Proxmox VE, but built natively for FreeBSD.
First Impressions: Clustering That Just Works
One of Sylve’s standout features is native cluster management. Setting up a three-node cluster on FreeBSD 14.3 took minutes — without hacks, external orchestration layers, or half-finished integrations.
Unlike Proxmox, which relies on Corosync, Sylve uses HashiCorp’s RAFT library for node communication. Cluster state is replicated and stored via lightweight SQLite databases on each node. The result: a multi-master design that’s robust yet simple to operate.
Limitations still exist — no live migration for bhyve VMs or Jails at this stage — but cold migrations are on the roadmap. Even so, having fully functional clustering at this stage is a significant milestone, given how fragmented previous FreeBSD solutions were.
Installation and Requirements
Sylve is still under active development and not yet available as a prebuilt package. Installation requires compiling from source.
Build requirements:
- Go >= 1.24
- Node.js v20+
- NPM v10+
Runtime dependencies:smartmontools, tmux, bhyve-firmware, samba419, libvirt, jansson
Enable supporting services in /etc/rc.conf (e.g. zfs_enable, libvirtd_enable, samba_server_enable) and turn on RACCT/RCTL for resource control before compiling Sylve from GitHub:
git clone https://github.com/AlchemillaHQ/Sylve.git
cd Sylve
make
Code language: PHP (php)Once built, Sylve’s web UI is available via HTTPS on port 8181. Default credentials (admin/admin) can be changed in the config.json.
Features and Roadmap
Already Available
- Cluster management with RAFT
- ZFS integration (storage pools, datasets, snapshots)
- Samba/CIFS sharing for datasets
- Node-scoped ISO and Jail base management
- A fast, Proxmox-like web UI built with SvelteKit
On the Roadmap
- iSCSI implementation
- Integrated firewall
- WireGuard for networking
- DHCP server (dnsmasq)
- Backup integration (Zelta)
- Support for bonding/switch types
- Multi-Sylve federation
These additions would move Sylve from “promising” to “production-ready,” closing long-standing gaps in FreeBSD virtualization tooling.
Why It Matters for FreeBSD
If FreeBSD wants to compete for enterprise adoption and grow in homelabs, user-friendly virtualization management is essential.
Linux has long dominated this space thanks to polished interfaces like Proxmox VE, oVirt, and commercial platforms like VMware vSphere. FreeBSD, despite its strengths in performance, ZFS, and security, has lagged due to tooling that felt outdated or fragmented.
Sylve may finally change that equation by delivering a modern, cluster-aware, ZFS-native virtualization manager that lowers the barrier for adoption without sacrificing the robustness of FreeBSD.
Conclusion
Even as a work in progress, Sylve feels like a turning point. It’s the first FreeBSD virtualization manager that looks modern, works reliably, and offers cluster management out of the box. For sysadmins frustrated with VMware’s licensing turmoil or looking for a Proxmox-style alternative outside Linux, Sylve could become the answer.
As the roadmap fills out with iSCSI, WireGuard, and backup integration, Sylve has the potential to position FreeBSD not just as a server OS for experts, but as a viable, attractive alternative for modern virtualization and storage stacks.
For anyone curious, you can follow development here:
👉 GitHub: AlchemillaHQ/Sylve
