---
title: FreeBSD
url: https://docs.vultr.com/products/cloud-storage/block-storage/mount/freebsd
description: A Unix-like operating system known for its stability, security, and advanced networking capabilities, derived from BSD Unix.
publish_date: 2024-11-27T19:49:55.997180Z
last_updated: 2026-05-26T19:42:21.597385Z
---

# How to Mount Vultr Block Storage Volume on FreeBSD

Mounting Vultr Block Storage volume on FreeBSD provides flexible and scalable file storage for Vultr Cloud Compute instances. FreeBSD supports NVMe and VirtIO-based Vultr Block Storage volumes. VirtIO volumes appear as `vtbd` devices and NVMe volumes appear as `nda` devices. This guide uses VirtIO device names (`vtbd`) in all examples. If your instance uses NVMe-based Block Storage, replace all `vtbd` references with the corresponding `nda` device names throughout the steps below.

Follow this guide to mount Vultr Block Storage volume on FreeBSD.

> [!WARNING]
> The following commands may destroy data on existing volumes. Use a new Vultr Block Storage volume to avoid data loss due to file system changes and partitioning.

1. Attach [Vultr Block Storage volume](https://docs.vultr.com/products/cloud-storage/block-storage/management/attach-instances) to FreeBSD.
1. List all VirtIO Block Devices (`vtbd`) attached to FreeBSD.

    ```console
    $ ls -al /dev/vtbd*
    ```

    Output:

    ```
    crw-r-----  1 root operator 0x58 Oct 29 14:17 /dev/vtbd0
    crw-r-----  1 root operator 0x59 Oct 29 14:17 /dev/vtbd0p1
    crw-r-----  1 root operator 0x5a Oct 29 14:17 /dev/vtbd0p2
    crw-r-----  1 root operator 0x65 Oct 29 14:30 /dev/vtbd1
    ```

    The Vultr Block Storage volume attaches as `/vtbd1` based on the above output. The first Vultr Block Storage volume attaches to FreeBSD as `/dev/vtbd1` and additional volume disk names increment in numeric order, such as `/dev/vtbd2` and `/dev/vtbd3`.

1. View all active partitions and verify the root filesystem disk name.

    ```console
    $ gpart show
    ```

    Output:

    ```
    =>      40  52428720  vtbd0  GPT  (25G)
            40      1024      1  freebsd-boot  (512K)
          1064  52427696      2  freebsd-ufs  (25G)
    ```

    `vtbd0` is the root filesystem disk with two active storage partitions based on the above output.

1. Create a new GPT partition table for the `vtbd1` Vultr Block Storage volume.

    ```console
    $ sudo gpart create -s GPT vtbd1
    ```

    Output:

    ```
    vtbd1 created
    ```

1. Create a new partition with the `UFS2` partition and a label such as `vultr_block_storage`.

    ```console
    $ sudo gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l vultr\\_block\\_storage vtbd1
    ```

    Output:

    ```
    vtbd1p1 added
    ```

1. Initialize the `UFS2` filesystem on the new Vultr Block Storage volume partition.

    ```console
    $ sudo newfs -U vtbd1p1
    ```

    Output:

    ```
    /dev/vtbd1p1: 40960.0MB (83886000 sectors) block size 32768, fragment size 4096
            using 66 cylinder groups of 625.22MB, 20007 blks, 80128 inodes.
            with soft updates
    super-block backups (for fsck_ffs -b #) at:
     192, 1280640, 2561088, 3841536, 5121984, 6402432, 7682880, 8963328, 10243776, 11524224,
     12804672, 14085120, 15365568, 16646016, 17926464, 19206912, 20487360, 21767808, 23048256,
     24328704, 25609152, 26889600, 28170048, 29450496, 30730944, 32011392, 33291840, 34572288,
     35852736, 37133184, 38413632, 39694080, 40974528, 42254976, 43535424, 44815872, 46096320,
     47376768, 48657216, 49937664, 51218112, 524985
    ```

1. Create a new mount point directory for the Vultr Block Storage volume partition.

    ```console
    $ sudo mkdir /mnt/blockstorage
    ```

1. Mount the Vultr Block Storage volume partition.

    ```console
    $ sudo mount -t ufs /dev/vtbd1p1 /mnt/blockstorage
    ```

1. View all active partitions to verify the new partition is available.

    ```console
    $ sudo gpart show
    ```

    Output:

    ```
    =>      40  52428720  vtbd0  GPT  (25G)
            40      1024      1  freebsd-boot  (512K)
          1064  52427696      2  freebsd-ufs  (25G)

    =>      40  83886000  vtbd1  GPT  (40G)
            40  83886000      1  freebsd-ufs  (40G)
    ```

    The `vtbd1` Vultr Block Storage volume partition is active on FreeBSD based on the above output.

1. List the Vultr Block Storage volume partition information and note the `rawuuid` value in the command output.

    ```console
    $ gpart list /dev/vtbd1
    ```

    Output:

    ```
    Geom name: vtbd1
    modified: false
    state: OK
    fwheads: 16
    fwsectors: 63
    last: 83886039
    first: 40
    entries: 128
    scheme: GPT
    Providers:
    1. Name: vtbd1p1
       Mediasize: 42949632000 (40G)
       Sectorsize: 512
       Stripesize: 0
       Stripeoffset: 20480
       Mode: r1w1e1
       efimedia: HD(1,GPT,e805ef8b-9618-11ef-bc70-315e9870b088,0x28,0x4ffffb0)
       rawuuid: e805ef8b-9618-11ef-bc70-315e9870b088
       rawtype: 516e7cb6-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b
       label: vultr\_block\_storage
       length: 42949632000
       offset: 20480
       type: freebsd-ufs
       index: 1
       end: 83886039
       start: 40
    ..........
    ```

    `e805ef8b-9618-11ef-bc70-315e9870b088` is the Vultr Block Storage volume partition UUID based on the above output. You can use the UUID value to mount the Vultr Block Storage volume partition when FreeBSD restarts.

1. Add a new entry to `/etc/fstab` to automatically mount the Vultr Block Storage volume partition at boot. Replace `UUID-VALUE` with the actual Vultr Block Storage volume UUID.

    ```console
    $ echo "" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
    $ echo "/dev/gptid/UUID-VALUE /mnt/blockstorage ufs rw 0 0" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
    ```

1. View the Vultr Block Storage volume usage.

    ```console
    $ df -h /mnt/blockstorage
    ```

    Output:

    ```
    Filesystem      Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
    /dev/vtbd1p1     39G    8.0K     36G     0%    /mnt/blockstorage
    ```