Attn: CI/Jenkins people; Run bhyve instance for testing pf

[Panagiotes Mousikides]

Hello everybody!

I am working on adding tests to the FreeBSD test suite for testing pf, 
the network packet filter.

These tests need at least two machines running and connected to each 
other, with one machine generating network traffic and the other running 
pf and filtering the traffic.  I am looking for a way to fire off a 
bhyve instance to serve as the second machine, the first being the 
actual machine I am running the tests on. This should be done completely 
automatically, with scripts to configure all network interfaces and to 
preferably also set up an SSH server on the bhyve instance.

This bhyve instance could start off as running the latest stable version 
of FreeBSD, or it could be configured to run a snapshot of the 
development tree.  The aim is to have the desired version of FreeBSD 
that we want to test running on it.  Ideally this would be done in such 
a way that we can reuse the machine for further tests, instead of 
rebuilding everything from scratch for each test.

What I am looking for is the best way to do this, preferably so that it 
can be easily integrated into the CI work being done at Jenkins.  What 
do you think?  Any input is welcome!

All the best,
Panagiotes