Index: release/Makefile.vm
===================================================================
--- release/Makefile.vm
+++ release/Makefile.vm
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 
 VMTARGETS=	vm-image
 VMFORMATS?=	vhd vmdk qcow2 raw
+VMFS?=		ufs
 VMSIZE?=	4096m
 SWAPSIZE?=	1g
 VMBASE?=	vm
@@ -86,7 +87,7 @@
 	env TARGET=${TARGET} TARGET_ARCH=${TARGET_ARCH} SWAPSIZE=${SWAPSIZE} \
 		QEMUSTATIC=${QEMUSTATIC} \
 		${.CURDIR}/scripts/mk-vmimage.sh \
-		-C ${.CURDIR}/tools/vmimage.subr -d ${.OBJDIR}/${.TARGET} \
+		-C ${.CURDIR}/tools/vmimage.subr -d ${.OBJDIR}/${.TARGET} -F ${VMFS} \
 		-i ${.OBJDIR}/${_CW:tl}.img -s ${VMSIZE} -f ${${_CW:tu}_FORMAT} \
 		-S ${WORLDDIR} -o ${.OBJDIR}/${${_CW:tu}IMAGE} -c ${${_CW:tu}CONF}
 	touch ${.TARGET}
@@ -120,7 +121,7 @@
 	mkdir -p ${.OBJDIR}/${.TARGET}
 	env TARGET=${TARGET} TARGET_ARCH=${TARGET_ARCH} SWAPSIZE=${SWAPSIZE} \
 		${.CURDIR}/scripts/mk-vmimage.sh \
-		-C ${.CURDIR}/tools/vmimage.subr -d ${.OBJDIR}/${.TARGET} \
+		-C ${.CURDIR}/tools/vmimage.subr -d ${.OBJDIR}/${.TARGET} -F ${VMFS} \
 		-i ${.OBJDIR}/${FORMAT}.img -s ${VMSIZE} -f ${FORMAT} \
 		-S ${WORLDDIR} -o ${.OBJDIR}/${VMBASE}.${FORMAT}
 . endfor
Index: release/scripts/mk-vmimage.sh
===================================================================
--- release/scripts/mk-vmimage.sh
+++ release/scripts/mk-vmimage.sh
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
 main() {
 	local arg
 	VMCONFIG="/dev/null"
-	while getopts "C:c:d:f:i:o:s:S:" arg; do
+	while getopts "C:c:d:F:f:i:o:s:S:" arg; do
 		case "${arg}" in
 			C)
 				VMBUILDCONF="${OPTARG}"
@@ -52,6 +52,9 @@
 			d)
 				DESTDIR="${OPTARG}"
 				;;
+			F)
+				VMFS="${OPTARG}"
+				;;
 			f)
 				VMFORMAT="${OPTARG}"
 				;;
@@ -77,7 +80,8 @@
 		-z "${WORLDDIR}" -o \
 		-z "${DESTDIR}" -o \
 		-z "${VMSIZE}" -o \
-		-z "${VMIMAGE}" ];
+		-z "${VMIMAGE}" -o \
+		-z "${VMFS}" ];
 	then
 		usage || exit 0
 	fi
Index: release/tools/ec2.conf
===================================================================
--- release/tools/ec2.conf
+++ release/tools/ec2.conf
@@ -21,11 +21,11 @@
 # Set to a list of third-party software to enable in rc.conf(5).
 export VM_RC_LIST="ec2_configinit ec2_fetchkey ec2_loghostkey firstboot_freebsd_update firstboot_pkgs ntpd dev_aws_disk"
 
-# Build with a 4.9 GB UFS partition; the growfs rc.d script will expand
+# Build with a 4.9 GB partition; the growfs rc.d script will expand
 # the partition to fill the root disk after the EC2 instance is launched.
 # Note that if this is set to <N>G, we will end up with an <N+1> GB disk
-# image since VMSIZE is the size of the UFS partition, not the disk which
-# it resides within.
+# image since VMSIZE is the size of the filesystem partition, not the disk
+# which it resides within.
 export VMSIZE=5000m
 
 # No swap space; the ec2_ephemeralswap rc.d script will allocate swap
Index: release/tools/vmimage.subr
===================================================================
--- release/tools/vmimage.subr
+++ release/tools/vmimage.subr
@@ -39,11 +39,47 @@
 }
 
 vm_create_base() {
-	# Creates the UFS root filesystem for the virtual machine disk,
-	# written to the formatted disk image with mkimg(1).
+	local tmppool
+
+	# Creates the root filesystem for the virtual machine disk,
+	# later written to the formatted disk image with mkimg(1).
 
 	mkdir -p ${DESTDIR}
 
+	if [ "${VMFS}" = zfs ]; then
+		tmppool=release.$(jot -r 1 1000000000)
+
+                rm -f ${VMBASE}
+		truncate -s ${VMSIZE} ${VMBASE}
+		ZFSMD=$(mdconfig -f ${VMBASE})
+
+		kldload -n zfs
+		zpool create -O compress=zstd -O atime=off -t $tmppool \
+			-R $DESTDIR zroot /dev/$ZFSMD
+
+		while read dataset opts; do
+			zfs create $opts ${tmppool}/$dataset
+		done <<__EOF__
+ROOT            -o mountpoint=none
+ROOT/default    -o mountpoint=/
+tmp             -o mountpoint=/tmp -o exec=on -o setuid=off
+usr             -o mountpoint=/usr -o canmount=off
+usr/home
+usr/ports       -o setuid=off
+usr/src
+usr/obj
+var             -o mountpoint=/var -o canmount=off
+var/audit       -o setuid=off -o exec=off
+var/crash       -o setuid=off -o exec=off
+var/log         -o setuid=off -o exec=off
+var/mail        -o atime=on
+var/tmp         -o setuid=off
+__EOF__
+
+		zpool set bootfs=${tmppool}/ROOT/default ${tmppool}
+		zpool set autoexpand=on ${tmppool}
+	fi
+
 	return 0
 }
 
@@ -70,8 +106,10 @@
 
 	echo '# Custom /etc/fstab for FreeBSD VM images' \
 		> ${DESTDIR}/etc/fstab
-	echo "/dev/${ROOTLABEL}/rootfs   /       ufs     rw      1       1" \
-		>> ${DESTDIR}/etc/fstab
+	if [ "${VMFS}" = ufs ]; then
+		echo "/dev/${ROOTLABEL}/rootfs   /       ufs     rw      1       1" \
+			>> ${DESTDIR}/etc/fstab
+	fi
 	if [ -z "${NOSWAP}" ]; then
 		echo '/dev/gpt/swapfs  none    swap    sw      0       0' \
 			>> ${DESTDIR}/etc/fstab
@@ -94,6 +132,11 @@
 
 	cp /etc/resolv.conf ${DESTDIR}/etc/resolv.conf
 
+        if [ "${VMFS}" = zfs ]; then
+		echo "kern.geom.label.disk_ident.enable=0" >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
+		echo "zfs_load=YES" >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
+        fi
+
 	return 0
 }
 
@@ -169,6 +212,21 @@
 	return 0
 }
 
+buildfs() {
+	local md tmppool
+
+	if [ "${VMFS}" = ufs ]; then
+		makefs ${MAKEFSARGS} -o label=rootfs -o version=2 -o softupdates=1 \
+			-s ${VMSIZE} ${VMBASE} ${DESTDIR}
+	else
+		tmppool=$(zpool list -H | awk '{if ($NF == "'${DESTDIR}'") print $1}')
+		md=$(mdconfig -lv | awk '{if ($NF == "'${VMBASE}'") print $1}')
+
+		zpool export $tmppool
+		mdconfig -d -u ${md#md}
+	fi
+}
+
 umount_loop() {
 	DIR=$1
 	i=0
@@ -188,6 +246,8 @@
 }
 
 vm_create_disk() {
+	local BOOTFILES BOOTPARTSOFFSET FSPARTTYPE GPTBOOTFILE
+
 	echo "Creating image...  Please wait."
 	echo
 
@@ -199,6 +259,13 @@
 		BOOTPARTSOFFSET=":${VM_BOOTPARTSOFFSET}"
 	fi
 
+	if [ "${VMFS}" = ufs ]; then
+		FSPARTTYPE=freebsd-ufs
+		GPTBOOTFILE=i386/gptboot/gptboot
+	else
+		FSPARTTYPE=freebsd-zfs
+		GPTBOOTFILE=i386/gptzfsboot/gptzfsboot
+	fi
 
 	BOOTFILES="$(env TARGET=${TARGET} TARGET_ARCH=${TARGET_ARCH} \
 		WITH_UNIFIED_OBJDIR=yes \
@@ -209,14 +276,14 @@
 		amd64:amd64 | i386:i386)
 			ESP=yes
 			BOOTPARTS="-b ${BOOTFILES}/i386/pmbr/pmbr \
-				   -p freebsd-boot/bootfs:=${BOOTFILES}/i386/gptboot/gptboot${BOOTPARTSOFFSET}"
-			ROOTFSPART="-p freebsd-ufs/rootfs:=${VMBASE}"
+				   -p freebsd-boot/bootfs:=${BOOTFILES}/${GPTBOOTFILE}${BOOTPARTSOFFSET}"
+			ROOTFSPART="-p ${FSPARTTYPE}/rootfs:=${VMBASE}"
 			MAKEFSARGS="-B little"
 			;;
 		arm64:aarch64 | riscv:riscv64*)
 			ESP=yes
 			BOOTPARTS=
-			ROOTFSPART="-p freebsd-ufs/rootfs:=${VMBASE}"
+			ROOTFSPART="-p ${FSPARTTYPE}/rootfs:=${VMBASE}"
 			MAKEFSARGS="-B little"
 			;;
 		powerpc:powerpc*)
@@ -248,8 +315,7 @@
 	fi
 
 	echo "Building filesystem...  Please wait."
-	makefs ${MAKEFSARGS} -o label=rootfs -o version=2 -o softupdates=1 \
-	    -s ${VMSIZE} ${VMBASE} ${DESTDIR}
+	buildfs
 
 	echo "Building final disk image...  Please wait."
 	mkimg -s ${PARTSCHEME} -f ${VMFORMAT} \