diff --git a/release/Makefile.vm b/release/Makefile.vm
--- a/release/Makefile.vm
+++ b/release/Makefile.vm
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 VMTARGETS=	vm-image
 VMFORMATS?=	vhd vmdk qcow2 raw
 VMSIZE?=	5120m
+VMFS?=		ufs
 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}.${FORMAT}
 . endfor
diff --git a/release/scripts/mk-vmimage.sh b/release/scripts/mk-vmimage.sh
--- a/release/scripts/mk-vmimage.sh
+++ b/release/scripts/mk-vmimage.sh
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
 main() {
 	local arg
 	VMCONFIG="/dev/null"
-	while getopts "C:c:d:f:i:o:s:S:" arg; do
+	while getopts "C:c:d:F:f:i:o:s:S:" arg; do
 		case "${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
diff --git a/release/tools/ec2.conf b/release/tools/ec2.conf
--- a/release/tools/ec2.conf
+++ b/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 ec2_ephemeral_swap"
 
-# 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
diff --git a/release/tools/vmimage.subr b/release/tools/vmimage.subr
--- a/release/tools/vmimage.subr
+++ b/release/tools/vmimage.subr
@@ -39,8 +39,6 @@
 }
 
 vm_create_base() {
-	# Creates the UFS root filesystem for the virtual machine disk,
-	# written to the formatted disk image with mkimg(1).
 
 	mkdir -p ${DESTDIR}
 
@@ -70,8 +68,10 @@
 
 	echo '# Custom /etc/fstab for FreeBSD VM images' \
 		> ${DESTDIR}/etc/fstab
-	echo "/dev/${ROOTLABEL}/rootfs   /       ufs     rw      1       1" \
-		>> ${DESTDIR}/etc/fstab
+	if [ "${VMFS}" != zfs ]; then
+		echo "/dev/${ROOTLABEL}/rootfs   /       ${VMFS}   rw      1       1" \
+			>> ${DESTDIR}/etc/fstab
+	fi
 	if [ -z "${NOSWAP}" ]; then
 		echo '/dev/gpt/swapfs  none    swap    sw      0       0' \
 			>> ${DESTDIR}/etc/fstab
@@ -80,6 +80,10 @@
 	local hostname
 	hostname="$(echo $(uname -o) | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')"
 	echo "hostname=\"${hostname}\"" >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
+	if [ "${VMFS}" = zfs ]; then
+		echo "zfs_enable=\"YES\"" >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
+		echo "zpool_reguid=\"zroot\"" >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
+	fi
 
 	if ! [ -z "${QEMUSTATIC}" ]; then
 		export EMULATOR=/qemu
@@ -94,6 +98,11 @@
 
 	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 +178,40 @@
 	return 0
 }
 
+buildfs() {
+	local md tmppool
+
+	case "${VMFS}" in
+	ufs)
+		makefs ${MAKEFSARGS} -o label=rootfs -o version=2 -o softupdates=1 \
+			${VMBASE} ${DESTDIR}
+		;;
+	zfs)
+		makefs -t zfs ${MAKEFSARGS} \
+			-o poolname=zroot -o bootfs=zroot/ROOT/default -o rootpath=/ \
+			-o fs=zroot\;mountpoint=none \
+			-o fs=zroot/ROOT\;mountpoint=none \
+			-o fs=zroot/ROOT/default\;mountpoint=/ \
+			-o fs=zroot/tmp\;mountpoint=/tmp\;exec=on\;setuid=off \
+			-o fs=zroot/usr\;mountpoint=/usr\;canmount=off \
+			-o fs=zroot/usr/home \
+			-o fs=zroot/usr/ports\;setuid=off \
+			-o fs=zroot/usr/src \
+			-o fs=zroot/usr/obj \
+			-o fs=zroot/var\;mountpoint=/var\;canmount=off \
+			-o fs=zroot/var/audit\;setuid=off\;exec=off \
+			-o fs=zroot/var/log\;setuid=off\;exec=off \
+			-o fs=zroot/var/mail\;atime=on \
+			-o fs=zroot/var/tmp\;setuid=off \
+			${VMBASE} ${DESTDIR}
+		;;
+	*)
+		echo "Unexpected VMFS value '${VMFS}'"
+		exit 1
+		;;
+	esac
+}
+
 umount_loop() {
 	DIR=$1
 	i=0
@@ -188,8 +231,7 @@
 }
 
 vm_create_disk() {
-	echo "Creating image...  Please wait."
-	echo
+	local BOOTFILES BOOTPARTSOFFSET FSPARTTYPE X86GPTBOOTFILE
 
 	if [ -z "${NOSWAP}" ]; then
 		SWAPOPT="-p freebsd-swap/swapfs::${SWAPSIZE}"
@@ -199,34 +241,52 @@
 		BOOTPARTSOFFSET=":${VM_BOOTPARTSOFFSET}"
 	fi
 
+	case "${VMFS}" in
+	ufs)
+		FSPARTTYPE=freebsd-ufs
+		X86GPTBOOTFILE=i386/gptboot/gptboot
+		;;
+	zfs)
+		FSPARTTYPE=freebsd-zfs
+		X86GPTBOOTFILE=i386/gptzfsboot/gptzfsboot
+		;;
+	*)
+		echo "Unexpected VMFS value '${VMFS}'"
+		return 1
+		;;
+	esac
+
+	echo "Creating image...  Please wait."
+	echo
 
 	BOOTFILES="$(env TARGET=${TARGET} TARGET_ARCH=${TARGET_ARCH} \
 		WITH_UNIFIED_OBJDIR=yes \
 		make -C ${WORLDDIR}/stand -V .OBJDIR)"
 	BOOTFILES="$(realpath ${BOOTFILES})"
+	MAKEFSARGS="-s ${VMSIZE}"
 
 	case "${TARGET}:${TARGET_ARCH}" in
 		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}"
-			MAKEFSARGS="-B little"
+				   -p freebsd-boot/bootfs:=${BOOTFILES}/${X86GPTBOOTFILE}${BOOTPARTSOFFSET}"
+			ROOTFSPART="-p ${FSPARTTYPE}/rootfs:=${VMBASE}"
+			MAKEFSARGS="$MAKEFSARGS -B little"
 			;;
 		arm64:aarch64 | riscv:riscv64*)
 			ESP=yes
 			BOOTPARTS=
-			ROOTFSPART="-p freebsd-ufs/rootfs:=${VMBASE}"
-			MAKEFSARGS="-B little"
+			ROOTFSPART="-p ${FSPARTTYPE}/rootfs:=${VMBASE}"
+			MAKEFSARGS="$MAKEFSARGS -B little"
 			;;
 		powerpc:powerpc*)
 			ESP=no
 			BOOTPARTS="-p prepboot:=${BOOTFILES}/powerpc/boot1.chrp/boot1.elf -a 1"
 			ROOTFSPART="-p freebsd:=${VMBASE}"
 			if [ ${TARGET_ARCH} = powerpc64le ]; then
-				MAKEFSARGS="-B little"
+				MAKEFSARGS="$MAKEFSARGS -B little"
 			else
-				MAKEFSARGS="-B big"
+				MAKEFSARGS="$MAKEFSARGS -B big"
 			fi
 			;;
 		*)
@@ -248,8 +308,7 @@
 	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} \
diff --git a/share/man/man7/release.7 b/share/man/man7/release.7
--- a/share/man/man7/release.7
+++ b/share/man/man7/release.7
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 .\"
 .\" $FreeBSD$
 .\"
-.Dd July 21, 2022
+.Dd October 28, 2022
 .Dt RELEASE 7
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -365,6 +365,14 @@
 .Xr xz 1
 compress to roughly the same size, regardless of the specified disk image
 size.
+.It Va VMFS
+Set to specify the file system type to use.
+Valid values are
+.Va ufs
+and
+.Va zfs .
+The default value is
+.Va ufs .
 .It Va VMFORMATS
 Set to the target virtual disk image format(s) to create.
 By default, the