ASRock E3C224D2I with Xeon 1231v3 - Unraid 6 and Virtualisation Options

Hi all,

Been using Unraid  for years now and have just started learning more about dockers and virtualisation. I am actually currently running Unraid 6 (RC6a) and have played around with creating Windows virtual machines - all super easy using the great guides. I've also got some dockers running for SickBeard and NZBGet which again was quite straightforward.

So I came across some really good deals on new hardware recently and i've been meaning to build another UnRaid box (this will be my third one!). I am hoping to get some feedback and specifically some guidance around setup and config of UnRaid 6 to meet my needs. Essentially i have been wrestling with the concept of UnRaid as a guest and then having options to use the same physical machine to serve up different VM's for different purposes. Alternatively I am considering that if in UnRaid 6 I can keep UnRaid on the bare metal and then spin up VM's, this may also be an option (which is less fraught with danger and having to deal with say ESXi issues).

Primary Purpose : NAS Storage Device (circa 30TB at present)

Highly desired secondary purpose : remove the need to have a separate physical machine i use OpenElec (Kodi) on as my media streamer/player. It just boots off USB and there is no separate OS i need to mess around with (no driver or frame rate issues - it just works and I love it, but if i cant get rid of a separate physical box then ALL GOOD!

Tertiary purposes:

- Host virtual OS's to mostly play around with but also give me future options when i want to use a Windows based OS for media / photo editing (keep it separate to to other machines so it doesn't get bloated with other "c r a p!"

- Gaming - i am not a massive gamer, but id like to be able to play some of the recent (more graphics intensive) games if possible. My head starts spinning when i try to figure out how monitors and peripherals all "work" with virtual machines and how you "switch" between what is being displayed as you access different VM's (if that is even possible)

So here is the stuff i have (im open to swapping out some components if there is concern or issue which means I couldn't make best use of the new setup).

CPU : Intel Xeon E3-1231v3 (http://ark.intel.com/products/80910/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1231-v3-8M-Cache-3_40-GHz)

Motherboard : ASRock E3C224D2I Mini ITX (http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C224D2I#Specifications)

Case/Chassis : Silverstone DS380 Mini-ITX (http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=452)

RAM : 2 x Kingston 8GB KVR16E11/8I 1600MHz DDR3 unbuffered ECC CL11 (http://www.kingston.com/en/memory/search/?partid=kvr16e11/8i)

PSU : Silverstone SFX SX500-LG 500W 80 Plus Gold PSU ()http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=527

Data Disks: 6TB Seagate drives (STBD6000100)

Cache : Crucial M550 256GB SSD

GFX : Seriously need some advice here! GTX 750 Ti ?

Having read through the hardware compatibility spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LnGpTrXalwGVNy0PWJDURhyxa3sgqkGXmvNCIvIMenk/edit#gid=0) I have a few really n00b questions:

Host GPU - I understand this to be the physical GPU assigned to the host machine. However with my combination of Xeon CPU (no integrated GPU) and the ASRock motherboard (only 1 PCI slot) would this cause me any specific issues? Specifically I am wanting to passthrough the installed physical GFX card to say an OpenElec VM, or to a Windows based VM for gaming etc. Note : I typically run my current unraid server headless (only ever connecting the vga cable if the web UI becomes unresponsive - something which occurs say once every year!)

Distro column - I know this is a reference to the linux distro, but i dont see any reference to Windows OS. Is this because passthough just works or that no-one is documenting gfx card compatibility for other non linux-based OS's yet? Sorry this is probably a really stupid question.

Lastly - as mentioned before I want to be able to run OpenElec (Kodi) as my media player. One other important aspect is the ability to passthrough HD audio (bitstream to my AV receiver). My current HTPC contains the ATI HD5450 card which in all honesty has been perfect and it works great with OpenElec. Does HD Audio passthrough work correctly once you passthrough the entire GFX card to the virtual guest?

Thanks for reading!

Nice system -- wrong RAM.  You do NOT want registered RAM.  You need unbuffered ECC modules.

As I'm sure you know, there's no need for a video card for UnRAID -- you don't ever need to connect a keyboard, mouse, or monitor to this system, since it supports IPMI.

Assuming you're adding a video card for GPU passthrough to a VM (as you've indicated), then what card you need depends on what you're planning on using the VM for -- gaming would require a far more "potent" video card than a simple HTPC.    You may want to simply try it with the video card you already have before you spend the $$ for a higher-end card.

I took a look at the actual link you provided for the memory modules you're planning to get => those are in fact unbuffered ECC modules ... they're NOT registered modules.    So the error is in your description of the memory; not in the actual modules you've selected.

Hi Gary

Thanks for your reply and for pointing out the error (that's what I get for blindly copying from the online vendor's website description instead of the manufacturer's description!) I'll change it in my OP to reflect the correct specs.

As for the gfx decision, I totally agree with trying my current 5450 card first. I'm somewhat hoping there may be other  people out there who have some experience with the same motherboard who can point me in the right direction regarding gfx cards and passthrough.

any thoughts on the other queries about the distro column?

Cheers again

Sorry to dig up an old thread like this, but I'm wondering how this worked out for you. I'm not looking at the same hardware you listed specifically, but I'm really hoping to accomplish your same secondary goal of replacing the second physical box I'm using as an HTPC via dockers. Ideally I'd love to be able to run a long HDMI cable, plug the wireless keyboard into the unraid box and stream movies from .rar files on the array right to a Kodi docker. Thanks.