Is it safe to run UnRaid in a VM on ESXi?

My plan was to follow what some people have been running, which is pass through my hd's through a LSI card flashed in IT mode and install EXSi bare metal.

Other forums that i've found suggest running software raid in a VM is a very bad idea and that I should just get my own dedicated NAS.  Does anyone have feedback on this?

Also anyone have a guide on how to get everything going by chance?  I'm new to EXSi but i've been wanting to both build a NAS (Using Unraid for this) and learn Exsi at the same time.

Read this: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14695.0

Software raid can be perfectly fine in a vm. Or a terrible idea. It depends on the specific implementation (specifically of the underlying storage!).

For unraid, using pass-thru as you've described there are no issues. Plenty of people here running that setup (including myself) for many years without any problems - and all the benefits!

Ya, my UnRaid is on an ESXi box with an LSI flashed to IT mode passed through to it and I haven't had any issues.  Although now with UnRaid 6 and Docker (and Xen) support I wonder if it would be better to run it bare metal

UnRAID runs fine in ESXi.    There are several threads here that outline how to configure it.

Been running like that for years

Thank you all, I followed the Atlas guide and got Unraid 5 working with ESXi 6.0 and the plop method.

Parity sync and Check went fine and i've been filling things up.

Side question if anyone knows the answer:

I see my disks as: disk1, disk2, etc.  Is there an easy way to re-name these disks that show up in the tower host?

Side question if anyone knows the answer:

I see my disks as: disk1, disk2, etc.  Is there an easy way to re-name these disks that show up in the tower host?

Running as vm under esxi 5.5 with passed-through m1015 card in it-mode. But I hear the drives spin up on occasion, but the drives never show as spun-down in Unraid UI, nor is the temp readings accurate I think. Any idea how to fix the spin issues and these temp issues in UI?

That should only happen to rdm drives. I have both saslp and m1015 passed through and temp+spindown work as expected. However when I tried rdm a while back the did not

Any one else have /bzroot take forever to load on startup?

 

My plan was to follow what some people have been running, which is pass through my hd's through a LSI card flashed in IT mode and install EXSi bare metal.

 

Other forums that i've found suggest running software raid in a VM is a very bad idea and that I should just get my own dedicated NAS.  Does anyone have feedback on this?

 

Also anyone have a guide on how to get everything going by chance?  I'm new to EXSi but i've been wanting to both build a NAS (Using Unraid for this) and learn Exsi at the same time.

I have run like this for several years, works beautifully.

Any one else have /bzroot take forever to load on startup?

Yes. Takes about 5th minutes to boot.

That should only happen to rdm drives. I have both saslp and m1015 passed through and temp+spindown work as expected. However when I tried rdm a while back the did not

Yeah I'm in pass-through mode, not rdm. I sometimes hear the drives spin up upon first access. But UI never shows them as spun down, nor do I see temp fluctuations. I'm running unraid version 5.06

Any ideas?

Any one else have /bzroot take forever to load on startup?

 

Yes. Takes about 5th minutes to boot.

Wow!  Really?  My unRAID Vm boots in about 30 seconds, including the Plex plugin.

Any one else have /bzroot take forever to load on startup?

 

Yes. Takes about 5th minutes to boot.

 

Wow!  Really?  My unRAID Vm boots in about 30 seconds, including the Plex plugin.

Any one else have /bzroot take forever to load on startup?

 

Yes. Takes about 5th minutes to boot.

 

Wow!  Really?  My unRAID Vm boots in about 30 seconds, including the Plex plugin.

  I'm using plop and I suspect you're using a passed through vmdk

You are correct.  I was thinking about trying out plop.  I guess i will stay with my current config.

After switching to M1015 controller in it-mode, /bzroot take approx. <1min.

Can you convert unRAID to a vmdk or are those only for dev builds?  If so.. I can't find any instructions, both sets I found were for PLOP

Can you convert unRAID to a vmdk or are those only for dev builds?  If so.. I can't find any instructions, both sets I found were for PLOP

In short:

- maka a new vmdk, 8GB will be ok

- attach it to a another VM (not unRAID), Windows for example, format it with FAT32

- give it label UNRAID

- download unRAID instalation or copy from flash all contents, make it bootable - on Windows run appropriate bat file as Admin

- change drive label to something else, Unraid_boot for example

- attach this vmdk to your unRAID VM and boot

Can you convert unRAID to a vmdk or are those only for dev builds?  If so.. I can't find any instructions, both sets I found were for PLOP

Download http://goo.gl/T47Mh8.  Copy the vmdk to your datastore.  Attach it to your VM and reboot. 

That is 14b. You can update it to 15 by first attaching it to a Windows VM and copying over the files.

Can you convert unRAID to a vmdk or are those only for dev builds?  If so.. I can't find any instructions, both sets I found were for PLOP

 

Download http://goo.gl/T47Mh8.  Copy the vmdk to your datastore.  Attach it to your VM and reboot. 

 

That is 14b. You can update it to 15 by first attaching it to a Windows VM and copying over the files.

Well thats easy, I thought the key and GUID would get in the way.  Is this the update path for all future updates? Or do things need to be vetted first?

Can you convert unRAID to a vmdk or are those only for dev builds?  If so.. I can't find any instructions, both sets I found were for PLOP

 

Download http://goo.gl/T47Mh8.  Copy the vmdk to your datastore.  Attach it to your VM and reboot. 

 

That is 14b. You can update it to 15 by first attaching it to a Windows VM and copying over the files.

 

Well thats easy, I thought the key and GUID would get in the way.  Is this the update path for all future updates? Or do things need to be vetted first?

You still need to have your USB stick passed through.  It gets the config and license from there.

You dont need to download a new vmdk every time. You can just copy over the changed files from the zip you download.

Can you convert unRAID to a vmdk or are those only for dev builds?  If so.. I can't find any instructions, both sets I found were for PLOP

 

Download http://goo.gl/T47Mh8.  Copy the vmdk to your datastore.  Attach it to your VM and reboot. 

 

That is 14b. You can update it to 15 by first attaching it to a Windows VM and copying over the files.

 

Well thats easy, I thought the key and GUID would get in the way.  Is this the update path for all future updates? Or do things need to be vetted first?

 

You still need to have your USB stick passed through.  It gets the config and license from there.

 

You dont need to download a new vmdk every time. You can just copy over the changed files from the zip you download.

Should I leave the other files on the USB besides the config/license? (bzroot/bzimage)

Can you convert unRAID to a vmdk or are those only for dev builds?  If so.. I can't find any instructions, both sets I found were for PLOP

 

Download http://goo.gl/T47Mh8.  Copy the vmdk to your datastore.  Attach it to your VM and reboot. 

 

That is 14b. You can update it to 15 by first attaching it to a Windows VM and copying over the files.

 

Well thats easy, I thought the key and GUID would get in the way.  Is this the update path for all future updates? Or do things need to be vetted first?

 

You still need to have your USB stick passed through.  It gets the config and license from there.

 

You dont need to download a new vmdk every time. You can just copy over the changed files from the zip you download.

 

Should I leave the other files on the USB besides the config/license? (bzroot/bzimage)

I'm not 100% sure which files are necessary.  I always update both locations.