Windows and unRAID on Same Box?

[Michael]

I've been using unRAID for the past few months and am about to upgrade to the paid version to gain access to the user share functionality.  I'm running unRAID on a Asus P5B-VM DO motherboard, similar to the setup that Lime Technology sells.

 

As I've looked in this forum (User Customizations), I've seen a thread regarding running VMware within unRAID.  My question is this: Is it possible to run Windows (Vista Home Premium) and unRAID on the same box?  I know that Windows would require its own hard drive, but I'm curious if this is possible.  I want to run Windows Media Center and would love to (temporarily) run it on the same box to minimize the resources that I need to acquire.

 

If anybody has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.  If it's just not possible, I can accept that, too.    Thanks!

 

Michael

[kansei]

I installed unRAID on my Windows box using VMware.  The basic premise was to create a machine with 4 virtual IDE hard disks.  I booted with a DOS floppy ISO from bootdisk.com and partitioned the first HD using fdisk.  I then mounted the first virtual IDE HD from within XP and formatted it as FAT32 (you can mount it as a drive from VMware if you stop the VM and double-click the HD0).  You can use syslinux -f against the drive letter here to make the first virtual IDE bootable.  Afterwards, copy the unRAID OS files to the same drive.  You also need to make the NIC an e1000, add the two lines below to your VMware .VMX file making sure to replace any similar lines with these.

 

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

 

All the virtual HDs should look similar to this in the .VMX file.

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"

ide0:0.deviceType = "disk"

ide0:0.filename = "disk0.vmdk"

 

Make sure to dismount the HD0 in Windows before starting the VM or you will get errors.

 

Forgot to mention, make sure to label HD0 as UNRAID.

 

[Myself]

I've been fighting with VMware for two days now and can't get this to work. I defined an e1000 card as described here, which seems to be recognized just fine by the kernel.

 

It boots to a login prompt, and I can log in as root, but ifconfig returns empty. No interfaces at all. If I run dhcpcd from the commandline, it creates eth0 and gets an address on my (vmware bridged) local network, and I can ping the world from the VM, and I can ping the VM's IP from the world, but it doesn't respond to the name "tower".

 

ifconfig doesn't show a lo0 interface, and I can't even "ping tower" from the VM's commandline.

 

I get a few errors during boot that look interesting:

 

mount: special device /dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID does not exist

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf: line 18: /boot/config/network.cfg: No such file or directory

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf: line 19: /var/tmp/network.cfg: No such file or directory

 

Now, if I'm interpreting that by-label line correctly, that means it's looking for a disk called UNRAID, which I have:

 

C:\PROGRA~1\VMware\VMware DiskMount Utility>vmware-mount q: "c:\virtual machines

\unraid\unraid-system.vmdk"

 

C:\PROGRA~1\VMware\VMware DiskMount Utility>dir q:

Volume in drive Q is UNRAID

Volume Serial Number is 48F7-555B

 

Directory of Q:\

 

10/06/2007  10:17 PM        1,357,312 bzimage

10/06/2007  10:17 PM        29,611,058 bzroot

03/20/2007  03:45 PM            5,124 license.txt

01/03/2007  10:57 PM            99,256 memtest

06/10/2007  03:52 PM            33,404 menu.c32

10/06/2007  10:17 PM            2,093 readme.txt

08/27/2007  10:44 PM              196 syslinux.cfg

              7 File(s)    31,108,443 bytes

              0 Dir(s)      99,405,824 bytes free

 

I'm fairly new with linux so I appreciate your patience and suggestions!

[Joe L.]

It is looking for a USB Flash drive with its first partition named/labeled  UNRAID

From there it will load the modules for the network.  Since it could not find the drive/partition, your network card driver module did not get loaded.

 

Joe L.

[Zeke_D]

These responses will certainly work, but there is a really simple method:

 

Unplug the USB drive!

 

Here is what I am running:

PM: 80GB (windows XP)

PS: 80GB (Parity)

SM: 40GB (Disk1)

SS: 40GB (Disk2)

I am not running onything on the 2 sATA channels

 

When the USB drive is plugged in the PM is not used.

 

I assume however that your goal is to access the array from XP, in which case you would probably need to wait until ntfs-3G is implimented.

 

 

 

I've been using unRAID for the past few months and am about to upgrade to the paid version to gain access to the user share functionality.  I'm running unRAID on a Asus P5B-VM DO motherboard, similar to the setup that Lime Technology sells.

 

As I've looked in this forum (User Customizations), I've seen a thread regarding running VMware within unRAID.  My question is this: Is it possible to run Windows (Vista Home Premium) and unRAID on the same box?  I know that Windows would require its own hard drive, but I'm curious if this is possible.  I want to run Windows Media Center and would love to (temporarily) run it on the same box to minimize the resources that I need to acquire.

 

If anybody has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.  If it's just not possible, I can accept that, too.    Thanks!

 

Michael

[Myself]

I get a few errors during boot that look interesting:

 

mount: special device /dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID does not exist

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf: line 18: /boot/config/network.cfg: No such file or directory

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf: line 19: /var/tmp/network.cfg: No such file or directory

 

...

 

Directory of Q:\

 

10/06/2007  10:17 PM        1,357,312 bzimage

10/06/2007  10:17 PM        29,611,058 bzroot

03/20/2007  03:45 PM            5,124 license.txt

01/03/2007  10:57 PM            99,256 memtest

06/10/2007  03:52 PM            33,404 menu.c32

10/06/2007  10:17 PM            2,093 readme.txt

08/27/2007  10:44 PM              196 syslinux.cfg

              7 File(s)    31,108,443 bytes

              0 Dir(s)      99,405,824 bytes free

Heh. I failed to unpack the config directory onto the boot device. It works much better now! I've got the devices set up, disks formatted, array started, piece of cake! Now, to flog it mercilessly for a few days and see if I can break it...

[loomy]

I get a few errors during boot that look interesting:

 

mount: special device /dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID does not exist

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf: line 18: /boot/config/network.cfg: No such file or directory

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf: line 19: /var/tmp/network.cfg: No such file or directory

 

 

I have the exact same errors, and my disk is volume named UNRAID, and I do have the unraid installation fully extracted with the config folder in place.  Exactly how did you fix your problem again?

 

Edit: These errors seem to occur if the system virtual disk is of the type SCSI.  Changing it to IDE makes unraid work.

 

Unfortunately I need it to work as SCSI because I need all 4 IDE disks open for data disks, as Vmware Workstation has a bug that makes it crash when using physical disks as SCSI disks rather than IDE disks.

[X4n]

I get a few errors during boot that look interesting:

 

mount: special device /dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID does not exist

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf: line 18: /boot/config/network.cfg: No such file or directory

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf: line 19: /var/tmp/network.cfg: No such file or directory

 

 

i solved this by plugging my unraid usb stick in the server and mounting it in the virtual enviroment

created an image (using winimage) of my usb stick and mounted it as a scsi drive

this way unraid is booted of the scsi drive, but searches for an usb device named UNRAID for the network.cfg (and your license) and finds it on your original usb stick.

 

 

 

i found that there are 2 usefull ways too mount drives:

1) 4 physical IDE drives | downside is, vmware cant mount more then 4 ide drives (or can it do more?) aka your stuck with 3 data drives and 1 parity per virtual server

2) unlimited scsi drives | unfortunally unraid doesnt find the scsi drives (it didnt in version 3.0, havent tested 4.0)

 

my question are there ways to mount more ide drives? or get scsi support somehow?

[toonz]

I might have to look into this as well.

I'm tempted to look at getting one of the new Media Center Extenders, and if I do, I'd like to move my current Vista Ultimate (note - only used for Media Center) upstairs with my unRAID server.

Currently I've got unRAID serving my files, my old Dell laptop handling my bittorrent and ftp server (serving the unRAID files), and a Vista Ultimate machine plugged into my TV for media/tv needs.

Now if I could merge them together into one nice big case that'd be awesome! A single PC, with Vista Ultimate handling the Extenders, bittorrent and ftp server (until its part of unRAID), and unRAID running in a VM for file serving needs.

 

Perfect!

[mikester]

So, what's it going to take to get this working?  From the previous posts, it sounds like you are limited to 4 drives because UnRAID won't recognize the emulated SATA drives.  What do we need to do to get around this limitation - a new driver added to the kernel?

 

I really want to get this working, and am willing to do whatever I can to help, but I am a Linux noob, so I'm not sure where to start.  If someone can help me get it up and running, I am willing to share our work with the community in the form of step by step documentation, sharing the VM file, etc.

[jcolo]

I have gotten over the hurdle of the 4 IDE drive limitation by recompiling the kernel with the BusLogic SCSI driver and using SCSI virtual drives.  I can mount the drives just fine at command-line, and they are all available in the UNRAID device selection page.  BUT, it appears that UNRAID cannot detect the model/serial number on the SCSI virtual drives so it won't go through the initialization step after selecting them in the device page.

 

To date I have only tried associating virtual drives - think I will try designating the mapping as a physical ( raw ) drive to VMware and see if that makes a difference.

[mikester]

I was planning on using raw drives instead of virtual drives, so hopefully that works.

 

Would you be willing to share your modified kernel with me?

[jcolo]

I'll report back the findings and write-up the whole procedure - with proper kudos to BubbaQ and WeeboTech as they helped me through the noob process for recompiling the kernel.

[WeeboTech]

I plan to do some testing also.

I'm curious if VMware will let the drives spin down.

[SSD]

Isn't it true that Vmware will not emulate a gigabit lan controller?  Maybe this has changed, but the version I run is only 10/100.

[jcolo]

"e1000" ethernet device type emulates the Intel Pro/1000

 

... and not so good prototype news on using a raw SCSI disk instead of a virtual SCSI disk ... same problem exists:  UNRAID sees the drive, but a disk ID is not present so it cannot assign the dirve to the array.  In my attachment you can see both raw disks I configured in the virtual machine - one of them is an IDE raw disk with ID "SATA_VMWARE_VIRTUAL ..." and the other is a buslogic SCSI raw disk that reports as "no id".

 

BTW, I had to hack up the vmware configuration file to create a SCSI raw disk, as the workstation application was not cooperating - kept defaulting to IDE for a raw disk.  A little cut-n-paste hacking fixed that up.

 

Perhaps the lsilogic mpt fusion driver would work differently.  But I need to load in onto my Vista development machine and then recompile the kernel with the mpt driver.

[WeeboTech]

Can you see if a raw ide device will spin down with the hdparm command?

 

-y  put IDE drive in standby mode

-Y  put IDE drive to sleep

 

/sbin/hdparm -Y /dev/sda#

 

I'm curious if it will actually succeed. In my case, if it doesn't succeed it doesn't seem worthwhile.

But this is my case, as it is I already run a high powered unix workstation 24x7 (actually 3).

If I could consolidate all the mirrored volumes into an unRaid array and have it spin down I would save drives and electricity.

For me, Having drives spin down is a major plus.

 

 

[jcolo]

root@Tower:/bin# hdparam -y /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1:
issuing standby command
root@Tower:/bin# hdparam -Y /dev/sda1

/dev/sda1
issuing sleep command
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(sleep) failed: Input/output error

 

Within the UNRAID html page, the SPIN down and SPIN up button does appear to work as the icon next to the drive name does blink appropriately.

 

[RobJ]

Can you see if a raw ide device will spin down with the hdparm command?

 

-y  put IDE drive in standby mode

-Y  put IDE drive to sleep

 

/sbin/hdparm -Y /dev/sda#

 

I'm curious if it will actually succeed. In my case, if it doesn't succeed it doesn't seem worthwhile.

But this is my case, as it is I already run a high powered unix workstation 24x7 (actually 3).

If I could consolidate all the mirrored volumes into an unRaid array and have it spin down I would save drives and electricity.

For me, Having drives spin down is a major plus.

 

Just a warning, the lower-case -y is the one you want, not the upper-case -Y.  It's my understanding that -Y puts it into such a deep sleep that a power off and back on is required.  The -y option spins the drive down, and cuts the wattage from about 6 watts typically to about one watt (I think), but leaves it ready to spin up on command.

 

[Jon]

Isn't it true that Vmware will not emulate a gigabit lan controller?  Maybe this has changed, but the version I run is only 10/100.

 

No, in fact you need to edit the config file to change the NIC to the E1000 in order for it to work in the first place.  The E1000 is a Gbit NIC.

[Billped]

Isn't it true that Vmware will not emulate a gigabit lan controller?  Maybe this has changed, but the version I run is only 10/100.

 

I don't run vmware, but I found references dating back to 2005 stating that GigE is supported.

 

 

Bill

[smino]

Keep up the good work guys.

I had a hard time with this as well.

I gave up as I had a time crunch and a raid 5 server crashing...

I like the idea of unraid running in a vm. Then you can have multiple test unraids... grin.

 

 

[MurrayW]

Sorry for dredging up a year old topic, but couldn't find my answer in any searches or reading through other VMWare related topics.  The computer that I am going to turn into my unraid server is currently running windows XP and hosts my automation software (Cinemar's MainLobby).  I was going to put this on another computer when I converted this current one over to unraid, but if I can run both on the same PC using VMWare, that would save me some money in both computer components for a new PC and electricity.

 

My question is what would be the best way to go about this?

• 1. Install VMWare on my current Windows XP system then run unraid in the VMWare window
  
• 2. Install VMWare on unraid then run my current XP setup in the VMWare window
  

 

Are both of these possible?  What are the pros and cons of each?

 

thanks,

Murray

[Neo_x]

Hi there guys

 

I am also very interested in getting unraid to work on virtual machine. as mentioned by previous posters i am currently stuck on the 4 x IDE limitation, with unraid not detecting drives simulated as SCSI.

 

i am unfortunately a linux noob of note..  , so getting vmware to run on unraid seems a bit tricky, and on top of that i will lose possible functionality on the virtual windows (i still want to play the odd windows game on the pc when my friends come over for a visit.).

 

I have tried (and failed) with other virtual solutions, where virtualbox allowed unraid to detect the drivers, but failed to simulate the USB(which means registering/upgrading to pro will be impossible).

 

Anybody out there willing to assist(*hint paypal *)?

Unraid seems to be the best solution out there(after failing a bit using windows SW RAID).

 

Thx

 

Neo

[MurrayW]

Sorry for dredging up a year old topic, but couldn't find my answer in any searches or reading through other VMWare related topics.  The computer that I am going to turn into my unraid server is currently running windows XP and hosts my automation software (Cinemar's MainLobby).  I was going to put this on another computer when I converted this current one over to unraid, but if I can run both on the same PC using VMWare, that would save me some money in both computer components for a new PC and electricity.

 

My question is what would be the best way to go about this?

• 1. Install VMWare on my current Windows XP system then run unraid in the VMWare window
  
• 2. Install VMWare on unraid then run my current XP setup in the VMWare window
  

 

Are both of these possible?  What are the pros and cons of each?

 

thanks,

Murray

Anybody have any ideas?