Changing from Unraid BM to ESXi BM with Unraid VM

[RookieKiwi]

Hello All!

As the title suggests i am currently running UnRaid on a IBM Server at present and i would like to switch this system to run ESXi and have Unraid running as a virtual so i have the ability to create windows VMs for lab work, I currently have 4x 4TB drives in an unraid array a 256gb cache SSD and no raid controller active.

 

What i would like to know is if i use the cache SSD to install ESXi onto and i give my UnRaid VM access to the 4TB drives would it be able to keep the data currently on the drives and rebuild my array or would i be better off starting from scratch? also my currently licensed USB stick would there be any problems continuing my license with this stick or would i need to get a new license key?

 

Sorry if these are stupid questions, i just want to understand what im about to do before i do it.

 

 

[uldise]

10 hours ago, RookieKiwi said:

What i would like to know is if i use the cache SSD to install ESXi onto and i give my UnRaid VM access to the 4TB drives would it be able to keep the data currently on the drives and rebuild my array or would i be better off starting from scratch?

unraid drives are identified by serial number, so, if you pass-through your disk controller to the VM, then disks will be accessible to unraid without problems. if you use SSD as ESXi datastore storage, then you cant use it directly on unraid - you can then create a new virtual drive and attach it to unraid VM.

 

10 hours ago, RookieKiwi said:

also my currently licensed USB stick would there be any problems continuing my license with this stick or would i need to get a new license key?

no need for new licence. if you use latest ESXi version, then you can boot your unraid VM from this USB too.