Windows 10 VM questions

[TreyH]

(tl:dr: I’ve boldfaced my questions below so you can see what I’m asking without having to read all the background info.)

 

I am in the process of trying to use Unraid to replace a bare-metal Windows 10 Pro install. I used it as a (light-duty) Windows development workstation and for some gaming with a GTX 1080. I also used this Windows host OS for an SMB server for other devices in the house, as a Hyper-V hypervisor for (very light-duty) Docker images, and a Ubuntu development workstation. Most of my “real work” was in Ubuntu, so the heaviest load was when I was interactively using Ubuntu (usually via Mosh/SSH—I didn’t use it for graphics) or when I was Windows gaming.

 

My Windows boot disk installation is now corrupt beyond repair after a botched Windows Update. OS damage only, though—no physical or filesystem damage on the SSD I can detect with Windows Rescue, SystemRescue, and some third-party tools—so I intend to use the Unassigned Devices plugin to move application data into the VM.

 

I have some questions, which I don’t expect any one person to be able to answer all of, but if you know the answers to any, I’d appreciate the advice:

1. Can I use my original OEM Windows install DVD? I’ve read about various methods for using a DVD/Blu-Ray writer like I have to import/export data to the array, but can I use it to install Windows, or must I download an ISO? (Since it’s a 3-year-old disc, I don’t actually know how much network-download time I’d save from doing this versus starting with a more recent ISO—so if it doesn’t affect licensing it may not be useful to bother.)
2. Can I transfer my Windows 10 Pro license to the VM, or will I have to purchase a new one?
3. Right now my husband and I both use the Windows side interactively, tied to our online Windows accounts, with Microsoft password and PIN “security” for login. Can we continue to use our online Windows accounts with Unraid—either through some mechanism to use Windows authentication, or just by setting up users with the same names and passwords and keeping them sync’d up?
   • Assuming there’s no mechanism to make Unraid play with Windows auth (I couldn’t find one but maybe my search terms are just bad), is there a guide to how to make the usernames and passwords match? Windows usernames (with all their extra backslash cruft beyond the simple “username”) and access control totally befuddles me—I’m a multi-decade Unix/Linux guy, and get stumped by this “easy” Windows stuff.
   • Even though we have separate accounts and data, we haven’t been terribly hygienic about shared files—we just are both members of Administrators. Just from reading and not yet doing, it seems we can still do roughly the same, and maintain separate file ownership but still share some files—and perhaps do even better with Unraid by making certain folders automatically share with different permissions?
4. We have a large LG ultrawide display attached to the GTX 1080. Assuming I successfully pass it through (and I was able to in a test install last week), there are two issues with this display:
   1. The monitor has a built-in USB KVM switch that automatically routes the USB devices plugged into it to the system the display’s input is set to (by using alternate-mode USB on DisplayPort or HDMI, or a USB A-B cable assignable to some or all ports). We do use this feature a lot, to switch the monitor from this machine to laptops and Raspberry Pis from time to time so these generally-headless devices can be controlled without a lot of unplugging and replugging. Can I expect my monitor’s USB KVM switch to just continue to work? We only attach devices that make sense to move around with the display—currently, a Logitech webcam, a webcam light controllable with a Windows or Mac app, and a keyboard with its own USB 3 bus through which a mouse is attached. 
   2. Before with Windows 10 bare-metal, the iGPU went unused and disabled in the UEFI config. Will I want to enable the iGPU for Unraid console access, and attach it to another one of the display’s ports in case the network is down? Or will this cause issues if the server reboots unexpectedly because UEFI will probe the display, find it’s not connected (since it will almost certainly be set to use the GTX’s output at the time the server goes down), and then grab the GTX such that it can no longer passthrough? 
      • My motherboard doesn’t support USB passthrough on the iGPU HDMI port. That’s what the display’s USB A-B cable is for—assuming I do have the iGPU set up as a console, can I arrange things on the Unraid side so that the keyboard and mouse will connect correctly via this USB-to-USB cable when I switch to that input?
   3. This display is bright. If it unexpectedly wakes up in the middle of the night, it sometimes awakens me, even bouncing around a hallway and into my bedroom. That, I can’t do anything about—but I do want the display to properly sleep after an idle timeout with the Win 10 VM is active. Will that be a problem? Is it as simple as setting display sleep settings in Windows as if it were still the bare-metal hypervisor?

 

Finally, a couple slightly-related questions, about my old Ubuntu VM on Hyper-V, which as I mentioned is my real workhorse OS. (Note that because of my corrupt Windows 10 install, I currently have no way of booting it—so I can’t do any preparatory steps on Linux.)

1. Can I just migrate my Ubuntu Hyper-V VM wholesale to Unraid?
2. Whatever the answer to #1, if I install the qemu-ga-x64 package, can I make Unraid automatically hibernate (rather than shut down) Ubuntu gracefully when Unraid is restarted?
3. Can I mount the VHDX file (with the Ubuntu VM quiesced or not yet created, I mean)? This thread suggests the answer is no, but since it’s been a year, perhaps something has changed? There are lots of posts here asking about installing libguestfs, but the most recent is in 2018 and none have replies indicating if someone was successful in getting it to work.