Is Unraid "the right choice" for that..?

[Jaster]

Hi Guys,

I'm running a few unraid servers and am very happy. Now I need to add some hardware just for virtualization (windows 10 VMs). I don't need an array or raid as the data and backups are stored on another unraid server. Can I / Should I setup a box like that on unraid or rather go for another OS?

[meep]

unRaid can do that.

 

The advantages of going unRaid are that you already know the OS, so the learning curve will be reduced. And you know how friendly and helpful the community can be, if you get stuck

 

Going with something else such as Proxmox or other will also work for you, and you have the opportunity/challenge to learn a new system.

 

If it were me, I'd go with unRaid, mostly because I'd be too lazy to learning something else, and it will just work, mostly. 'Better the devil you know'

 

 

[RiDDiX]

5 hours ago, Jaster said:

Hi Guys,

I'm running a few unraid servers and am very happy. Now I need to add some hardware just for virtualization (windows 10 VMs). I don't need an array or raid as the data and backups are stored on another unraid server. Can I / Should I setup a box like that on unraid or rather go for another OS?

 

For me goes it the same way as meep already said. OK you could go with ESXi or Proxmox, but for me Unraid did this all a lil bit "nicer" for me.

I like the fact that if needed or wanted, you could do more with Unraid without the hassle to reconfigure everything again. Like you want to use Windows 10 VMs in a corporate enviroment, like my company do. If you have the licences you could set up a Docker KMS-Server with your provided Keys and many other nice things.

But keep in Mind, that if you maybe want to play games on the VMs check their Anti-Cheat, because many Anti-Cheat softwares are kicking/banning people which run their games on VMs.

[Jaster]

"The devil I know" is basically my thought... just wondering if unraid will run without an array with just a pool or some unattached devices..?

[JonathanM]

46 minutes ago, Jaster said:

just wondering if unraid will run without an array with just a pool or some unattached devices..?

No. Currently you must have 1 data disk defined. That shouldn't be an issue, you could technically assign a scrap 1GB USB to it if you want.

[RiDDiX]

1 hour ago, Jaster said:

"The devil I know" is basically my thought... just wondering if unraid will run without an array with just a pool or some unattached devices..?

 

24 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

No. Currently you must have 1 data disk defined. That shouldn't be an issue, you could technically assign a scrap 1GB USB to it if you want.

 

Ups I really "overread" this. Will a USB-Drive really work as Array-Disk? Nice to know. I just used old HDDs like my 120GB Hitachi or WD Raptor

[JonathanM]

16 minutes ago, RiDDiX said:

 

 

Ups I really "overread" this. Will a USB-Drive really work as Array-Disk? Nice to know. I just used old HDDs like my 120GB Hitachi or WD Raptor

The only downside is that it still burns a license slot, so if you are bumping against a 6 drive basic license you may as well use the slot for something meaningful. With no parity assigned, the drive is as fast as it can be, the only real limit is no trim for SSD's in array slots.

 

What I'm getting at is I don't see why people are so hung up on the "requirement" that you have an array defined when the definition of an array is pretty much any block storage device. Pretty much any implementation I can think of can use that storage for something.

[RiDDiX]

23 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

The only downside is that it still burns a license slot, so if you are bumping against a 6 drive basic license you may as well use the slot for something meaningful. With no parity assigned, the drive is as fast as it can be, the only real limit is no trim for SSD's in array slots.

 

What I'm getting at is I don't see why people are so hung up on the "requirement" that you have an array defined when the definition of an array is pretty much any block storage device. Pretty much any implementation I can think of can use that storage for something.

 

I use on my "primary" unraid for "normal" things. For what is it even used for xD. Like as NAS / Backup (SMB) and for a lot of Dockers and VMs. My second Unraid is just for testing purposes. Where I test around with custom patches (kernel) and drivers. And docker settings for my network enviroment.

 

 

[Jaster]

I'm always getting the pro licences to support unraid a little bit. I could run all (but one server) with basic tro.

 

Dropping a small disk or flash to backup the virtlib and boot-flash isn't a deal breaker

 

I'm a bit concerned what happens if a VM will be running at 100% cpu which is required by unraid. Isolating the CPU, basically means losing a full core...

[JonathanM]

3 hours ago, Jaster said:

I'm a bit concerned what happens if a VM will be running at 100% cpu which is required by unraid. Isolating the CPU, basically means losing a full core...

That's the price you pay for the flexibility of virtualization. Each VM requires host resources to manage what would normally be handled by the motherboard chipset.