Hi! Difficulty with Getting VM Set Up; and Very Silly Question

[Rushtallica]

Hello! I'm new to Unraid. I admit setting up the server itself was fairly easy. However, I've only been successful in getting a Windows 10 VM to work when creating it. If I click X to get rid of the VM window, restarting the VM doesn't bring up the VM again, and I can't figure out how to make it appear on screen --- and I've never seen a VM start on the host machine/monitor.

 

Am I missing something simple, or is it a technical problem? I followed numerous videos, set CPU cores/threads in pairs, leaving 0 and 1 and their matching threads, and I've tried using 1 CPU core (not 0), etc...     And I can't get a VM to show up at all, even when creating a new one, when trying to pass through anything.   

 

(Ryzen 5800x, Aorus Master B550, AMD Vega 56 in slot one, and NVidia 1060 3GB in 2nd/ x16 (x4) slot, 1 TB SS cache drive and 2 WB red 4 TB drives, one the parity drive, and trying to pass through AMD card in some attempts). 

 

Also, I KNOW this will sound stupid, but I really haven't seen it explained: Am I at some point supposed to be able to actually see a VM on the server PC/monitor, itself, or only on a different PC/ Macbook? Basically, I've heard people come to Unraid to have a server and gaming rig in one PC. Is that possible? Again, I've only seen a VM start (without passthrough) on the client/ guest PC. 

 

Thanks so much for any replies, and I wish everyone else well.

Edited October 24, 2021 by Rushtallica

[ghost82]

1 hour ago, Rushtallica said:

Am I at some point supposed to be able to actually see a VM on the server PC/monitor, itself, or only on a different PC/ Macbook?

Basically you have 2 options for the graphics:

1. Emulated

2. gpu passthrough

 

1. When you emulate the graphics you will connect to the vm through vnc, from the host, meaning from the same pc where the vm is installed (case 1a) or from another pc in the lan, or even outside the lan, able to have connectivity to the unraid host (case 1b).

case 1a: when you connect through vnc from the same box all you have to do is to go to the virtual machines tab in unraid, click on the logo of the vm and you will see VNC remote: if you click on it a new browser window will open conencting to the vm via vnc.

 

case 1b: the vnc server will listen on the host (unraid) -- not on the vm -- on port 5900 (for the first vm) --> if you have multiple vms running at the same time they will listen on ports 5900, 5901, 5902, etc.

So you can connect from an external device with a vnc client to the host, hosting your vm and manage the vm from there.

 

2. When you use gpu passthrough you can get the video output of the vm on a monitor attached to the gpu; if you need to manage the vm remotely you can install vnc or any remote management software into the os of the vm. Sometimes gpu passthrough is needed on some oses to get video acceleration, then one can use a dummy plug attached to the gpu (if the vm is accessed remotely) or use a monitor attached to the gpu.

[Rushtallica]

Thank you so much for your reply!  I woke up and noticed the VNC remote choice just before checking the thread. I had a feeling (and was hoping) it might be something simple I just wasn't catching and can't believe I didn't see that before. :facepalm:

I just tried that on the guest PC, the server, itself, and an old Macbook Pro, and the VNC Remote works on all. 

Now to try to sort out using GPU passthrough and a better remote viewer such as NoMachine. Thanks so much again!

 

Edited October 24, 2021 by Rushtallica