Unraid in an ESXI environment

[sprange]

I own a small dental practice.  Since 2010 I have used ESXI for server virtualization although my demands have been extremely limited--mysql and various programs that require USB security dongles.  Over the years I've had good quality server hardware randomly die and had very little downtime (thanks to VMWare Workstation on a spare computer back when I had only one host).  The trend in dental software is cloud based solutions in which your patient's data is basically a service and access to records is not guaranteed.  Where I practice I need to have records available for at least 30 years so local storage and programs that may not be supported forever but at least can run in a VM are a must.  I have several workstations that could easily be backup hosts for ESXI however the workstation software (dental 3D modelling for example) require GPU and USB passthrough, both of which are hit/miss with ESXI.  I have a Zenith Extreme 2950X computer for example that will not work for this purpose.  Unraid however has no problems passing through the GPU and either a USB controller or more conveniently just a keyboard, mouse, and a dongle.  For my purposes the VM speed is just as fast as baremetal.  The cool thing is that I can install ESXI inside UNRAID (complete with hardware RAID controller passthough) and it just works.  A VM running in ESXI under Unraid benchmarked faster than a VM under Proxmox baremetal which was surprising.  Unraid isn't an ideal product for my needs as it is, but it sure opens up hardware that would otherwise be useless for ESXI.  I understand that Unraid utilizes KVM.  For kicks I've used Gentoo to create the most optimized host for VMs but it was extremely brittle and was way too much effort.  With Unraid I could easily pass through GPUs and USB controllers FAST.  Unraid sometimes gets called a gimmick etc but not only can it turn a 3970X into three gaming machines at my home, but also open up hardware at my office,  Works for me!