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Hi all!

I'm presenting my setup, it's not a long time I'm using Unraid, I started about 5-6 years ago.

 

I'm a chemical engineer with a passion for technologies in general, especially related to pc.

My work requires using a windows os due to some softwares for cfd simulations, 3d design of mechanical pieces; however I don't like windows very much (..and I don't know why), from 2008 I'm using mac os for my everyday things, browsing internet, filling documents, etc.; I'm also using linux because of programming and testing security. I like also gaming, so windows is used for work and gaming too.

 

I approached Unraid because my main goal at that time was to have a high performance mac os virtual machine (my macbook pro 2008 was quite old and unsupported for newer mac os versions); searching in google I read about advanced virtual machines, esxi, qemu, libvirt, hardware passthrough and all the things related to virtual machines.

I started with esxi but I had some issues with virtualization and I met Unraid.

The first impressions were very good, especially for me that at that time I knew near nothing about virtualization; it tooks really nothing to create my first vm, just pressing few buttons; I liked the fact that all was through a gui and configuration was step by step.

I also found here in the vm forum section some cool and more experienced guys that guided me in this new world of mac os virtualization.

After some months I knew more and more things about virtualization, bootloaders and operating systems in general.

My first configuration was a virtual machine with mac os, with another ssd disk with windows 10 installed; so, for my everyday use I started unraid and the mac os vm, for simulations and 3d design I simply booted directly the windows ssd.

My hardware is quite old but still powerful (at least in my opinion) and last year I decided to virtualize also my windows os.

This had the advantage of being able to run the latest windows 11 without a physical tpm and on an unsupported cpu without issues.

 

Now, some specifications: for my work I have 2 twin workstations with the following hardware -->

 

Workstation 1 (main workstation):

MB: Asus Z9PE-D8 WS (with 2 intel ethernet controllers, 2 sata controllers (marvell and intel), firewire, 2 intel usb 2.0 controllers, 1 asmedia usb 3.0 controller)

CPU: 2x Xeon e5-2687w

RAM: 64 Gb ECC 1333 MHz

GPU: 1x AMD Sapphire nitro+ SE 6900XT, 1x Nvidia Geforce 8400 GS

Disks: 3 ssd (2x256 Gb, 1x512 Gb), 2 HDD (1x2 TB, 1x6 TB)

Connectivity: mellanox infiniband, ethernet to wifi bridge (tp link), additional usb wifi pendrive

Additional cards: Fresco FL1100 usb 3.0

 

Workstation 2:

MB: Asus Z9PE-D8 WS (with 2 intel ethernet controllers, 2 sata controllers (marvell and intel), firewire, 2 intel usb 2.0 controllers, 1 asmedia usb 3.0 controller)

CPU: 2x Xeon e5-2687w (Engineering samples (quality samples))

RAM: 32 Gb ECC 1333 MHz

GPU: 1x Nvidia Titan Black, 1x Nvidia Quadro 600

Disks: 2 ssd (2x256 Gb)

Connectivity: mellanox infiniband, ethernet to wifi bridge (vonets)

 

So now I have 2 workstations running unraid.

 

In the first workstation unraid connects to internet with the ethernet/wifi bridge; it connects to an access point that connects to the main router.

Virtual machines: 1x Windows 11, 1x mac os Monterey, 1x Kali linux

 

Windows 11 vm:

Hardware passthrough: 2x intel usb 2.0 controllers, 1x Fresco logic FL1100 usb 3.0 controller, marvell sata controller (with attached 1 ssd with windows 11, 1 ssd with mac os, 1 blu ray/dvd drive), onboard audio, AMD 6900xt, firewire controller, mellanox infiniband

Cpus: passed through, 14 cores x2 (hyperthreading enabled, 28 cores total)

Additional hardware: logitech c920 webcam, attached to the passed through usb controller

RAM: 56 Gb

 

Mac os Monterey vm:

Hardware passthrough: 1x Fresco logic FL1100 usb 3.0 controller, marvell sata controller (with attached 1 ssd with windows 11, 1 ssd with mac os, 1 blu ray/dvd drive), onboard audio, AMD 6900xt

Cpus: passed through, 14 cores x2 (hyperthreading enabled, 28 cores total)

Additional hardware: logitech c920 webcam, attached to a virtual usb controller

RAM: 32 Gb

 

Kali linux vm:

Hardware passthrough: 2x intel usb 2.0 controllers, 1x Fresco logic FL1100 usb 3.0 controller, onboard audio, AMD 6900xt

Cpus: passed through, 14 cores x2 (hyperthreading enabled, 28 cores total)

Additional hardware: logitech c920 webcam, attached to the passed through usb controller

RAM: 32 Gb

This vm runs on a vdisk on the 6 TB HDD

 

All the virtual machines have the following connectivity:

br0: bridge on the ethernet/wifi bridge, internet connectivity (192.168.1.x)

br1: bridge on the second ethernet controller, local connectivity only (192.168.2.x)

 

Only the windows virtual machine has the additional infiniband (192.168.3.x) to connect to the windows 11 vm in workstation 2.

 

In the second workstation unraid connects to internet with another ethernet/wifi bridge; it connects to the same access point as before that connects to the main router.

Virtual machines: 1x Windows 11

 

Windows 11 vm (2):

Hardware passthrough: 2x intel usb 2.0 controllers, marvell sata controller (with attached 1 ssd with windows 11), onboard audio, Nvidia Titan Black, firewire controller, mellanox infiniband

Cpus: passed through, 14 cores x2 (hyperthreading enabled, 28 cores total)

RAM: 24 Gb

-------

 

I also have a physical kvm switch to be able to:

1. switch monitor output for unraid (workstation 1 / workstation 2)

2. switch mouse/keyboard from unraid to vms (on workstation 1)

 

The windows 11 vm on workstation 2 is controlled with remote desktop only.

 

I have 3 monitors and 1 43" led TV:

2 of the 3 monitors and the 43" TV are attached to the AMD 6900xt on workstation 1: these are reserved to vms, the 3rd monitor is attached to the kvm switch, that receives the input from the nvidia Geforce 8400 GS (Workstation 1) and from the Nvidia Quadro 600 (workstation 2) (for the Unraid oses video outputs)

 

So far, everything is quite perfect, and I'm very satisfied.

 

Very recently I attached to my windows 11 vm on workstation 1 a car simulator, so I'm also enjoying GT3/rally racing!

 

Virtualization has literally changed my life and I can do near all I want with near native performances!

This wants also to be a brief description for new users approaching virtualization, to let them know that you can do what you want, with the advantage of optimizing your work flow, imagination will be your only limit.

 

Thank you Unraid team for the os and mostly for the available documentation about virtualization that introduced me in this world as smooth as possible.

Thanks to the amazing community too.

 

Some pictures:

 

Complete setup:

Complete-setup.jpg.c909c184657583c0c1250488ec1191ae.jpg

 

Windows 11 vm:

win11.jpg.79e8211be1a36d0493a0e774d6b91ff6.jpg

 

Mac os vm:

mac-os.jpg.a4143009e6767ae7c8c1ee7f9329a1e0.jpg

 

Kali linux vm:

Kali.jpg.474fb98851e300a8fa6d7f44be22e015.jpg

 

Kvm switch:

kvm-switch.jpg.59c814805a7ced694ec3e38470823be0.jpg

 

The 2 workstations:

Workstations.jpg.0fd85408a0818faef0f92b7ce7daff02.jpg

 

Car simulator:

car-simulator.jpg.c6eccc3d6cf0c1ceaf589e2f2784e815.jpg

Edited by ghost82
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