VirtioFS Support Page

[mackid1993]

On 6/2/2024 at 8:27 PM, wacko37 said:

@mackid1993 Firstly thankyou for all that you do, you have made the virtioFS setup a breeze! 

 

In your comment you mentioned Macrium reflect, I'm currently trying to backup my VM to a folder that is mounted via your  virtiofs script. The problem I'm having is the when Macrium attempts to write to the mapped drive it fails with "error - system cannot find the path specified" When I return to windows explorer the Mapped drive is no longer there. If a re-run the virtiofs script the drive reappears but fails again if trying to backup via Macrium.

 

I can create and open files within the mapped drive as per normal but it seems Macrium cannot use the virtiofs mapped method.

Can you share any knowledge on this, much apricated in advance?

I usually use SMB within Macrium for backups. 

 

I suggest creating a vlan on your server and setting a secondary virtual NIC to it. Then setting a manual IP address in Windows and creating a hosts file entry for Macrium that points to the server using that vlan. That way your SMB traffic doesn't leave the server. 

Edited June 4 by mackid1993

[wacko37]

9 hours ago, mackid1993 said:

I usually use SMB within Macrium for backups. 

 

I suggest creating a vlan on your server and setting a secondary virtual NIC to it. Then setting a manual IP address in Windows and creating a hosts file entry for Macrium that points to the server using that vlan. That way your SMB traffic doesn't leave the server. 

Thankyou kindly for your reply and expertise, I've just completed a backup via SMB as I would do with my other PC's on the network, sadly don't have a spare NIC onhand to complete the vLan as you mentioned but that's a future upgrade I want to complete anyways down the track. So from my limited understanding data is now being sent out and received via the same ethernet port in my current setup, which is ok for me for now. 

 

Do you have any understanding why M-R was causing the virtioFS to disconnect?

[mackid1993]

1 hour ago, wacko37 said:

Thankyou kindly for your reply and expertise, I've just completed a backup via SMB as I would do with my other PC's on the network, sadly don't have a spare NIC onhand to complete the vLan as you mentioned but that's a future upgrade I want to complete anyways down the track. So from my limited understanding data is now being sent out and received via the same ethernet port in my current setup, which is ok for me for now. 

 

Do you have any understanding why M-R was causing the virtioFS to disconnect?

You don't need a second NIC. It's a virtual NIC that you need. I'm sorry I'm not sure why you are having issues. 

[wacko37]

3 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

You don't need a second NIC. It's a virtual NIC that you need. I'm sorry I'm not sure why you are having issues. 

Sorry for misinterpreting your reply, I will have to research further on this as I have no idea how to complete this successfully. Would it make much of a difference compared to what is working now? Im guessing speed and security?

[mackid1993]

10 hours ago, wacko37 said:

Sorry for misinterpreting your reply, I will have to research further on this as I have no idea how to complete this successfully. Would it make much of a difference compared to what is working now? Im guessing speed and security?

Probably not a major difference, it will work if your router doesn't. That's about it.

Edited June 5 by mackid1993

[mackid1993]

@wacko37

1. Stop the VM and Docker service.

2. Go to Settings -> Network Settings

3. Click add VLAN

4. Fill it out and click apply. I already have mine set up so my VLAN number for this example is 3, yours will be 2.

 

5. Change iP address assignment to static:

6. Enter 10.0.0.1 this will be the address of your Unraid server on the VLAN. Click apply

7. Scroll down and find your gateway, likely br0.2

8. Start VM and Docker back up.

9. Edit your VM template. Scroll to the bottom and add a second NIC. Set it to virtio and the second network source to your gateway likely br0.2.

 

10. Start your VM, open a run dialog in Windows and type ncpa.cpl. Find your new NIC that doesn't have an IP address and give it one as follows. Just check IP addresses to make sure you don't set a static address on your main NIC.

 

 

Now your server can be accessed over the VLAN from \\10.0.0.1. However when a lot of activity is happening since SMB is single threaded other applications will slow down. To work around this, I create hosts file entries for each application I use and authenticate separately for each one.

 

Open an admin command prompt and type: notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

These are my entries but you can make as many as you like.

 

Once this is done in Macrium you connect using \\macrium\share and then your Macrium traffic will stay completely within your server and you can avoid any compatibility issues related to Virtiofs and instead use Virtiofs in situations where it works best.

Edited June 6 by mackid1993

[wacko37]

2 hours ago, mackid1993 said:

@wacko37

1. Stop the VM and Docker service.

2. Go to Settings -> Network Settings

3. Click add VLAN

4. Fill it out and click apply. I already have mine set up so my VLAN number for this example is 3, yours will be 2.

 

5. Change iP address assignment to static:

6. Enter 10.0.0.1 this will be the address of your Unraid server on the VLAN. Click apply

7. Scroll down and find your gateway, likely br0.2

8. Start VM and Docker back up.

9. Edit your VM template. Scroll to the bottom and add a second NIC. Set it to virtio and the second network source to your gateway likely br0.2.

 

10. Start your VM, open a run dialog in Windows and type ncpa.cpl. Find your new NIC that doesn't have an IP address and give it one as follows. Just check IP addresses to make sure you don't set a static address on your main NIC.

 

 

Now your server can be accessed over the VLAN from \\10.0.0.1. However when a lot of activity is happening since SMB is single threaded other applications will slow down. To work around this, I create hosts file entries for each application I use and authenticate separately for each one.

 

Open an admin command prompt and type: notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

These are my entries but you can make as many as your like.

 

Once this is done in Macrium you connect using \\macrium\share and then your Macrium traffic will stay completely within your server and you can avoid any compatibility issues related to Virtiofs and instead use Virtiofs in situations where it works best.

WOW!!! thankyou so so much for this detailed step by step guide, I wish every question I had in life was answered by you.....lol

 

I will be implementing this today, even a noob like me can't mess this up.

[mackid1993]

4 hours ago, wacko37 said:

WOW!!! thankyou so so much for this detailed step by step guide, I wish every question I had in life was answered by you.....lol

 

I will be implementing this today, even a noob like me can't mess this up.

No problem. I had an extra few minutes today. 😊

[ajlk199]

I'm not sure if anyone else has encountered this, but I'm experiencing a peculiar issue.

 

I have a single share mounted as a drive on my Windows VM via VirtioFS. Generally, it functions well. However, I've recently encountered a problem where Sonarr can't locate certain media files. This issue resolves itself upon restarting, but then it reoccurs with different files.

 

When I access the mounted drive and attempt to play the files that Sonarr couldn't find, I encounter errors. VLC reports "can't play media file," even though I can clearly see the files on the mounted drive.

 

Interestingly, when I access the share through a network drive, or directly via Plex, everything operates smoothly; there are no issues. Additionally, restarting seems to temporarily resolve the problem, but then, another set of media files stop working. 

 

I'm unsure if this is a bug in the VirtioFS system. My drives are in good condition and have passed all SMART tests.

So far, it seems like newly added files seem to be most effected. 

[mackid1993]

12 hours ago, ajlk199 said:

I'm not sure if anyone else has encountered this, but I'm experiencing a peculiar issue.

 

I have a single share mounted as a drive on my Windows VM via VirtioFS. Generally, it functions well. However, I've recently encountered a problem where Sonarr can't locate certain media files. This issue resolves itself upon restarting, but then it reoccurs with different files.

 

When I access the mounted drive and attempt to play the files that Sonarr couldn't find, I encounter errors. VLC reports "can't play media file," even though I can clearly see the files on the mounted drive.

 

Interestingly, when I access the share through a network drive, or directly via Plex, everything operates smoothly; there are no issues. Additionally, restarting seems to temporarily resolve the problem, but then, another set of media files stop working. 

 

I'm unsure if this is a bug in the VirtioFS system. My drives are in good condition and have passed all SMART tests.

So far, it seems like newly added files seem to be most effected. 

It may be a cache issue. Look into this: 

 and @SimonF's php script and bash script that will be added in 6.13/Unraid 7. It works in 6.12 but configuration is a little advanced. You'll also need to download rust virtiofsd which will also be in 6.13/Unraid 7. If you look through past posts there's a lot of information to configure this in 6.12.

[jlw_4049]

I've read through this thread and got things setup to try to mitigate an issue when using my nvme over share to the VM that keeps happening here https://forums.unraid.net/topic/164041-does-your-device-have-a-faulty-power-saving-mode-enabled-nvme-issues/#comment-1422896. 

On AMD (5900x x570), the speeds are terrible. Around 55MB's, but I might stick with this for the stability for now. When the drive is in use it seems to hit a single thread.

EDIT: Didn't resolve the above issue (not related to this), but yeah the speeds wasn't worth it.

 

Edited June 12 by jlw_4049

[mackid1993]

On 6/12/2024 at 1:28 PM, jlw_4049 said:

I've read through this thread and got things setup to try to mitigate an issue when using my nvme over share to the VM that keeps happening here https://forums.unraid.net/topic/164041-does-your-device-have-a-faulty-power-saving-mode-enabled-nvme-issues/#comment-1422896. 

On AMD (5900x x570), the speeds are terrible. Around 55MB's, but I might stick with this for the stability for now. When the drive is in use it seems to hit a single thread.

EDIT: Didn't resolve the above issue (not related to this), but yeah the speeds wasn't worth it.

 

Another user @johnsanc was having major speed issues on AMD. I wonder if there is some sort of issue with the virtio-win driver and AMD platforms.

[johnsanc]

Yes that is exactly what happens on my machine. Slow transfers and a single CPU hits 100% during the process. I had a feeling it wasn’t something specific to my machine. Good to know another AMD user has the same issue.

[mackid1993]

19 hours ago, johnsanc said:

Yes that is exactly what happens on my machine. Slow transfers and a single CPU hits 100% during the process. I had a feeling it wasn’t something specific to my machine. Good to know another AMD user has the same issue.

I would open a report with the Virtio-Win team on Github. Clearly there is a bug with AMD hardware. I would help but i'm an Intel guy.

[johnsanc]

According to YanVugenfirer, it looks like they know what the issue is but not a priority to fix. I guess maybe AMD users are out of luck until they get a chance to look at this. SMB it is for me for now.

GitHub Issue: https://github.com/virtio-win/kvm-guest-drivers-windows/issues/1039#issuecomment-2171441245

Edited June 16 by johnsanc

[mackid1993]

20 hours ago, johnsanc said:

According to YanVugenfirer, it looks like they know what the issue is but not a priority to fix. I guess maybe AMD users are out of luck until they get a chance to look at this. SMB it is for me for now.

GitHub Issue: https://github.com/virtio-win/kvm-guest-drivers-windows/issues/1039#issuecomment-2171441245

Just a shot in the dark, maybe try hugepages to see if it helps you.

Edited June 17 by mackid1993