ATLAS My Virtualized unRAID server


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Networking – I believe I read somewhere in this thread that Johnm had originally intended on passing one of the gigE ports to unraid, but then had done fine with the bandwidth and left everything through just esxi.  While my unraid usage is not very high (majority use is media, maybe 2-3 simult. streams max), my concern here is how much bandwidth will be used mostly by the mythtv VM.  With a few streams coming in from the HDHR, as well as potentially streaming out via mythbox to xbmc frontends, I really have no idea how much bandwidth this may consume. 

 

I love the idea of the internal 10G vlan, especially since the myth VM will likely be transferring a fair amount of data to unraid, but am I going to be running into problems at some point with all of this going through a single gigE port managed by esxi?  If so, is there some way (not too terribly hard, or at least that I could figure my way through) to have the mythtv VM be passed the second gigE port but still have all traffic to/from the other VM’s routed internally?

 

 

You could technically create one vSwitch and then create two VM portgroups inside of it.  Both NIC's would be assigned to this vSwitch and then in each portgroup you can set NIC preferences, either active/passive for failover or active/dont ever use.  VM portgroup #1 would have NIC1 active NIC2 passive.  VM portgroup #2 would have it opposite.  You put your Myth box on VM portgroup #2 network and everything else on the other.

 

The downside is that from one portgroup to the other will go external to the box and through your network switch.

 

The better idea is to bond both NIC's into a single portgroup and let ESX handle it.  Chances are you will not have a problem, I would only try to fix it after a problem happens.  If you are planning on regularly pushing close to 1gb, what type of physical switch are you using?  More ofthen then not I find that a cheap "gigabit" switch is anything but, I burnt out several cheap brands before I got a HP switch.

 

Other random questions:

 

1) Just to be clear, because of the M1015 I should be running on 5.0b12a at the latest for the LSI issue, right?  Or do I need to go back further?

2) Non-build specific question, but hopefully a quick answer - how complicated is moving drives from current unraid (plugged into mb) to new build (fresh unraid) with M1015?  I'll look up more for sure on this before I even think about switching over, but if there's a fast/easy answer, I'd love to hear that its basically plug and go =)

3) Any suggestions of the best guest OS to run usenet box under?  Never touched usenet until running it as an unraid plugin, so I don’t have prior experience to work from.  Would a thin W7 guest be terrible for this, as I wouldn’t mind dumping an air-video server on this guest as well (airvideo doesn’t get used that much, but need to put it somewhere).

4) Mythtv being fed from a HDHR prime – was planning on taking the recordings from Mythtv and stripping/repacking them as mkv’s to be dropped into unraid media library – any reason to do this in a separate guest, or is doing it within the same fine?

 

(Sidenote: the W7 VM with passthrough graphics I know is off the beaten path and is hit or miss – its not critical, but something I’d like to do.)

1. b-12a has been stable for me.  I did have one instance of the unRAID guest resetting but I was copying data to the array and preclearing 5 drives at the same time.  Started up the exact same transfer and pre-clear after it was booted back up and it did not happen again, figured it was a fluke.

3. an old version of Ubuntu LTS server works for me.  Boot time is 5 seconds.  Thinking it was version 10.something

4. on average, multiple smaller machines tend to perform better then one large one with multiple CPU's.  Either will work, but a dedicated gust might work better.

 

 

How do you plan on connecting to your W7 guest?

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You could technically create one vSwitch and then create two VM portgroups inside of it.  Both NIC's would be assigned to this vSwitch and then in each portgroup you can set NIC preferences, either active/passive for failover or active/dont ever use.  VM portgroup #1 would have NIC1 active NIC2 passive.  VM portgroup #2 would have it opposite.  You put your Myth box on VM portgroup #2 network and everything else on the other.

 

The downside is that from one portgroup to the other will go external to the box and through your network switch.

 

The better idea is to bond both NIC's into a single portgroup and let ESX handle it.  Chances are you will not have a problem, I would only try to fix it after a problem happens.  If you are planning on regularly pushing close to 1gb, what type of physical switch are you using?  More ofthen then not I find that a cheap "gigabit" switch is anything but, I burnt out several cheap brands before I got a HP switch.

 

 

1. b-12a has been stable for me.  I did have one instance of the unRAID guest resetting but I was copying data to the array and preclearing 5 drives at the same time.  Started up the exact same transfer and pre-clear after it was booted back up and it did not happen again, figured it was a fluke.

3. an old version of Ubuntu LTS server works for me.  Boot time is 5 seconds.  Thinking it was version 10.something

4. on average, multiple smaller machines tend to perform better then one large one with multiple CPU's.  Either will work, but a dedicated gust might work better.

 

 

How do you plan on connecting to your W7 guest?

 

Thanks for the reply.  I think you might be right, that I should probably just start by letting esxi just manage a single port, and only if I have issues should I try bonding both ports.  Curious to see how easy/hard that would be if it comes to that, but I'd definitely have to invest in a better quality switch.

 

As for using multiple smaller machines - how small of a windows install are you able to make?  I'd ideally like to split functions off into more vm's (simple things like windows services i.e. airvideo, or other vm's for converting video), but I'm concerned with how they stack up space-wise on the datastore.

 

With the W7 guest I was going to push usb out to it in addition to the pci-e graphics.  There's a relatively long thread on the vm boards with people doing something similar (often it appears for a htpc frontend system), and it seems that people are having a better rate of success since esxi 5 and newer radeon drivers have come out over the last several months.  see: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/297072?start=180&tstart=0  Its at least interesting, and if it becomes more stable it could have some interesting applications down the road.

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Adding and removing NIC's from a vSwitch is very easy (like 5 seconds easy) and can be done live.  You don't bond the ports with LACP or Etherchannel or anything, only put both into the same vSwitch.  ESX will load balance the guests across all available NIC's (guests 1,2,4 on NIC1 and guests 3,5 on NIC2).

 

If I go for a minimal Windows install I usually go for XP SP2 or SP3.  Can usually have it running in 5gb pretty easy with a statically set 256mb pagefile.  A lot of the things I do will compile/modify/change data that is saved elsewhere while the applciation itself stays 100% static and unchanging, so I save it elsewhere and set the VMDK for the guest to be non-persistant.  As soon as it is powered off all changes to the disk will be dropped and it will be like it was.  You can thin provision everything so that they only ever use the actual amount of space they use.

 

I have a MS SQL server, Plex, the assortment of linux apps you mentioned, two unRAID machines, and two other Windows servers running all on a 60gb SSD.

 

 

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I ended up getting this USB 2.0 PCI-e card from Monoprice.  It's fantastic to finally get regular unRAID boot speeds. 

 

I was also hoping it would fix the consistent COMMLOST error I get in my Windows apcupsd slave, but unfortunately it's still happening (constantly loosing its connection then reconnecting).  Maybe it's a problem with my UPS or the cable.  Not sure if that's similar to the issue you're getting, savestheday.  I would imagine, however, with the frequent loss of connectivity that it wouldn't get the powerdown signal if the power is pulled.

 

Just bought this card to replace the other card seeing as I don't need FW800 in unRAID.  This other card I bought from Amazon (just USB 2.0) came up as Unknown USB in ESXi.  The FW800/USB 2.0 card worked perfectly with an NEC chipset.  Thinking of keeping it cept for the fact that it's $50 :)

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wow i leave for a week and there is a flurry of activity..

 

I hope all questions have been answered...

 

Atlas has been up since Jan 4th (or so) and pounded on 24x7 by friends, family members and myself both local and remoting into it.

Zero failures or issues in any hardware, guests or unRAID itself.

 

It is nice to have a stable box and not have to come home from work and do more IT work..

 

but.. i guess that means i need to do an upgrade of some sort now... things are to quiet and UCD is taking over..

 

I am also running low on free drives.. prices need to come down.. ugh..

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I have read through this thread.  So much great information!!!  I need to build a new Unraid server to replace my very ancient and underpowered current server.  I have a couple of questions:

 

I like the thought of the M1015's but I don't have another system to reflash the firmware on the cards, and since the recommended MB is not able to flash, would you recommend a different MB or got with MV8's?

 

Other than that, what would you do different?

 

Thanks!

James

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I know it was mentioned somewhere I believe earlier in this thread, but I think there are some members even on these boards that have sold the M1015 and would possibly be willing to flash it for you before shipping.  Not sure if there are any up now or will be before you buy, but its at least worth checking into.

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A little off topic but i had a question regarding UPS's.  I've been running an unRaid box for about 3 years without a UPS. it's crashed due to power outtages probably at least 2 dozen times and other than having to run a parity check it doesn't seem like there has been any serious issues.  Given the upfront cost and and the cost to replace batteries (about every 4 years or so) do you think a UPS is a necessity?  If so, why?

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You're right, it is off topic. Let me answer your question with a question.

 

Why use unRAID? You can easily run without it for years and likely never have any problems. Given the upfront costs and the maintenance do you think it's a necessity? If so, why?

 

For your purpose, consider UPSs to be like unRAID; they provide for additional safety and data security. The reason to use a UPS is a good UPS provides stable power to your system and prevents possible HD head crashes into the physical media due to power glitches.

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Would it be possible to partition a 256 gig SSD with one partition at 64 gigs used for a datastore with all VM guests and the second partition accessible by one of those VM guests (Win 7) as a drive?

 

I am pretty sure the answer is no.. ESX tends to want entire drives when mounted locally.

 

there is no reason you cant make yourself a 180GB(ish) virtual drive and toss win7 on it. It would probably more efficient that ways anyways and you have the option to move it to another drive later or expand/shrink it along with all of your other drives...

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Just bought 16GB of this RAM

 

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=W1333EB8GH

 

How did that work out for you?

 

When I bought my board, this stuff was available.

since then, it vanished and  the price skyrocketed.

 

Glad to see it is back.

 

My next question is if it will mix and match with kingston.

 

Yeah it's been tough for them to get/keep stock.  I will be receiving it tomorrow so I'll let you know.  I'm sure that mixing and matching will be ok but we'll see.  I'm not opposed to buying another 16GB and just maxing it out.  Hopefully one day unRAID will be 64 bit and can use over 4GB.

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Well, I've got a few different servers running on unRAID (Plex, Subsonic, etc) so not sure if they need more RAM.

 

The general idea of using ESXi to hose unRAID is so that you don't need to install any applications on your storage server.

And yet I still run Transmission, SABnzbd, SickBeard and a few others on the unRAID side of things.

 

My Windows XP VM is mostly used to add/rip/transcode/manage new DVD's and music I purchase.

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Personally, I like running it directly on unRAID for a number of reasons. I don't want to manage mappings to the server disappearing.  AFP is still terrible on unRAID.  I also like the fact that plex picks up things quicker (as well as SAB, sickbeard, etc) because they're mapped directly to the file system.

 

I use my other VM's for lots of other stuff.  I've got a dedicated Slackware vm that just hosts Ventrilo and apache .  The windows vm I have I is specificallY for managing esxi. The Lion VM is my EyeTV dvr (combined with the excellent HDHomeRun). I've got these servers doing different things that either unraid doesn't do (eyetv) or I don't want hosted on unRAID for security reasons (apache, ventrilo).

 

 

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And yet I still run Transmission, SABnzbd, SickBeard and a few others on the unRAID side of things.

 

My Windows XP VM is mostly used to add/rip/transcode/manage new DVD's and music I purchase.

 

Any overwhelming reason you didn't break out the usenet apps to a separate vm?  For me that's definitely one of the first things I'm doing with my new esxi transition. Am I missing something?

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Any overwhelming reason you didn't break out the usenet apps to a separate vm?

Mostly it is an "If it aint broke don't fix it" type thing.  Since getting the apps set up on unRAID they have run and do run perfectly fine for me.  My unRAID server is very rarely down and I very rarely make changes to it.  I would rather have all those intensive operations (par repair, unpack, unrar, etc) done on the unRAID server and the local file system.  The drive I have the VM's running from is only a 60GB SSD so I can't keep the files local on that to do the unrar and the like.  I would have to use a drive in the unRAID server as temp storage anyway and in that case I might as well have the apps running on unRAID.

 

For me that's definitely one of the first things I'm doing with my new esxi transition. Am I missing something?

Not so much missing something, it's just different for different people.  I will eventually install things on other VM's but for right now everything is the way I want it to be.

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