ATLAS My Virtualized unRAID server


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@Edgar - there are several options, but every one that I've seen require you to have a vCenter server running which typically runs on Windows anyway.. it also requires a licensed version of the vSphere suite.

 

The VMware vCenter web client is actually really nicely done - it gives you 99% of the functionality of the GUI vSphere client that you are using.  There is also an iPad app available from the vendor, but again requires vCenter server.

 

 

 

 

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In either situation, you still need to create some sort of 'physical' drive for unRAID to connect to via its web interface, which in a .vmdk's case, needs to be created with an IDE controller.  There is no real solution afaik.

 

 

Maybe we could get Tom to compile the pvscsi driver into the kernel.

I was going to attempt it myself to see how it works out.

 

According to this post from Tom it was added in RC5.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=20392.msg183286#msg183286

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I just tried it - .vmdk's attached to the VMware paravirtual controller still appear as just a drive reference, eg. (sda) or (sdb) and when you try and add one as a cache drive, it just refreshes the web page and turns it back to unassigned.  So either the driver isn't present or we're missing something fundamental here.  Nothing in the syslog to suggest why this behaviour is the case.

 

 

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I just tried it - .vmdk's attached to the VMware paravirtual controller still appear as just a drive reference, eg. (sda) or (sdb) and when you try and add one as a cache drive, it just refreshes the web page and turns it back to unassigned.  So either the driver isn't present or we're missing something fundamental here.  Nothing in the syslog to suggest why this behaviour is the case.

 

 

Maybe we should fork to another thread for this particular topic. I saw the module in the directory. I did a modprobe on it and it loaded. I did not get any further.

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@Edgar - there are several options, but every one that I've seen require you to have a vCenter server running which typically runs on Windows anyway.. it also requires a licensed version of the vSphere suite.

 

The VMware vCenter web client is actually really nicely done - it gives you 99% of the functionality of the GUI vSphere client that you are using.  There is also an iPad app available from the vendor, but again requires vCenter server.

Thanks a lot BetaQuasi, that was the kind of information I was looking for.

 

@Helmonder, thanks for your reply too but I was more looking for another way to manage the ESXi host.

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@Edgar - there are several options, but every one that I've seen require you to have a vCenter server running which typically runs on Windows anyway.. it also requires a licensed version of the vSphere suite.

 

The VMware vCenter web client is actually really nicely done - it gives you 99% of the functionality of the GUI vSphere client that you are using.  There is also an iPad app available from the vendor, but again requires vCenter server.

Thanks a lot BetaQuasi, that was the kind of information I was looking for.

 

@Helmonder, thanks for your reply too but I was more looking for another way to manage the ESXi host.

 

I saw some posts about vmware-vmrc.exe which gets installed with vmware player and the vsphere client.

Unfortunately I could not get it to work.  Kept saying that the vmware player is not installed.

 

I have also read some posts about enabling the VNC server ports through ESXi.

I was able to get it working but only to the extent of seeing a screen. I could not do anything further and it got late so I stopped.

 

I upgrade my vmware workstation to 9.0 to see if I could use that as a client and connect to the virtual machines instead of vsphere. I have not had a chance to test it yet.

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I just tried it - .vmdk's attached to the VMware paravirtual controller still appear as just a drive reference, eg. (sda) or (sdb) and when you try and add one as a cache drive, it just refreshes the web page and turns it back to unassigned.  So either the driver isn't present or we're missing something fundamental here.  Nothing in the syslog to suggest why this behaviour is the case.

 

 

Maybe we should fork to another thread for this particular topic. I saw the module in the directory. I did a modprobe on it and it loaded. I did not get any further.

 

 

Someone should bring it up in the latest RC thread perhaps, so it gets Tom's attention.

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I don't have time for a formal answer...

 

As i recall, My cache drive is a VMDK on an NFS share on the ZFS server (m1015 in freeNAS). I am using 10GB virtual nics to connect the 2. i do belive it is mounted as an IDE drive insode the VM configuration.

 

 

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I don't have time for a formal answer...

 

As i recall, My cache drive is a VMDK on an NFS share on the ZFS server (m1015 in freeNAS). I am using 10GB virtual nics to connect the 2. i do belive it is mounted as an IDE drive insode the VM configuration.

 

wow, what's the performance like on that?

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See quote a page or two back. Seems so e people are having issues.

 

And again, JhonM to the rescue  :)

The quote in page 76 refferes to a test on the USENET guest.

 

When you copy to an unRaid share what is the transfer rate?

Can you check it actuallyt went to the Cache drive...

 

I tried the IDE VMDK it simply gives 15MB`s no exceptions...

 

 

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Regarding ZFS...

 

Do you use ZIL? I disabled it on all ZFS file systems.

 

I dont think it is worth 2 fine SSD`s.

 

Without a dedicated ZIL drive the speed is terrible... unusable NAS.

When cancelling ZIL the speeds are just fantastic!

 

zik7ti.jpg

 

100MB is rapidly fast, no flush.

1000MB is slower since there is a flush every 5 seconds which slows down to disk speeds.

 

I know I might suffer from data loss...

I have a UPS and I dont run a rapid write system....

I need to have a very, very bad luck to suffer from data loss...

 

Most of my hardcore VM`s are on an SSD anyway..

 

 

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This might be beyond the scope of this, but I will try:

 

I have configured ESXI host and one VM with WHS 2011.  I am running the X9SCM-IIF, E3-1240 V2, with 2 M1015 cards flashed to IT mode.  I am trying to get s.m.a.r.t. temp readings from my hard drives in whs 2011 (the controller is passthrough to WHS 2011).  Why would the s.m.a.r.t. functionality not work?  Thanks for your help!

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This might be beyond the scope of this, but I will try:

 

I have configured ESXI host and one VM with WHS 2011.  I am running the X9SCM-IIF, E3-1240 V2, with 2 M1015 cards flashed to IT mode.  I am trying to get s.m.a.r.t. temp readings from my hard drives in whs 2011 (the controller is passthrough to WHS 2011).  Why would the s.m.a.r.t. functionality not work?  Thanks for your help!

 

OS/Driver issue.

 

I have the same setup, 2 M1015 with E1240-V2 on X9SCM.

 

I pass them to unRaid and ZFS. I have smart on both.

 

Try updating the driver

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Hi all

 

Been away for a while as everything has been running so well (with a few small exceptions) - good to see this thread is so active.  Downside is that its too hard to catch up on whats been going on and any developments made.

 

I completed my install not long after this thread started and back then I had purchased everything for a stand alone install and then changed direction to this solution.

 

I have come to a point where I need to add more drives and need another M105.  When I bought all me gear I also purchased two Supermicro SAS2 cards but these did not work with ESXi5 so I had to pull them.  I was too lazy to seel them again so they are still sitting there.

 

Is there any chance that these cards will work now?  Has anyone done anything that will allow me to use them in passthrough for Unraid?

 

Also, my main drive is a single drive - which I am not happy with becasue if it fails I loose the whole system.  Can anyone recomend a cheap two port raid card so I can mirror these drives (would also allow me to put the motherboard ports into passthrough as well then).

 

This is all on a SM micro board as per the first post here.

 

Thanks

 

Mick

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znelbok->

 

I've been using this card under ESXi with great success:

 

Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8E 6Gb/s 8-Port SAS Internal RAID Adapter w/ LSISAS 2008

 

I am doing pass-through to unRAID with no issues. I even flashed it to latest firmwares using same procedure and files as for IBM M1015.

 

I believe (but haven' checked) that you can flash IT firmware to USAS2-L8I card as well.

 

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I also purchased two Supermicro SAS2 cards but these did not work with ESXi5 so I had to pull them.  I was too lazy to seel them again so they are still sitting there.

znelbok, are you talking about the Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8?

 

I have this card up and running: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=26697.msg233906#msg233906

 

The blemish is that it's shown as "unknown RAID controller" in ESXi 5.1 but it's running fine. Details of my build in my signature.

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So my new M1015 card came in and I set up a ZFS RAID-Z array with OpenIndiana/napp-it. I'm using four Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM laptop drives. I'm getting nice performance. I may get an SSD to add as a ZIL and see if that improves performance even further.

 

From the dd read write bench in napp-it:

 

Memory size: 8192 Megabytes

write 16.777216 GB via dd, please wait...
time dd if=/dev/zero of=/pool1/dd.tst bs=2048000 count=8192

8192+0 records in
8192+0 records out

real       55.7
user        0.0
sys         3.6

16.777216 GB in 55.7s = 301.21 MB/s Write

wait 40 s
________________________________________
read 16.777216 GB via dd, please wait...
time dd if=/pool1/dd.tst of=/dev/null bs=2048000

8192+0 records in
8192+0 records out

real       59.6
user        0.0
sys         2.9

16.777216 GB in 59.6s = 281.50 MB/s Read

 

 

And over NFS from an Ubuntu VM:

 

mike@Workhorse:/nfs/test$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=dd.tst bs=2048000 count=2048
2048+0 records in
2048+0 records out
4194304000 bytes (4.2 GB) copied, 14.1594 s, 296 MB/s

mike@Workhorse:/nfs/test$ sudo dd if=dd.tst of=/dev/null bs=2048000
2048+0 records in
2048+0 records out
4194304000 bytes (4.2 GB) copied, 18.7457 s, 224 MB/s

 

 

 

However, my problem comes when I'm trying to use this ZFS array to set up a cache drive for my unraid array. I added the NFS share as a datastore. I then changed the SCSI controller for the unraid guest to the Paravirtual adapter, created a new virtual disk in SCSI mode on the NFS share, booted up unraid and added it as my cache drive. The problem is the virtual disk always appears to be spun down so it gets bypassed and writes go directly to the unraid array disks and I can't create any cache only shares. However, I can manually browse to the cache from the terminal and write data to it. Did I do something wrong when adding this disk?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes, that is the card.  Donta care what it shows up as as long as it works and I can use them.

 

Thanks for the heads up

 

I also purchased two Supermicro SAS2 cards but these did not work with ESXi5 so I had to pull them.  I was too lazy to seel them again so they are still sitting there.

znelbok, are you talking about the Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8?

 

I have this card up and running: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=26697.msg233906#msg233906

 

The blemish is that it's shown as "unknown RAID controller" in ESXi 5.1 but it's running fine. Details of my build in my signature.

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Thanks, but I am looking for a dual port raid card for boot ESXi from, not a card to pass through to UnRaid.

 

znelbok->

 

I've been using this card under ESXi with great success:

 

Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8E 6Gb/s 8-Port SAS Internal RAID Adapter w/ LSISAS 2008

 

I am doing pass-through to unRAID with no issues. I even flashed it to latest firmwares using same procedure and files as for IBM M1015.

 

I believe (but haven' checked) that you can flash IT firmware to USAS2-L8I card as well.

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any of the LSI 1068 cards should work. check esx compatibility list to be sure on other ones.

 

Thanks, but I am looking for a dual port raid card for boot ESXi from, not a card to pass through to UnRaid.

 

znelbok->

 

I've been using this card under ESXi with great success:

 

Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8E 6Gb/s 8-Port SAS Internal RAID Adapter w/ LSISAS 2008

 

I am doing pass-through to unRAID with no issues. I even flashed it to latest firmwares using same procedure and files as for IBM M1015.

 

I believe (but haven' checked) that you can flash IT firmware to USAS2-L8I card as well.

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Ive been reading this thread and trying to set up ESXI with a couple of VM's. I followed the instruction but ran into a bit of a roadblock. My hardware is similar to Johnm's. I changed the settings in the bios to allow to passthrough devices to vm's, I flashed the firmware on my controller card (IBM M1015) to IT mode. My problem arises when I try to add storage in ESXI. My Storage adapter card is recognized as LSI 2008 under the storage adapter section, but when I go to create a new datastore there is are no hard drives to select.  Im not sure what im missing, I've tried passing my controller card to the unraid vm, and while the controller is detected in the VM, the same issue persists, no hard drives are showing up. Im not sure if I missed something, I combed through the instructions several times and I dont see what im doing wrong. Any help is greatly appreciated, I can post additional info if required.

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