Booting a VMDK image in Unraid

[inghamio]

Hi All,

 

I have VMDK that I exported from an AWS EC2 instance from a few years ago. I was trying to create it as a VM in Unraid...

 

I followed instructions from:

 

Here is what I have done:

* Created a new VM in Unraid

* Set logical CPUs

* Set the BIOS to SeaBIOS

* Set the primary vdisk location manually (typing out the full path /awsexport.vmdk)

* Set primary vdisk bus to SATA

* Left all other settings as default and started the VM

 

I am getting stuck at this point:

 

I've left this for a few minutes but it seems it's not going to work. Is there anything else I should be doing before expecting this to work?

 

Many thanks

[itimpi]

9 minutes ago, inghamio said:

Hi All,

 

I have VMDK that I exported from an AWS EC2 instance from a few years ago. I was trying to create it as a VM in Unraid...

 

I followed instructions from:

 

Here is what I have done:

* Created a new VM in Unraid

* Set logical CPUs

* Set the BIOS to SeaBIOS

* Set the primary vdisk location manually (typing out the full path /awsexport.vmdk)

* Set primary vdisk bus to SATA

* Left all other settings as default and started the VM

 

I am getting stuck at this point:

 

I've left this for a few minutes but it seems it's not going to work. Is there anything else I should be doing before expecting this to work?

 

Many thanks

That should work, although you do need to have a flash drive on the same release passed through to the VM.   You then have to be careful that when installing a new release you update both VMDK and the flash drive to that release at the same time as if they are on different releases the subsequent boot will fail.

[inghamio]

On 1/23/2024 at 12:27 PM, itimpi said:

That should work, although you do need to have a flash drive on the same release passed through to the VM.   You then have to be careful that when installing a new release you update both VMDK and the flash drive to that release at the same time as if they are on different releases the subsequent boot will fail.

 

Hi, forgive my ignorance but why would I need a flash drive passed through to the VM?

 

I don't intend on updating it at all, it's just going to be so I can spin it up for reference.

 

Thanks

[SimonF]

3 minutes ago, inghamio said:

 

Hi, forgive my ignorance but why would I need a flash drive passed through to the VM?

 

I don't intend on updating it at all, it's just going to be so I can spin it up for reference.

 

Thanks

If you want to start the system you need a valid key which is linked to guid of usb flash drive. 

[itimpi]

6 minutes ago, inghamio said:

 

Hi, forgive my ignorance but why would I need a flash drive passed through to the VM?

 

I don't intend on updating it at all, it's just going to be so I can spin it up for reference.

 

Thanks

I was thinking you were trying to boot a VM that was running Unraid in the VM.   If that is not the case then the flash drive is not needed.  

[inghamio]

8 minutes ago, itimpi said:

I was thinking you were trying to boot a VM that was running Unraid in the VM.   If that is not the case then the flash drive is not needed.  

Ah no, I see what you mean though.

 

No I have a VM that I exported from AWS and wanted to then run it in Unraid. I think I did everything right but it never gets past "Booting from hard disk". I'll look into it again this weekend and post any progress if there is any!

 

Thanks

[inghamio]

14 minutes ago, SimonF said:

If you want to start the system you need a valid key which is linked to guid of usb flash drive. 

Yes I have an Unraid Pro licence.

 

There was a bit of confusion here above... I wasn't trying to run Unraid in an Unraid VM 😁. I have plenty of VMs that run fine, but I cannot get it to boot one from a VMDK file that I exported from AWS.

[itimpi]

6 minutes ago, inghamio said:

Ah no, I see what you mean though.

 

No I have a VM that I exported from AWS and wanted to then run it in Unraid. I think I did everything right but it never gets past "Booting from hard disk". I'll look into it again this weekend and post any progress if there is any!

 

Thanks

I have a Windows 7 VM that I boot and run from a VMDK.