I thought I would explore this one more time, while I am waiting for my 18 hour daya copy to finish.  My main use for Unraid is to provide storage for my Mymovies collection (MCE plugin)

 

I need a windows box to host a mysql DB and to have something for my Xbox extenders to connect through that is always on.

 

I have a Poweredge 1850 rackmount server standing by to do the job, but the lights in the house dim every time I push the power button if ya know what I mean....

 

My unraid rig was built with 4GB of ram, but only a sempron CPU.  I cant imagine the VM needing much CPU power...all its doing is sitting Idle 99% of the time.  so my question is, is running a VM with unraid worth the hassle if I can save myself rack space and some electricity??

 

The task looks extremely difficult to accomplish, and I am concered about breaking my new and first unraid server. 

 

1.  So my question is..  Why isnt this easier to setup?  lol (ive been reading here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=10978.135)

 

2.  Is there anyone out there in a similar situation as me where they need an "always on" machine to host their DB?

 

3.  Is this setup dangerous at all?  Is this a recommended solution? 

 

thanks

I have a D510 Atom with 4GB memory running VirtualBox on my unRAID.

 

It is not that difficult - just need to compile as the instructions says - step-by-step. (I have no Linux experience).

 

I use it as my download engine and maybe will include scheduled YAMJ jukebox building (for my POPCORNHOUR streamer) in the future (currently running as CRON).

 

The CPU seems powerful enough for these jobs and memory hasn't been an issue yet.

It has been running stable for a few months now with no issues.

 

The only "problem" is that you need to do a manual Virtual Machine unmounting when you want to shutdown/restart your unRAID server because it keeps files open/blocked.

For starting up I have a few lines in my GO script - so it is done automatically.

 

Thank you very much for that info.  The way I figure it, ill only need about 1GB of ram for the Vm.  Can you tell me which lines you added to the GO file?  Also, I am assuming you have a way to automount it as well?  (you said your GO file auto unmounted)

 

I am assuming you did the windows install through the web interface?  Have you tested the ability to RDP to ths box?  (even though I am sure it works)

 

I also read that when you upgrade unraid that you have to make special considerations for your VM?  I am using 4.7 right now, but at some point, I will likely require 3TB support

 

 

I gave my virtual machine 1.5GB of the 4GB I have in my system.

 

My GO script auto-mounts the VM when unraid starts up:

 

#Initialize VirtualBox
VBoxManage extpack install /boot/extra_my/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.8-71778.vbox-extpack
VBoxManage setproperty websrvauthlibrary null
vboxwebsrv -H 0.0.0.0 1>/dev/null 2>&1 &
nohup VBoxHeadless --startvm "YOUR VIRTUAL MACHINE NAME" >/dev/null 2>&1 &

 

in RDP if you mean "remote desktop" then yes I use it constantly.

 

I am also currently running 4.7 but read that people here on the forum also run it under 5.0beta - When upgrading unRAID you will need to recompile VirtualBox with the latest relevant KERNEL and libraries but your actual virtual machine should work correctly.

one thing to keep in mind, the Sempron is a single core chip with no hyperthreading. the Atom is a dual core chip with hyperthreading..

 

Someone else on these forums tried to do unraid plus 1 windows VM on an ESXi box with a Sempron and it failed. there was not enough horsepower to pull it off. both machines lagged horribly and transfer speeds to the unraid were horrid and jerky. The ESXi method should use less resources then V-Box on unraid.

 

it is worth a shot, but you will most likely need to toss a bigger CPU into the  server. at least a dualcore.

 

YMMV

one thing to keep in mind, the Sempron is a single core chip with no hyperthreading. the Atom is a dual core chip with hyperthreading..

 

Someone else on these forums tried to do unraid plus 1 windows VM on an ESXi box with a Sempron and it failed. there was not enough horsepower to pull it off. both machines lagged horribly and transfer speeds to the unraid were horrid and jerky. The ESXi method should use less resources then V-Box on unraid.

 

it is worth a shot, but you will most likely need to toss a bigger CPU into the  server. at least a dualcore.

 

YMMV

 

Yeah i was afriad that might come back to bite me.....  How much and when does unraid really use the CPU?  I guess mostly to calculate parity?  That is very frustrating.  I knew I shouldn't have went cheap on the CPU

The Parity calculation is not stressful enough on the CPU. It's a simple XOR.

 

 

So I opened up notepad and pasted in a sample script

 

#!/bin/bash

clear

echo "Good morning, world."

 

 

I saved the file as test.sh in notepad and used winscp from windows to transfer it to unraid Disk1. 

 

I then opened a telnet to unraid navigated to the right directory, did a chmod 775 on test.sh

 

then ./test.sh and it doesnt run.  I wanted to test this before I ran the vbox scripts...  I guess im showing how much of a linux noob I am here....

 

Whats going on?

 

and for reference, should I run the Vbox scripts from disk1?

 

 

it is probably the line endings in the test.sh file.

 

Use notepad++ and make sure to save it correctly.

it is probably the line endings in the test.sh file.

 

Use notepad++ and make sure to save it correctly.

 

it appears to not like the "#!/bin/bash" command.  If I remove that it works.  Problem is that the Vbox script has it in the beginning as well it starts like this

 

#!/bin/bash

P="$(dirname "$(readlink -f ${BASH_SOURCE[0]})")"

 

[ ! -d "$P/packages" ] && mkdir $P/packages

 

This is so frustrating....  What do these lines even mean?

So I looked up the "bad interpreter" error.  Apparently, these scripts do not like to be created in windows.  I even tried creating with notepad ++ and saving in the unix format, and I still get the error.

 

any help?

Did you make it executable with chmod u+x "filename"

So I opened mcedit through a terminal and pasted in there and now its running.  I am assuming I do not have to stop my array, considering it was no where in the instructions?

 

Also, how can I confirm that the step that makes the custom headers is working

 

 

Alright, I believe I got Virtual box running,  I am assiming i need to add an "installpkg" command to my Go file?

 

Where can i find information on testing VB from a command line until I can get PHPVB up and running?

 

thanks