Hi All, with bringing Internal boot to 7.3 I have been working on a new test(beta) installer which allows you to create a single drive internal boot disk from a bootable usb or iso.

NOTE this is for clean new installs not for upgrades. The installer also will allow you to create an Unraid USB Flash drive from the device you have just booted from.

The files are available from here:

iso: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WDfQ2maaS4RKpffOsc-8pO9tcEi5VwpA/view?usp=sharing

img: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jrvumnD8wit_NCkUMZfzKWYTaYRtnDyP/view?usp=sharing

To use the img you will need to create a bootable usb. You can use rufus but you need to select dd mode or if running from linux sudo dd if=builds/install-user-minimal.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync where sdx is the usb

Both don't have any zip files stored in them so you need to download the zip first. Then you can create an Internal boot or flash. The may be a version that has a zip inbedded also.

So if you have a spare test environment and you want to try it out please do and provide feedback. It has so rough edges but is functional.

You will get the same grub boot page before the menu.

You can test with a VM using the ISO as a CD.

I will give the iso a test in a Virtual PVE environment.

Writing another guide how I did it in pve

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/198068-guide-yet-another-proxmox-pve-unraid-guide/

Edited April 1Apr 1 by bmartino1

New to Unraid. This is my welcome post 😅

Giving this a shot. Before buying, going to virtualize in VMWare ESXi to see if I like it. I am really enjoying this installer. Thanks very much @SimonF for developing this.

Here are a few snippets of my progress...

It booted!




However -- NO NETWORK ACCESS!

A reconfigure of the VM Network Adapter to "E1000" allowed connectivity.





Ensure your VM HDD is set to SATA. ESXi Defaults to SCSI, which is not detected.

After. I got some progress messages, then a success message. I chose to power off, remove the 'cd' / ISO, then I got...



which led to

To confirm: The installation was remotely accessible. I am going to bed for the night, however this worked flawless, and this was my first Unraid install.

Update: Didn't go to bed but am now. Reached a hard stop. Question -- Did I do something wrong, or is this a problem inherent to an install without a USB drive attached?

Thanks!

Edited April 2Apr 2 by SuperKMK
incomplete post

15 hours ago, SuperKMK said:

New to Unraid. This is my welcome post 😅

Giving this a shot. Before buying, going to virtualize in VMWare ESXi to see if I like it. I am really enjoying this installer. Thanks very much @SimonF for developing this.

Here are a few snippets of my progress...

It booted!




However -- NO NETWORK ACCESS!

A reconfigure of the VM Network Adapter to "E1000" allowed connectivity.





Ensure your VM HDD is set to SATA. ESXi Defaults to SCSI, which is not detected.

After. I got some progress messages, then a success message. I chose to power off, remove the 'cd' / ISO, then I got...



which led to

To confirm: The installation was remotely accessible. I am going to bed for the night, however this worked flawless, and this was my first Unraid install.

Update: Didn't go to bed but am now. Reached a hard stop. Question -- Did I do something wrong, or is this a problem inherent to an install without a USB drive attached?

Thanks!

Be Forewarned!

with talking with support, they are still anti OS in a Hyper V and against Urnaid being virtualized and currently will not support this method. (It is only becuase its is in Beta this is sometimes the best time to attempt and take a look...)

That said usb passing a license Unraid also works even in trial mode, as I was retesting this applicable use case for Myself and another... as they may also want a similar internal boot but are happy with the USB licensed pass-through atm(that is known working). it just would be nice for the VDisk to also be the internal boot and left be the mnt cachedisk for are docker enviroment for docker dev testing(something they have also advised aginst...). for pve backup. some in java virtual box were able to make a VDisk USB device as a licensed boot disk in the past...

That said per support:
Quote

Thanks for following up. To clarify my previous email
"
I do apologize but we don't currently officially support the virtualization of Unraid, and don't have a VM option for the license key. 
(This forum link)

As you may have seen, many users have had success with using USB pass through in the past. You could attempt this with the free 30 day trial license on a new USB. 

You can set up a trial key by using the unraid installer to install a qualified flash USB device. https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/getting-started/set-up-unraid/create-your-bootable-media/
Upon booting from the USB, the system will prompt you to complete the trial registration>

So in thoery one could tranfer there usb key and or a tiral key once generated.
Internal Boot is supposed to use the TPM and ZFS-generated GUID for it licensing. adational reall hardware may need to be passed to qualify and meet physical hardware and Unriad Licenseing standartds.

While I have a free license I don't want to kill the curently licensed usb device thus the pictures and incomplete post above. More just a over view of some PVE based settings and proff of concept. at this time the beta will not move past testing due to licensing issues and access to other setups...

with PVE I have sucessfuly allowed the pve host to handle disks and was able to map the host path via virtio fs and map points with out issues.

thus the need for disk by id passing or a HBA is not alwys needed. taht sid this would still require teh unassinged disk and adatioanl bind mapping to /mnt/remotes/addons/teh datapath on host

to properly use ont eh sytem...

example:

example user scirpt in unraid to pass host level disk paths.

# Create mount points
mkdir -p /host
mkdir -p /mnt/remotes/RACKPVE_Dockers
mkdir -p /nfs

# Mount VirtioFS shares from PVE
mount -t virtiofs data /host

#Mke unriad and other things happy
mkdir -p /mnt/remotes/addons/host
mount --bind /host /mnt/remotes/addons/host

The musing of a mad man testing things and doing things because I Can.

Again, THIS DOESN'T MEAN ITS STABLE!
And can only recommend following the supported recommendation and License TOS.

16 hours ago, SuperKMK said:

New to Unraid. This is my welcome post 😅

Giving this a shot. Before buying, going to virtualize in VMWare ESXi to see if I like it. I am really enjoying this installer. Thanks very much @SimonF for developing this.

Here are a few snippets of my progress...

It booted!




However -- NO NETWORK ACCESS!

A reconfigure of the VM Network Adapter to "E1000" allowed connectivity.





Ensure your VM HDD is set to SATA. ESXi Defaults to SCSI, which is not detected.

After. I got some progress messages, then a success message. I chose to power off, remove the 'cd' / ISO, then I got...



which led to

To confirm: The installation was remotely accessible. I am going to bed for the night, however this worked flawless, and this was my first Unraid install.

Update: Didn't go to bed but am now. Reached a hard stop. Question -- Did I do something wrong, or is this a problem inherent to an install without a USB drive attached?

Thanks!

You need to have usb device with a Unique GUID connected to the VM for license. TPM license is not supported under VMs

1 hour ago, SimonF said:

You need to have usb device with a Unique GUID connected to the VM for license. TPM license is not supported under VMs

Would you be more willing to share or explain then on how one would use the unraid usb for the license then?

I'm more trying to understand what your actual setup and requirements would be for this:
https://unraid.net/blog/unraid-7-3-beta.1?srsltid=AfmBOopz_zT7WWOn5GDbJLneiqE988kR3ZRhxluxK-NZxTAXfleeHs7K

Internal Boot and Licensing: Connected, But Not the Same Thing

Internal Boot determines where Unraid boots from. Licensing determines what hardware your license is tied to. These are separate choices, and that distinction matters:

• Boot internally + and keep your flash drive for licensing

• Boot internally + and use TPM for licensing, if your hardware supports it
  
  

Getting very little support. When I'm mainly just trying to get clear clarification requirements and expectations.

As virtualed vtpm will be flagged (this is a good security thing) and unraid still needs something to validate and be a license.
Example... Does this mean I can just pass a usb device and use that as a license only? or just use the usb at that point?

I only bring it up as quite a few Motherbaords are using swtpm and software TPM firmware on board. Are all the software firmware TPM then not usable?
-from the tpm 1.x bios move to support win 11...

Edited April 2Apr 2 by bmartino1
data - typo

6 minutes ago, bmartino1 said:

would you be more willing to share or explain then on how one would use the uraid usb for the license then?

I'm more tryign to understand what your actual setup and requirment would be for this:
https://unraid.net/blog/unraid-7-3-beta.1?srsltid=AfmBOopz_zT7WWOn5GDbJLneiqE988kR3ZRhxluxK-NZxTAXfleeHs7K

Internal Boot and Licensing: Connected, But Not the Same Thing

Internal Boot determines where Unraid boots from. Licensing determines what hardware your license is tied to. These are separate choices, and that distinction matters:

• Boot internally + and keep your flash drive for licensing

• Boot internally + and use TPM for licensing, if your hardware supports it
  
  

Getting very little with support. When I'm mainly just trying to get clear clarfication requirments and expetations.

As virtualed vtpm will be flaged (this is a good security thing) and unraid still needs soemthing to valdate and be a license.
Example... Does this mean I can just pasa a usb device and use that as a license only? or just use the usb at that point?

I only bring it up as quite a few Motherbaords are using swtpm and software TPM firmwar on board. Are all the firmware TPM then not useable?

Here is the faq. https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/troubleshooting/tpm-licensing-faq/

For a VM you will need to pass thru a usb for the guid to use with standard license like you would have done previously. There does not need to be anything installed on the device, it just needs to have the UNRAID label for the device.

I just wanted to follow up. In my case, the issue apparantly was with my USB drive itself actually. I did have it connected but it was having issues in UnRaid/Linux. Seemingly works fine for windows. Good to know.




So now, this is what I see, instead of an ugly error. I assume this is normal, and expected?

Overall, positive feedback. This script seems to have accomplished its mandate successfully. Thanks again @SimonF

Edited April 4Apr 4 by SuperKMK

16 hours ago, SuperKMK said:

I just wanted to follow up. In my case, the issue apparantly was with my USB drive itself actually. I did have it connected but it was having issues in UnRaid/Linux. Seemingly works fine for windows. Good to know.




So now, this is what I see, instead of an ugly error. I assume this is normal, and expected?

Overall, positive feedback. This script seems to have accomplished its mandate successfully. Thanks again @SimonF

Yes as there is not key file, you may need to copy from the flash if that is licensed. I am adding more drivers to the build so SCSI drives work and more network cards should be found.

12 hours ago, SimonF said:

Yes as there is not key file, you may need to copy from the flash if that is licensed. I am adding more drivers to the build so SCSI drives work and more network cards should be found.

That would be awesome! I'd be interested in looking into the scsi connected and network boot variants. I wonder how hard it would be to render part of this to be used in something like pxe netboot.

It is nice sometimes having the mem test and I often use the unraid USB for memtest and some quick Linux terminal commands for disc execution for recovery.

But so far yes, the installer works great and I'm happy to see an evolution of this nature.

Took some time today to test this out - I snagged some 16GB Octane drives preparing for internal boot and wanted to explore a few things, verify some hardware and figured why not test this out too.

Bug found: I am unable to create a dedicated boot drive directly. The failure seems clear: it's actually trying to create a boot partition with 0 bytes.

Steps taken after usb (from .img) booted up:

1. Download image (7.3b2)

2. Set Boot size (Dedicated, 0)

3. Install

Not sure of an easy way to grab the log, so the useful bits here with a bunch redacted to save typing:

Boot pool target size: dedicated

==> [1/9] Preparing...

==> [2/9] Wiping existing partition table

... calling ioctl to re-read partition table: Success

==> [3/9] Creating bootable target partitions

Using DISK_ID: ...

Using /boot-transfer

writing GPT on device (nvme0n1), with boot size 0MiB

...

Creating new GPT entries in memory

Could not create partition 3 from 1048576 to 0

...

I was able to set an 8GB partition and install on the same setup, and I was able to install to flash and immediately convert to internal boot on the first boot-up (dedicated drive).

Second potential issue: I was getting full screen flash on redraws as it updated progress % - anyone that has a flashing lights sensitivity might be in trouble. 3440x1440 monitor in case that has anything to do with it (no stretch so it detected properly)

Another observation: I initially suspected my install media (an old microsd card in a reader) might be the problem so switched drives; on the old/slow drive the initial GRUB screen provides no feedback whatsoever (nor any options) for quite some time - I thought the system had locked! Switched to a flaky usb3 drive and it was a completely different experience. May just be how it is.

Finally: I have an Intel x710-da2 in the machine; the BIOS sees it just fine. The installer came up "no network" but it worked perfectly once actually booted into Unraid (used the onboard 1g lan for install).

14 hours ago, _cjd_ said:

Took some time today to test this out - I snagged some 16GB Octane drives preparing for internal boot and wanted to explore a few things, verify some hardware and figured why not test this out too.

Bug found: I am unable to create a dedicated boot drive directly. The failure seems clear: it's actually trying to create a boot partition with 0 bytes.

Steps taken after usb (from .img) booted up:

1. Download image (7.3b2)

2. Set Boot size (Dedicated, 0)

3. Install

Not sure of an easy way to grab the log, so the useful bits here with a bunch redacted to save typing:

Boot pool target size: dedicated

==> [1/9] Preparing...

==> [2/9] Wiping existing partition table

... calling ioctl to re-read partition table: Success

==> [3/9] Creating bootable target partitions

Using DISK_ID: ...

Using /boot-transfer

writing GPT on device (nvme0n1), with boot size 0MiB

...

Creating new GPT entries in memory

Could not create partition 3 from 1048576 to 0

...

I was able to set an 8GB partition and install on the same setup, and I was able to install to flash and immediately convert to internal boot on the first boot-up (dedicated drive).

Second potential issue: I was getting full screen flash on redraws as it updated progress % - anyone that has a flashing lights sensitivity might be in trouble. 3440x1440 monitor in case that has anything to do with it (no stretch so it detected properly)

Another observation: I initially suspected my install media (an old microsd card in a reader) might be the problem so switched drives; on the old/slow drive the initial GRUB screen provides no feedback whatsoever (nor any options) for quite some time - I thought the system had locked! Switched to a flaky usb3 drive and it was a completely different experience. May just be how it is.

Finally: I have an Intel x710-da2 in the machine; the BIOS sees it just fine. The installer came up "no network" but it worked perfectly once actually booted into Unraid (used the onboard 1g lan for install).

Thanks for the feedback, the level of drivers in this initial release needed to be fixed. Dedicated support is not complete in this initial release.

There can be a while where it sits on blank screen before Loading.... is shown, this is done to the read speed of the the media.

Flashing may be related to drivers also. Next version should have more current drivers. I am working on automated build chain currently so will be looking to have a new release in a few weeks.

Yeah, drivers is always the fun bit. This is no small task. The Intel stuff is often easier, glad the onboard nic worked!

The process was good still, even able to use a blacklisted usb, install to that usb with immediate switch to internal and tpm and never a license alert. The drive is flaky but I tried it thinking the usb adapter was the problem.

The surprise was dedicated boot failing. I'd just received the optame drives (one was actually DOA) so it was a bad assumption initially the drives were the problem.

In the end the question is, is it worth the effort. For that I'd be curious what this looks like as part of recovery - or if it has to be the existing approach there. That's even more work!

I did find it smooth and easy, nicer than finding the latest usb creator image on whatever system I happen to be on.

From another direction, I updated my Unraid 7.2.2 to 7.3 and was able to get it to boot from an internal, virtual drive. The only issue is you have to continue to pass through the USB for the "License Dongle" method of registration with its valid hardware GUID for registration. I did have to manually synchronize the transfer of data from the USB to the internal drive as it didn't do it as part of the wizard as well.

3 hours ago, Brenex said:

From another direction, I updated my Unraid 7.2.2 to 7.3 and was able to get it to boot from an internal, virtual drive. The only issue is you have to continue to pass through the USB for the "License Dongle" method of registration with its valid hardware GUID for registration. I did have to manually synchronize the transfer of data from the USB to the internal drive as it didn't do it as part of the wizard as well.

If you want to remove the USB you will need a valid TPM in the system and transfer the key. I notice this a VM which does not have TPM support so you will need to retain the USB.

1 hour ago, SimonF said:

If you want to remove the USB you will need a valid TPM in the system and transfer the key. I notice this a VM which does not have TPM support so you will need to retain the USB.

To ask about this, trying to passthrough TPM through proxmox seems to trigger invalid boot device and license even though the TPM is available and can be queried like a normal TPM device. Is there any alternatives for this?

2 hours ago, Grohmand said:

To ask about this, trying to passthrough TPM through proxmox seems to trigger invalid boot device and license even though the TPM is available and can be queried like a normal TPM device. Is there any alternatives for this?

Currently TPM licenses are not supported within a VM. Only work around is to use a USB device for the GUID. Not data is stored on it.

7 hours ago, Grohmand said:

To ask about this, trying to passthrough TPM through proxmox seems to trigger invalid boot device and license even though the TPM is available and can be queried like a normal TPM device. Is there any alternatives for this?

You pass a thumb drive that is labeled unraid and that acts as your GUID license as explained in multiple post above.

It is ill-advised to IOMMU device pass the physical hardware TPM that your system boots or you have in the system for unraid licensing.

Nor would I advise passing the TPM of the physical hardware into a virtual machine due to root kits and other attack factors that you open yourself up to

Edited May 13May 13 by bmartino1
TTS fix words from phone

5 hours ago, SimonF said:

Currently TPM licenses are not supported within a VM. Only work around is to use a USB device for the GUID. Not data is stored on it.

I see thank you, how would I move the license to an USB before I transfer it into a VM as I don't get the option anywhere, this is baremetal with Unraid running directly on it.

58 minutes ago, Grohmand said:

I see thank you, how would I move the license to an USB before I transfer it into a VM as I don't get the option anywhere, this is baremetal with Unraid running directly on it.

How did you build you server I guess you are using internal boot?

You should be able to do a flash back create a new usb from the back and then transfer the license back.

docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/getting-started/set-up-unraid/internal-boot-faq/

2 hours ago, SimonF said:

How did you build you server I guess you are using internal boot?

You should be able to do a flash back create a new usb from the back and then transfer the license back.

docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/getting-started/set-up-unraid/internal-boot-faq/

Yes I am using internal boot with TPM currently.

Thank you, I am sorry for hijacking the topic but regarding the internal boot as we are on the topic, this won't blacklist my old TPM right? It will just blacklist the USB drive if I had any (I used a new USB drive as I believe the old one to be blacklisted when I originally did the TPM transfer)

Original USB (blacklisted) -> TPM -> New USB (TPM fine for blacklist?)

Edited May 13May 13 by Grohmand

6 hours ago, Grohmand said:

I am sorry for hijacking the topic but regarding the internal boot as we are on the topic, this won't blacklist my old TPM right?

It will make the current TPM key invalid, but you can still use the same TPM in the future for a new license, or even transfer this one from the flash drive back to the TPM (flash drives are permanently blacklisted).

This installer ISO is great, however I cannot get my network interface to load.

Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller X550 [8086:1563] (rev 01)

It uses the module: ixgbe

Would anyone know how I can inject the driver into the iso?

Thank you.