ESXi 5.x - pre-built VMDK for unRAID


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Beta or others:

 

I am now running unraid from my flashdrive in esxi, that works without an issue EXCEPT for the fact that booting is really, really slow..

 

My unraid test image runs from beta's vdmk and that works WAY faster.

 

How would I go about changing my unraid boot sequence to run of the vdmk instead of usb in esxi ?

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@axeman no need to move the vmdk anywhere.. you just shut down your unRAID VM, mount the vmdk in another VM (say as D: drive in a Windows VM), copy both bzroot and bzimage over, then unmount it from that VM.  Then start your unRAID vm again and you're done.

 

@helmonder just mount the .vmdk as your first 'hard disk' in the unRAID VM and it will boot from there.  If for some reason it doesn't, then just force the VM to enter its BIOS on startup and change the boot order accordingly.

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@axeman no need to move the vmdk anywhere.. you just shut down your unRAID VM, mount the vmdk in another VM (say as D: drive in a Windows VM), copy both bzroot and bzimage over, then unmount it from that VM.  Then start your unRAID vm again and you're done.

 

ha! that would be too damned easy! I know disk manager lets you mount MS's VHDs, so I thought you were saying to do something similar.

 

thanks. i'm in the middle of stabilizing one of my VMs that started giving me issues after moving to 5.0. as soon as that's done, this will be next.

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  • 3 weeks later...

All,

 

I'll upload a rc13 .vmdk when I get home from work (about 4-5 hours from now.) 

 

Cheers

 

BQ

 

It has been a lot more than 4-5 hours ;)

 

patiently waiting..

 

Not quite sure I understand the need to for this when you can make a .vmdk file yourself and use a program like winimage to inject the new bzimage/bzroot. And besides rc13 uses a different kernel so you will likely need to wait for a new vmtools package.

 

Edit: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7914.0

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All,

 

I'll upload a rc13 .vmdk when I get home from work (about 4-5 hours from now.) 

 

Cheers

 

BQ

 

It has been a lot more than 4-5 hours ;)

 

patiently waiting..

 

Not quite sure I understand the need to for this when you can make a .vmdk file yourself and use a program like winimage to inject the new bzimage/bzroot. And besides rc13 uses a different kernel so you will likely need to wait for a new vmtools package.

 

Edit: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7914.0

 

 

I used the vmware-mount utility included in the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit mount the vmdk and load the new bzimage/bzroot but same concept.

 

Also, the RC-12a VMware tools are working fine for me.

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Not quite sure I understand the need to for this when you can make a .vmdk file yourself and use a program like winimage to inject the new bzimage/bzroot. And besides rc13 uses a different kernel so you will likely need to wait for a new vmtools package.

 

Edit: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7914.0

 

Because folks are lazy?  Because it makes it easier for first time users?  Because not everyone is at the same technical level?  Just a few I can think of.

 

Apologies all, but we ended up having an outage last night at one of our datacenters which kept me working until midnight.  I'll get this done once I'm home from work today (around 6-7 hours from now.)

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There is a LOT to be said for everyone using the same trusted vmdk. For support reasons alone I would recommend it as it removes a load of questions that would need asked every time someone trys for vmware support.

 

It would be nice though if this was an ova so you could install it in one go from ESX

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There is a LOT to be said for everyone using the same trusted vmdk. For support reasons alone I would recommend it as it removes a load of questions that would need asked every time someone trys for vmware support.

 

It would be nice though if this was an ova so you could install it in one go from ESX

 

An OVA would require you to reconfigure your entire unraid setup in vSphere though. With the vmdk you can just add a hard disk to your existing setup. And wouldn't an OVA require you to redo it every time there was a new release of unraid?

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As i understand it an online ova will do much the same i.e. if you accept all the defaults the end result will be the same... but you would be able to tweak a few things if needed

 

IMHO once you have the base machine installed you should rely on the traditional copy files into unraid option along with snapshotting for reliability rather than blitzing the vmdk every time

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Sorry, I don't see any advantage at all to an ova/ovf vs the vmdk, other than new users having to do a little less the first time around.  Unless for some reason a vmdk becomes corrupt, there are no downsides to simply removing it from the VM and adding a new one.

 

Not sure why you would snapshot an unRAID VM.. all the important files still remain on the USB stick.

 

I'm uploading the rc13 shortly... crappy upstream speed means it'll be about 30-45 minutes.

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Sorry, I don't see any advantage at all to an ova/ovf vs the vmdk, other than new users having to do a little less the first time around.  Unless for some reason a vmdk becomes corrupt, there are no downsides to simply removing it from the VM and adding a new one.

 

Not sure why you would snapshot an unRAID VM.. all the important files still remain on the USB stick.

 

I'm uploading the rc13 shortly... crappy upstream speed means it'll be about 30-45 minutes.

 

 

Holy smokes! For a 100MB zip? It would take me less than 30 seconds to upload that, even on my LTE iPhone. Sounds like the NBN can't come soon enough for you guys out there in OZ.

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That's including the time it took me to just build it, should have clarified :)  but yeah 1mbps upstream sucks lol  (more like 768kbps on a good day.)

 

My LTE android is also much faster, but I have no normal phone coverage at home, let alone LTE.  The price of living on acreage in the sticks!

 

NBN will be awesome, but it's still 3 years out for my area.  Although if I moved 35kms up the road I could have it now... hmmm... :P

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Sorry, I don't see any advantage at all to an ova/ovf vs the vmdk, other than new users having to do a little less the first time around.  Unless for some reason a vmdk becomes corrupt, there are no downsides to simply removing it from the VM and adding a new one.

 

Not sure why you would snapshot an unRAID VM.. all the important files still remain on the USB stick.

 

I'm uploading the rc13 shortly... crappy upstream speed means it'll be about 30-45 minutes.

I agree.  Plus you would have to remove any pass through cards in order to take a snapshot - at least that is true for me at ESXi 5.0 anyway.
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Whats ova?

 

From Wikipedia....

 

Ova

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  Look up ova in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Ova or OVA may refer to:

ovum, plural ova, the female sex cell or gamete

Ova, Ka?, a village in the Antalya Province, Turkey

Ova, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States

Ova A. Kelley (1914–1944), United States Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient

ovalbumin, a protein found in egg whites

OpenVera Assertion Language, a hardware verification Language

Original video animation, anime that are released directly to video

Ostrava, city in the Czech Republic

-ova, a feminine surname suffix in Slavic-language countries; see Eastern Slavic naming customs

Open Virtualization Archive, the single-file version of an Open Virtualization Format image

 

Ahhh. There we are Open Virtualization Archive.

At least that one fits the best.

 

http://www.openvirtualizationalliance.org/

 

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