Yep...just attaching the flash drive didn't work.  Making a Live USB stick now.

my unRAID is up and running in XenServer.    Rather than use the LiveCD to get the USB controller that the unRAID key is plugged into, I just passed the two controllers that ended in 7.

 

00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1

 

unRAID booted right up and all of my drives are present and the array is started.

 

A word of advice to another's moving from ESXi...remove the VMware tools plugin if you have it installed. 

 

John

 

 

 

 

Hey deeds...

 

I noticed that the mvsas driver is loading in 4x mode (2.5 Gbps) where in ESXi it was 5.0 Gbps.

 

Nov 22 13:27:30 unRAID kernel: piix4_smbus 0000:00:01.3: SMBus base address uninitialized - upgrade BIOS or use force_addr=0xaddr
Nov 22 13:27:30 unRAID kernel: mvsas 0000:00:07.0: mvsas: driver version 0.8.16
Nov 22 13:27:30 unRAID kernel: xen: --> pirq=18 -> irq=44 (gsi=44)
Nov 22 13:27:30 unRAID kernel: mvsas 0000:00:07.0: mvsas: PCI-E x4, Bandwidth Usage: 2.5 Gbps

 

Any concern or room for improvement?  I'm not sure if it really makes much of a difference.

 

EDIT:  To add to this, I just kicked off a parity check and I am seeing speeds half of what I saw in ESXi  (57MB/s vs. 110MB/s to start).

 

EDIT#2:  Just remembered.  I had my ESXi unRAID VM configured with 3GB of RAM.  The Xen one I gave only 1GB.  I'll change that now and see what it does to parity check speeds.

 

EDIT#3:  RAM didn't help.  Seeing same speeds.  Must be the mvsas driver.

 

John

While deeds and myself continue our discussion offline, I'll throw this out there...

 

XenTools for unRAID plugin??? 

 

 

OK, I swapped out the 5.01 tweaked VHD for the non-tweaked 5.01 and my parity check speeds are back to where they were with ESXi (~100MB/s).

 

John

Thx again deeds.

 

I'm quite happy with my current speed but if we can improve I am all for it.

 

Now...build a WIN7 VM for VGA passthrough.  You may be seeing a PM soon deeds. 

 

John

Thx again deeds.

 

I'm quite happy with my current speed but if we can improve I am all for it.

 

Now...build a WIN7 VM for VGA passthrough.  You may be seeing a PM soon deeds. 

 

John

 

I'm at your service. Though tbh I'd recommend a win 8.1 VM as I had 0 luck with win 7 and drivers.

 

For the record I had an issue with 5.0.1 too ddeeds. I reverted to 5.0 a few days ago - forgot to mention.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

Thx again deeds.

 

I'm quite happy with my current speed but if we can improve I am all for it.

 

Now...build a WIN7 VM for VGA passthrough.  You may be seeing a PM soon deeds. 

 

John

 

I'm at your service. Though tbh I'd recommend a win 8.1 VM as I had 0 luck with win 7 and drivers.

 

For the record I had an issue with 5.0.1 too ddeeds. I reverted to 5.0 a few days ago - forgot to mention.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

You had an issue with the 5.01 tweaked or non-tweaked or both?  the 5.01 non-tweaked is right on par with ESXi for me.  The tweaked version cut my parity check speeds in half.

 

John

 

Thx again deeds.

 

I'm quite happy with my current speed but if we can improve I am all for it.

 

Now...build a WIN7 VM for VGA passthrough.  You may be seeing a PM soon deeds. 

 

John

 

I'm at your service. Though tbh I'd recommend a win 8.1 VM as I had 0 luck with win 7 and drivers.

 

For the record I had an issue with 5.0.1 too ddeeds. I reverted to 5.0 a few days ago - forgot to mention.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

You had an issue with the 5.01 tweaked or non-tweaked or both?  the 5.01 non-tweaked is right on par with ESXi for me.  The tweaked version cut my parity check speeds in half.

 

John

 

Tweaked

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

Thanks for a very detailed and informative thread!

 

I have just spent a few hours trying to migrate from ESXi into Xenserver. Bottom line (so far) is failure. I could use some help.

 

I'll give the short version here.

So: xenserver is 6.2. Mobo is X10SL7-F, onboard LSI 2308, full VT-d support. CPU is E3-1230v3, full VT-d support.

 

I imported an unRAID VM from your 5.01 VHD, attached the USB drive and went on to boot. The unRAID kernel boots, but loops waiting for /dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID . Gives up after 30 seconds and moves on, but the system is defunct (/boot is not mounted).

It turns out that the xen-aware kernel names the USB drive /dev/xvd.. , which seems to defeat either udev or emhttp, I haven't dug deep enough yet. At any rate, the USB drive (which is attached to the VM) is not seen in /dev/disk/by-label .

 

Next thing I tried is to replace the bzroot/bzimage pair on the virtual HDD with the stock unRAID ones.

With this kernel, the HDD and USB devices are named /dev/hd.., which apparently makes unRAID happier. /dev/disk/by-label now sees the USB drive, /boot is mounted, everyone's happy.

 

Well, not everyone. Apparently the hw NIC presented by Xen in this mode is a Realtek 8139+. unRAID does not have a driver for this chip (needs the 8139cp.ko module). Xen does not let me select the type of hardware NIC it presents to the guest. Game over, insert coin. (Yes, I can compile my own 8139cp.ko . Haven't done that yet).

 

Bottom line at this point: either I use the Xen-enabled kernel and have unRAID not see the USB stick, or use the standard kernel and have unRAID not see the NIC.

 

I've run out of time for today but would really appreciate some help.

 

Another question while I'm posting in this thread: How do I attach a raw SATA/SAS drive to a guest in Xenserver? I tried to glean this from this thread but couldn't. I can attach the whole controller, via the pciback.hide directive etc. How do I attach one (or three actually) HDDs from this controller, while leaving the actual controller in Xen's hands (I'd like to have its boot drive on the same controller)? Your post mentioned that you can do it, but did not say how (unless I've seriously missed something). XenCenter doesn't seem to let me do it.

 

Thanks!

Thanks for the quick response! Much appreciated.

 

Assigning the USB via the GUI doesn't always work for everyone. A lot of the Supermicro motherboards fall into this group.

 

Try passing through the USB Controller where the unRAID USB Flash Drive is plugged into. You will do this like you did when you passed through your SAS Controller. (Entering the PCI Device ID into /etc/extlinux.conf)

 

I'll try that too, but note -- it did work! The USB drive is attached to the VM. Only that the the xen-enabled kernel calls it /dev/xvdb, which is where the problem begins. I can still manually mount it, read/write to it - no problem. blkid reports its label as being UNRAID. When I boot the very same VM with the stock unRAID kernel, the USB stick (now being /dev/hdb) is seen and works well.

 

So apparently the USB stick does attach well. It just doesn't make xen-enabled-unRAID too happy.

 

How do I attach one (or three actually) HDDs from this controller, while leaving the actual controller in Xen's hands (I'd like to have its boot drive on the same controller)?

 

You are not going to be able to do this. It's all or nothing.

 

Ouch. Got it.

By the way, I do do it in ESXi (via RDM), and have done it with Virtualbox. So Xen doesn't support raw device passthru - only raw controller - that's what you're saying, correct?

 

 

I passthrough my motherboard SATA controller. With my motherboard, I am able to passthrough SATA ports 1 - 4 and not the 5th one. That is due to the 5th SATA port and eSATA port being on a separate controller.

 

Ahh. I didn't catch that. Okay that makes sense.

 

Don't you have SATA ports available on your motherboard? If so, use those for your OS, VMs, Datastores, etc.

 

I do. In the grand scheme of things I wanted the boot drive to be a SAS one. Long story. Oh well.

 

Okay, problems that remain:

 

[*]Attached USB doesn't work well with xen-enabled unRAID kernel.

[*]No driver for Ethernet controller presented by Xen to non-xen-enabled kernel.

 

If I solve one of the above, I can move forward 

Success!! 

 

I made an XBMCBUNTU VM, passed the Radeon HD6450 to it and I am streaming Avatar BD rip as I type this.  I can't believe how fast the video loaded.  This is awesome!!!

 

I'll be buying 3 more 6450's in the very near future.

 

John

I did nothing more than a straight up xbmcbuntu install.

 

Should I?  Can you pass me some quick instruction deeds?

 

John

 

 

I did nothing more than a straight up xbmcbuntu install.

 

Should I?  Can you pass me some quick instruction deeds?

 

Enter the following command in your xbmcbuntu VM post it:

 

dmesg | grep xen

 

odonnellj@XBMCBUNTU-1:~$ dmesg | grep xen
[    1.576166] xen/balloon: Initialising balloon driver.
[    1.576189] xen-balloon: Initialising balloon driver.
[    1.588126] Switching to clocksource xen
[    1.598352] xen: --> pirq=18 -> irq=8 (gsi=
[    1.598450] xen: --> pirq=19 -> irq=12 (gsi=12)
[    1.598519] xen: --> pirq=20 -> irq=1 (gsi=1)
[    1.598585] xen: --> pirq=21 -> irq=6 (gsi=6)
[    1.598659] xen: --> pirq=22 -> irq=4 (gsi=4)
[    1.598746] xen: --> pirq=23 -> irq=7 (gsi=7)
[    1.661621] xen: --> pirq=24 -> irq=23 (gsi=23)
[    1.740791] xen: --> pirq=25 -> irq=30 (gsi=30)
[    1.814490] vbd vbd-5696: 19 xenbus_dev_probe on device/vbd/5696
[    8.944787] xen: --> pirq=16 -> irq=36 (gsi=36)
[    8.996835] xen: --> pirq=17 -> irq=41 (gsi=41)

 

Ah dam you could of left the guides up ddeeds, was planning on dipping my toe into the xenserver virtualization world, ordered new board and cpu and once arrived i was going to be following you very user friendly guides.

 

Here's hoping some picks up where you left off or you come back once you've cooled down a little :-) hope so.

at ddeeds' decision to take down the guide. But does anybody have a copy of the 5.0.3 VHD they can link me to please ?

 

 

Odd, a random poster makes a comment and now it's apparently unRAID not appreciating efforts.

 

Talk about the mother of all overreaction.

So...I am going to ask this in a way that doesn't sound completely stupid.  But, please forgive my lack of kernel compiling knowledge if I do not ask this correctly.

 

Has anyone actually approached Tom yet about adding the necessary drivers for Xen(server) to the unraid kernel like he did for ESXi?

 

Did I ask that right?

 

 

John

 

As of time of this post, not a single person has sent me any correspondence via email (or any other method besides saying, "hey can you add the xen flags") describing what needs to be configured in the kernel.

If I knew what doobries on the firkin kernel needed to be flabbergasted to make xenobi one kenobi work i'd ask for it.

 

consider that an official request if you will.

So...I am going to ask this in a way that doesn't sound completely stupid.  But, please forgive my lack of kernel compiling knowledge if I do not ask this correctly.

 

Has anyone actually approached Tom yet about adding the necessary drivers for Xen(server) to the unraid kernel like he did for ESXi?

 

Did I ask that right?

 

 

John

 

As of time of this post, not a single person has sent me any correspondence via email (or any other method besides saying, "hey can you add the xen flags") describing what needs to be configured in the kernel.

 

Understood.  I just don't want to be the one to ask because I don't know what I am talking about. 

Understood.  I just don't want to be the one to ask because I don't know what I am talking about. 

BURN HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Understood.  I just don't want to be the one to ask because I don't know what I am talking about. 

BURN HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Apples.  Cherries.  Very small rocks.

 

 

 

Ddeeds,

 

If you happen to read this, could you please repost the guide.  I understand that you may not want to support and answer questions anymore, but for those of us that used the guide it would be great to still have access to it.

 

And Ddeeds, thanks for the guide in the first place.  I couldn't be happier with the system I have running now. 

 

I am running xenserver with Windows 7 with HDCP support, UnRaid, And a couple of linux installs for SAB/sickbeard and Plex.

 

Anyway, many thanks for showing me how to make an an awesome setup.

 

Cheers,

Steve

Here i was, buying parts as money permits, hoping to follow the guides one day and finally build my virtualized home setup.

 

That hope is now all gone.

 

Deeds, you must have your own reasons, i respect that, but deleting all past info was kinda mean. It was like pulling the carpet out from under the feet for a lot of people like myself that were relying on your guides. I hope you change your mind.

 

Thanks anyway.

Deeds, you must have your own reasons, i respect that, but deleting all past info was kinda mean.

 

It's not that hard, another guide will pop up soon, and there are posters here using several "aliases".

 

As for ddeeds,

What is it with this man? Did I kill a relative of his in battle, perhaps? His boy, God forbid?