Hello All,

 

Im sure I am going to get flamed with the typical "did you search" etc responses.... I have searched and I have not found any RECENT posts on doing what I am looking to do.

 

I currently have 2 servers running, 1. Unraid free edition with 3 drives (3tb parity, 3tb data and 1.5tb data), I think a P4 single core, and 4gb of Ram and 2. a Dell Precision 390 that in a few days will have a q6600 Core 2 Quad cpu, 8gb of ram, that is currently set up as my DC.

 

I want to consolidate the 2 servers into one and run the DC (home use, print server and AD running for data sharing, permissions, and a test bed) and a win7 box to be used moderately for torrents and surfing remotely while at work    I want the VMs to be able to access the shares on the UnRaid.

 

I thought I should be able to run Unraid, and I thought I remembered seeing a plugin for running a VMWare host (I found both the ESXi and VMware server addins) but all the forum posts I am finding with how-tos are all very old.

 

 

I am looking for a couple things 1. the best setup that takes the best advantage of the hardware listed above (I have a bunch of drives laying around ranging from 40gb pata up to 500gb sata and almost anything in between and plan on any/all of them being thrown at the server and upgraded in size and speed as money permits) and a Pro UnRaid license. and 2. some direction on process and versions of software I should use to get this setup..... But the biggest thing that will hold me back is that I have never done thing on a Linux box, so I am admittedly a  noob so please be nice

 

 

I just found a newer post that goes through step by step how to load virtual UnRaid onto an ESXi server..... Is this the best option to take the best advantage of transfer speeds, CPU, RAM etc? http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=26639.210 prebuilt UnRiad VMs.... I guess I was thinking it would be the other way, run UnRiad as primary and ESXi on top of UnRaid, but I guess an UnRaid VM makes sense but im curious about transfer speeds etc on the VM vs physical Unraid.