A good poll to get this new sub forum going and provide guidance to the product manager

I'm too lazy to set up another thread, so I'll pollute this one.

 

Your choices all AsSume that unraid is a client os on a low level hypervisor. What about us poor schlubs that utilize unraid as the host OS, and run virtualbox guests? Is this whole area reserved for unraid as a guest only, or can we discuss virtualization under unraid as the host OS as well?

I'm too lazy to set up another thread, so I'll pollute this one.

 

Your choices all AsSume that unraid is a client os on a low level hypervisor. What about us poor schlubs that utilize unraid as the host OS, and run virtualbox guests? Is this whole area reserved for unraid as a guest only, or can we discuss virtualization under unraid as the host OS as well?

If you want to discuss VirtualBox (et al) on unRAID this sub forum is the perfect place to do so.  Start another poll dedicated to it!

Actually, yes I was thinking unRAID as a guest, but several of the listed options could be hosted on the unRAID OS. So for you, which would you implement within unRAID?

A good poll to get this new sub forum going and provide guidance to the product manager

 

Well, it does not really matter what virtualization platform you are using.

Most if not all of them will work just fine providing your hardware is up to snuff.

More important is what you are a custom to and what your goals are.

 

Most popular here is esxi from vmware. I know it is a good platform but if your plan is for some serious virtualization and you budget is nonexistent esxi might not be for you as free version have a ram limit of 32gb pluss some other things that you might want to have.

 

The next best thing is xenserver.

It has no limits of esxi.

It is fully free as of july 2013.

It comes with a free client that is quite capable.

It can also work with xendesktop for a free vdi solution for upto 10 clients.

 

If your hardware is fully supported and have full support for  intell vt-d or amd-v  iommu

You are good.

 

The next solution is for people who can use all of the above solutions and for people whose hardware is not 100% on supporting iommu thus above solutions are not posible.

The only thing left is xen as it is more forgiving when it comes to hardware compatibility.

 

Hyper-v is the last imho, as it is very difficult to administer in free version so it is not for a fainthearted.

 

 

But if you are willing to pay, pick anything.

 

anybody tried KVM with unraid?

just wondering ... my systemboard allows VT-D but my processor won't .....

was just wondering if this might be a solution .....

Xen needs VT-D on the processor too if i understand well ....

and Vmware doesn't like the realtek nic

 

so if i want to go virtual then kvm will be the only thing that works i guess...

Actually, yes I was thinking unRAID as a guest, but several of the listed options could be hosted on the unRAID OS. So for you, which would you implement within unRAID?

Are there slack packages with unraid compatible dependency lists for those options? It would be cool to have packaged options other than virtualbox available. Since virtualbox is working for me right now, I'm not super motivated to do any research for other options.

Personally I've found ESXi 5.1 free perfect for virtualizing Unraid. Yea, it requires some work, some extra hardware, but ... put it on a machine with a decent cpu & ram? You can add all sorts of other servers into it.

 

Need a new Domain Controller? Toss it on the ESX box. Need a new encoding machine? Toss it on the ESX box. Need a test bed for anything? Virtualize it.

 

I have looked into Hyper-V, but didn't find a lot of info about hardware passthrough, so I went with what I know, and that's ESX. However, I can create a Hyper-V host to learn on that as well.

 

I've got a GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3, Phenom II 1055T, 32gb Ram, IBM M1015 (flashed to LSI), in mine, and while I wish I had more cpu power, it's adequate for what I need. This hosts a new unraid build (migrating old one over to it), encoding machine, ubuntu web surfing PC.

 

I need to explore passing through my saslp-mv8 as well, but have low expectations for a Marvell card.

 

My only advice for good ESXi servers is ram ram ram and ram. Spend the extra and put 32gb in it. If it's not used by a host, it'll be used as cache. And try to follow the HCG. Takes a while to search white-box sites to find out what works and what doesn't, but ... in the end? It's worth it.

 

Have I mentioned ESXi 5.1 is free for home use with a single CPU socket up to 32gbs? At least vmware got that right (finally).

 

Oddly enough, my biggest dissapointment with ESXi 5.1 and hardware passthrough is: I can't add anything to the machine while it's running. Find out you need another drive, or network port? Gotta shut it down.

 

I agree ESXi is very nice, the free stuff I mean. Which is why Hyper-V is basically put in a corner for me. They claim it's free, but only after you buy the OS. My slight annoyance with ESXi is the 32GB limit. All of my home installations run out of RAM, not processor or network. Which is why I also run OpenStack and Xen. Too much free time I guess

Hyper-v is free. You can download a barebone server setup with hiper-v. Problem is ther is no gui or even gui client to manage it. Powershell only. For everything...

 

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Talk about a landslide for ESXi... lol. I too have been running an ESXi based server for 2.... 3 years now? It's flat out the best option in my opinion.

What about virtualbox? I've never attempted virtualization before, but there appears to be a virtualbox plugin, and the administration seems pretty simple to accomplish through a web browser. I'm not looking at doing anything particularly taxing.

What about virtualbox? I've never attempted virtualization before, but there appears to be a virtualbox plugin, and the administration seems pretty simple to accomplish through a web browser. I'm not looking at doing anything particularly taxing.

I think this thread is about virtualizing unRaid not Virtualizing on UnRaid, which what the plugin is for.

 

 

Unfortunately, I did leave virtualbox off the survey.

 

As you mentioned, there is a plugin for virtualbox, which might allow you to run those "non taxing" workloads.

 

But please do make a new thread about virtualbox. Details on what you want to run will help. I am sure all your questions will be answered.

Free as in Beer right now.

 

Well worth the exploration. MS is working hard to try to encroach on ESXis market share. They've got a really good product. Right now, If my virtualization experience was zero? I'd invest in Hyper-V.

 

 

 

Hyper-v is free. You can download a barebone server setup with hiper-v. Problem is ther is no gui or even gui client to manage it. Powershell only. For everything...

 

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Free as in Beer right now.

 

Well worth the exploration. MS is working hard to try to encroach on ESXis market share. They've got a really good product. Right now, If my virtualization experience was zero? I'd invest in Hyper-V.

 

 

 

Hyper-v is free. You can download a barebone server setup with hiper-v. Problem is ther is no gui or even gui client to manage it. Powershell only. For everything...

 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 4

 

Only problem is as far as I can tell is that there is no USB passthrough with Hyper-v so you can't use anything more than the free version of unraid. Of course if I'm wrong then would be grateful to anyone that can point me to how it is done.

I am not sure about usb pass through,  but I know that it might not be needed. I have botted unraid vm in xenserver with just adding the usb port where the flash was to vm. No pass through.

 

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I've had ESXi up and running for a long time. PCI passthrough and RDM just works.

 

I tried Hyper-V using a Dreamspark license, it was a long and fruitless venture.

 

Xenserver never wanted to play nice but I think that was more due to the confusing documentation on Xenserver, sometimes people were talking about the old paid version, some guides used the community version, etc.

 

ESXi is my home server sweetheart right now. I bought a cheap ebay server and I've loaded it with Proxmox. It's free, does KVM, etc but I haven't tried to pass anything through yet.

Esxi is good if you happen to have a fully compatible hardware that supports pass through.  If not well.....

 

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And really, that's the issue. ESXi is nice. I like it, I like it a lot. However, I'm running on unsupported hardware, so god knows what could happen in the future. I'm lucky enough where I got a card I can passthrough to Unraid so .. in case of virtual host failure, my data will (knock on wood) be intact.

 

I'm just saying - if I could, right now? I'd try out Hyper-V, and I very may well if I can nest it.

 

Esxi is good if you happen to have a fully compatible hardware that supports pass through.  If not well.....

 

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