Now that I have my unRAID array working properly physically, I'd like to move to the next step, which is to virtualize it - I highly doubt unRAID all by itself can fully occupy 2 Xeons and 72 GB of RAM, after all.

 

Anyways, my first question is, how do I install unRAID onto a VMDK? To be more precise, this is a Proxmox VMDK, not an ESXi VMDK, though I can probably fudge compatibility to a certain extent using VMware Workstation...

Proxmox VE is KVM based.

There are already a lot of threads around on how to virtualize unRAID under KVM or XEN and how to produce a VMDK.

You'll want to passthrough your HBA...to do that in proxmox, you'll need to enable vt-d/IOMMU and then add the parameters

to the vm config manually, as this is not implemented in the PVE GUI.

Perhaps I'm not searching for the right terms, but I can't seem to find any threads on actually creating an unRAID VMDK from scratch. All I can find is the threads on prebuilt ESXi 5.x VMDKs (which won't work as I need an virtual hardware version 6 VMDK), but the authors of those threads don't seem to document their creation process. What search terms did you use to find info on creating a VMDK from scratch?

 

Any help is greatly appreciated

..here is a kvm one with a prebuild vhd in the first topic: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30715.0

 

Also you can use qemu tools to convert the vmdk to raw image format to use in kvm.

Here is a sample from your searchengine of choice: http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v48r1/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.scp.doc_2.1.0%2Freference%2Ft_convert_vmdk_image.html

 

To create the vmdk from scratch, AFAIR there's a windoze tool called winimage that would make a vmdk from a bootable stick (aka your unRAID stick).

You can then convert that with qemu tools.

See here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7914

Before using winimage to create a vmdk and then qemu tools to convert, I'm assuming you'll probably have to recompile the kernel with the kvm drivers necessary to virtualize it in the first place. I believe there's a guide on how to recompile with an existing unRAID system. Of course, if using the pre-built vhd, no need to worry about this.

Before using winimage to create a vmdk and then qemu tools to convert, I'm assuming you'll probably have to recompile the kernel with the kvm drivers necessary to virtualize it in the first place. I believe there's a guide on how to recompile with an existing unRAID system. Of course, if using the pre-built vhd, no need to worry about this.

 

I'd use the vhd or just mouth the VHD in windows (google it to see how) and copy the bzroot and bzimage to wherever.

 

I wouldn't bother compiling a Kernel. You can't compile it any different or better than I did. KVM and the virtio drivers are simply either on or off.

Out of curiosity, doesn't the bzroot contain the kernel and modules and wouldn't overwriting it with say a newer version also overwrite the KVM drivers as well?

Out of curiosity, doesn't the bzroot contain the kernel and modules

 

Yes.

 

wouldn't overwriting it with say a newer version also overwrite the KVM drivers as well?

 

unRAID does not have the KVM drivers in it yet. You either have to compile your own or use the VHD that I provide.

I highly doubt unRAID all by itself can fully occupy 2 Xeons and 72 GB of RAM, after all.

 

Are you sure about that? 

See my quick and dirty guide http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31321.0