[XEN VM IMG] ArchVM <--- deprecated 01/07/2014


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showmount Tower -e does not work here as well. I've looked in my router, the machine is named TOWER, but using that in uppercase also does not work..

if i use the ip adres, showmount 192.168.1.28 -e, i do get a list of nfs shares. I can also navigate to them using cd /net/192.168.1.28/mnt/user/Data etc.

 

But... if i use those paths in my fresh installed sabnzbd on the archVM (by your video) for e.g. incomplete files etc. and save the settings, they are not saved by sab, the former paths return... any idea?

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Workaround #1

create a user in unraid and try

mkdir /mnt/tower

mount -t cifs //Tower/Data/ /mnt/tower/ -o user=userucreated,workgroup=WORKGROUP,ip=192.168.2.28

 

Workaround #2

NFS bug fix until v4 is out.

 

Quote limetech:

Found the NFS problem, fixed in -beta4.

 

Here is a workaround.  First, in the webGui select the disk/share you are exporting via NFS.  Next change the security mode to "Private".  Then in the Rule field enter this:

 

*(sec=sys,rw,insecure,anongid=100,anonuid=99,all_squash)

 

Click Apply.  Your NFS client mounts should work now.

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have we solved the plex storage issue? IE my plex database is over 40 gigs and will not fit into the image AND i cannot tell plex to use a cifs share for the database.

 

This was one of the reasons I ended up installing Plex on the UnRAID host. Plus I know it needs horsepower to do the transcoding and I didn't want to limit it to the VM CPU/RAM. Plex is the only plugin I've installed (I will do SAB/SB, etc in VM), but Plex can be such a pig that I didn't want to limit it's resources.

 

There is a x64 Plex plugin that works well so far.

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I'm working on a way to let you enlarge the .IMG as you see fit. Looks fairly easy but I haven't had chance to test it yet.

 

1. Why?

 

2. The users will not be able to do it in unRAID 6.0. The img file has a partition and multipath and various Linux tools you need to mount it are not enabled / installed in unRAID.

 

3. Assuming multipath was enabled / installed... A user would have to extend the image file, extend the partition and then extend the file system. That isn't easy.

 

The best option is going to be to start a list of apps and where their configs are, maybe we could collectively write a backup script for the .INI files?

 

1. Your "job" is to provide VM Appliances that users install and configure / customize to their liking and keep your repo up to date.

 

2. You need to have a bunch of VM Appliances not a all encompassing ONE. Otherwise you are going to make your life / the users life hell. People who run ESXi and XenServer have SEVERAL VM Appliances not just ONE. Why would you do anything different?

 

3. Why would a user need to continue to download your image, install it over their old one when Sickbeard has an update?

 

The user would do the following instead:

 

pacman -Syyu

 

The user should only have to install VM Appliances once and keep it updated not continue to install image after image.

 

Option A

 

It's easier to have multiple versions of the same VM Appliance but have different sizes of it available for download (if you / they do not like Option B below).

 

Option B

 

1. Provide instructions on how to create a 25, 50, 100GB, etc. whatever image file ("data drive") and how to format it with ext4.

 

2. Provide instructions on how to add this "data drive" to the cfg file.

 

Example:

name = "archVM"

bootloader = "pygrub"

memory = 1024

vcpus = 1

bootloader = "pygrub"

 

disk = [

'file:/mnt/cache/VMs/ArchVM/arch.img,xvda,w',

# 'file:/mnt/cache/VMs/ArchVM/data.img,xvdb,w' # <--- Uncomment this if adding a "Data Drive"

]

vif = [ 'mac=00:16:3e:xx:xx:xx,bridge=br0' ] # <--- Replace xx with random lower case letters and numbers so your MAC Address is unique.

 

Within your image, create a data folder in the root. In the /etc/fstab have a commented out mount for it and provide instructions on how to uncomment it out.

 

Example:

 

#/dev/xvdb              /data        ext4      defaults,noatime      0      2 # <--- Uncomment this if you have a "Data Drive"

 

Going forward the users will configure sabnzbd, Sickbeard, Transmission, etc. to use /data in the VM for where they download, unrar, etc. stuff before it's moved to unRAID.

 

A few other things you need to consider

 

1. Create several Vanilla Arch VM Appliances (of various sizes or option B above) and provide instructions for installing the apps.

 

If I install you vanilla image and I only want / use Sabnzbd, Sickbeard, Couchpotato, Headphones... All I have to do is:

 

pacman -S sabnzbd sickbeard couchpotato headphones

 

To enable start on boot (or you could edit your packages to do it for them):

systemctl enable sabnzbd
systemctl enable sickbeard
systemctl enable couchpotato
systemctl enable headphones

 

2. Create separate dedicated VM Appliances for complex things like Plex, XBMC, Usenet Indexers, etc. This is how everyone does it now if they have a ESXi or XenServer... So you should do it too.

 

3. All in one solution with all those apps installed running in one VM is a receipt for disaster and you are going to have 945 versions of it and you still want make everyone happy. It sort of defeats the purpose of running VMs in the first place. I would have several different VM Appliances.

 

For example:

 

VM Appliance - sabnzbd, sickbeard, couchpotato, headphones, media front end and torrents

 

VM Appliance - Plex

 

VM Appliance - XBMC

 

VM Appliance - Owncloud

 

This is a VM Appliance / App people will probably want outside their firewall. If so, they are going to want to secure / harden this VM Appliance (might want to consider something other than Arch).

 

VM Appliance - Vanilla Arch (with instructions on how to install the various apps of their choice)

 

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have we solved the plex storage issue? IE my plex database is over 40 gigs and will not fit into the image AND i cannot tell plex to use a cifs share for the database.

 

This was one of the reasons I ended up installing Plex on the UnRAID host. Plus I know it needs horsepower to do the transcoding and I didn't want to limit it to the VM CPU/RAM. Plex is the only plugin I've installed (I will do SAB/SB, etc in VM), but Plex can be such a pig that I didn't want to limit it's resources.

 

There is a x64 Plex plugin that works well so far.

 

agreed but i am having issues with crashes and i want to move it to a VM to see if that will prevent unraid from crashing or if just the VM will crash. Plus I want a proper install of plex so i can rule plex out.

 

Doing option B from school'd post. (data drive)

  -Created the data.img

  -Edited the arch.cfg

  -Copied over my plex db from my cache drive to data.img (went ahead and re-scanned entire lib)

  -Edited plex's config to point to /data.

 

Would be really great if plex actually ran from the location im telling it to in the config!

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Arch Linux VM installed fine.  Initially I got a kernel panic - something to do with memory, so I reduced the memory in arch.cfg to 1536.  Installed plexmediaserver, logitechmediaserver and air-video-server - that all went fine...

 

But when I go to the config web pages for those plugins (eg 192.168.1.23:9000 for logitechmediaserver), there is no connection.  I can ping Arch Linux VM on 192.168.1.23.

 

Is there something I have to do to start the packages?

 

Nic

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Arch Linux VM installed fine.  Initially I got a kernel panic - something to do with memory, so I reduced the memory in arch.cfg to 1536.  Installed plexmediaserver, logitechmediaserver and air-video-server - that all went fine...

 

But when I go to the config web pages for those plugins (eg 192.168.1.23:9000 for logitechmediaserver), there is no connection.  I can ping Arch Linux VM on 192.168.1.23.

 

Is there something I have to do to start the packages?

 

Nic

 

I don't use either of them, but I would imagine you need to enable the services using systemd. I'm not sure of the exact service name but have a look in the following directory for your 'custom' services.

 

/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/

 

When you find what you want simply type

 

systemctl enable airvideoserver   <--- just an example, your command may need adjusting
systemctl start airvideoserver

 

 

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Regaring Open VPN...It was actually quite easy to get setup...I dont' remember all the steps, but I'll have a look through my logs and see if I still have the details. 

 

Want to add OpenVPN as this was request previously, which packages do you need for this work? You tell me that, I can add them.

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I'm not sure of the exact service name but have a look in the following directory for your 'custom' services.

 

/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/

 

Actually when you install apps / services / sockets / targets / slices / tools / libraries / etc all the systemd files are installed in the following directory:

 

/usr/lib/systemd/system

 

That is where you will find things like xbmc, nfs, samba, mysql and all kinds of various things linux uses / needs during start up. There will be 175+ (Mine has 230) systemd files in that directory.

 

When you find what you want simply type

 

systemctl enable airvideoserver   <--- just an example, your command may need adjusting

 

When you run the above command.. It creates a symbolic link from /usr/lib/systemd/system to /etc/systemd/system and depending on the app / socket / service / slice / target it can either be in system or multiuser. Usually multiuser for 90% of things users will run into.

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Hi Ironic

 

The Arch VM appliance is working well.  I'm a Linux and Xen newbie, but have been able to get this going, thanks to all of your hard work.

 

I'm running a pretty low-end configuration: An HP N40L microserver with a AMD Turion II Neo Dual-Core 1.5 GHz processor, 4GBytes of RAM, 3 x 2TB in the array (4TB usable storage) and a cache drive (non-SSD).  Yet it's all working really smoothly!

 

I allocated 1,536MBytes of memory to Arch VM and have installed:

- air video server

- logitech media server

- plex media server

- madsonic

- owncloud

all running at the same time!  Unraid 6.0-beta3 has been up for 7 days now and has never crashed.  The Arch VM has been up for 15 hours so far.

 

The only problem I have is with owncloud which is not yet working - when I try to systemctl enable it, I get: "Failed to issue method call: No such file or directory".  Also when I logon through Telnet, there is a message "Server refused to set environment variables".  Here is the whole logon splash:

 

Server refused to set environment variables

Last login: Sun Feb  9 12:03:57 2014 from 192.168.1.3

 

              +                OS: Arch Linux x86_64

              #                Hostname: ArchApplianceVM_v3

              ###              Kernel Release: 3.12.9-2-ARCH

            #####              Uptime: 15:34

            ######            WM: None

            ; #####;            DE: None

          +##.#####            Packages: 249

          +##########          RAM: 1148 MB / 1496 MB

        #############;        Processor Type: AMD Turion II Neo N40L Dual-Core Processor

        ###############+        $EDITOR: nano

      #######  #######        Root: 4.7G / 14G (33%) (ext4)

Any comments?

Nic

 

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Actually when you install apps / services / sockets / targets / slices / tools / libraries / etc all the systemd files are installed in the following directory:

 

/usr/lib/systemd/system

 

That is where you will find things like xbmc, nfs, samba, mysql and all kinds of various things linux uses / needs during start up. There will be 175+ (Mine has 230) systemd files in that directory.

 

The only problem I have is with owncloud which is not yet working - when I try to systemctl enable it, I get: "Failed to issue method call: No such file or directory". 

 

See SBD's info above. Not sure what the owncloud service name is, look in the folder he listed.

 

cd /usr/lib/systemd/system <-- look in here for an owncloud type service
ls <--- lists directory contents to have a look for owncloud service

 

Not sure specifically what the environment issue is, but maybe this article will help?

 

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Environment_Variables

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Looked in cd /usr/lib/systemd/system.  Owncloud is not there (yet it seemed to install OK).  Other packages I installed are there...

 

I'll look around some more tomorrow...

 

cheers

 

Nic

 

BTW, the Logitech Media Server is a bit of a memory hog - using 38% of my 1.5GBytes.  Java uses 16% and Python 9%.  The rest uses very little...

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Regaring Open VPN...It was actually quite easy to get setup...I dont' remember all the steps, but I'll have a look through my logs and see if I still have the details. 

 

Want to add OpenVPN as this was request previously, which packages do you need for this work? You tell me that, I can add them.

 

I'm going to do a fresh install just to make sure I've got everything...There was more in the configuration than in the install.  I should have some notes early in the next couple days.

 

David

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