Are any special steps needed in order to run unRAID on ESXi?

[Raident]

Or should it work if I simply treat the VMDK as a USB stick and follow the steps for a standard installation?

[garycase]

There are several threads here about running UnRAID under ESXi -- you should do a bit of research if you want to do that.    I believe you have to pass through the USB key so UnRAID can "see" it properly (you can't just make it a virtual drive) ... but I haven't set up an ESXi-based system, so you should read one of the threads that detail the process.

 

Note that v6 has a built-in hypervisor (Zen) that allows you to run your VM's while having UnRAID run at level 0, so it's always available for storage for all your VMs.  You may want to try that instead of virtualizing UnRAID in ESXi.    Others have also set up Virtual Box running under UnRAID, which is yet another approach to virtualization.    To some extent, what is best for you depends on your hardware's capabilities and your own personal familiarity with various hypervisors.

 

[Julez]

gary's right create a small VMDK and on that VM pass through the USB drive with UnRAID.

I think I'm still using the old method where you have Plop installed on the VMDK and then from Plop it loads UnRAID from the USB.

I think there's a better way of doing it now, but someone else will have to chime in for that.

This was the thread I learned from the most when I fired up UnRAID on ESXi - http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14695.0

 

I stuck with the latest version of ESXi 5.1 strictly because it's not worth messing with ESXi 5.5 since you can't update the VM Hardware anyway.

If you go with ESXi 5.5 and update the VM Hardware the VM becomes a pain in the ass to manage from a hardware standpoint (mainly because VMware wants you to manage the ESX hosts with vCenter Server's web GUI).

 

I use an LSI raid controller on the VMware HCL for my ESXi datastores as I don't really want to mix my UnRAID storage with my VM storage, and my VM datastores are just on a mirrored set of drives.

I've also been known to use a Synology NAS new NFS shares for VM datastores as well, but that's really neither here nor there.

[joshpond]

I still use the plop method and passing through the whole usb. Updating only involves updating the usb and I can always change the boot up to the unRaid usb if I want to go back to bare metal.

Josh

 

Sent by tapatalk

 

 

[prostuff1]

I still use the plop method and passing through the whole usb. Updating only involves updating the usb and I can always change the boot up to the unRaid usb if I want to go back to bare metal.

Josh

 

Sent by tapatalk

I do the same thing; less stuff to remember to change/update should I want/need to go back to bare metal.

[OopsAllBerrys]

same, plop method, pass the usb stick to the vm.

[sureguy]

I have a vmdk image of a default unconfigured unraid  USB stick (labeled esxiunraid), and pass through my USB stick, and m1505 controller. AFAIK the vmdk image boots faster than plop, but I have never compared.

 

I create the vmdk image using winimage.

 

Sent from a mobile device, sorry for any typos.

 

 

[prostuff1]

I have a vmdk image of a default unconfigured unraid  USB stick (labeled esxiunraid), and pass through my USB stick, and m1505 controller. AFAIK the vmdk image boots faster than plop, but I have never compared.

 

I create the vmdk image using winimage.

 

Sent from a mobile device, sorry for any typos.

The VMDK does boot faster, but frankly I reboot so little that speed is of little need in this regard.

[Julez]

I will say this, Sandisk Cruzer Fit drives make great USB ESXi boot drives and UnRAID USB drives.

[joshpond]

I have a vmdk image of a default unconfigured unraid  USB stick (labeled esxiunraid), and pass through my USB stick, and m1505 controller. AFAIK the vmdk image boots faster than plop, but I have never compared.

 

I create the vmdk image using winimage.

 

Sent from a mobile device, sorry for any typos.

The VMDK does boot faster, but frankly I reboot so little that speed is of little need in this regard.

Same, it stays on unless I'm trouble shooting so boot time is nothing.

Josh

 

Sent by tapatalk

 

 

[Raident]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. This actually turned out to be easier than I had anticipated, at least as far as getting unRAID Basic up and running. There were really only 4 minor aspects in which this differed from a standard installation:

 

[*]Instead of plugging in a USB stick to a Windows client machine, the VMDK needs to be temporarily attached to an existing Windows VM as a secondary HDD

[*]FAT32 needs to be explicitly selected when formatting the VMDK

[*]When creating the unRAID VM, the VMDK must be attached via IDE, not SCSI (which is the default in ESXi) or SATA

[*]Open-vm-tools needs to be installed

 

I suspect that to get Plus or Pro running I could simply rename the VMDK to something other than UNRAID and stick in a USB drive named UNRAID with just the license key, but I haven't tried.

[BobPhoenix]

I suspect that to get Plus or Pro running I could simply rename the VMDK to something other than UNRAID and stick in a USB drive named UNRAID with just the license key, but I haven't tried.

Correct.  You will have to setup a virtual USB controller to attach the USB drive to in ESXi - or pass through the USB controller itself.  I have all of mine setup with a Virtual USB controller that the USB stick is attached to.  But it should work when you pass through a controller as well.

[Raident]

It's good to hear that unRAID works with a virtual USB controller. Aside from the inherent dangers of passthrough in general, ESXi itself is running from a USB stick, so I could accidentally brick the entire installation by passing through the wrong USB controller

[cpshoemake]

I suspect that to get Plus or Pro running I could simply rename the VMDK to something other than UNRAID and stick in a USB drive named UNRAID with just the license key, but I haven't tried.

 

Keep in mind that unRAID only boots from the vmdk. After boot, the vmdk is ignored, so for instance all your logs will be on the USB drive and any plugins you want will need to go on there, etc.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[cpshoemake]

It's good to hear that unRAID works with a virtual USB controller. Aside from the inherent dangers of passthrough in general, ESXi itself is running from a USB stick, so I could accidentally brick the entire installation by passing through the wrong USB controller

 

I was going to assuage your fears until I saw the winky face. ESX running within ESX running withing ESX...until the end of time...or until you ran out of memory.

 

Sorry to double post.

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD