I'm running ESXi 5.5 update 1 on a home grown server using an AsRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 running latest BIOS (1.60) and an AMD FX-8320 cpu with 32gb of memory.

 

I cannot get UNRAID to boot up from a USB drive no matter what I do.

 

I have formatted this Sandisk Criuser Fit USB (and six other USBs) six ways from Sunday (FAT, FAT32, exFAT, 4GB USB, 8GB USB, 256mb USB).

• Dowload the unRAIDServer-5.0.5-i386.zip
  
• Format an 8GB Sandisk Cruiser Fit with a volume name of "UNRAID"
  
• Extract the contents of zip file to the Sandisk USB drive.
  
• Right-Click Make_Bootable.BAT, run as admin to create the ldlinux.sys file on the Sandisk
  
• Eject the Sandisk USB drive.
  

Create the VM:

• Create a new VM as 32bit Ubuntu (also tried 32bit 2.6 Linux and a few others)
  
• Add USB controller
  
• Add UNRAID Sandisk USB drive.
  
• Boot from USB using EFI BIOS (Regular BIOS Doesn't work either even after making USB first in list)
  
• Nothing.  VMWare says "I120: [msg.Backdoor.OsNotFound] No operating system was found."
  

Just for giggles, I created a VMDK using WinImage with the Sandisk USB as the source and it would boot fine from the virtual hard drive.

 

Where am I going wrong?

 

My understanding is you either need to boot from vmdk or plop.  I boot from vmdk on my setup.

It's important to know that the vmdk is only responsible for booting unRAID, configuration, plugins and everything else reside on the passed through USB stick.

It's important to know that the vmdk is only responsible for booting unRAID, configuration, plugins and everything else reside on the passed through USB stick.

Yea, I was missing that small detail.  I got it to boot off of the VMDK and have the USB installed as well.  I still can't figure out why it won't boot off of the USB though.  I shut down my host, and it booted fine off the USB.  It just won't boot off of the USB while under ESXi.  Not sure what that is.  But at least I have a work around.

I don't think that esxi supports booting from USB

ESXi boots from USB ... but can't boot other OS's from a USB device.    I don't run UnRAID virtually, but I believe that to run UnRAID under ESXi you need to boot from a VMDK, but have a USB flash drive available to the VM with the UnRAID key file on it.

 

 

It's important to know that the vmdk is only responsible for booting unRAID, configuration, plugins and everything else reside on the passed through USB stick.

Yea, I was missing that small detail.  I got it to boot off of the VMDK and have the USB installed as well.  I still can't figure out why it won't boot off of the USB though.  I shut down my host, and it booted fine off the USB.  It just won't boot off of the USB while under ESXi.  Not sure what that is.  But at least I have a work around.

 

SpinnerRow - Sounds like plop might be an easy answer for you.  Scroll down this post and read the plop installation.  It's what I use and it works very well.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14695.msg138465#msg138465

 

Good Luck!

As above,

 

I'm using plop, that way if I ever need I can still run unRaid bare metal and update easily.

 

Josh

I've been using VMDK's for some time, but thinking of moving over to Plop. Is there a simple tutorial anywhere? Does it auto boot to USB or do you have to manually specify after each reboot?

i use plop and it works very well.  The first time you set it to boot from USB and after that it's auto.

 

I used this write up and it worked great.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14695.msg138465#msg138465

 

Look at VM#3

 

Good luck!

I used to use plop but migrated over to booting from VMDK a while back due to the very very fast boot up speed when compared to booting from USB. Now if only the unraid update feature can both update the VMDK and USB, that would be awesome!

I also don't understand why people want to use plop  .

 

Bootup with a vmdk is very fast.

 

If you need bare metal, just pull the ESXi USB stick and then you are able to boot from the UNRAID USB stick (or change boot order in the bios)...