unRAID unVMs - Coming Soon...


jonp

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That looks amazing Jon. Well done guys.

Thank you!  Trying to make this stupid simple for folks, but know there will be some challenges on first release for those with odd hardware.

 

I'm really looking forward to when more AAA games are available on SteamOS.

I'll finally be rid of windows forever ;D .For now I'm not sure sure it's worth the video card :)

 

Agreed.  That's why we also have this working for Windows 8.1.  Windows 10 I will expect to work fine as well (in fact, someone's already got Win10 preview running with VFIO in KVM, go search youtube for it).

 

Is that Win 7 or 8 you have installed. Is there a preferred one to use?

 

It's Win 8.1.  Windows 7 just doesn't work as well.  Not sure if it's to do with drivers or what exactly.

 

Have you attempted to OC your machine at all jon?. I have a i7 3930k I'm going to be using and was

considering it. Or OCing the cores I'll give to the Win VM.  Is that a bad idea or worth testing

do you think?

 

Wow, I didn't realize the 3930K had support for VT-d.  Thought my Devil's Canyon was the first to sport that, but guess that it's just the first Haswell K series to sport the VT-d support.

 

As for overclocking, there are two levels of OC you can really perform:  CPU and GPU.  GPU overclocking usually equates to more noticeable benefit than CPU overclocking.  That said, overclocking in general can cause the entire host to crash if you get the numbers into an unstable area, so this isn't for the feint of heart.  That said, Eric and I have been modding PCs and overclocking for years.  One of my first custom rigs was a watercooled Athlon chip before there were actual retail kits you could buy.  I had a fish tank pump in a tupperware container for my cooling system.  8)

 

All that said, stay tuned for more adventures in craziness as the weeks progress.  We'll show you guys some crazy stuff we have in store...

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I never thought to ask this before...

 

Is it safe to assume that you will be able to run multiple instances of the OpenELEC unVM (given multiple GPUs available for passthrough)?

 

John

Great question!  Initially the way the plugin is written, we only have it set so you can run a single instance, but that's just because it would further delay the release if we stopped to add multiple instance support.

 

That said, we have tested this and not only does it work, you can point each instance to the same single image file so you don't need to have multiple copies of our image to run multiple instances.

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I never thought to ask this before...

 

Is it safe to assume that you will be able to run multiple instances of the OpenELEC unVM (given multiple GPUs available for passthrough)?

 

John

Great question!  Initially the way the plugin is written, we only have it set so you can run a single instance, but that's just because it would further delay the release if we stopped to add multiple instance support.

 

That said, we have tested this and not only does it work, you can point each instance to the same single image file so you don't need to have multiple copies of our image to run multiple instances.

 

That is seriously cool. I don't think I would use it myself in that manner but the the idea made me grin.

 

Can't wait to see what you have lined up for us

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just bought and installed unRaid and am learning new stuff every day. This unVMs is exactly what I was hoping for. Are you going to add a support for AMD APU's for a gpu-passthrough? I bought A10-6700 for my ITX unRaid-build and damn it would be awesome to run a Windows VM on my unRaid-server 24/7, that I could connect to whenever/wherever I want... Maybe even play Civilization 5 on Ipad via some VM client. =)

 

Aaanyways... I hope unVMs can install those vm's as well, not just manage 'em since I'm at loss right now how to do it. Any ETA, or should I just start studying how to do it myself(I know I should, but I don't really have the time xD)? =)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Guess this means if I want to upgrade to the fun stuff, my old sempron 140 would have to go...?

Chances are...yes.  The main requirement to utilize what we are now dubbing "localized vms" you will need to have an Intel VT-d or AMD-Vi capable system as a minimum requirement.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Jon...

 

Do you have any intent on making an OE 4.2.1 unVM available?  I can only assume that you have moved onto OE v5 since it has been released.

 

The reason I ask is that my new strategy is to use OE + PLEXBMC on all of my standalones and VMs.  Unfortunately, there are just too many gaps between Helix (OE v5), PLEXBMC and the Amber skin which make it unstable.

 

Sucks since there is some nice functionality in the newer versions Plex that have been left at the curb in PLEXBMC due to development going stale.  :S

 

I was hoping that you had done most dev work on OE v4 that you have a stable enough product that you can offer that would not require additional dev since OE itself has been updated.

 

John

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Jon...

 

Do you have any intent on making an OE 4.2.1 unVM available?  I can only assume that you have moved onto OE v5 since it has been released.

 

Eric just pulled his fresh build of OE v5 out of the oven for me to play with, but I haven't had a chance just yet because we're working on other features at the moment.  Let me take a moment to explain where this stands.

 

The OpenELEC VM we have created works very well most of the time (the greater majority) but I have gotten it to crash the unRAID User Share system multiple times (transport endpoint not connected errors).  This is something I need Tom's help with to resolve, but Tom is laser focused on other bugs / feature requests right now.  In addition, it is important that we provide a way for people to test out the capabilities of VT-d (GPU pass through specifically) on their system without starting the array.  This way if a crash happens, data isn't at risk.  That said, making this possible requires other changes to the underlying OS to make it possible.

 

In addition, the current OpenELEC VM is installed using the plugin system, which is not ideal for multiple reasons.  The method of distribution and installation of VMs has been a challenge since day 1, but we are close to resolving this.  Stay tuned.

 

The reason I ask is that my new strategy is to use OE + PLEXBMC on all of my standalones and VMs.  Unfortunately, there are just too many gaps between Helix (OE v5), PLEXBMC and the Amber skin which make it unstable.

 

Sucks since there is some nice functionality in the newer versions Plex that have been left at the curb in PLEXBMC due to development going stale.  :S

 

I was hoping that you had done most dev work on OE v4 that you have a stable enough product that you can offer that would not require additional dev since OE itself has been updated.

 

John

 

Hmm, I'm going to send you a PM in a minute.  Check it out.

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