I'm totally new to the type of VM management that is currently present in UnRaid 6, and I could use a little help getting started in the right direction.  I am familiar with VMs in general-- I've used VirtualBox quite a bit on my laptop, and I use VSphere for school so I have some general knowledge of how hypervisors and whatnot all work.

 

I would like some advice for my UnRaid setup though.  Currently I am running 6b12, and it is lovely-- I have Docker containers set up for my apps, and everything is as it should be.

 

I want to set up a few VMs though.  I'd like to have it be as flexible as possible-- I am still very much learning Linux, so I'd like a way to just create various flavors in VMs and have them to play around with.  I may at some point do an OpenELEC VM (although my Amazon TV stick thing and Plex has mostly negated the need for that).  The other big thing that I'd like to be able to do is to set up MS SQL Server 2014 in a VM-- this is school/work related.  I'm fortunate enough to be able to get free licenses for all of Microsoft's OSs at the moment, and I want to be able to take full advantage of them.

 

My understanding is that I can either run UnRaid as the native OS and have it handle VMs through the KVM thing, or I can run UnRaid under Xen and then run other VMs alongside it.  I have literally zero experience with all the XML that seemingly has to go along with the creation of VMs in these systems, since all I've ever really done is click through a few options in VirtualBox and I'd be off and running.

 

What is going to be easiest for me for a robust, configurable, and flexible VM environment?  Since UnRaid is already all set up, is it still possible to run it under Xen or does that require a full re-installation?  Is the KVM environment able to handle something like SQL Server without causing me to pull all of my hair out writing config files?

 

My server is running an Intel i3 CPU with 8GB of memory right now, so it should be able to handle a couple of VMs at once, and I can always up the RAM if needed.  I have a 256GB SSD for my cache drive at the moment and I'd love to be able to run the VMs off of that.

 

Any advice would be very appreciated.  Thanks!

I am interested in the answers to your questions also.  I am assuming that one must be running unRAID 6 and not 5?

My understanding is that I can either run UnRaid as the native OS and have it handle VMs through the KVM thing, or I can run UnRaid under Xen and then run other VMs alongside it.

Actually you can run unRAID as the native OS and use KVM or Xen on top of unRAID. You could run unRAID as a VM (which I tried to do) but I had very bad results including losing 2TB worth of data, so FWIW I would not recommend running unRAID as a VM.

 

What is going to be easiest for me for a robust, configurable, and flexible VM environment?  Since UnRaid is already all set up, is it still possible to run it under Xen or does that require a full re-installation?  Is the KVM environment able to handle something like SQL Server without causing me to pull all of my hair out writing config files?

Xen is probably easier to setup; however, I have found that KVM is more configurable. Also, @dmacias made an excellent plugin to work with KVM. I would recommend learning KVM as LT seems to be currently more focused on it.

I am interested in the answers to your questions also.  I am assuming that one must be running unRAID 6 and not 5?

Correct

Hmm..I just started with unRaid and I just setup version 5 with all my plugins that I wanted ie: Sickbeard, couchpotato, SAB, Mysql.  If I upgrade to unraid 6 will I have to redo all these plugins?

Hmm..I just started with unRaid and I just setup version 5 with all my plugins that I wanted ie: Sickbeard, couchpotato, SAB, Mysql.  If I upgrade to unraid 6 will I have to redo all these plugins?

Yes, you will.  Although honestly it is pretty easy.  I am new to using Docker and it only took me a couple of hours to have all of those applications up and running again.

Hmm..I just started with unRaid and I just setup version 5 with all my plugins that I wanted ie: Sickbeard, couchpotato, SAB, Mysql.  If I upgrade to unraid 6 will I have to redo all these plugins?

 

That is correct.  That said, all the plugins from v5 you have mentioned are actually available as Docker Containers in v6.  You can literally download these apps directly from within the webGui.  Many folks have reported the move from v5 to v6 as minimal effort.  In some cases, your appdata from your v5 plugins MAY work with your v6 Docker Containers, but I wouldn't count on it.

Will my xbmc database from mysql be able to work or will I have to set it all up again?

Will my xbmc database from mysql be able to work or will I have to set it all up again?

Your database should be fine as long as it is the same version of xbmc.

So if I upgrade to 6 and then install the new plugins do I have to reconfigure everything or can I copy over the settings files, etc.?

I guess if I upgrade to 6 then I could run these in a VM right?

So if I upgrade to 6 and then install the new plugins do I have to reconfigure everything or can I copy over the settings files, etc.?

You would probably just want to start fresh as much as possible.

 

I guess if I upgrade to 6 then I could run these in a VM right?

Yes, I run all my applications in Ubuntu Server. I do not have any Dockers running.

Docker Containers are definitely quicker to get going than either plugins or VMs.  VMs are great for apps that more advanced users want to self install and manage.

 

So are "dockers" really just plugins?

Best diagrams explaining the difference. 

Best diagrams explaining the difference. 

Awesome diagram!