I see reference to this on the forums, people saying their server is running xen win7 vm. .. I know vm means virtual machine but I don't understand where the Win7 comes in..I'm thinking I could run Windows remotely from unraid on many devices...is this a correct assumption ?

 

 

I see reference to this on the forums, people saying their server is running xen win7 vm. .. I know vm means virtual machine but I don't understand where the Win7 comes in..I'm thinking I could run Windows remotely from unraid on many devices...is this a correct assumption ?

 

Yes if your hardware supports it. I feel KVM is the better option though instead of Xen. KVM is available by default in unRAID and for Xen you select from the boot menu.  Look in the KVM section there is a vm manager plugin that will make it very easy to install a Windows 7 vm.

I see reference to this on the forums, people saying their server is running xen win7 vm. .. I know vm means virtual machine but I don't understand where the Win7 comes in..I'm thinking I could run Windows remotely from unraid on many devices...is this a correct assumption ?

Not clear if you mean network booting windows on multiple other hardware using images stored on unRAID, or multiple remote desktops to a windows machine running on unRAID. Windows running on unRAID is what is meant by VM.

Of. . What I'm thinking...I have a media PC in my living room that has a 128gb sad. .its sole purpose is to serve plex from my unpaid server...i want to scavenge the drive from it...could I use a small usb flash drive and use unraid in some fashion to throw windows to it or point it to a windows vm running off unraid. .I'm confused as to how you would use this ??

What you're describing is a network boot scenario and, while possible with unRAID, is not what VMs are all about.

 

A VM is a virtual machine that runs completely on your unRAID server hardware. The VM system/boot drive exists as a disk image file on your server and the Xen or KVM hypervisor software uses that to establish a virtual computer, using the memory, CPU and other resources of the host server.

 

To access the system, that is to see and interact with the desktop of the VM, you have a couple of options;

 

First, you can use VNC or Remote Desktop to remote in to the VM. You do this from another system and you essentially view the VM desktop across the network. There are performance issues with this approach and it's not going to be of any benefit to you in your set up as you need another PC up and running in any case.

 

The other option is to add a second video card, keyboard and mouse to your unRAID server. Assuming you've got the right support on your server MB and CPU, you can assign these additional devices to the VM and interact with it that way. (you essentially end up with two (or more) displays, keyboards and mice attached to your single server system.

 

Now, if you were in a position to run a HDMI & USB  cable from your unRAID server to your living room, you could dispense with your living room PC altogether and just have everything running from the unRAID bix.

 

And the fun doesn't stop there, you can have as many VMs running on unRAID as your hardware will support (memory, HD space, USB ports, GPUs etc.)

 

For example, I run the following;

 

• Win 7 TV Server (no GPU, manages ArgusTV, MediaBrowser, MediaPrtal, LMS servers)
  Win 8 Living Room HTPC
  Win 8 Lounge HTPC
  Win 8 Home Cinema HTPC
  Linux Workstation
  
• 
  

 

This can get complicated and there's a good bit of tiral and error as well as finding the exact right hardware to make it all work.

 

It greatly cuts down on noise and heat and power costs but I've found it to be less stable overall than a proper client/server setup.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Peter