Running a Norco case wanting to convert to VMware. Have design questions

[wisem2540]

So currently I have a 12 bay norco case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219040

 

It was built specifically for this case.  I am running an 8 port SAS card and the 4 onboard satas.  not much room to expand but this was intentional at the time....

 

So, I am not happy with the performance of Virtualbox and need some other VMs for various tasks...  Here are some of my thoughts..

 

1.  Leave Unraid as-is, and build a second box for Vmware to house VMs.

Pros - simple

Cons - Costly ~800 for new build

 

2.  Convert this rig to VMware and run unraid as a guest.

Problem is, I do not have any room in the case for VMware

But, I am only using 6 drives.  Technically, I could run the VMware datastores off of the 4 onboard satas, but I would lose the expansion possibilities with unraid.  My Dataset is not growing as fast now, so this could get me by for a couple of years maybe.

 

3.  Buy a different case and build existing rig into it, run Unraid as a VM

con here is that I would then just have the original norco case unused

 

I am looking for advice from the community here.  What would you do?

 

 

[sadkisson]

With Docker, KVM, and Xen already included with UnRaid. What more do you need?

[BetaQuasi]

Yep.. run the latest v6b15 and use KVM. 

[wisem2540]

Oh I was not aware.  So I would just install the newest version of unraid and the virtualization platform is already there?  How convenient.  I guess I was out of the loop. .  Can anyone comment if my existing Virtualbox VM would import?

 

Thanks

[wisem2540]

So I checked out Docker.  Neat feature, but I need a windows VM for some stuff.  Maybe I will try to upgrade tomorrow and see how it goes.

 

Any insight on if my existing VM will import would be helpful. 

[BetaQuasi]

Yes it appears you can convert VirtualBox -> KVM.  I'd keep a backup just in case (which you should always do regardless!)  and take a look here:

 

http://cheznick.net/main/content/converting-a-virtual-machine-from-virtualbox-to-kvm

 

The only required line is the convert to raw image command using vboxmanage.  You can then convert to qcow2 if you want to save space.  You will then be able to set up a VM using that existing disk and off you go.  Plenty more info on the forums here on how to achieve that.

 

Ignore that final step completely (executing KVM), as you will do all that from the web interface.

 

Also, note KVM and Docker are two different things.. KVM is the virtualisation platform, which is what you need to run actual VM's.