Windows 10 on unRAID 6


Recommended Posts

Is your windows 7 a retail copy or oem?  If it is oem I don't know if you will be able to move it over.  If it is a retail copy just install windows 7 on the vm and when asked to activate use their phone activation method and answer the questions, they will give you a log string of numbers to activate windows 7.  Then update to windows 10, if windows 10 update fails during install there are some xml tweaks you need to make for it to update.

Link to comment
  • Replies 64
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Is your windows 7 a retail copy or oem?  If it is oem I don't know if you will be able to move it over.  If it is a retail copy just install windows 7 on the vm and when asked to activate use their phone activation method and answer the questions, they will give you a log string of numbers to activate windows 7.  Then update to windows 10, if windows 10 update fails during install there are some xml tweaks you need to make for it to update.

 

thanks for the response.

 

Its a retail copy, so i looks like i can just use the key for a fresh install on the VM and then activate and then upgrade to Win 10. I'll read up on the XML tweaks you mentioned.

 

cheers

Link to comment

These are the changes I made.  You can go back to your original xml after the update.

 

 

With the help of Jencryzthers showing me what exactly needed to be changed in my windows.xml file I have started updating my windows 8.1 to windows 10.

 

The changes that needed to be made were:

 

Code:

<acpi/> or what ever you may have in this section.<br /><br />was changed to <br /><br /><acpi><br />  <kvm><br />    <hidden state='on'/><br />  </kvm><br /></acpi>

And

 

Code:

<cpu><br />  <topology sockets='1' cores='1' threads='1'/><br /></cpu><br /><br />was changed to <br /><br /><cpu mode='custom' match='exact'><br />   <model fallback='allow'>core2duo</model><br />   <feature policy='require' name='nx'/><br /></cpu>

Jon can you add this to the windows 10 on unraid 6 blog and wiki?

 

http://lime-technology.com/windows-10-on-unraid-6/

Link to comment
  • 2 months later...

Hi guys... I got some new hardware (skylake 6100, one 256gb ssd, some 500tb and 1tb hds...), and I'm thinking on going virtual (with unRAID) for the benefits of virtualization, and if possible for the storage system performance gains.

 

What you guys think? Using the SSD as cache seems like Ok, but my lack of mass storage may be a problema... I don't have quite a lot of HDD's hanging here, perhaps I could manage to get a 1tb 2.5", maybe a 320gb 3.5", but that's about it...

 

Could it make a storage pool without a parity drive parity? (I'm not really worried about data protection, right now)

 

What you guys think? Lemme now.

Link to comment

If anyone else is having problem with their memory being at 96-100% all the time on windows 10.

I found out that libvirt balloon driver consume 80% of my available ram after a recent windows update.

 

I tried downgraded from 10preview/10/8.1/8 and only on windows 7 it was doing it.

I guess an update which affect most of windows was push and made libvirt balloon driver freak out.

 

Well, I solved my issue by uninstalling libvirt balloon driver and everything now works like charm.

Anyone else is having this issue?

Link to comment

If anyone else is having problem with their memory being at 96-100% all the time on windows 10.

I found out that libvirt balloon driver consume 80% of my available ram after a recent windows update.

 

I tried downgraded from 10preview/10/8.1/8 and only on windows 7 it was doing it.

I guess an update which affect most of windows was push and made libvirt balloon driver freak out.

 

Well, I solved my issue by uninstalling libvirt balloon driver and everything now works like charm.

Anyone else is having this issue?

 

You're misunderstanding the balloon driver.  The way memory ballooning works is it allows you to oversubscribe the amount of RAM available between multiple running VMs (this doesn't work when you're passing through PCI devices to VMs though).  In VM Manager, you can set an Initial and Max memory.  If these are the same value, then you're not really using ballooning at all.  If initial is set to a low value and Max is set to a higher value, this enables ballooning for the VM.  The initial value is what the VM will initially get assigned and is the minimal amount of free RAM that the system must have for the VM to start.  The max value is what you will allow the memory to "balloon" up to in the event more RAM is needed.

 

If the guest NEEDS more RAM and the host has some available, then the VM will get it.

 

The reason the VM looks 80% utilized of RAM is because that's the balloon driver at work making Windows think that memory isn't available when it really is.

Link to comment
  • 4 months later...

Yes, you need to install the latest windows virtio drivers (you are using stable, not latest).  You can do this by downloading the ISO, editing your VM, then pointing it to that ISO and booting back up in Windows 7.  Locate the Ethernet, virtio balloon, virtio SCSI, and virtio serial devices in device manager, right click, select update driver, and then browse to the root of the virtio drivers cd rom and let it search and install automatically.  I will update the blog and add this to the wiki as well.

 

Upgraded all the drivers to the latest (virtio-win-0.1.109) just as instructed but still get the following error:

 

Win10%20Error_zpsx1uf6hji.jpg

 

A few things.  If you are trying to use the "automatic update" method to upgrade to Windows 10, that is known to be problematic, even on physical Windows 10 installs.  It's better to just download the ISO and run the upgrade process from that directly.

 

That said, if you're hell bent on using the automatic update method, I google searched your error message and found this:

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/when-installing-windows-10-i-get-an-error/0e64b225-e767-43a9-be85-8fca5d612664?auth=1

 

 

Ok, getting a little closer one step at a time haha.  I downloaded the Win 10 ISO and ran the install from that.  The setup ran and completed and the VM restarted as it should.  It then proceded to boot back into Win7 and upon login this message comes up:

 

Win10%20Error2_zpskfuuu8o3.jpg

That's usually the message I got if my virtio drivers were not updated prior and/or if I had more than one CPU core assigned.

 

I'm getting the same issue... trying to upgrade Win7 SP1 to Win10 using the ISO.  Shortly after upgrade begins the VM reboots back into Win7 and displays "The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during BOOT operation" error.

 

I did some googling and found this is likely related to an Intel CPU microcode update (Microsoft KB3064209) that is causing Windows 10 installations to fail.  I'm running a new Intel i7-6800k.  Done this upgrade many times on an AMD CPU with no issues.  I've set it to use core 0, CPU emulation, VirtIO to latest, etc. but no go.

 

Has anyone found a workaround for this issue?

Link to comment

Well, looks like I found the magic combo of settings to get past this issue on my i7-6800k.  Host CPU passthrough, core 0, 2GB initial/max memory, i440fx-2.3, SeaBIOS.

 

Hope that helps anyone else who gets stuck with this issue.

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...

Well, looks like I found the magic combo of settings to get past this issue on my i7-6800k.  Host CPU passthrough, core 0, 2GB initial/max memory, i440fx-2.3, SeaBIOS.

 

Hope that helps anyone else who gets stuck with this issue.

 

Ned,  You are a life saver!!  This is the correct setup for the free upgrade to function!  I was counting down the end of the free upgrade and couldn't get it to install.  Your setup works on a  ASRock - Z97 Extreme6, i7-4790K, and nVidia Gforce 960 Pass-through card!  Now I have 30 days to decide if I want to go back to windows 7...At least this reserves me a copy of Windows 10 when it's required.

 

Thank You!

 

Rudder2

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

We have yet to successfully upgrade any Windows VM using OVMF to Windows 10 (gets stuck during installation).

 

From this page. Just wanted to say that it worked for me. 

 

unRAID v6.3.5. Windows 7 Pro to WIndows 10 (latest build as of today). Think I had it on 1 CPU core from when I installed Windows 7 just to be on the safe side :)

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.