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Help designing/picking a setup for unraid, need to upgrade in a bad way :)

live4soccer7

By live4soccer7
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live4soccer7 Enthusiast

live4soccer7

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I changed the network settings on unraid to public vs private (virbr0 or br0).

From the unraid wiki:

 

Configure a Network Bridge

 

There are two methods by which your virtual machines can get access to host-based networking: through a private NAT bridge managed by libvirt or through a public bridge managed by unRAID directly. The private bridge (virbr0) is automatically configured when libvirt starts. The public bridge can be created through the Network Settings page on the unRAID webGui.

 

The private bridge generates an internal DHCP server/address pool to create IPs for VMs automatically, but the VMs will be on a subnet that cannot be accessed by other devices or even other services on unRAID. This type of bridge is ideal if you want your VM to be completely isolated from all other network services accept internet access and the host's network file sharing protocols. VM management can be performed through a VNC session provided by the browser.

 

The public bridge provides VMs with an IP address from your router, but internally bridges communications between VMs and each other, as well the host. This type of bridge is ideal if you want your VMs to act just like another device on your network, where you manage it's network access at the LAN-router instead of inside the VM. We persist MAC address settings for the virtual interfaces you create, ensuring the VMs should get the same IP address each time they connect, as long as your router-managed DHCP pool doesn't run out of addresses. So if you want to connect to your VM from another PC, laptop, tablet, or other type of device, you should use the public bridge.

 

Whichever bridge you prefer can be defined as the Default Network Bridge on the VM Settings page.

 

 

Does anyone here see any major downfalls to going with the public bridge so I can gain access to a printer through the VM? I couldn't find a way to achieve this through the private bridge that is managed through libvirt.

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BobPhoenix Proficient

BobPhoenix

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Does anyone here see any major downfalls to going with the public bridge so I can gain access to a printer through the VM? I couldn't find a way to achieve this through the private bridge that is managed through libvirt.

Is the only way I do it if I don't pass through a network card to the VM.  Private would be useful if you want to browse suspect web sites and you are worried about security for the rest of the network.  You would be limited to just the PC the VM is on (I believe anyway).  My solution is to just not go there and make backups of all my PCs regularly.
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BobPhoenix Proficient

BobPhoenix

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Got ya. I'll probably just leave it on public then. I was just thinking that maybe it could somehow negatively effect the unraid array if a VM were compromised by "nasty" virus or some sort of intrusion.

At that point just shutdown the VM and restore the VM from a backup when it was good.

 

The virus is unlikely to infect unRAID's OS itself but it could corrupt the data on the server.  The best defense is a good scanner in the VM (I can't tell you the best - I use MicroSoft's AV) and with the sites I browse - here, SageTV forums, Netflix, Amazon, Newegg, few others I doubt I need more then MS AV.  If you visit warez/porn sites you might want a better AV.  Another user posted either here or on the SageTV forums about a nasty virus (ransom ware) that managed to encrypt pictures on the network and it apparently didn't have to have a direct connection to the other box.  Which is where making all your shares on unRAID read only might help.  When you want to write just load up the GUI and change the share to read/write do your writes and then change back to read only if you are really paranoid about it.  The best defense is to never open emails you don't know the sender of and even be suspicious of those if they look strange.  Also never visit sites you are unsure of.

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JonathanM Grand Master

JonathanM

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The best defense is a good scanner in the VM
Or, eliminate 95% of the issue and learn to use one of the linux distributions as your daily web / email / questionable activity machine. If you are savvy enough to set up a windows VM, setting up and using a linux VM is an easy transition.
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BobPhoenix Proficient

BobPhoenix

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The best defense is a good scanner in the VM
Or, eliminate 95% of the issue and learn to use one of the linux distributions as your daily web / email / questionable activity machine. If you are savvy enough to set up a windows VM, setting up and using a linux VM is an easy transition.

Quite true.  I would bet the number of linux viruses could be counted on the fingers of one hand and you would have to do something stupid like run as root to get infected anyway.
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live4soccer7 Enthusiast

live4soccer7

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Yeah, I think I may try that out. I think I'm going to go to windows 7 as originally discussed because you can control the updates. On windows 10 you have to update regardless if you want to or not and being on a VM, I'd imagine that eventually you will run in to an update that will cause compatibility issues at the time of update. I have an XP system running that I strictly use for a couple programs, no internet browsing or anything, and I haven't updated it for years. Guess what, it still works as it did when I installed it. LOL.

 

I also am not able to get windows 10 to print anything over the network. The printer will fire up when I send a job, but then nothing else happens. It is like the job just vanishes after it is sent. I know the printer receives something because it starts warming up.

 

I don't do any crazy/sketchy browsing, so I'm not concerned about those types of sites.

 

VM install order:

 

Windows 7

Try to install OSX - ought to be interesting

Linux distro of some sort to play around with

 

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live4soccer7 Enthusiast

live4soccer7

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Windows 7 install was an easy success. I could do a VM with my eyes closed now.

 

I still can not get the printer going. Any ideas? Windows recognizes it, printer drivers all up to date, etc... I hit print and it adds it as a job, printer makes some noise, then the job just disappears and nothing else happens at the printer. It is a network printer and being accessed over wifi. I have the bridge setup as public br0.

 

Quick question regarding hardware being dedicated to VMs, does it free up when the VM is not running or is it kind of reserved for that VM at all times regardless of the VM state. Mostly interested in CPU and RAM. It's looking like I'll need to fill out the rest of the ram banks with the VMs working well.

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BobPhoenix Proficient

BobPhoenix

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Quick question regarding hardware being dedicated to VMs, does it free up when the VM is not running or is it kind of reserved for that VM at all times regardless of the VM state. Mostly interested in CPU and RAM. It's looking like I'll need to fill out the rest of the ram banks with the VMs working well.

If you pass through the hardware to the VM then it is allocated and not usable to the host as far as I know.  However I believe some hardware can be shared between VMs.  You might have to only be using it in a single VM at a time.  The only thing I've ever shared between VMs is virtual hard drives and they were definitely only used in on VM at a time.  Someone else may be a better guide for this.  Once I setup a VM I usually don't change it and like I said the most I do is share virtual hard drives.
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BobPhoenix Proficient

BobPhoenix

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Can you guys recommend a linux version to install on a VM? I don't have much experience with linux distros. It would mainly be to mess around with and get familiar with the system.

 

Jeez, hunting down an original OS x yosemite image was horrendous. Finally located one.

I chose Debian on my laptop because I wanted something that was supposed to be as stable as possible.  I'm thinking about trying other distros because I'm not getting graphic acceleration from my i3 laptop.  At least not according to VMware Workstation for linux anyway (need that to display the VMs boot screens on my ESXi servers).  Was going to try Ubuntu next but may just skip it and go for Mint since I like the Cinnamon Desktop which is the Mint default.
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live4soccer7 Enthusiast

live4soccer7

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I just did a quick google search on "best linux distro for beginners" (lol) and it came up ubuntu. Figured I didn't have much to lose since it takes about two seconds to delete a vm.

 

My current VMs that I have successfully installed

 

Windows7

Ubuntu

Yosemite OS X

 

Windows7 and Ubuntu were SUPER easy. The Yosemite install has taken me pretty much all day today, but I was able to grind my way through the install one step at a time. So far it seems to actually be working extremely well. Internet access, VNC connection through mac laptop native vnc, etc... Finding an original yosemite file was quite the chore.

 

I don't know that I really care about graphics/gpu pass through as all the stuff I do on the VMs is easily doable through VNC. I might consider the following card because it supposedly work extremely well with the mac install: Sapphire Radeon HD 6450

 

 

My only two complaints thus far, the ubuntu refresh/graphics over VNC is TERRIBLE and I still can't print anything from my windows install. I have not tried from the OSX or Ubuntu.

 

 

Now on to figure out if I want to use dockers, a vm, or keep my separate mac mini for plex server, sab, etc... Currently the mac mini does a PERFECT job. I don't ever have to restart it or any of the software that is running on it. If that stability can be duplicated with the new unraid server build then I would be pretty excited. I currently run sab, sonarr, couch, plex server and maybe one or two others I can't think of right now.

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live4soccer7 Enthusiast

live4soccer7

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Today, I was shutting down the array to install a new disk and it was hung up at unmounting/disconnecting shares. I was not sure which one it was. All associated computers that connect to the shares were shutdown, so I have no idea how there was a share that was still active somehow. I was finally able to get a clean shut down by using "lsof /mnt" and then powerdown -v (wanted to see if I could get more info) and it shutdown.

 

Do you guys use the build in power down and take array offline or use a plugin? While searching around online I had seen a couple options for different powerdown procedures.

 

 

I think I figured out why. The terminal was navigated to a share. Doh. When I ran the lsof command I navigated to root and that's likely why it powered down when I tried the last time.

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BobPhoenix Proficient

BobPhoenix

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Do you guys use the build in power down and take array offline or use a plugin? While searching around online I had seen a couple options for different powerdown procedures.

 

 

I think I figured out why. The terminal was navigated to a share. Doh. When I ran the lsof command I navigated to root and that's likely why it powered down when I tried the last time.

I use the "Open Files" plugin by dlandon currently.  Before that I used the lsof addition to unMenu.  I like to look at the files that are open before I shutdown even if I force a shutdown with powerdown.
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BobPhoenix Proficient

BobPhoenix

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Thanks for the info. I'll take a look at it. Quick question, I've been adding all new disks with btrfs and I'm not sure if I should do all MBR 4k Aligned or what? Any input on this. Should i be making all new additions with btrfs?

unRAID will work with btrfs and many users have no problems.  But the file system is too new for me.  I'm on XFS and ReiserFS.  If ReiserFS was still being developed I probably wouldn't have switched to XFS.  I have personal experience with how good the recovery of files can be with ReiserFS.  The only reason I am switching to XFS is the bug newer linux kernels had on an earlier beta (with V5 betas I believe) that Limetech had to create a patch to fix.  There are some linux distros that don't even support ReiserFS anymore.  I chose XFS because it is a more mature file system then btrfs the raid 5 features of btrfs are not even considered stable (I believe) but everything that unRAID makes use of with btrfs is stable and should work.  I just don't know how good the recovery tools are for btrfs and with XFS being a more mature fs the tools should be stable/better - so I chose XFS to upgrade to.  I'm still on ReiserFS on a few disks on V6 server and completely on my V5 unRAID servers.  But I will eventually be transferring to all XFS disks just because I don't want to have to worry about another ReiserFS bug creeping in with all the new kernels that Limetech is using to fix other bugs.  The other reason you might want to use something newer than ReiserFS is performance.  When ReiserFS is writing to a VERY full disk it slows down significantly trying to write to the disk.  I also saw posts that said XFS access was a little faster in some situations (sorry can't remember what was posted now).  Both pointed me at XFS.  If the btrfs recovery tools are proven to work better and some of the problems that have been reported (they could have been user error so I don't really consider them too strongly) are proven not to be common then I would switch to btrfs since that is the only way to get a cache pool.

 

 

Speaking of the cache pool - I don't use a cache drive as a cache drive so don't see the need to raid 1 a cache drive. I have XFS for a file system on my v6 cache drives.  I only use my cache drive to store my VM images and I backup those OS's regularly elsewhere so not worried if I have a cache drive failure.

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live4soccer7 Enthusiast

live4soccer7

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Thanks, yet again, for the helpful response. I went ahead and chose the XFS file system for the new disk that I added to the array. It is currently formatting. I have BTRFS on my cache drive (use it for the same thing you do since I don't really care much about write speeds). My other drives are on REISERFS.

 

I have some drives that are MRB: unaligned, MBR: 4k aligned, and a couple 4TB drives that are GPT: 4k-Aligned. Does this really matter or does it mostly have to do with hard drive type, size, and manufacturer? I have default set up as 4k-aligned.

 

Bob, thanks again. I've been learning a ton through this thread.

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BobPhoenix Proficient

BobPhoenix

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I have some drives that are MRB: unaligned, MBR: 4k aligned, and a couple 4TB drives that are GPT: 4k-Aligned. Does this really matter or does it mostly have to do with hard drive type, size, and manufacturer? I have default set up as 4k-aligned.

 

Bob, thanks again. I've been learning a ton through this thread.

The drive will always be GPT if the size > 2.2TB.  If you have WD EARS drives then they should be 4K aligned or the jumper installed on the drive because it speeds up access of small files - but this only applies for EARS drives.  For large files and any other drive being aligned should NOT make a noticeable difference but doesn't hurt.
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BobPhoenix Proficient

BobPhoenix

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Mine is setup for 4k aligned as default, however with the 1TB WD drive I found I was not able to change it. I must have to do this through the terminal/cmd?

If you change from unaligned to aligned then you would have to reformat as the drive would then become unmountable and/or unformatted - if I remember correctly.  But you should be able to do that with the array stopped.  Not sure why you would be prevented unless it is a new feature to try to prevent data loss in V6.
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