October 28, 201510 yr I have most of my basic VM's running off an unassigned drive outside the array. It would be nice to be able to keep these vms running even then the array is stopped as they have no real ties to the array. Would be awesome for PfSense and the like.
November 19, 201510 yr I'd be interested in this as well. Also for Pfsense. +1 especially for pfsense
December 17, 201510 yr This has been discussed before in other threads, I agree it would be a great feature, how easy it is to implement I couldn't say...
January 6, 201610 yr I could definitely use the ability to keep the VM's running, from the cache drive, when the array has been stopped. When you create you'r VM there could be a checkbox, that activates this feature. I know this have been mentioned many times, but have there ever been made a feature request for it.
January 15, 201610 yr The only issue I see here is that the drivers for vms are loaded when the disk array starts. The config file is stored on the flash still though so I don't know if it can be loaded without the array
January 15, 201610 yr Community Expert The only issue I see here is that the drivers for vms are loaded when the disk array starts. The config file is stored on the flash still though so I don't know if it can be loaded without the array I see no reason why the relevant drivers could not be loaded at the time that the system is started up in the same way that plugins are initialised at that point. The flash drive remains mounted regardless of whether the array is started or not so that is not an issue. I run my VMs from a drive that is not under unRAID control so that is probably all that I personally would need. I would be quite happy to start/stop some VMs via the go/stop files. There may be a significant number of users who would be happy with just this level of support for running VMs independently of the array. Having said that a way to keep the cache drive mounted when the array is stopped would be good. However doing that would mean that GUI support would have to be added for explicitly mounting/unmounting the cache drive for the few occasions where that is needed. I can also see complications arising in cases where a specific users VMs have a dependency on array drives being available. There would also have to be general enhancements around starting/stopping VMs via the GUI.
January 15, 201610 yr I have my vms running off a disk outside the arrays too. I think if the gui finds that the disk images used for the vms can't be found, it should prevent the starting of the vms. That would prevent any issues and wouldn't need any extra work from a user. It's also very easy to do in php so the gui can handle that
March 28, 201610 yr +1 Is there a way of making this an official feature request? Okay, forum n00b just realized this *is* the way you officially request features around here...
February 15, 20188 yr Bumping this because it’s desperately needed for those running pfsense and the like.
January 30, 20197 yr Wow, seems this one has been ignored but many people would like this. I bet a lot of us have VMs that don't use any share data at all. pfSense, pihole, LibreNMS for example for some.
April 8, 20197 yr I know this is an old thread but I would really appreciate functionality to run VMs without the array started. Especially for pfSense! Please consider this functionality. Thanks for your time and KR,
April 8, 20197 yr 9 hours ago, MrSmith3101 said: I know this is an old thread but I would really appreciate functionality to run VMs without the array started. Especially for pfSense! Please consider this functionality. Thanks for your time and KR, EDIT: It is definitely not built-in. I had auto-start of my array enabled so it looked like my VM started without the array. Editing my old post for clarification. Thx itimpi for explaining what happened! ORIGINAL (WRONG): Well, seems like this functionality is already built-in! Sorry for the confusion. I had a power outage due to a short at an outdoor power outlet. I was not at home and suddenly couldn‘t connect via VPN anymore. What really happened is that my server did not automatically boot from the USB-stick. The server was just idling and stalled at the boot screen. After correct rebooting Unraid started array checking which of course shuts down the array. BUT, my pfsense VM was booting up fine! My VM HDD image is located (fixed) on my cache drive. Works perfectly! Thx Unraid Edited April 8, 20197 yr by MrSmith3101
April 8, 20197 yr Community Expert 3 minutes ago, MrSmith3101 said: Well, seems like this functionality is already built-in! Sorry for the confusion. I had a power outage due to a short at an outdoor power outlet. I was not at home and suddenly couldn‘t connect via VPN anymore. What really happened is that my server did not automatically boot from the USB-stick. The server was just idling and stalled at the boot screen. After correct rebooting Unraid started array checking which of course shuts down the array. BUT, my pfsense VM was booting up fine! My VM HDD image is located (fixed) on my cache drive. Works perfectly! Thx Unraid It is NOT built in. If is certainly something I would like to have. At the moment the VM service is only fired up when the array is started. If you stop the array then the VM service gets shut down. In most cases this does not matter as most people have their arrays set to auto-start when Unraid loads and only stop the array when they are shutting down (or rebooting) the server. However there are times where it would be convenient to be able to stop the array and keep a VM running (if it does not need access to any array or cache disks).
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