Hi,

Is there a way to start vmmgr without mounting all the disks in the array?

I want to try oc settings form my cpu and need to bring up my vm´s without starting the array.

I have disks already mounted outside of the array. They have the vm´s images.

Rgds.

I do not believe that there is any properly documented way, although it must be possible if you know the right commands to run from the command line.  It is something I have been thinking of researching for myself as I also have a disk mounted outside the array with VM images.

 

The ability to run VMs when the array is not started has been requested quite a few times so the feature may appear in a future unRAID release although I have seen no suggestion of an ETA.

Can any of the LimeTech people confirm if this will come soon or if there is an option to do it?

There is no supported method that we have documented. We are considering this for some point in the future, but it definitely complicates things quite a bit.  Many things can start and stop when the array is not running (network being a key one).  So just ONE complication of supporting this would be to ensure that those types of things couldn't happen when the array was stopped if a VM was running.  The use cases for a VM running when the array is stopped are fairly niche at this point, so unless someone can prove a common use case that is impossible to achieve with the VM running after the array is started, this will probably stay a little lower on the to do list for now.  Don't say pfsense either because I'm not the biggest fan of that solution running as a VM just yet, and I doubt that is a common enough use case among the masses.

 

It's not that we don't want to enable features that people want, but rather, that we don't want to waste tons of cycles supporting an enhancement like this that really doesn't have a clear benefit to all users.

I know I'm in the minority with this, but having Windows Server 2012 with AD running before unRAID attempts join the domain (I'm guessing this happens when the array is starting) is what keeps me running unRAID on ESXi.

 

EDIT: Also, properly set up AD would be on its own machine with and secondary machine, but I just have one server in my homelab

So what happens for your use case if after the VM boots, unRAID automatically retries joining the domain? No longer need the VM to boot first, right?

So what happens for your use case if after the VM boots, unRAID automatically retries joining the domain? No longer need the VM to boot first, right?

 

Correct.

okay jonp, I've moved to KVM because I'm hopeful this is coming   will have to do a manual rejoin on startup until then.

Yes, we will address it.

Yes, we will address it.

 

Thank jonp. Little bit of clarification.  It looks like even if I turn on AD for SMB, then start the array. When I try to join it looks like it still stops the VM.  I thought it wouldn't.

Right, that's because we haven't addressed the retry method yet.

Right, that's because we haven't addressed the retry method yet.

 

You guys are the best!