Hi All

 

I've set up unRAID (4.5.3, free version) to boot from USB key in VirtualBox on Windows Server 2008.

 

It all seems to work well as unRaid boots and I can access the web UI from any machine on the network.

 

I've got 2x 500GB drives in the machine which I've added to VirtualBox as direct access devices as per instructions in VB documentation.

 

In unRAID UI, I can add either drive as parity or one of the array drives. However, when I add the second, unRAID appears to stall. My browser indicates 'Loading' but never reloads the page (I've left it running for a couple of hours). I cannot navigate to any other page in the unRAID UI. I'm forced to restart the Virtual Machine. On restart, neither device is attached.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks

 

Peter

 

Actually, it's a bigger problem than just adding drives.....

 

I can successfully issue only ONE command via the GUI. Issuing a second command causes the web browser to stall at "loading" the reponse page.

 

eg.

 

1. Access 'Settings', change workgroup name and hit apply (success)

2. On the same screen, change time zone dropdown, hit apply (browser stalls "loading")

 

After that point, I cannot access the GUI (http://192.168.1.13) from any machine.

 

Help appreciated

 

Peter

 

 

Actually, it's a bigger problem than just adding drives.....

 

I can successfully issue only ONE command via the GUI. Issuing a second command causes the web browser to stall at "loading" the reponse page.

 

eg.

 

1. Access 'Settings', change workgroup name and hit apply (success)

2. On the same screen, change time zone dropdown, hit apply (browser stalls "loading")

 

After that point, I cannot access the GUI (http://192.168.1.13) from any machine.

 

Help appreciated

 

Peter

 

 

Is it possible you have more than one device on the LAN assigned to that same IP address?

Hi Joe

 

No, If I ping 192.168.1.13 before booting into unRAID, I get no response. As soon as it's up, I get a good ping response.

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

Some Progress

 

I moved my USB boot device to SATA controller (rather than IDE) in Virtual Box and I can now do more than 2 operations without my browser freezing.

 

However, the information I configure in unRAID is not being retained from boot to boot. When I shut down unRAID and boot it again, I have a fresh configuration.

 

I've confirmed that the USB key is writeable by logging in as root at the console and making a directory.

 

Peter

 

I've set up unRAID (4.5.3, free version) to boot from USB key in VirtualBox

 

How on Earth did you do that??  The latest VirtualBox (version 3.1.6 as of this writing) still doesn't support booting from USB.

I am really curious about what exactly you're doing.

 

Hi Purko

 

Largely followed the instructions here;

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5061.msg50664#msg50664

 

I'm using the simple case of Free unRAID on USB stick as I don't have a licence yet. I still have the problem that any configuration I make is not persistent (I lose all config on reboot of VM). I suspect something to do with the format of the USB drive (FAT 32). I'm going to try placing unraid on a small hard drive to see if that will work better. Then I can add in my licensed USB key as per the above post as and when I get it.

 

Things I've learned;

 

-You can set up direct access to physical disks under VirtualBox using the instructions in Section 9 of the VirtualBox manual. This works well, though you need to keep good track of your device UIDs as these are what's used to display disk references when adding them to unRAID.

 

-It's necessary to attach all drives (including boot USB) to an SATA controller in VirtualBox. IDE doesn't seem to want to work.

 

-It's necessary to unmount any disks used VirtualBox/unRAID from the host system. In my case, in Win Server 2008,

You can use mountvol <DRIVE>: /D to unmount the drive...

 

I'll add more stuff here as I learn!

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

I'm using the simple case of Free unRAID on USB stick

 

Oh, I see. In that case you don't really need to boot from USB stick.

You can boot from ANY disk (including virtual disks) as long as you have one disk labeled UNRAID, so unRAID will keep there its config folder.