I'm new to unRAID and VMs so please go easy on me if I say anything TOO stupid.  :-)

 

I played with FreeNAS 11 a bit but ultimately decided unRAID 6 was the way to go for my limited needs - specifically:
- a NAS with failure protection for mostly static content and storage of offsite backups (stupid CrashPlan Home deprication....grrr)

- a Windows 10 VM for occasional working from home (mostly RDP based)

- a Windows 7 VM for occasional light gaming (VERY light, but it would be cool to get a GPU pass-through working)

- various Linux VMs for playing around with Linux (in hopes of eventually not "needing" Windows)

 

I know BSD based FreeNAS uses iohyve/bhyve for virtualization, unRAID uses KVM, and I've played with VirtualBox.  So my questions are:

1. Is VirtualBox also KVM based like unRAID and, if so, can a VM be moved between the two (like I could build up a VirtualBox VM at a location without access to my unRAID box and then bring it to a final hosting place on unRAID)?
2. I've searched the forums and found tutorials on converting VMWare VMs to KVM (and elsewhere found bhyve -> VirtualBox -> iohyve) but haven't found anything similar for the reverse (iohyve/bhyve to KVM) - is it possible to convert back to a KVM?  (Specifically, I have a friend who stuck with FreeNAS so am wondering about the ability to share my unRAID VMs with.)
3. Do I now need to re-register under a new login so people won't know it was me that posted such an idiotic question? :-)

 

Thanks!

Edited August 23, 20178 yr by JonMikelV

1. No, virtualbox is it's own special setup. You can use the raw disk images if you like, but you will face a similar situation as you would when you pull a hard drive out of one pc and stick it in a totally different motherboard. Drivers and such will be different, and you will need to tweak things to get them to run.

 

2. see #1. Migrating between hypervisors is pretty much just like moving a hard drive around.

 

3. Nah, it's not idiotic at all. It's not even dumb, or even a little stupid. Very legit question with hard answers, most people that build VM's for themselves seem to pick a hypervisor and build for that one, mixing and matching is mostly doable, just lots of work straightening out little differences so you can get things to boot and run. Many times it's easier to spin up a fresh VM on the new hypervisor, fresh installs allow you to correct and streamline things.

Thanks, jonathanm - the "moving a hard drive around" description clarifies things greatly for me!

 

So it sounds like I can migrate the "drives" fairly easily but the "machine" itself is (often) more painful to try and migrate than to just start from scratch.

 

Is there an "answered", "resolved" or "closed" flag I should set on this topic or do we just leave them open in case other people have more to share?

Since you started the topic, you can edit the title on the original post to include [Solved] or something like that.

 

Totally your call, it's your thread, and if you want to solicit more opinions or ask more questions, feel free.

 

I personally am running an old Windows 7 VM for home automation (homeseer) on KVM that originated in virtualbox, that was migrated from a backup of a physical machine, so it's doable, and I had so much stuff installed and running for years it was easier to migrate to KVM than rebuild. Stripped down and customized, windows 7 can be quite reliable.

Thanks for the summary of your Win 7 KVM @jonathanm - that sounds like where I'm heading so it's good to know it's a viable path I'm rapidle barreling down. :-)