Beta2 on VMWare ... notes

[Nyago123]

For testing I managed to get 5.0b2 running on VMWare ESXi 4.1, which supports USB keys.  For the record, VMWare's VM bios doesn't support USB key booting, but I bound a boot time ISO to the virtual CD drive which lets me choose to boot from the USB key in the VM console.  So if one wanted to get Pro running on ESXi, it's doable.

 

I added three virtual disks (on separate spindles) as IDE drives and got 5.0b2 up and running.  The only issue I found was that after basic configuration (e.g. network settings), I couldn't see added shares on the Shares tab.  They did appear in the config directory on the flash, so I did a quick reboot and they popped in and now everything is working close to expectations.

 

Parity checks seem to fluctuate in reported speed (anywhere from 11MB/sec to 30MB/sec) and I get a lot of errors in the system log related to the inability of the kernel to get drive temps from the virtual disks:

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower emhttp: disk_temperature: ioctl (smart_enable): Input/output error

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower last message repeated 2 times

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower kernel: hdb: task_no_data_intr: status=0x41 { DriveReady Error }

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower kernel: hdb: task_no_data_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower kernel: hdb: possibly failed opcode: 0xb0

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower kernel: hdd: task_no_data_intr: status=0x41 { DriveReady Error }

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower kernel: hdd: task_no_data_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower kernel: hdd: possibly failed opcode: 0xb0

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower kernel: hda: task_no_data_intr: status=0x41 { DriveReady Error }

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower kernel: hda: task_no_data_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }

Aug 10 23:26:23 tower kernel: hda: possibly failed opcode: 0xb0

 

.. but other than log pollution, no big deal.  The virtual disks do spin up and down (though only virtually).

 

All in all, gives me a chance to play with the new UI, though without AD support it's not ready for prime time for me personally (but I wasn't expecting that for a while, either). 

 

LimeTech, keep up the good work and I look forward to further releases!

 

[ftp222]

I was trying something similar last week and noticed the USB boot option was not there.  Thanks for the ISO suggestion, I never would have thought of that.  Does the Flash drive still show up and is writable?  How does it handle Lime Tech's key file?  This is high on my list to try as I am getting a bit tired of the slow performance of VMware Server software.  In the mean-time I am trying to get things working with Hyper-V (MS is soooooo far behind VMware in their configuration options).

 

 

[Nyago123]

To unRAID, yes, the flash drive shows up as /mnt/flash and it is writable... for all intents and purposes it may as well be hardware. 

 

The only quirk I've noticed in VMWare ESXi is that the USB flash drive must be physically plugged into the physical VM server when it boots up.  If you unplug it while the server is on, it disappears for good... i.e. plugging it back in later will not make it visible (you'll need to restart the server).  So that means I had to prep my unRAID key first, plug it in, boot the ESXi box, then configure the VM to use the USB key.

 

[ftp222]

For testing I managed to get 5.0b2 running on VMWare ESXi 4.1, which supports USB keys.  For the record, VMWare's VM bios doesn't support USB key booting, but I bound a boot time ISO to the virtual CD drive which lets me choose to boot from the USB key in the VM console.  So if one wanted to get Pro running on ESXi, it's doable.

 

What did you use to create the boot time ISO to allow boot from USB?  Is it possible for you to post the ISO here?  I think that may be a very helpful utility for many people to use when testing out ESXi.

 

[Nyago123]

I used PLoP boot manager.  The download page is here:

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagerdl.html

 

 

[ftp222]

I used PLoP boot manager.  The download page is here:

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagerdl.html

 

 

 

Thanks Nyago123.  I got the ISO file created and booted to the USB drive without any issues (although at USB 1.1 speed).  This would work absolutely perfect if I could do Raw Device Mapping to the Drives

 

I have started testing Hyper-V and I have the opposite problem where I can't map a USB device, but I can map Raw Disks.  I guess the next thing to test is an install of unRAID to a physical drive, but I'm not sure how the licensing works.  If VMware ever supports Raw Device Mapping for drives not over a SAN then we'll have this one working, but until then I think I've hit a wall.

 

[tranm5]

Hi

 

You can use RDM on sata drives

 

you'll find the way to do this here

 

http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/SATA_RDMs.php

[ftp222]

Hi

 

You can use RDM on sata drives

 

you'll find the way to do this here

 

http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/SATA_RDMs.php

 

Thanks for the tip, I had not run across this in my searches!  I have tried this with some SCSI drives on our ESX boxes at work, but couldn't get those to work.  Evidently this may just be for SATA, so I'll give it a shot at home when I get some time.

 

[X4n]

Hi

 

You can use RDM on sata drives

 

you'll find the way to do this here

 

http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/SATA_RDMs.php

 

Thanks for the tip, I had not run across this in my searches!  I have tried this with some SCSI drives on our ESX boxes at work, but couldn't get those to work.  Evidently this may just be for SATA, so I'll give it a shot at home when I get some time.

 

 

i couldnt get this to work either.

although the raw device worked on windows, it didnt on unRAID.

because the raw sata drive gets connected through SCSI, the drives arent detected (but im not a linux expert)

[bryanr]

i couldnt get this to work either.

although the raw device worked on windows, it didnt on unRAID.

because the raw sata drive gets connected through SCSI, the drives arent detected (but im not a linux expert)

I'm using SATA disks, but found I had to change the type of the virtual SCSI Contoller to LSI Logic SAS, rather than parallel.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Cheers,

Bryan

[nojstevens]

I've got this working too on ESXi 4.1 using the Supermicro AOC SATA 8 card in passthrough mode. This was the disks will spin down and the temp readings work. I also had it working in RAW mode but when you do this the disks don't spin down. The GUI says they did, but they don't. I'm getting good read and write throughput - I have 5 x 2TB and 1 x 1.5Tb WD Green with a WD Black for parity and a 250GB Enterprise for Cache.

 

I am very pleased - so much better than WHS. AFP support in beta 3 will allow Time Machine support and with SABnzbd, Sickbeard and CouchPotato I can see many people migrating to this from WHS, the VAIL disk overhead was crazy

 

Jon

[tranm5]

I've got this working too on ESXi 4.1 using the Supermicro AOC SATA 8 card in passthrough mode.

 

Hello nojstevens. Which Supermicro card did you use? the PCI-X or the PCIe 4x?

 

I'm currently testing with RDM, but my ESX host has already crashed twice during the data moving... So I'm less confident now and I'm beginning to look around the pci passthrough thing.

[nojstevens]

I use the Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 8-Port SATA - with the card passed through to the VM. Now, I've had loads of crashes this past week copying data over from the Mac to the unRAID - it would just wipe out ESXi needing a reboot. Then, after 6 days of scratching my head and changing disks, reinstalling, moving card locations etc, I upgraded the BIOS on my mobo and not had a crash since. I've lost data on 2 of my drives, but thats another story and my own stupid fault.

 

But - I love unRAID - or unWHS as it should be called!

 

Jon