Hi, 

 

I had a system built at the beginning of the year.  It currently has an Asus Rampage VI Extreme loaded with two NVME drives in RAID 0 for the boot drive.  RAID Intel RST (or something like that)  is set in the UEFI.

I have two questions of concern:

 

1.) Will UNRAID not run with this set to RAID instead of AHCI in the UEFI?

2.) Can UNRAID work, ignoring those drives, if I do not load them into the pools?

 

 

I am doing all of this to mod my system to handle a dual gaming/virtual desktops scenario when friends come over. I normally use this system for CAD/Motion Picture Editing/Music Production, and perhaps soon, will try my hand at 3D modeling and rigging...

 

So, when not entertaining, I would like to return to the FULL resources of my system for work.

   ... I have NEVER seen this mentioned anywhere, but I am VERY curious about the answer to this next question: 

 

3.) If I take out the UNRAID USB stick, will it boot from my RAID 0 NVMEs?

 

Sounds like you are mostly interested in unRAID as a virtual host. unRAID is actually a NAS with docker and virtual hosting capabilities.

 

While it would be possible to present a RAID as a single volume to unRAID, unRAID must format any disk it will use in the array or cache pool. So, your 3 questions can be reduced to just the 3rd question.

 

If you set your BIOS boot order you might be able to boot from the unRAID USB or from the NVMEs, but it might remove a drive from the boot order if you remove it. You should be able to boot from any device if you manually select the boot device though.

 

It is very important if you do boot another OS, you don't allow it to access any of the unRAID cache or array disks.

 

Ok.  So that I am clear...

 

   If I do not switch the UEFI from RAID to ACHI, it should still run ok?

Will what run OK? I thought you were planning to boot another OS from your NVME RAID. If so, then I presume it would work just as before, and you shouldn't let the unRAID OS even touch it.

 

Are you saying you can't have any AHCI devices if you have this NVME RAID? That doesn't seem right.

 

Maybe I don't understand what you're asking.

Install trial version, see if it works.  Your proposed method of running is a pretty fringe use case.  I don't see why it wouldn't, though, just ignore the NVMe RAID in unRAID.

On 4/24/2018 at 5:53 AM, HellDiverUK said:

Install trial version, see if it works.  Your proposed method of running is a pretty fringe use case.  I don't see why it wouldn't, though, just ignore the NVMe RAID in unRAID.

Awesome!!  Thank You.

 

I ordered a sandisk USB drive and it should be here on Friday. 

 

If it works, all that i'll need to do is figure out if HTC Vive lighthouses:

a.) Support more than one headset at a time through a VM

 

b.) Need to be connected a particular way for headsets with VM allocations/pass-throughs.

 

#firstWorldProblems

#noobInTraining

Edited April 25, 20188 yr by sekrit
Ertor

OK...

 

   I am finally back home and in front of my system.  My USB has UNRAID written & ready... BUT:

 

I intended to switch use cases from full system access production rig, to booting up unraid to run VM for certain applications.

 

PROBLEM:

My primary boot is: Intel RST RAID 0 dual m.2 (windows 10 PRO).

 

However, according to instructions, I have to switch from INTEL RST(RAID) to AHCI for UNRAID to access the drives.

 

I have not saved it, but according to a UEFI warning, I could lose files from raid (likely my windows install).

 

So, is there a way to keep my RST RAID as is for my m.2, and use AHCI for my HDDs through SATAIII?