Trouble with install.


tsawind

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Hello my name is TsAWind, like the wind.
Anyways ill dig right into the depths tech talk.  I have a good knowledge of computer systems, and hardware, but software seems to break around me.  I have been working on UnRaid for over 20 hours, and weeks of researching ect.

 

This is my goal:

1 computer with 2 workstations.  Workstation 1 will have 3 28" "4k" monitors mounted together, + 1-2 monitors above them.  Workstation 2 will have 1-3 "4k" monitor.

 

Ideally these stations will be sharing resources, but if that is not easily possible, then ability to reboot into super SLI mode with full resources  and speed from a m.2 drive with workstations 2 offline is acceptable.  (I believe this has been called "bare metal" setups but I don't know for sure.)

 

I want to use one Asus Hero VII Wifi, Ryzen 2700x, 2 1070ti 8gb running pci gen 3 x8 lanes. 32gb trident 3600mhz DDR4 4DIMMS total, 1 1tb m.2 pcie x4 ssd (cache drive), 2 128gb+ ssd (boot drives) and multiple western digital "red" 8tb drives.  I will be making physical clones onto these red drives, and disconnecting them from the system for safe "cold" storage.

Peripherals will be 2 usb logitech mice and keyboards, 2 wireless usb gaming headsets, 2 local soundsystems, (Workstation one will have at least a 5.1 surround.), 2 microphones, 2 webcams, and a usb port for portable flash drives.  They will be linked to one or more printers.


Hardware I currently own:
Mobo: Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero (Wi-fi)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700x
Ram: G.Skill Trident Z 16GB (2x8) DDR4-3600 CAS 17

GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB DUKE

-unplugged- MSI 5770 hawk, and a GF 6800GS 256mb -kept for installs and diagnostics-

PSU: Corsair 750w

Storage:

128gb 2.5" Kingston SSD, 160gb 2.5" HD,

1.5tb 3.5", 500gb 2.5" Both full of backups and critical files (last copy, scary)

Monitors:

Samsung - U28H750 27.9" 3840x2160 60 Hz Monitor (want to buy 5 more)

Asus - VS278Q-P 27.0" 1920x1080 Monitor

Software:
Windows 10 Pro 32/64

Unraid trial

 

 

Order of buying in steps (Adjusting for deals in pricing)

1. Unraid full+ Second Windows 10 Pro 32/64
2. 1 monitor, 1070ti, m.2 drive.

3. Kingston ssd (one for each VM station's OS), 3 @ 8tb wd red

4. 16gb more ram, better peripherals, more screens.

5. upgrade PSU if needed, possible cpu/gpu upgrades ect ect, Finalize System for long term use (20yrs).

 

 

I have had good installs of windows 10, issues with 7, on my "bare metal system" reformated now.
I have installed UnRaid, and build an array with 160gb hd as parity and 128gb as drive one. I have downloaded windows ISO, and VirtIO ISO into UnRaid array's ISO folder.

I Have not been able to get the screen to "POST" to install windows.

 

 

The Next step for me is to go through every setting systematically and try every combination in hopes of something working.  After that I would remove the GPU and trial with my "testing" Gpus, and try every setting until something works.  If that doesnt work I will go buy a cheap harddrive and install windows 10 onto it and try to load a VM from that somehow.  If that doesn't work I am running out of options!

 

 

1. I can TRY to get professional help to make this system work, although I have no idea where to go other than an overpriced computer repair shop.

2. I can BUILD another computer and install windows 10 onto it to get the desired workstations.

 

I have experience with windows 3.1, windows 95,98,me, and 7.   I do not know how to operate DOS, linux, unraid, windows 10, or other OS very well yet.

 

 

Thank you for everyones help, and I am sorry this post is so long. I just want to play games together with me and my girlfriend @"4k" resolution. I will be using the hardware solo for obvious reasons, and the ability to workstation and server should be obvious as well.  UnRaid can do all of this, I just dont know how to make it work yet.   Going on over 48 no sleep so far.

Thank You, TsAWind

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Update on Build,

Ordered another 1070ti (on backorder)
Bought 2 500gb Samsung 860 EVO SSD SATA drives. (Best Buy Black Friday)

Bought her a gaming mouse and keyboard.

 

Going to buy and shell some 8tb WD external drives today. (Best Buy Sale)

Ordering another "4k" Monitor today.

 

Just got a clean windows installed again and I will put another 10 hours of effort into this UnRaid, after that I am ordering a mobo,cpu,ram,windows 10. (I have box,psu,hardrive,fans)

 

Any response would be greatly appreciated!

Thank You, TsAWind

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2 hours ago, tsawind said:

Any response would be greatly appreciated!

I'm not sure what kind of response you're expecting. I don't see a specific question that needs answering. This is the General Support section of the forum, where people come with problems, post their diagnostics and get help to fix them.

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I don't know how far you have gotten, but I can only recommend the youtube videoes from @SpaceInvaderOne


These are the first ones that comes to mind in your situation:

 

 

Also @linustech have made a couple of videoes on the subject. The first one I think of is this one

 

 

If the above videoes are not what you are after then please do feel free to elaborate on how far you have gotten. Screendumps, specific errors etc. is all golden for us in order to help you :)
The more info you can give us, the better we can put ourselves in your situation and help you progress :)

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Thank you for the response!!!
I understand I probably put too much information in here, was trying to be thorough.

Ok my main question for now is where should I go to get step by step of installing unraid, and installing multiple windows 10 Virtual Machines.  I want to give each VM it's own hard drive space and have good gaming performance.

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Switching to monitor this forum on laptop now, rebooting onto the USB stick loaded with UNRAID and starting array.  I have installed the MSI 5770 HAWK into pci slot 2, and will try to get a VM to work onto a 1080p screen.

I will be trying to install with 1 CPU and 30gb vdisk onto the array.  I do have a new clean install of windows 10 on this new SSD that is not a part of the Array, If there is a way that UNRAID can just be a tool to boot multiple VMs onto their own hard drives with windows 10 installed on them that seems the easiest.

Will post pictures of progress soon.

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Ok this might be a lot but hopefully it will help me and other people, I have watched hours of videos and still cant comprehend something or idk.

Logging every step via camera.
Starting a new array, I have booted from a USB stick, and I logged into UnRaid with the local gui as username: root   pw: (blank)
I have a 500gb SSD that has windows 10 installed as well, I did not add this to the array.

 

IMG_0583.JPG

IMG_0584.JPG

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Have you watched all of the videoes? They really do give a good introduction and propably answers many of your questions :)

 

1 hour ago, tsawind said:

... If there is a way that UNRAID can just be a tool to boot multiple VMs onto their own hard drives with windows 10 installed on them that seems the easiest.

It seems like the video you are after here is the following. I am using this setup at the moment

 

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Ah, it seems you are trying to pass through your primary graphics card? Guess you only have one GPU in your system? :)

If this is the case, try giving the following video a look:

There's also a lot of search results on google for "unraid passthrough primary gpu"

 

A quick note about pinning your CPU cores to the VM.

 

1. Unraid OS want to play with the first cores it seems, this is the pair 0/1. Two cores should be enough for UnRaid OS.
2. If possible bin the logical and virtual cores in pairs. That is 0/1, and 2/3 etc.
Space Invader One has more about this on his channel (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ieFDCRkLs)

Also, you are only giving your VM 1 core. I guess you are suffocating the VM. Try giving it half your CPUs. Pinning everything from 8 to 15.

 

 

1 minute ago, tsawind said:

also a side note, if I try to stop the VM in the UnRaid GUI, it doesnt stop.  I have to use Force Stop to edit any settings.

Having to force stop the VMs sounds to me like the VM has frozen. When you say "stop" it is sending the "shutdown" command / signal to the VM. If the VM is frozen it won't respond to this.

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trying again.
I have 2 cards in system atm.  I cannot get anything to boot through UnRaid.  I am trying to install windows with the GPU in slot # 2 on my motherboard, (5770 HAWK).  I am on the unraid os with the primary GPU on a 1070ti.

 

I cannot get anything to work and I dont understand why I cannot install or load a VM at all.

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this doesnt make any sense to me, I havent gotten a single VM working at all.  I have all virtualization in bios turned on, I am trying to make everything as simple and basic as possible.  I litterally Just CANNOT get a VM onto a screen.

 

I feel really stupid and frustrated with the entire thing.

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I understand your frustration :) I felt the same in the beggning.
 

My next advice would be to try and boot it up with VNC as the GPU, as you would then be able to remove the GPU from the list of components that could give you trouble. "Remoting" in to the VMs is often a frist try for me to at least check if everything else works as expected.


But I'm glad you got an image to the screen now :D Looking forward to hear more on the future progress. Though, I'm on my way to bed, live in Denmark, it's 11:30 PM here :P

Edited by Squazz
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I will be make a new post and prolly a youtube video if I can get this working!

 

This has been some kind of hell working on this for litterally tens of hours and days, first success story.

 

Sounds crazy but moral of the story seems to be, try everything?

Edited by tsawind
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