What could go wrong if you virtualize unRAID on a ESXi host?

[Socrates]

I have have been using unRAID for the past 1 year virtualized on a ESXI host. I am NOT using the vmdk method. Instead I am using the plop method. I have uploaded the bootable plop to my ESXI datastore and booting through the virtual DVD device. I have the unraid on a USB, and that is physically attached to the ESXI server's USB port. The VM boots through the plop, and then plop channels the phyiscal USB to boot the unraid server.

I realize that it is recommended to have unraid on a baremetal server. I'd like to know from people who had unraid previously installed on a VM, and then due to various issues and instability moved to baremetal. What could go wrong?

I am thinking, if the usb installer fails, i can always restore it from the image file I have backed up into a new USB.. and passthrough the plop boot again. I take my vm backups regularly using Veeam Backup and Replication. I have allocated 32gb as reserved memory to unraid, and the xfs filesystem is residing in the hard drives as the same ESXI server.

 

Please guide.

[ken-ji]

Quick disclaimer - not running as a VM

49 minutes ago, Socrates said:

I have have been using unRAID for the past 1 year virtualized on a ESXI host. I am NOT using the vmdk method. Instead I am using the plop method. I have uploaded the bootable plop to my ESXI datastore and booting through the virtual DVD device. I have the unraid on a USB, and that is physically attached to the ESXI server's USB port. The VM boots through the plop, and then plop channels the phyiscal USB to boot the unraid server.

I realize that it is recommended to have unraid on a baremetal server. I'd like to know from people who had unraid previously installed on a VM, and then due to various issues and instability moved to baremetal. What could go wrong?

I am thinking, if the usb installer fails, i can always restore it from the image file I have backed up into a new USB.. and passthrough the plop boot again. I take my vm backups regularly using Veeam Backup and Replication. I have allocated 32gb as reserved memory to unraid, and the xfs filesystem is residing in the hard drives as the same ESXI server.

 

Please guide.

Its 100% same for baremetal installs, if the USB fails, you create a new USB, apply the backup zip file  (or however you backup the USB config) and boot. Apply for registration maigration to the new USB and you're done.

 

So other than fun things to watch out for, like plop suddenly failing to boot the USB; or incompatibilities with the kernel and virtualization (which should not happen, but hey its software); or automated upgrading not working right. Also, unless you are on the pro license, the DVD will count against the total number of attached storage drives you have when the array starts up.

[BLKMGK]

Did this for years, worst thing I ever had happen was pass thru the wrong USB bus and have issues with my ESX software not saving config changes since the USB stick it was on was no longer accessible. I stopped doing it because I wanted to play with KVM and Docker and nesting hypervisors seemed like a bad idea but otherwise I saw no reason not to do it except perhaps a slight performance hit <shrug>

[Socrates]

17 hours ago, ken-ji said:

Quick disclaimer - not running as a VM

Its 100% same for baremetal installs, if the USB fails, you create a new USB, apply the backup zip file  (or however you backup the USB config) and boot. Apply for registration maigration to the new USB and you're done.

 

So other than fun things to watch out for, like plop suddenly failing to boot the USB; or incompatibilities with the kernel and virtualization (which should not happen, but hey its software); or automated upgrading not working right. Also, unless you are on the pro license, the DVD will count against the total number of attached storage drives you have when the array starts up.

 

Thanks for your replies. I was thinking the same. If i backup my unraid VM regularly using Veeam Backup and Replication, the only thing I can think of that would require recovery in case of a failure is the unraid usb binaries, and the plop boot file, which surely can be restored and re-created without loosing any crucial configurations.

 

So far since the past 1 year, auto upgrades are working fine, And yes I am on a Pro license on unraid.

Kernel or virtualization incompatibilies is surely a thing not to be ignored.. and I wonder if anyone has faced that issue yet. The worst I can see is, migrate over to a baremetal server in case of an issue, atleast the zfs filesystem is intact.

[Socrates]

11 hours ago, BLKMGK said:

Did this for years, worst thing I ever had happen was pass thru the wrong USB bus and have issues with my ESX software not saving config changes since the USB stick it was on was no longer accessible. I stopped doing it because I wanted to play with KVM and Docker and nesting hypervisors seemed like a bad idea but otherwise I saw no reason not to do it except perhaps a slight performance hit <shrug>

Did u try replacing the usb stick with your backup?

So techincally I can live with unraid on esxi, without fearing the unforeseen future.

[trurl]

I have no experience with this, but the "official" word is that virtualizing Unraid is not supported.

 

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/38999-compiled-info-unraid-as-guest-on-esxi/

 

So if you ever have a problem, you may be on your own.

[BLKMGK]

8 hours ago, Socrates said:

Did u try replacing the usb stick with your backup?

So techincally I can live with unraid on esxi, without fearing the unforeseen future.

I'm not sure I follow - by passing the wrong USB bus in I lost access to the stick I booted ESXI from, it had no impact on my unRAID. In order for this to work you will need to pass thru your adapter cards and the USB hardware but not the USB hardware you are likely booting ESXI from. Then you can use plop or another method to boot and immediately pass to the unRAID stick to continue the boot process. I ran this way for over a year easily, unRAID was even an NFS datastore for my ESXI server  I just had to make sure it was booted up before those VMs tried to run is all so make sure you don't autoboot any VMs stored in the unRAID share.