Hi all

 

I've just finished building my hardware upgrade for UnRaid, from a Gen8 MicroServer to:

 

Fractal Design Define R6 Case

Intel Xeon E5-2650L v3 (10 core / 20 threads)

ASUS X99-WS/IPMI

32 DDR4 Memory

4 x 6TB drives and a 240GB SSD for cache.

 

One of the reasons for upgrading is for to be able to run some VM's (Windoze, GNS3 and Hackintosh) I'm having issues trying to get GNS3 working which lead me to a thought of running UnRaid as a Guest in ESXi 6.7. From reading here quite a few people has done it but as a general question how stable is it?

 

I've never hammered  my currently setup, I use Plex, Sonar, OpenVPN, backing up the family pics etc, the usual stuff.

 

My thoughts are: I used a IBM ServeRaid M1015 flashed in IT mode in the Gen8. I'm thinking about passing this through to the Unraid as a guest so the drives should work as they do now. I'd like to use maybe something Plop to boot the USB and then if I need decide its not for me I can still boot UnRaid as host .

 

I've been reading the sticky's here and I think it's a better fit for my needs moving forward. Is Plop still the best usb bootable app? How much memory should I assign? 8GB seems to be my thinking.  I don't use much transcoding so would 2 maybe a 4 core for UnRaid be OK?

 

As for ESXi I have a 120GB SSD which I can add to the motherboard's Sata as the host OS.  One of the reasons using the Low power Xeon and having the drives power down when not needed is to keep it low power consumption as possible, will ESXi keep everything running max or  will I be able to ram up and down as needed? Any other useful tweaks?

 

Thanks

 

Paul

1 hour ago, IrishBiker said:

From reading here quite a few people has done it but as a general question how stable is it?

i'm running my two unraid as VMs on top of ESXi for years.

1 hour ago, IrishBiker said:

Is Plop still the best usb bootable app?

i'm using PlopKExec without problems.. https://download.plop.at/plopkexec/plopkexec.iso

1 hour ago, IrishBiker said:

How much memory should I assign? 8GB seems to be my thinking.  I don't use much transcoding so would 2 maybe a 4 core for UnRaid be OK?

if you don't run any VMs, 4GB would be reasonable, but you can add more latter if you want. but according transcoding - you should just run some tests to see, how much it eats your CPUs, start with 4 vCPU. Free version of ESXi have a 8 vCPU limitation. i'm trying avoid any transcoding in my plex server. but you can go new unraid nvidia route and transcode with your GPU - check the plugin forum page. 

1 hour ago, IrishBiker said:

will ESXi keep everything running max or  will I be able to ram up and down as needed?

if you pass your IBM 1015 to unraid VM, then ESXi has nothing to do with it and drives connected to it - unraid manages spindowns of these drives. and according SSDs attached to host - i have two in my server and never noticed any problems with them. 

Hi Uldise

Thanks a lot for the really useful reply. Funny enough I have already download PlopKExec.iso :)

So I've been running UnRaid as a guest for about a week. Mostly it's working great, I do have an issue with network host mode (think I've messed up my routing table)

 

Should I look to install VMware Tools? Apart from Esxi shutting down UnRaid gracefully does it do anything else?

 

Also is there anyway to fix:

 

"Your CPU is running constantly at 100% and will not throttle down when it's idle (to save heat / power). This is because there is currently no CPU Scaling Driver Installed. Seek assistance on the unRaid forums with this issue"

Edited March 8, 20197 yr by IrishBiker

21 hours ago, IrishBiker said:

Should I look to install VMware Tools? Apart from Esxi shutting down UnRaid gracefully does it do anything else?

i think, that's the only reason i have Open VM tools installed. look at this thread from the end, and you will find download for your unraid version.

 

 

21 hours ago, IrishBiker said:

"Your CPU is running constantly at 100% and will not throttle down when it's idle (to save heat / power). This is because there is currently no CPU Scaling Driver Installed. Seek assistance on the unRaid forums with this issue"

i see this message on my server too. but if your CPU is running fine, and you see no CPU usage at idle on host/unraid VM, then you are fine. cos unraid under ESXi is not officially supported. 

I have an updated, much simpler, VMWare tools.  I will try to post it tomorrow. 

Give this plugin a try.  It still needs some additional error/version checking, but it definitely works on 6.6.6 and 6.6.7, and its much more simple than the "auto" plugin that we all have been using for a while.

 

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenDTX/unRAID-open-vm-tools/master/openVMTools_compiled.plg

Thanks a lot guys :)

I was also thinking to run unRAID over ESXi 6.7 but since unRAID itself can do VM's and other lot of cool stuff i dropped out that idea but for testing and lab environment that should be fine, I don't think it is a good idea to do it in production environment, I won't be surprised if some people who have passed way beyond geek level are still doing it without any issues (exceptional cases) ;). 

Thanks for the reply, now this is based on my experience but at this moment in time I have to disagree. Using ESXi as a bare metal type 1 Hypervisor gives a lot more flexibility when running different types of VM's.

 

This started when I wanted to run GNS3 (Network Simulator) for Cisco training. This came in a .ova image. Now for the life of me I just could not get it to work with UnRaid. I converted it to a QCOW2 but it just would not boot. I started to look at KVM but I had just built my new UnRaid box and really just wanted them all to run in my current tin. With ESXi it just runs, along with my Server 2016 Essentials, MacOS, SteamOS etc. etc.

 

With the raid hardware pass-through, UnRaid works without any issues (touch wood) and using PlopExec I can simply drop into my bios boot manager and boot directly into UnRaid if I want to.

 

Also using ESXi also allows me to use better (in my option) remote console access apps for example currently I am using workstation pro.  It has better virtual network switching options, memory allocation and VM options. Again this is my experience, I'm no expert. I know enough to be dangerous

 

I like the idea of UnRaid running in its own VM, it has all my family pics, our TV shows and films, safely working away and I now don't need a second box for playing with other development ideas (with thanks to UnRaid I am looking to installing a Docker type OS to learn/play with).

Edited March 31, 20197 yr by IrishBiker
speeling

Hi 

 

eveyone can anyone guide me on hoe to setup plopkexec please i cant get it to boot from usb 

Add a cd rom to the unraid VM container and point to the locally stored plopkexec.iso.  I will boot from the CD first and start plopk.  plopk will find your unraid usb device.