Installing VMware Server on unRAID Box


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Here's an issue.  From the web interface, I stopped my array and then chose "Shutdown."  I decided to take a look at the console, and I noticed an error about /mnt/cache not unmounting because it was in use (sorry, I didn't write the exact error).  I guess unRAID was still able to stop the array, and the shutdown command caused VMware to shutddown appropriately.

 

I'm not sure if continuing to do it this way will cause any errors.  My machine will be one virtually 24-7, so it's not a big deal, though I think I need to look at making powerdown shut down VMware gracefully, as well (maybe the new .tgz version does this automatically).

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musicmann,

I turn my server off when I'm not going to use it for a few hours or overnight.  Do you think this will become a problem for me?  It would be great to get this integrated into the powerdown script that people are using.  I'm pretty novice but am willing to do some research -- let me know if I can help.  As a short term solution, I added vmware status, start, and stop to unmenu to make it a little more convenient to stop vmware before shutting down the system.  Here is the link to the thread -- http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2110.msg19400#msg19400.

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musicmann,

I turn my server off when I'm not going to use it for a few hours or overnight.  Do you think this will become a problem for me?  It would be great to get this integrated into the powerdown script that people are using.  I'm pretty novice but am willing to do some research -- let me know if I can help.  As a short term solution, I added vmware status, start, and stop to unmenu to make it a little more convenient to stop vmware before shutting down the system.  Here is the link to the thread -- http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2110.msg19400#msg19400.

 

I've added the stop command to my powerdown script, and it should work that way.  I didn't do any logic to see if VMware is running because I assume mine will always be running when powerdown is invoked, because I don't think running the stop command will hurt even if it is not running, and because I don't know how to add logic like that. 

 

I haven't installed the unMENU yet, but it looks like you have a link to stop VMware.  I'll try to do that.

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I've added the stop command to my powerdown script, and it should work that way.  I didn't do any logic to see if VMware is running because I assume mine will always be running when powerdown is invoked, because I don't think running the stop command will hurt even if it is not running, and because I don't know how to add logic like that.

 

What should be done is an ADD to /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown

 

Here is how I add the call to /etc/rc.d/rc.unRAID to the /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown.

 

Change variables where appropriate.

i.e. RCFILE should be the /etc/rc.d/rc.vmware script if it exists, or even just calling the vmware run command.

 

SD_RCFILE=/etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown
RCFILE=/etc/rc.d/rc.unRAID

if ! grep ${RCFILE} ${SD_RCFILE} >/dev/null 2>&1
   then echo -e "\n\n[ -x ${RCFILE} ] && ${RCFILE} stop\n" >> ${SD_RCFILE}
fi

[ ! -x ${SD_RCFILE} ] && chmod u+x ${SD_RCFILE}

 

Now there may be issues of the chicken and the egg, so you will have to be sure which is installed first.

If need be, I can update the rc.unRAID script to check for the presence of the vmware binary and call the proper stop command.

I just need to know exactly where the binary lives and how to call it to stop vmware.

 

 

 

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What should be done is an ADD to /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown

 

 

This is part of the new powerdown implementation, right?  I need to switch over to it.

 

Change variables where appropriate.

i.e. RCFILE should be the /etc/rc.d/rc.vmware script if it exists, or even just calling the vmware run command.

 

 

I just need to know exactly where the binary lives and how to call it to stop vmware.

 

 

 

Currently, I stop it by calling /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware stop.  This was it's default for installation.  Should I move the location on my next build.

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What should be done is an ADD to /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown

 

 

This is part of the new powerdown implementation, right?  I need to switch over to it.

 

It's actually part of the standard shutdown in slackware.

I think I'll need to add the call to my rc.unRAID script also.

This is so I do not kill pids that are active on the array which could be shutdown gracefully.

 

 

Change variables where appropriate.

i.e. RCFILE should be the /etc/rc.d/rc.vmware script if it exists, or even just calling the vmware run command.

 

 

I just need to know exactly where the binary lives and how to call it to stop vmware.

 

 

 

 

Currently, I stop it by calling /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware stop.  This was it's default for installation.  Should I move the location on my next build.

 

I'll check for the existence of the vmware script, and call it if it is executable.

 

 

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It's actually part of the standard shutdown in slackware.

I think I'll need to add the call to my rc.unRAID script also.

This is so I do not kill pids that are active on the array which could be shutdown gracefully.

 

WeeboTech,

Please tell me if this is correct.  Currently, I don't have /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown.  Can I simply create it and add my /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware stop command?  Do I need to change the chmod permissions? 

 

I'm still using the old-school powerdown script (simply a file copied to /sbin/powerdown).  Will the new rc.local_shutdown script be called whenever I shutdown via the web interface or via /sbin/powerdown -OR- do I need to install the newer powerdown.zip before the rc.local_shutdown script be invoked?

 

Actually, am I even correct thinking that there is a newer powerdown implementation?

 

 

Currently, I stop it by calling /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware stop.  This was it's default for installation.  Should I move the location on my next build.

 

I'll check for the existence of the vmware script, and call it if it is executable.

 

 

 

Is this still needed if I do what was said above?  Or is this a simpler way to handle the shutdown?

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Can I simply create it and add my /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware stop command? 

Do I need to change the chmod permissions?

 

Yes and Yes.

 

Actually, am I even correct thinking that there is a newer powerdown implementation?

 

Yes, I have a newer version that calls a new script called /etc/rc.d/rc.unRAID

It does some housekeeping and also saves the syslogs upon shutdown.

I'll be releasing a newer version this weekend.

 

Basically instead of the logic being in /sbin/powerdown I put it in /etc/rc.d/rc.unRAID

when called with a stop, it will do the graceful unRAID shutdown vai script.

I then insert a call to this script in /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shuitdown.

this way I can capture any form of shutdown/reboot

 

The new /sbin/powerdown now calls this script directly if you do call it.

 

I'm just adding s'more diagnostic commands in the syslog_save functionality then I'll release it.

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Shouldn't it go on the flash, with a symlink in /etc/rc.d ?

 

I'm in dense mode.. .shouldn't "what" be on the flash?

 

if I'm following this correctly, I';; try and elaborate.. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

With my powerdown.tgz I have a doinst.sh that adds lines to /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown during install time.

 

Can I simply create it and add my /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware stop command?

Do I need to change the chmod permissions?

 

I would suggest perhaps looking at some of my previous scripts.

I do a

 

if grep

 

looking for the string of the command I want to run at shutdown.

if it does not exist I appended it with

 

echo -e '\n${COMMAND}\n" >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown

 

I do it this way to insure I do not clobber a file that a package or Tom may one day use or update.

I've seen other slackware packages do this upon install also.

 

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It is my understanding that unRAID does not support multiple processors.  If that is true, how useful is running VMware Server on it?  My current linux VMware Server is a two way, and I would like to consolidate that on to my unRAID server.  One less running computer is always nice.

 

You're correct that unRAID does not currently support multiple cores/processors, but, in my case, that doesn't diminish the usefulness of being able to run VMs on it in order to consolidate two always-on machines.  You can pick your route and do VMware-on-unRAID or unRAID-as-a-VM.  I chose the first because it makes me feel more comfortable about my data and because the native unRAID should be faster at "streaming" my DVD content than if it were running as a VM (I'm not sure if that is true or not or significant, but it was one of my decision points).  Plus, my VM is a just a webserver, so it doesn't have to be blazingly fast and it is very usable even without SMP.  Additionally, the unRAID-as-a-VM posts that I read seemed to be limited to 3 or 4 drives (based on the virtualization software).

 

This may/should all soon be moot as Tom has hinted that he is currently testing SMP. ;D

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

It shouldn't be a problem.  I'm been running a CentOS (linux-based) without problems for months now.  I didn't put WHS on my unRAID, but I did run the WHS trail on a VM on a Windows host.  The one thing that I have not tried is dedicating a full hard drive to a VM.  I'm not sure when/if I'm going to be able to try that because my VMware server is running on my "production" unRAID server.

 

BTW, I plan to try to clean up the instruction when Tom releases the final 4.4.  I'm waiting because I want to build on the same kernel that he is using.

 

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Thanks for the reply.

 

A version with 4.4 is ultimately where I'm aiming at as some upgrade parts for my server are on the way. I just fancy the idea od the WHS backup routine for the other machines in the house and somewhere to keep the MyMovies database. Unraid is already OK for all the rest of the fileserver capability's.

 

The upgrade also means I'll have a test server to try some of this stuff out. :)

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Does running WHS inside a VM get around WHS's inability to use a NAS as part of its pool? Or to put it another way, are you using unRAID shares/diskspace as part of the WHS pool, or are you using a separate drive for WHS.

 

I don't think it would allow the unRAID shares to be "used" by WHS.  When I was thinking of doing this, I was planning on either dedicating one disk or creating a virtual hard drive (just a file) on my cache drive.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

At the risk of being shot, I have to ask a question.

Does it make sense to run vm under unraid, when unraid is currently limited to 1GB of ram and single processors?

Would it not make more sense to run unraid under VMWAre or ESXi and use all your ram (I have 4-8GB), and a dual core E7700 processor.

Then could you not also have virtual high speed lans between vm's to unraid?

Would this also not allow you do run several raid 5 drives to present to unraid if performance is needed, as now almost any hardware would be supported?

I would use the Raid 5 for my Cache Drive (I feel safer moving data to it from my video camera if it is in a raid set) and later move it off to unraid.

So you get the raid 5 performance for file transfers to unraid, the safety during the transfer, and unraid can move the files between 1am to 9am.

The remaining 8 drives, I would present to unraid somehow.

 

I really do not know, I am merely asking.

Where is that bullet proof vest of mine... ???

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At the risk of being shot, I have to ask a question.

Does it make sense to run vm under unraid, when unraid is currently limited to 1GB of ram and single processors?

...

I really do not know, I am merely asking.

Where is that bullet proof vest of mine... ???

Your question is based on old information.

 

unRAID is not limited to a single CPU since version 4.4-beta1, and has not been limited to 1Gig ram since 4.3-beta1. (from that point onward till now it supported 4 Gig)

 

The most recent 4.4 release notes even states:

- Experimental PAE support (support memory up to 64GB)

 

Release notes are found here in the wiki: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Release_Notes

 

Joe L.

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