Bootable USB partition for FreeNAS + other

[Shroom]

Hey guys. Haven't posted in a while but I'm finally getting around to building an Avaton FreeNAS server and I have a couple questions.

My idea was to run the mini-ITX C2750 Atom SuperMicro board which seems perfect for FreeNAS, but I thought why not take is a step further since the hardware seems more than capable, and run an ESXi hypervisor with FreeNAS on top as well as possibly some other fancy shenanigans (pfSense, maybe a FreeBSD install, who knows) so as to get some hands-on with some more complicated stuff that may turn out to be useful as an in-home all-in-one server.

My main question is this: if I use one USB 2.0 drive in the on-board USB (3.0 - and I know people have been able to run this port in 2.0 on this exact board specifically for the purposes of FreeNAS being able to use it) header, and partition it out for multiple uses, can FreeNAS still run just fine with its own little partition, with ESXi being the main one? I figure this would be the most efficient and cost-effective set up since FreeNAS doesn't need all that much space, and would allow me to use one USB stick as bootable storage for any VMs I want to run. But I am not sure how FreeNAS works in this configuration.

Secondly, and this is slightly less straightforward, if I were to use the newer SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 flashdrive, which is significantly faster which would improve its performance as boot media, could this be run as a USB 2.0 device and work for FreeNAS, until such date that FreeNAS can use 3.0, and then later be set to run as a (faster) USB 3.0 device?

Thanks in advance.

 

[gpsguy]

Read @jgreco excellent posts on the subject. One along the lines of "Don't virtualize ...", the other "If you must virtualize..."

If done correctly, one can virtualize FreeNAS. But, 99% of our users cut corners and do it wrong, often times resulting in data loss. For these reasons, you won't find much discussion these days on virtualizing.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Read @jgreco excellent posts on the subject.

There's also this, from the horse's mouth, as they say: http://www.freenas.org/whats-new/2015/05/yes-you-can-virtualize-freenas.html

 

[jgreco]

There's also this, from the horse's mouth, as they say: http://www.freenas.org/whats-new/2015/05/yes-you-can-virtualize-freenas.html

Definitely from one end of the horse. I deem it relatively valueless, and if you follow Paetzel's guidance, I'd suggest you contact him for support too. We're not going to magically start supporting virtualization for beginners here in the forums.

There's a lot more practical guidance for virtualization techies over at https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ide-to-not-completely-losing-your-data.12714/ and anyone who can read that and nod along and say "that makes perfect sense" and "ah I didn't think of that" is probably a suitable candidate.

But I emphasize that's for virtualization techies. Someone like the OP who doesn't appear to have ever actually used ESXi or understand how datastores for virtualization work are not likely to experience success. I'm sorry. The difference between FreeNAS and a VT-d virtualized FreeNAS is somewhat like the difference between driving a motorcycle and driving a semi. They both have some similarities, including wheels and an engine, but they also have significant differences, especially how they behave when there's an accident. And the potential accidents aren't all obvious. And I just don't have the time to teach everyone how to drive semis.

Before I wrote the virtualization stickies, we saw a relatively steady stream of what I'd call virtualization catastroph**ks. Clever people who knew enough to be dangerous, and managed to murder their data. Now, you can feel free to call me a massive hypocrite as I was virtualizing FreeNAS instances even as I wrote those documents, but the reality is that the people who know enough to virtualize FreeNAS successfully can do it without the help of the forum... and for those people, I've still collected a nice list of the common gotchas so that they can look out for the bumps in the road that aren't quite visible in the fog (y'know, clouds on the road!)

If you're big enough to own your mistakes and not blame everyone else, then by all means, virtualization is a good way to maximize computing efficiency. But don't believe that it is something for beginners.

 

[Shroom]

Thanks for the responses, you guys have made it clear exactly why virtualizing FreeNAS would in no way be a reliable method of storage while allowing me to play around with other VMs on the system. I'll just have to single-purpose the machine as FreeNAS only, and settle with running jails for the other tasks I need it to complete.

 

[jgreco]

Yeah, sorry, it's just a lot safer that way. The learning curve for virtualization tech is pretty steep in some important ways. Get a second host, learn about ESXi on that, and then someday you may reach that point where it just "all makes sense" and you can reconsider strategies.

 

[Shroom]

I only really wanted to run ESXi so I could begin to get my hands dirty with some virtualization stuff and learn a bit. But I can always just buy the hardware for my NAS and play around with ESXi on it while I wait for a sale on those WD reds. And for that damn Lian Li NAS chassis to finally come back in stock anywhere...