Can I install ESXI on FreeNAS?

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sa1eh

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As I understand NAS storage are file based storage so I can't install ESXI hypervisor on it right?

And if I can't install ESXI on it why some people use NAS storage attached to VMware.

What is the best scenario to integrate VMware & FreeNAS?
 

m0nkey_

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When people integrate ESXI and FreeNAS, they're typically two separate systems. Some people have installed ESXI as the base and made FreeNAS a guest OS while using passthough to give the FreeNAS VM access to a HBA it controls.
 

sretalla

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It's probably worth noting that a VM in ESXi 6.7 with a controller presented to it in passthrough mode can't have the CPU presented with the virtualization hooks, so you can't do VMs and hence no docker either in a FreeNAS VM on top of ESXi with a disk controller passed through to it.
You can still do jails.
 

melloa

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What is the best scenario to integrate VMware & FreeNAS?

There are several folks running FreeNAS as a VM under ESXi. Search google for videos and stuff, but, in a nut shell, it is a ESXi server with the HBAs in pass through, assigned to a FreeNAS VM, so FreeNAS ZFS will own your data.

My lab server is running ESXi 6.5 with several VMs, FreeNAS included. See signature.
 

sa1eh

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Thank you all guys

So What I understood from the discussion is the following

as I expected you can not install ESXI on NAS storage but instead you can create your

own VM on the hypervisor and install FreeNAS on it with ZFS for VM's Storage

vmware_all_in_one_with_storage_network.png
 

Mlovelace

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It's probably worth noting that a VM in ESXi 6.7 with a controller presented to it in passthrough mode can't have the CPU presented with the virtualization hooks, so you can't do VMs and hence no docker either in a FreeNAS VM on top of ESXi with a disk controller passed through to it.
You can still do jails.
This statement is inaccurate, you simply need to expose the hardware assisted virtualization to the guest freeNAS VM. Some additional reading for your information.
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/...UID-2A98801C-68E8-47AF-99ED-00C63E4857F6.html
https://www.altaro.com/vmware/hardware-assisted-virtualization-and-esxi-cpu-requirements/
 

Ericloewe

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Why would you want to run VMs inside FreeNAS inside ESXi? If you're using the latter, it must surely be because bhyve doesn't meet your requirements in the first place.
 

danb35

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you can't do VMs and hence no docker either in a FreeNAS VM on top of ESXi with a disk controller passed through to it.
Wouldn't it make more sense to simply run your docker host under ESXi anyway?
 

sa1eh

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There are several folks running FreeNAS as a VM under ESXi. Search google for videos and stuff, but, in a nut shell, it is a ESXi server with the HBAs in pass through, assigned to a FreeNAS VM, so FreeNAS ZFS will own your data.

My lab server is running ESXi 6.5 with several VMs, FreeNAS included. See signature.

The files here are the VM files or other files such as (ISO) in another sentence It's secondary storage or primary storage?
 
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