Does KVM Virtualization is qualified/tested to install and run TrueNAS Core solution

[marisri99]

Hi All,

Good Morning.
I have a question with reference to installation of True NAS Solution on VM, I see the features and understand that TrueNAS core can be installed on VM, I would like to understand if KVM virtualization is qualified/tested for same.

Kindly let me know if any of you have the info on this, appreciate your help, thanks.

Thansk,
-Srini

 

[sretalla]

virtualization is qualified/tested

No virtual platform is tested/qualified officially. The product is designed to run on hardware only.

There is an amount of experience and knowledge with it having been done on VMware:

"Absolutely must virtualize FreeNAS!" ... a guide to not completely losing your data.

[---- 2018/02/27: This is still as relevant as ever. As PCIe-Passthru has matured, fewer problems are reported. I've updated some specific things known to be problematic ----] [---- 2014/12/24: Note, there is another post discussing how to deploy a small FreeNAS VM instance for basic file...

www.truenas.com

And some investigation/sharing that has been done on proxmox (KVM):

FreeNAS on Proxmox. What's the current state of play?

I'm in the early stages of planning my next FreeNAS server build and I'm strongly leaning toward going the virtualization route (using an ASRock X470D4U with an M1015 and possibly a PCIe Intel quad port NIC passed through to the FreeNAS VM). My goal is to replace my current main "X10" server...

www.truenas.com

 

[no_connection]

No virtual platform is tested/qualified officially. The product is designed to run on hardware only.

Official website should not have this then: "Installs on x86 hardware, VM, or Public Cloud "
Or https://www.truenas.com/docs/core/introduction/corehardwareguide/#virtualized-truenas-core

 

[sretalla]

Official website should not have this then: "Installs on x86 hardware, VM, or Public Cloud "
Or https://www.truenas.com/docs/core/introduction/corehardwareguide/#virtualized-truenas-core

Did you read what it's saying there?

It basically warns about the exact things in the threads that I linked.

Yes, it will install, but will you lose your data at some point after that...?

 

[marisri99]

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on this, it was useful and helped me to get the details.

 

[jgreco]

Official website should not have this then: "Installs on x86 hardware, VM, or Public Cloud "
Or https://www.truenas.com/docs/core/introduction/corehardwareguide/#virtualized-truenas-core

iXsystems believes that you can do these things. That's their prerogative.

The practical aspects of actually supporting all the byzantine possibilities of virtualization does not fall on the people who placed those words on the website, but rather on us here in the forums.

We know some stuff works and is reasonably solid, such as, for example, ESXi 6 and most Supermicro X9 or newer mainboards using PCI passthru for your HBA. We know this because lots of people do it without problems.

The rest of it is somewhat more complex. If you don't care about your data, then by all means, go and do literally whatever your little heart desires, and have fun doing it. You can run FreeNAS as a guest of Proxmox running in a VirtualBox on a cloud host for all I care.

Here in the forums, we start from the assumption that people interested in FreeNAS, which is a very heavyweight, resource-intensive NAS platform due to the high-end capabilities, these people are assumed to be interested in safe handling of their data, and for that, I absolutely guarantee that there are many more ways to lose your data than there are to handle your data safely.

No one is holding a gun to your head and telling you to handle your bits in the ways that I recommend (me, being probably the primary person who's documented successful strategies).

 

[no_connection]

We are not disagreeing in any way here about virtualization.

iXsystems believes that you can do these things. That's their prerogative.

Having iX saying one thing and the community another is a little problematic which was my point.
Maybe I'm asking too much.

 

[jgreco]

Having iX saying one thing and the community another is a little problematic which was my point.
Maybe I'm asking too much.

Propose a solution to this issue that ends up well.

In particular, one that does not end up with me or other forum members being blamed for tacitly or explicitly encouraging people to do things that we know can be problematic, and having someone lose a pool.

I do this stuff professionally, and I cannot in good conscience advocate things I know don't work correctly, and it bothers me quite a bit even just to stand by and watch someone point the loaded shotgun at their foot. My clients have faith in my solutions because they know I've spent the time to do the proper engineering on them. You guys get a lot of that information for free in the form of stickies or resources I've written over the years.

I could choose to be a parasite that comes here to pick up an occasional answer to a question I might have, but I enjoy the technical issues and discussions for all the reasons previously discussed elsewhere. Being a high volume contributor, I had several noteworthy posts to my name early on. iXsystems decided to conscript a few of us "senior" members as moderators, and that is most of the relationship between us (moderators) and them. For me, most of this isn't a hypothetical discussion of what FreeNAS "could" do. When I talk about it, it's usually stuff I have actually and actively done with FreeNAS, or have sufficient familiarity and comfort with. I have explored both sides, the possible and the failures. Most forum posters will never have a hundred drives. The dead drive bin here is a hundred drives all on its own.

I don't see it as fair to other forum users to let them go down a bad path without being aware of the pitfalls. So I have a tendency to try to catch those users and redirect them. You'll notice a bunch of my stickies are aimed in that direction.

Virtualization works BETTER than it did back when I wrote the original virtualization stickies, but it is still far from 100%. If I had endless time and resources, I'd love to revisit some of the topics, because I know that KVM in particular has come a long way in the last five years. But I think you're going to have to cope with the mixed messaging, because iX has been making it clear for years that they encourage virtualization, and aren't really providing a ton of specific guidance about it. We sometimes still end up mopping up here in the forums from messes people make.

But you need to consider what alternative message we here on the forums could give. What would it be? "Oh hell yes, virtualize however you want" and then when it breaks, just say, ... what, exactly? "It's your imagination"? "You had bad luck"? "You should have known better"?

With apologies, your point is trite. If you don't have a workable suggestion, do bear in mind that the current status quo is the result of ten years. iX has made their position on virtualization clear. Those of us here in the forums get to play tech support in the real world, and that isn't quite as happy.