FreeNAS 11-0-RC3 VM start says running then stopped not able to VNC to it

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Tman69

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Please note that I see posts that say FreeNAS 11 doesn't support VMs and/or VNC and I see ones that say it does and people have it working fine. At this point since it is in the Web UI - I am assuming it is intended to work. If that is incorrect please let me know. I am just about at the point of saying forget FreeNAS and go with something else...but I'd really like to not let this beat me! :)

New install of FreeNAS 11-0-RC3 with no plugins, jails, or etc. loaded. Installed FreeNAS to thumb drive. From web gui added storage data set, added a zvol for the VM, added a VM with 1 CPU and 4096MB RAM, added devices to the VM for disk=zvol, vnc, cd-rom with Ubuntu iso, and network (tried both the default primary and tried doing a virtual). Click on Start and the status says running, try to connect a couple times with different VNC viewers - fails, status says stopped for the VM.

I have tried different ISO images for the CD, different options regarding wait for boot, different VNC port numbers, and whatever else seemed like it might help with no luck. I have rebooted the system multiple times. I have verified the BIOS is set to allow VMs and checked via SSH to the system -

Welcome to FreeNAS
root@freenas:~ # cat /var/run/dmesg.boot | grep VT-x | grep EPT
VT-x: PAT,HLT,MTF,PAUSE,EPT,VPID
root@freenas:~ #

root@freenas:/var/log # tail messages
May 29 14:50:56 freenas kernel: tap0: link state changed to UP
May 29 14:50:56 freenas kernel: tap0: link state changed to UP
May 29 14:51:14 freenas kernel: tap0: link state changed to DOWN
May 29 14:51:14 freenas kernel: tap0: link state changed to DOWN
May 29 15:23:56 freenas tap0: Ethernet address: 00:bd:e6:26:28:00
May 29 15:23:56 freenas kernel: tap0: promiscuous mode enabled
May 29 15:23:57 freenas kernel: tap0: link state changed to UP
May 29 15:23:57 freenas kernel: tap0: link state changed to UP
May 29 15:24:24 freenas kernel: tap0: link state changed to DOWN
May 29 15:24:24 freenas kernel: tap0: link state changed to DOWN

These show in the messages log around the time of trying to start the VM.

I am not an expert FreeBSD user but if you tell me what command's output you need to see or what log you need info from I will gladly post it.

Software/Hardware:
Fresh install of FreeNAS 11-0-RC3 on Dell R710 with 2 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5504 @ 2.00GHz CPUs, 32GBs RAM, 6 - 2TB HDDs in Hardware RAID 5 with FreeNAS installed on 16GB thumb drive.
 

MaLaCoiD

Dabbler
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Sep 23, 2014
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I have the same problem. I want to help myself, so my first question:
Where is the log file for VM's?

It runs on bhyve. So I checked the version:
Code:
$ sudo iohyve list
Your CPU does not seem to fully support bhyve. Missing UG feature on Intel CPU, please upgrade to 5600 series.


But I should have EPT:
Code:
$ cpuid| grep Xeon
Extended brand string: "Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU		   E5520  @ 2.27GHz"

... on my E5520.
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
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I have the same problem. I want to help myself, so my first question:
Where is the log file for VM's?

It runs on bhyve. So I checked the version:
Code:
$ sudo iohyve list
Your CPU does not seem to fully support bhyve. Missing UG feature on Intel CPU, please upgrade to 5600 series.


But I should have EPT:
Code:
$ cpuid| grep Xeon
Extended brand string: "Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU		   E5520  @ 2.27GHz"

... on my E5520.
EPT isn't enough, you also need unrestricted guest support, which is presumably what you're missing. It was introduced with the 32nm Nehalems.
 

Stux

MVP
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EPT isn't enough, you also need unrestricted guest support, which is presumably what you're missing. It was introduced with the 32nm Nehalems.

Ie Westmere. Good news is you can buy westmere chips cheap off eBay.
 

gpsguy

Active Member
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Please do not use hardware RAID with FreeNAS. FreeNAS expects to use software RAID wherein it has direct access to the disks.
 

MaLaCoiD

Dabbler
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Looks like $75 per CPU for an upgrade. I'll try making ZoneMinder in a jail first. Thanks for the confirmation that Unrestricted Guest (UG) isn't supported on E5504 and E5520 CPU's.
 

Tman69

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Wait...you are saying that even though the Xeon processors have EPT support that isn't enough to use the VM feature via FreeNAS? That is the reason that the VM appears to start and then stops? Is there a log file that I could check to confirm that is the issue. Not that I am doubting anything posted on the internet - heavens no. But for my own knowledge and gratification I would like to be able to confirm this is the case. I know the processor meets the requirements for KVM and the only restriction I saw for FreeNAS VMs was EPT. Thanks for the response and hopefully for the place to check/confirm the information.
 

Tman69

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Messages
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Please do not use hardware RAID with FreeNAS. FreeNAS expects to use software RAID wherein it has direct access to the disks.
I know you are right and it should not be using hardware raid. However, I was testing out different hypervisor options and was less concerned about the storage aspect until I was certain it would do what I wanted it to do. Though your point is well taken.
 

Tman69

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Wait...you are saying that even though the Xeon processors have EPT support that isn't enough to use the VM feature via FreeNAS? That is the reason that the VM appears to start and then stops? Is there a log file that I could check to confirm that is the issue. Not that I am doubting anything posted on the internet - heavens no. But for my own knowledge and gratification I would like to be able to confirm this is the case. I know the processor meets the requirements for KVM and the only restriction I saw for FreeNAS VMs was EPT. Thanks for the response and hopefully for the place to check/confirm the information.

Just searched on Xeon unrestricted guest and found this https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/vm-unrestricted-guest-capability-required.46763/ which says UG is needed if you are doing more than one vCPU which I wasn't trying to do more than one CPU for my VM.
 

Ericloewe

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UG is needed if you are doing more than one vCPU
It's not as simple as that.

Unrestricted guest is required by bhyve to provide all the compatibility cruft that x86 needs to boot from BIOS, among other things. The bhyve devs presumably didn't want to emulate real mode and similar, so they mandated that the CPU support operation in real mode in VMs.
It's not strictly required if you can start the VM in a fake initial state that starts in protected mode.
 

RoadHazard

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Nov 29, 2015
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It's not as simple as that.

Unrestricted guest is required by bhyve to provide all the compatibility cruft that x86 needs to boot from BIOS, among other things. The bhyve devs presumably didn't want to emulate real mode and similar, so they mandated that the CPU support operation in real mode in VMs.
It's not strictly required if you can start the VM in a fake initial state that starts in protected mode.

Wait a minute... So you're saying that UG is *mandatory* for any VM to work on FreeNAS 11? Despite what the release notes and the user guide both say? I was led to believe that only VT-x and/or EPT were required. There's no mention of UG anywhere.

From the 11.0-U1 release notes:
Code:
VM:
In FreeNAS11 VMs use the bhyve virtual machine software.
This type of virtualization requires an Intel processor with
Extended Page Tables (EPT) or an AMD processor with
Rapid Virtualization Indexing (RVI) or Nested Page Tables (NPT).


From the User Guide, as of today:
Code:
FreeNAS® VMs use the bhyve(8) virtual machine software. 
This type of virtualization requires an Intel processor with Extended Page Tables (EPT) 
or an AMD processor with Rapid Virtualization Indexing (RVI) or Nested Page Tables (NPT).
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
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So you're saying that UG is *mandatory* for any VM to work on FreeNAS 11?
Not quite. It's needed to boot guests that can't boot in protected mode (otherwise known as "anything that boots from legacy BIOS instead of UEFI").

Other features may also depend upon it, but you'll have to ask someone more involved with bhyve.
 

RoadHazard

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Not quite. It's needed to boot guests that can't boot in protected mode (otherwise known as "anything that boots from legacy BIOS instead of UEFI").

Ah. Got it. So bhyve (and by inclusion, FreeNAS 11) doesn't need UG, per se. It depends on what guest OS you're trying to run inside the VM.

Anybody know if Windows 10 fits into this category? In other words, will a new Win 10 .ISO boot inside a VM running on a FN11 machine that includes a processor that does *not* have the UG feature?
 

RoadHazard

Explorer
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Nov 29, 2015
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The situation has apparently changed.

The new 11.0-U2 User Guide says, "To verify that an Intel processor has the required features, use Shell to run grep VT-x /var/run/dmesg.boot. If the EPT and UG features are shown, this processor can be used with bhyve."

Last week's version of the User Guide said EPT was required, but not UG. It appears that UG support is now mandatory for any VM running under FreeNAS 11. That leaves me out.
 
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