FreeNAS on VM?

[iandroo888]

So my current FreeNAS build is as follows

HP z820 workstation

• 2x Intel Xeon E5-2620 Sandy bridge 6-core 2.0ghz
• Samsung 64GB (16x4GB) ddr3 1333 pc3 10666ECC unbuffered
• AMD FirePro V5900
• 3x3TB Seagate
• 2x4TB HGST NAS
• 2x5TB Western Digital

I realized people were running FreeNAS on VMs or running multiple things on their systems. For the above system, i feel like using it for FreeNAS only seems like a waste, and I don't think the 2nd CPU is being utilized (FreeNAS 9.3), just want to make the "most" of the computer.

My basis for this was hoping i can run Windows Server with FreeNAS vm or something similar because i wanted to run a video surveillance software (since this computer is on anyway) and maybe some other things

One thing I want to ask is, is it possible to move FreeNAS like this? i know FreeNAS 8, you can essentially move/transfer to a completely different system, as long as the drives in the right order or present, with the same flash drive used, it works.

Wonder if anyone has experience doing this or running it the same way.

 

[Spearfoot]

So my current FreeNas build is as follows

HP z820 workstation

• 2x Intel Xeon E5-2620 Sandy bridge 6-core 2.0ghz
• Samsung 64GB (16x4GB) ddr3 1333 pc3 10666ECC unbuffered
• AMD FirePro V5900
• 3x3TB Seagate
• 2x4TB HGST NAS
• 2x5TB Western Digital

I realized people were running FreeNAS on VMs or running multiple things on their systems. For the above system, i feel like using it for FreeNAS only seems like a waste, and i dont think the 2nd CPU is being utilized (FreeNAS 9.3), just want to make the "most" of the computer.

My basis for this was hoping i can run Windows Server with FreeNAS vm or something similar because i wanted to run a video surveillance software (since this computer is on anyway) and maybe some other things

One thing i want to ask is, is it possible to move FreeNAS like this? i know FreeNAS 8, you can essentially move/transfer to a completely different system, as long as the drives in the right order or present, with the same flash drive used, it works.

Wonder if anyone has experience doing this or running it the same way.

FreeBSD 10.3 supports multiple processors, so FreeNAS 9.10 does too. But you're correct in believing that your system may be underutilized.

Yes, quite a few of us have built All-In-One systems such as you describe, with FreeNAS running as a VM on VMware's ESXi hypervisor, with direct control of the sysetm's disks passed through to the FreeNAS VM, which provides one or more datastores for add'l VMs. The trick is that you really need a Host Bus Adapter (HBA) such as an LSI 9211/IBM 1015/Dell H200/310 to pass through to the FreeNAS VM so that you can boot ESXi and the FreeNAS VM itself from a local SSD. This article is a great how-to on the subject: "FreeNAS 9.10 on VMware ESXi 6.0 Guide".

Regarding moving your FreeNAS installation... yes, you can do that, too. First save a copy of your current system configuration to your local PC or some other safe location (USB stick, etc.) Then build your All-In-One system -- without attaching your hard disks! --- which will include a fresh installation of FreeNAS on the primary ESXi datastore. Once the system is built, power it down and attach your disks. Then boot it and restore your FreeNAS configuration. FreeNAS will import your pools from your disks, and you'll be good-to-go.