Hardware detection in VMware Enviornment

[jkomendat]

We have the FreeNAS OS installed on A session using VMware. We want to be able to backup data to a removable hard drive. I installed the bay and drive and can get VMware to see the new drive by adding it. Is there a way I can get the VM session running FreeNAS to see that hard drive?

 

[praecorloth]

It should just be presented to FreeNAS once VMWare passes it to the virtual machine. Then you should just be able to go to Storage and create new volume. If it's not there, try rebooting the VM once the drive has been passed to it, and see if FreeNAS picks it up then.

But I must say, this sounds a little irregular. FreeNAS is really geared to be a standing box, managing a bunch of hard drives. I don't know if it will be a particularly friendly interface for a drive that is added and removed with any kind of regularity.

 

[cyberjock]

Just as praecorloth said, trying to do what you want isn't going to work out very pretty. FreeNAS really is designed for internal permanently installed disks. Also, VMWare works great for testing and experimenting, but is very poorly suited for environments where you actually care about your data(you're doing a backup so that sounds to me like you actually care)....

 

[jkomendat]

What about a USB device, is there any way of getting the system to see that when running as a virtual machine.