Lenovo TS140 virtualize FreeNAS (Vmware ESXi 5.5)

[Johev]

Dear all,

I have read all the posts in the guides on the risks and how to do it properly however I have one question for which I was unable to find an answer.

Server configuration:
CPU E3-1245v3
RAM 16GB ECC (upgrade later to 32GB)
on-board SATA and network adapter.

Virtualization software: Vmware ESXi 5.5 hypervisor

FreeNAS will be installed on a USB drive.
ESXi will be installed on a SSD or USB.

This server has apparently 5 SATA ports on-board.

Would I be able to pass 4 of the on-board SATA ports to FreeNAS VM (to use in a RAIDZ) and use the remaining 1 port for an SSD where my other VM will be stored together with ESXi?

I am trying to avoid getting a RAID card. :)

Many thanks in advance for all your input.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Short answer: No.

You can only pass an entire PCI/PCIe device through; in this case, the entire SATA controller. You'll have to use a separate HBA (not a RAID card!) if you want to have devices outside of that. Or alternatively pass the separate HBA through to the FreeNAS VM.

 

[Johev]

@HoneyBadger

Thank you very much for your reply and for the correction "HBA". I have a follow up question, if you don't mind.

Does this mean that I need a separate HBA for every VM I create or is FreeNAS a special one, maybe because of RAIDZ?

Many thanks in advance for all the help.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

You need an HBA for FreeNAS so it has control of the physical drives. Other VMs do not require this. Are you sure you read the virtualization stickies? I am pretty sure passthrough of an HBA is covered.

 

[Johev]

@ser_rhaegar

Thank you for your reply. Yes I have read the stickies several times and it is covered, however I didn't understand it perfectly, thus I decided to create this thread seeking help of the community. I am evaluating if going with a pre-built server, like the TS140 would be a wise choice financially or if I should stick to the X10SL7-F builds, as Supermicro already has everything I would need built into it.

 

[cyberjock]

Yes I have read the stickies several times and it is covered, however I didn't understand it perfectly

Then let me give you some advice. Give up on trying to virtualize FreeNAS RIGHT NOW!

 

[Johev]

@cyberjock
I was asking for it ;) and your advice has been noted.

However I am fascinated by the virtualization possibility of having FreeNAS assigned lets say 3 vCPUs and 12GB of RAM and still be able to use the rest of the resources for other VMs.

It would basically be just me and my wife plus the media center accessing the storage at the same time.

I might not be an expert yet, however if I understood it correctly, virtualization done properly should in principle mean that even if ESXi fails I should be able to just stick a FreeNAS pen into the system, load my configurations and still have access to the data.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your knowledge sharing about this possibility.

 

[gpsguy]

Given your answers in this thread, please don't even think about virtualizing FreeNAS. You will probably loose your data, whether you use a Supermicro or a Lenovo server.

I've been using VMware for at least 8 years, both professionally and at home. Even I don't want to take a risk virtualizing FreeNAS in production. At home, I have 2 separate boxes- one for FreeNAS, the other running VMware ESXi.

If you have a beefy desktop and want to tinker with virtualization, consider VMware's Player (free) or Workstation ($).


Sent from my phone

 

[flatterlight]

@Johev:
Have you thought about using jails to run other stuff?
flatterlight

 

[Johev]

@gpsguy
Well it might just be my ignorance however I've been told I can't do more difficult things in my life ;).

That said, due to the price difference I will go with a Dell T20 (1225v3 / 12GB) and I won't virtualize, for now :). After I get some experience with FreeNAS I'll get a better box and then I'll try it.

@flatterlight
Of course I'm going to use jails and thank you for your post. The reason why I was thinking about virtualization is that I have no PC at home, only weak battery efficient laptops. Thus I wanted something more versatile that would do the heavy lifting like handbrake, etc.
Well at least I can use couchpotato ;).

 

[gpsguy]

I'm sure you have and you were probably successful at it.

My response was based on your answers in this thread. I still shed a tear whenever I see a forum user lose their precious data. Even with the stickies, etc. we often see users virtualize incorrectly. If they are luckly, all they have to do is find a place to backup their data, blow away the pool and start over. Other times, the data is gone forever, often times without any backups.

Well it might just be my ignorance however I've been told I can't do more difficult things in my life ;)

One other thing, FreeNAS 10 (still a ways off) should include bhyve (hypervisor for FreeBSD).

 

[Johev]

@gpsguy
Thank you for all your input, and you are right my responses and even the creation of this thread clearly show that I have no experience with ESXi or FreeNAS. That is why for the last 2 months I have been reading and watching many videos on how both work, not to mention coming to forums asking the community to help fill in the gaps, when needed. Something that is driving my wife crazy :) (too much time).

And yes, I don't want to be another sad person who lost all their data. However my starting situation is probably the worst you've seen. I have important things in 4 different laptops (2 no longer in use, however kept for the data they have), 1 tablet, 2 Smartphones, an external 2.5 HDD and the Camera SD card.

No redundancy, no backups, if anything fails I loose the information contained there for ever, besides maybe the things I have in my Gmail :) those are eternally mined for marketing thus those are safe.

That is why the concept of FreeNAS appealed so much to me. All the information in one place, accessible to all and with a sort of protection if something bad happens.

Of course I understand that people here tend to have several on and off site backups in order to consider their data to be safe, however this is my first step so after I have that set up I will see how I will manage. One thing is for sure, worst than it currently is, is difficult, hehe.

 

[HoneyBadger]

After I get some experience with FreeNAS I'll get a better box and then I'll try it.

Careful, it's addictive. One day you're just running on a little old HP with 8GB and a pair of mirrors, then the next thing you know there's a rackmount SuperMicro in your basement with enterprise Sun flash cards for SLOG ;)

I'm glad we could steer you away from FreeNAS-on-ESXi and towards bare metal with jails though. As @gpsguy mentioned we routinely see people Doing It Wrong including a recent user who was cutting VMDKs out to pass to the FreeNAS VM ... ack.

 

[Johev]

Careful, it's addictive. One day you're just running on a little old HP with 8GB and a pair of mirrors, then the next thing you know there's a rackmount SuperMicro in your basement with enterprise Sun flash cards for SLOG ;)

Yes I know, even though I don't have it yet I already feel addicted. It's such a fascinating world and the more I learn the deeper I want to dig. That is why it's taking me so much time to decide on the build and how I will set everything up.

I'm glad we could steer you away from FreeNAS-on-ESXi and towards bare metal with jails though. As @gpsguy mentioned we routinely see people Doing It Wrong including a recent user who was cutting VMDKs out to pass to the FreeNAS VM ... ack.

If I understood it correctly virtualized FreeNAS should have direct and exclusive access to the HDD's for S.M.A.R.T. .and other things to work correctly. The only way VM's should interact with FreeNAS storage would be as if they were any other network PC.