Linux and Windows gaming with FreeNAS as the host?

[jerrac]

After searching through the forums on a couple different issues, I see that it is generally better to not virtualize FreeNAS. That fact has me wondering about re-architecting my setup with FreeNAS as the host, instead of Linux/virt-manager/qemu.

My system:

• AMD Threadripper 1950x
• 64GB RAM
• 5 4TB HDDs
• 1 1TB SATA SSD
• 1 2TB nvme m.2
• 2 Gigabyte GeForce 1080's
• ASUS PRIME X399-A motherboard

Currently I can play any Linux supporting game using one of my 1080's via my host OS. If it's Windows only, I've passed through my other 1080 to a Windows 10 vm. One card goes to one input on my monitor, the other goes to another input on my monitor. To use Windows, I just change inputs.

I also have FreeNAS installed on a vm. The HDDs are passed through to it. I've assigned it 16GB of ram, and pinned some cpu cores so it has the needed processing power.

With FreeNAS switched to being the host, I'm stuck on how I'd get Linux working. I need a graphics output for the host OS, that takes up one 1080, to get Windows 10 games, and other apps, working, I'd need to pass through the second 1080 to the W10 vm, that takes the other.

Due to the size of the coolers on the 1080's, I'm doubtful I can fit another gpu in my system, so buying a cheap card is unlikely to help.

Is it possible to go completely headless with FreeNAS? I'm pretty sure I need a way to access the console, but can that be done via something other than a gpu? So I'd be able to passthrough one 1080 to a Linux vm, and the other to a Windows vm?

Does FreeNAS's virtual machine tooling even support that kind of passthrough?

Pardon if I'm unclear on anything, I'm actually home sick today and I'm not exactly thinking clearly... :\

 

[Chris Moore]

Currently I can play any Linux supporting game using one of my 1080's via my host OS. If it's Windows only, I've passed through my other 1080 to a Windows 10 vm. One card goes to one input on my monitor, the other goes to another input on my monitor. To use Windows, I just change inputs.

FreeNAS virtualization does not yet support PCIe Pass Through. You will need to use something like VMware ESXi, there are guides on the forum for that, even though it is not really recommended.

 

[KrisBee]

@jerrac Have a look at Proxmox

 

[HoneyBadger]

After searching through the forums on a couple different issues, I see that it is generally better to not virtualize FreeNAS.

It's not a good idea to virtualize FreeNAS if you view one YouTube video from a guy who says you can do it, and then cut corners by doing local RDMs cut from RAID0 drives off of a RAID card. It's perfectly fine to virtualize FreeNAS if you do your research and do it properly.

But I'd hazard a guess that you'd be much better off running virtual FreeNAS under your existing virt-manager/KVM setup (which has functional PCI passthrough, as your the GTX1080 setup will attest to) than you would be trying to flip the entire setup on its head and have FreeNAS be the hypervisor. For that matter, you could likely run ZFSonLinux with even less effort, although the lack of TRIM in anything but the most-recent 0.8.0 build might be offputting given your SSDs.

 

[jerrac]

Thanks for the feedback.

I am curious why most virtualization related content here seems to be about ESXi. Why go with a proprietary toolset when kvm/qemu is open source and free? I see that there's a free version of ESXi, but is it really that much better?

I mean, yes, the paid version is. I don't manage it, but I use it all the time at work.

 

[Chris Moore]

I mean, yes, the paid version is. I don't manage it, but I use it all the time at work.

The free version only lacks a few (very few) of the more advanced features and there are ways to get the paid version without a lot of cost involved.

 

[toadman]

Thanks for the feedback.

I am curious why most virtualization related content here seems to be about ESXi. Why go with a proprietary toolset when kvm/qemu is open source and free? I see that there's a free version of ESXi, but is it really that much better?

I mean, yes, the paid version is. I don't manage it, but I use it all the time at work.

Depends what you mean by "better." ESXi is a very mature product and has a large market share, which means there are plenty of resources to help when help is needed. That's generally the reason to use it. Which is not to say other solutions don't/won't work.

 

[Chris Moore]

ESXi is a very mature product and has a large market share, which means there are plenty of resources to help when help is needed.

That was my reason. I tried other things first, but I couldn't find the answer to questions with them. So many people are using ESXi that there is a lot of answers already available.