Please do not run FreeNAS in production as a Virtual Machine!

[9C1 Newbee]

 

[jgreco]

I am so embarassed, where'd you dig up a pic of me dressed for Halloween?

 

[Fraoch]

Bonus points to anyone who can identify what movie that's from.:D

Show

The Running Man

 

[Ericloewe]

Honestly I don't like virtualization because it reduces the number of blinky lights - the real reason I got into computers.

The real reason I wanted hot-swap bays. There's something hypnotic about 6 disks scrubbing...

 

[anodos]

The real reason I wanted hot-swap bays. There's something hypnotic about 6 disks scrubbing...

Pffft... Like there's any other reason home users have hotswap bays!

 

[Ericloewe]

Pffft... Like there's any other reason home users have hotswap bays!

In terms of bucks per lumen, building servers just to add backplanes with LEDs is up there with "repurposing 4k monitor as a soft light source" in the ludicrous band.

 

[messerchmidt]

I have been reading around on how-to run freenas in a VM. I was wondering if someone could create a machine in the VA marketplace for us noobs to use? step by step guides with pictures help too

 

[pirateghost]

I have been reading around on how-to run freenas in a VM. I was wondering if someone could create a machine in the VA marketplace for us noobs to use? step by step guides with pictures help too

The entire reason behind this thread and the thread lining out the proper way to handle FreeNAS as a VM are because noobs SHOULD NOT be doing this. Period. Please read the op again.

 

[messerchmidt]

the thread on the topic is locked @ https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ide-to-not-completely-losing-your-data.12714/ , so i am posting here.

I built a rather monsterous system. If I could divert 1 core+ht from my xeon 1230v3 and 8gb of ram from my 32gb ecc total to say a windows server r2 setup via esxi 5.5u2, and then notu touch it, that is all i want to do. I would run freenas off a usb stick and exsi and win server off say a intel 730 ssd.

 

[depasseg]

The entire reason behind this thread and the thread lining out the proper way to handle FreeNAS as a VM are because noobs SHOULD NOT be doing this. Period. Please read the op again.

My guess is that the OVA suggestion was as a test VM with a handful of ~10 GB virtual disks attached, not a prod machine with an HBA passed through to it.

It would be nice to be able to download an OVA. The time to create all the virtual disks is longer than the system install via the mounted ISO.

 

[DKarnov]

the thread on the topic is locked @ https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ide-to-not-completely-losing-your-data.12714/ , so i am posting here.

I built a rather monsterous system. If I could divert 1 core+ht from my xeon 1230v3 and 8gb of ram from my 32gb ecc total to say a windows server r2 setup via esxi 5.5u2, and then notu touch it, that is all i want to do. I would run freenas off a usb stick and exsi and win server off say a intel 730 ssd.

You can run Virtualbox VMs in a jail on bare metal FreeNAS and use spare resources that way. It comes with essentially none of the drawbacks of virtualizing FreeNAS itself.

 

[messerchmidt]

You can run Virtualbox VMs in a jail on bare metal FreeNAS and use spare resources that way. It comes with essentially none of the drawbacks of virtualizing FreeNAS itself.

ohh, that works too!

going to do a forum search for same

 

[messerchmidt]

eventually, hopefully freenas will iron out the bugs with esxi and hyper-v

 

[pirateghost]

eventually, hopefully freenas will iron out the bugs with esxi and hyper-v

Why?

It is an appliance intended to run with direct hardware access.

 

[jgreco]

eventually, hopefully freenas will iron out the bugs with esxi and hyper-v

There are no "bugs" with ESXi. It works swimmingly well. The problem is that most new users have absolutely no idea how to do it correctly, and if you do it incorrectly, then you are at significant risk of catastrophic data loss.

1) You can use known-good server-grade hardware with VT-d and the magic formula I've previously provided. This is closest to what users seem to hope for, but it's going to be all tears when you need to reinstall ESXi and it helpfully formats all your disks as datastores.

2) You can provide properly redundant datastores (not RAID0!) to reduce the chances of hypervisor I/O hangs and then build normal virtual disks on top. Note that you have to ALSO provide redundancy at the FreeNAS level for ZFS to be able to correct bitrot issues, otherwise more sadness. Almost no one in these forums is interested in this, because it uses up LOTS of disk space, but it DOES work.

3) You can do pretty much any other dumbshit thing you'd like to and it will work right up to the point where something you failed to anticipate happens and (in the worst case) eats your data. That includes the obvious variation on #1) that involves substituting RDM for VT-d, or the obvious variation on #2) that involves using nonredundant ESXi datastores.

The bug isn't in FreeNAS or in ESXi. It is in the user's head, because at the end of the day the users always want cheaper, faster, and bigger, and will cut corners to get there. Virtualization allows this but when your system commits seppuku on you with your poorly thought out virtualization strategy, the complexity of recovery is going to be beyond what you'll get helpwise in the forum, if recovery is even possible.

So I am now officially tired of explaining this and people are warned against begging for virtualization help in this thread.

You can run Virtualbox VMs in a jail on bare metal FreeNAS and use spare resources that way. It comes with essentially none of the drawbacks of virtualizing FreeNAS itself.

This, however, is the single most helpful response in recent days. I heartily endorse this as a third relatively safe solution for resource sharing. I am also hoping that we see bhyve support in FreeNAS 10. ;-)

 

[anodos]

This, however, is the single most helpful response in recent days. I heartily endorse this as a third relatively safe solution for resource sharing. I am also hoping that we see bhyve support in FreeNAS 10. ;-)

I'm looking forward to when bhyve will support Windows guests. Virtualbox jails always felt somewhat janky. :)

 

[messerchmidt]

As long as there is a guide that I can follow, I am good. Built my whole new box using your hardware recc. guide. Works like a charm. Wanted a VM server with win2k12r2 to run my accounting software on - if I can do that in a jail, I am happy.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

I like where this is going.

 

[pirateghost]

As long as there is a guide that I can follow, I am good. Built my whole new box using your hardware recc. guide. Works like a charm. Wanted a VM server with win2k12r2 to run my accounting software on - if I can do that in a jail, I am happy.

Blindly following a guide WILL bite you in the ass one day.

You need to fully understand what it is you are doing to even attempt to build FreeNAS out in a virtualized environment.

 

[Tywin]

Blindly following a guide WILL bite you in the ass one day.

You need to fully understand what it is you are doing to even attempt to build FreeNAS out in a virtualized environment.

This +1. The point we are trying to make is that while there may be a guide for setting it up, there is not a guide for resolving problems that may crop up later. Adding a hypervisor squares the solution space. While it is definitely navigable, you (@messerchmidt, not @pirateghost) must have the tools to find your way back to a working setup without data loss.