Transition from Unraid Setup

[hunter69]

My current setup is:
1. ESXI server with 32 gigs of ECC ram. Super micro MOBO (SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SAX-O LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Xeon Server Motherboard) and 1x 2.53 Xeon processor (Intel Xeon X3440 Lynnfield 2.53GHz)

1. The esxi server has 1x Ubuntu Server 12 plexmedia server, 1x Homeseer server (win 7) and 1x sagetv server (win 7).

2. Separate Computer running Unraid. 10tb. Mainly hosts pictures, movies and tv shows.

Why am I looking to switch: I have wanted to backup my lan computers to my NAS. In unraid I have to tell the share that I backup to to use one disk. Right now I back individual computers to usb drives.

Goal: Utilize my Currecnt ESXI computer for FreeNAS. Install FreeNAS. Utilize FreeNas for Plex, host the Sagetv and Homeseer VM's. Also, backup my lan computers to the FreeNAS server. Sagetv does not have anything passed through to it, except a recording drive. It records from HDhomeruns. I know I will have to look into recording to a virtual drive. Homeseer does not require a lot of cpu/ram. Everything it does is over the LAN. I might keep the ubuntu server virtualized, it depends on how the plug in for Freenas stays up to date.

What are your thoughts?

Is this possible?

WIll I see good performance?

It would be nice to move to 1 machine for my setup. The definite driving force is to be able to backup to FreeNas and not rely on one drive

Thanks in advance for your time

 

[hunter69]

So I see that I am not getting any responses. I was hoping some knowledgeable freenas people would look at what I am trying to doand be able to tell me if this was possible. Basically I want to use the Xeon with 32 gigs of ram. Create a Freenas server. Install Plex on it. Install virtual box andimport my Homeseer machine and my Sagetv into the virtual box. The last thing I would like to do with the freenas server is to backup to it with 1 windows desktop, 1 windows laptop and 1 mabook pro.

Right now I run unraid. I have3- 3tb drives. 2 WD red and 1 Seagate. Then I have 7 WD green 2tb drives.

Is what I am looking at doing realistic?

I appreciate any input/suggestions
Bill

 

[mjws00]

I read your first post as, migrate Unraid to a virtualized FreeNAS using the existing esxi server. Since we don't really encourage virtualization, no reply necessary. Your clarification is much more mainstream.

Second challenge is Homeseer and Sagetv virtual boxes under FreeNAS. I have no idea if they will work well, and they aren't discussed commonly enough for me to guess. If there were many doing this successfully someone would pipe up. So best bet is to just try it and see.

Your hardware has a nice amount of RAM (weird that the specs say 24GB max). You don't seem to be expecting anything crazy. The plan seems rational. My only concern would be stability and performance of Homeseer, SageTV and possibly Ubuntu in the virtual box. You may find performance and stability is adequate... but hard to say without firsthand knowledge.

If I was doing this, I'd keep the esxi box. Pass through a vt-d controller to FreeNAS ala jgreco's guide and just be "naughty". Then I'd know for sure my win7 and ubuntu vm's would have good performance and stability. My data is as safe as it can be when virtualized, and my fallback position to access the pool is a baremetal FreeNAS boot from USB. No need to even mention virtualization when looking for support at that point. Of course anything like that would be off the straight and narrow. You could screw up and lose your data. The risk is on you. Here be dragons... blah blah blah.

Your virtual box/ plug-in plan should work in theory. It is safe and follows the rules nicely. Give it a shot and see how it works. If it doesn't meet expectations, then try something a little more radical.

Good luck.

 

[hunter69]

I read your first post as, migrate Unraid to a virtualized FreeNAS using the existing esxi server. Since we don't really encourage virtualization, no reply necessary. Your clarification is much more mainstream.

Second challenge is Homeseer and Sagetv virtual boxes under FreeNAS. I have no idea if they will work well, and they aren't discussed commonly enough for me to guess. If there were many doing this successfully someone would pipe up. So best bet is to just try it and see.

Your hardware has a nice amount of RAM (weird that the specs say 24GB max). You don't seem to be expecting anything crazy. The plan seems rational. My only concern would be stability and performance of Homeseer, SageTV and possibly Ubuntu in the virtual box. You may find performance and stability is adequate... but hard to say without firsthand knowledge.

If I was doing this, I'd keep the esxi box. Pass through a vt-d controller to FreeNAS ala jgreco's guide and just be "naughty". Then I'd know for sure my win7 and ubuntu vm's would have good performance and stability. My data is as safe as it can be when virtualized, and my fallback position to access the pool is a baremetal FreeNAS boot from USB. No need to even mention virtualization when looking for support at that point. Of course anything like that would be off the straight and narrow. You could screw up and lose your data. The risk is on you. Here be dragons... blah blah blah.

Your virtual box/ plug-in plan should work in theory. It is safe and follows the rules nicely. Give it a shot and see how it works. If it doesn't meet expectations, then try something a little more radical.

Good luck.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me. I made a mistake when stating the mobo. It is a
SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O. I was not near the computer and looked at past orders.

Bill

 

[granto]

Bill,

I'm working on a new server (migrating from a WHS) and have a very similar setup as you with HDHR's and SageTV. I'm just wondering what direction you went with your new build?