Virtualizing FreeNAS in...?

[overshoot]

Hi,

I have a Dell Poweredge T430 Server on which I would like have FreeNAS running + a Windows based VM.
I've tried with Bhyve inside FreeNAS 11.2 U5 and the experience wasn't great, at least not for now.

The machine has 2 E5-2630v3 with 64GB, the Perc H730P (set in HBA mode at the moment), a 120GB SATA SSD as bootable drive (need an extra one to create Raid1 for redundancy) and a 1TB NVME SSD (for ZFS caching + the VM bootable partition).

Now, I believe, here are my options:
- Virtualizing FreeNAS using Proxmox as long as you can passthrough the disks to FreeNAS
- Virtualizing FreeNAS using VMware Esxi (free license) as long as I can passthrough the entire HBA card and so the disks.
- Share my data directly through ProxMox using Samba and ZFS.

If you see anything else or if my asumptions are wrong, please advise or correct me.
Also which OS between Proxmox and VMware is best to virtualize FreeNAS from your experience.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[melloa]

I've tried with Bhyve inside FreeNAS 11.2 U5 and the experience wasn't great, at least not for now.

I've used bhyve on FreeBSD and found out that is very complicated to setup some OSs VMs like CentOS and Windows, at least at the current stage.

Can't speak about running FreeNAS on Proxmox, but I'm using ESXi for couple years without any issues. Just keep in mind ESXi hardware requirements.

Perc H730P (set in HBA mode at the moment), a 120GB SATA SSD as bootable drive

Where is this connected to? A SATA port? You do want to pass through the HBA if using ESXi.

On my servers (HP Proliant DL 360 G7. Proliant DL 380 G8, and Supermicros) I've setup a SATA power connector to use the internal SATA for the boot, and pass through the HBA. Not sure what you would have available on your Dell :)

 

[overshoot]

I've used bhyve on FreeBSD and found out that is very complicated to setup some OSs VMs like CentOS and Windows, at least at the current stage.

Can't speak about running FreeNAS on Proxmox, but I'm using ESXi for couple years without any issues. Just keep in mind ESXi hardware requirements.

So you are saying that you are using ESXi with FreeNAS as a VM and it's working fine?!

Where is this connected to? A SATA port? You do want to pass through the HBA if using ESXi.

On my servers (HP Proliant DL 360 G7. Proliant DL 380 G8, and Supermicros) I've setup a SATA power connector to use the internal SATA for the boot, and pass through the HBA. Not sure what you would have available on your Dell :)

The SSD is connected to an internal SATA port on the Dell MB to leave the HBA card completely available for RaidZ stuff.
The plan is to passthrough the HBA card (the Perc H730P in this case) to FreeNAS using ESXi or Proxmox.
I also have some HP Proliant Gen8 servers, the ML350P, for testing for which I have already installed FreeNAS on the baremetal using the HP220 HBA card and plan to install Proxmox and try.

Thanks for your answer.

 

[melloa]

So you are saying that you are using ESXi with FreeNAS as a VM and it's working fine?!

Correct.

The SSD is connected to an internal SATA port on the Dell MB to leave the HBA card completely available for RaidZ stuff.

That would work.

I have 3 SSDs on the MB SATA ports: A Small one for ESXi boot and two 1TB for Datastore. The server has three LSI in pass through:

I have already installed FreeNAS on the baremetal using the HP220 HBA card

On my Proliants, I was testing replacing the HP raid with a LSI, as I had couple available, to help a friend. It tested OK running in my lab for two weeks. Haven't used the HP220.

 

[overshoot]

Thanks for all your information.

I'll play around with ESXi and FreeNAS.

But I am kind of wondering what people have to say about Proxmox... KVM is mature product and great too + Proxmox supports ZFS out of the box so that's very tempting.

I guess I'll have to give both a try a see which one works best for me.

 

[melloa]

Proxmox supports ZFS out of the box so that's very tempting.

Will keep my eye on the comments of Proxmox/FreeNAS VM users, as my first impression is that FreeNAS should be the one handling the ZFS for the NAS side, while you could implement ZFS for Proxmox to use with other things. Just food for thoughts.

 

[overshoot]

Will keep my eye on the comments of Proxmox/FreeNAS VM users, as my first impression is that FreeNAS should be the one handling the ZFS for the NAS side, while you could implement ZFS for Proxmox to use with other things. Just food for thoughts.

You are absolutely right.

 

[overshoot]

One thing I am worrying with ESXi is the fact that I will be using the free version only and that there will be important functionalities missing.

What can you tell about that please?

 

[KrisBee]

I wouldn't expect much feedback about Proxmox on this forum. If you want to garner opinions then have a look at r/Proxmox or the Promox forums. Typical replies will range from "why bother with FreeNAS when Proxmox supports zfs and you can easily create file sharing containers?" to "keep storage server and virtualisation server separate". There is one long standing bug when running FreeNAS as a VM under proxmxox which is easily worked around (see: https://redmine.ixsystems.com/issues/15081). Otherwise, AFAIK, a FreeNAS VM is stable under Proxmox.

 

[overshoot]

I am seriously considering creating a file sharing container for Samba under Proxmox but I want something robust as a FreeNAS distro where updates have been tested.
I believe to be an experienced Linux/Unix user but clearly not a Samba Guru. So one update breakring support a Windows or Mac client is worry some. But this is where ZFS snapshots come into play I guess...

I need that setup to be as robust as possible cause I won't be onsite. It's a client install.

Anyway, I'll play with Proxmox and see how it goes with FreeNAS.

Thanks for sharing the work around.

 

[KrisBee]

I forgot mention that "pause" followed by "stop" of a FreeNAS VM under proxmox also achieves an error free shutdown.