New Project: How to make a FreeNAS VM Render Machine

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

I've noticed that I've been wasting time when rendering videos, I have a server that's running FreeNAS and I want to see if I can create a VM Machine in it to render the videos for me.

I tried to install say opensuse and windows but the virtualbox template is too unstable, is there another way or a better version of virtualbox that I use to accomplish this?

My Specs are:
AsRock C2750D4I
4x8GB Crucial CT102472BD120B.18FED
6x2TB WD Red WD20EFRX
Corsair RM-550 80 Plus Gold
Fractal Design Node 304 White

And yes, this was inspired by wendell.

2

How's the CPU in your main rig compare to the one in your server?

Or is it just that you don't want your main PC tied up while rendering?

3

Yes, I don't want my main system rendering so I can work on other processes while the server can render them.

4

Well, have you considered just like throwing together some cheap 8320e build and just having that be your render bitch?

Otherwise, maybe the CPU on that server doesn't support virtualization too well? Or an option isn't enabled in the bios?

5

The cpu supports VT-x, not sure about VT-d though, I'm not sure what you mean about a 8320e.

6

Some cheap thing like this to offload your rendering onto around 400 bucks, assuming of course you can't get the whole virtualization thing going.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qY47NG

7

I live in Australia so the pricing will be much higher and I don't want to spend on something if I can accomplish this task on what I have now.

Thanks for the input though.

8

That sounds like sad news the virtualbox template is unstable, Im kinda in a similar situation with almost the same gear (inspired by wendell ofc) but i want to host gameservers on a vm inside freenas. So yea im looking for a alternate sollution aswell :/

9

Yeah, I'm waiting for wendell to make the mail server on freenas video to get an idea of how he will do it, although that will take a while.

10

Could just throw a little @Wendell in the thread

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11

what did the vbox template do? I have win7 vm and it works fine, but I haven't tried anything like h/w passthrough.
Watch folder type render, or renderman if audiodesk products, should work fine, though, for slave rendering.

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Bat Signal.png800x456 18.4 KB

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13

First off Hey Wendell!

I've tried to put windows 8.1 in the freenas virtualbox template but virtualbox often crashes itself, I'm using sony vegas to render my videos if that's good for slave rendering.

I'm using the virtualbox-4.3.12 template. Is there a way to get a more stable version? Or is just on my end, if so, how should I approach fixing this?

Oh, you can turn off the teksignal now, he's already here :)

EDIT: Ok, I'm trying to get it working again, will be back with results!

EDIT 2: Well then, maybe I fixed something when I reinstalled the system.

14

@Wendell @Streetguru
By the way, does anyone know how to create a CIFS share in freenas only using the accounts only (with password) in freenas's database, not using the matching windows accounts and it prompt's for user and pass access?

I've done it before and cannot remember how to do it again.

15

Is it passible to use GPU accelerattion with full power? The virtualbox on FreeNAS support IOMMU or VT-d? I want to run OpenCL programs on Windows on FreeNAS.

If not, is there a better way to reach my goal?

16

Sorry for the late reply,

I wouldn't do anything power hungry on VM FreeNAS, if it's just MS Office or the like then it's fine. The GPU acceleration is dependent on the virtualbox jail in freenas and what your GPU whether it's onboard(cpu) or or dedicated(gpu) is up to the hardware vram.