I built a freenas machine(specs below) several months back and was looking into building a gaming rig but on the way cheap. I was searching through ebay for various used parts and it dawned on me maybe i could just run freenas as virtual machine. Any recommendations with the specs in my freenas machine buying a great GPU to install for gaming and run freenas in a VM or at least just dual boot between the OS's as needed. Or is it to much hassle and just continue to search the depths of ebay.
I don't think this would be a good idea Freenas needs direct access to the HDDs I asked Wendell the same questions a little while ago and he suggested another OS which has slipped my mind now. I ended up leaving my freenas machine and built a gaming machine.
I quote the FreeNAS page "If best practices and recommendations for running FreeNAS under virtualization are followed, FreeNAS and virtualization can be smooth sailing. However, failure to adhere to the recommendations and best practices below can result in catastrophic loss of your ZFS pool (and/or data) without warning."
HERE are everything you need to know regarding FreenasVMs. Read before doing or buying anything.
I have worked on VM servers like Dell and HP such as R210's, R710's, and the like ProLiant servers. I use Dell R210's in my personal network, and the intel 3420 PCH can pretty much pass-through every bit of I/O that you want it to even down to the USB ports. You can pass-through the Sata controller to your FreeNas VM so that it has total access which should be the same for HP, and IBM. Note, I am not saying that RAID cards will do the same as a actual HBA just making that clear. So as long as your giving it the appropriate amount of CPU along with RAM then a FreeNas VM should be ok. Also it would probably be good to use PCI pass-through since your letting FreeNas get direct access to the HBA which I believe in Dell servers you can pass-through your pcie devices as long as the pcie devices supports pass-through such as intel i350-T4 NIC. But to help you out with your gaming rig question along with running a VM it would probably be more beneficial to you if you can get a actual server for your FreeNas box so that way you can take advantage of that hardware it built to operate on. Now don't get me confused with high end consumer hardware like Asus's WS series and Gigabytes UD series of motherboards which then it would totally be possible just do your research on your motherboard so see if it has the appropriate pass-through technology that fits yours needs for that particular setup. To make it short in your specific case it is still possible so don't lose hope.
Just checked the specs for the Intel C226 PCH on that motherboard, and it has the right pass-through for your use case so given that the amount of ram that you stated above then you should be golden for your plan. Also your CPU listed has the correct instruction set to enable the pass-through as well. Maybe try to get a Xeon with HT so you can have more core power??? Maybe a Xeon E3-1230V3 would be the lowest E3 Xeon that has HT for your use case. If you can afford it since your mentioned a budget.
Okie dokie, I would say VMware ESXI if your are new to it I would read up on it, but its easy to use. Ill post a link to the downloads for ESXI. Note, you will have to make a free account, and once you do you will be able to download a free version of VMware ESXI hyper-visor version of your choice. VMware ESXI Hypervisor download
Also, it will not cost anything for you to download it as well. Also another thing, I'll link to the main page so you can look around as well. VMware.com
This is some useful information as well, it is ESXI 5 home lab specs you can read about different home lab setups to give you a idea of what hardware you might want. This page also gives specs for building it out as well, this should help as well. ESXI build information
This is on topic with pass-through, and it gives similar information about parts, cost, and I think the version of ESXI. ESXI budget pass-through
Your welcome!!, And I'm glad that I could help!. Definitely looking forward to how your set up performs!! Good luck, and let us know if you need any help!
Your welcome! Hope your adventures with FreeNas are fun! Let us know how it goes for you since this is a interesting topic, and lf you run into any snags we are here to help!!
One alternative is something like UnRaid which supports VM and IOMMU (with appropriate hardware) out of the box. Its a bit different (not a true RAID hence the name). But it's strength is providing a NAS solution with easy to configure interface for Dockers and VMs.
I've got it set up as a NAS with a gaming rig in a virtual machine with GPU pass through on top. This is just the sort of thing UnRaid excels at and does it well.
I am unsure how a Win 10 VM will run in Freenas. I don't think it would be as good as ESXI or UnRaid though as they are virtualization OS's. If you went the route of using either ESXI or UnRaid then you want to pass through the storage controller on the motherboard, or a HBA if you have installed one so that the FreeNas VM can see all data of the drives, and ZFS can operate properly with FreeNas's assets in direct contact with the drives to provide accurate information along with control.
I suppose the performance might not be as good ran on FreeNas since it will be handling the function of a SAN depending on your hardware and SAN configuration could be quite a work load on your system. One way to find out would be to try it, and report back your findings, or another member could share there information regarding this. Back to the NAS, and gaming rig topic. Both ESXI and UnRaid would be good options in your use case just as long as your cpu, motherboard, GPU, and or HBA has to support pass-through for your plan to work. Note, I know that AMD GPU's support pass-through well, and I know of a handful of Nvidia GPU's that do as well.
I wouldn't want to virtualise FreeNAS on a gaming machine. Seems like you will be introducing problems. I want a NAS to be on 24x7, run from a UPS, store my data, protect my data, download stuff, be a print server, run Plex media server etc. I want my game machine to be on when i use it, as it heats the room up, be overclocked and play games. In my usage, they have different roles and don't belong together.