Terve!
Recently I’ve been messing with my freenas again (I can give you the hardware specs if you like). I am trying to run a windows XP Virtual machine on my Freenas NAS.
I found guides in newer Freenas Versions, but none in my version.
I am now thinking if I should upgrade the version (I don’t know how likely it is to break something) or if there’s a way to get it operational on this version.
If you know a place I can read to find this out, please feel free to link it.
Thank you in advance.
Sayonara!
Shadow
P.S: I’ve found that, but judging by the setup it seems a little out of my league, maybe. FreeNAS, Virtualbox - Running ESXI VM
things might break, I heard a few bad stories about9 / Coral especially.
Can’t promise newer will be totally stable, but recommend upgrading past 9 if you can.
You can search problems they had with 9 in general, in case any of them might apply to you?
Terve!
Thank you for your reply. I am only reluctant from upgrading because everything works as of right now.
I shall try though.
edit: you can keep the original config when upgrading, right?
Sayonara!
Shadow
it Should keep the config, but safer to back up.
already done, thanks
edit: Small update, things took a little longer than expected because my hand got f*cked up on fr/sa. Things are currently retransfering over (I decided to redo everything since the transfer speed from outside was rather low). I’ll start the VMs today or tomorrow (it has advantages if you can’t go to work).
P.S. since nothing actually happened, I didn’t want to create a new post.
Edit 2: also the Server started crashing a lot, so I had to swap the PSU…
Terve!
So, Iset the VM up on the new Freenas Version. Now I selected a windows xp iso and created he vm. how do I connect to it? I saw that I should have a button on the site, but it’s not there…
Thanks in Advance.
P.S: do I need a GPU in the Server for that?
Edit / Update: I seem to be able to connect to them through tight vnc, I’ll try to install the OS now.
i assume it’s a very small home lab on a very tight budget?
Terve!
Not exaclty, it’s my desperate attempt to get an old, custom made progrom for Windows XP running somehow. Also I’d like to have it on the NAS to be able to access the VM from multiple different PCs elsewhere.
I currently have a Windows 7 (sice XP isn’t supported at all) VM running, but I don’t know how I can get a mouse or Networking running on the VM.
Please feel free to suggest things that I can buy.
Thank you in advance.
just remember the NAS is made to be a NAS first and run VMs second. if you have any serious issues with your VMs you may have to take your file storage offline.
This is why i have a server than runs esxi and second server for unRaid aka Free NAS in your case. i find running VMs waaayyyyyy easier to deal with in ESXi free, also VMplayer Free as well. You can even give your Virtual machines a graphics card via passthrough. on linux based solutions you have to manually edit configs via CLI with PCIe slot addresses etc etc where in esxi it’s point and click with a few check boxes and a reboot of the server.
i know with unraid running VMs has become more and more and more popular. i don’t get it because i know when doing stuff with VMs i’ve had to reboot hosts before, that would suck to have a large file transfers get cut off because of a reboot BUT< i’m an old Luddite curmudgeon and everyone and everything sucks. get the hell of my lawn!
P.S. yes all the other PCs can reach my VMs and vice versa! To connect to a VM you will need a console of some sort weather it be in the Free NAS UI or an actual separate console application.
Terve!
Well, I don’t have much load on the NAS so being required to reboot the NAS wouldn’t be a big deal.
Can esxi act as a file server? In that case I could try to switch to that.
P.S. I am trying this because I am a noob, not because it’s popular.
Can you give me some direction as to what esxi I should get?
thank you for the help
esxi lets you run multi VMs at once on a computer, it replaced the operating system. you view and all the VMs and OSes running it via web browser over the network. you can install video card in to the motherboard and tell ESXi, to give the video card to a VM and hook up monitors to view that VM.
you might also look at unraid assuming your volumes and files shares aren’t already setup in freenas, sounds like they are though. unraid is geared for VMs and what not. IDK why but, lots of people like you love the feature.
you can also run unraid and freenas from inside ESXi but, you have to ESXi to give the hard driver and sata controllers or at least all the hard drives to the freenas or unraid VM which is extra steps, maybe that’s why people like it. i suspect like you many don’t use it for mission critical.
Terve!
Sorry I still haven’t replied. Hell broke lose again at work. I’ll notify you when I get some time to try ESXI on the spare PC I have.
Thank you for you patience.
Terve!
I finally found the time to try some things out, but I didn’t get very far. Here’s the Hardware of the Test PC:
G.Skill Sniper (2x, 4GB, DDR3-1866, DIMM 240)
AMD A10-5800K APU (FM2, 3.80GHz, 4-Core)
Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Cube)
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI (FM2+, AMD A88X, Mini ITX)
After booting the PC with ESXi it told me that there was no netwrk connected to the PC and that if ther was a cable attached to the PC I should ask for drivers. I don’t really feel like going to the ESXi forums, so I’m asking here:
Does anyone know where I can find the drivers necessary to start ESXi?
Thank you in advance.
Shadow
i know by default you have to enable the ports via the config button, i think F2 or something. assuming you have a monitor connected the box. worst case you need to add another NIC cause the on-board isn’t supported.