Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'hyper-v'.
-
I'm trying to set up some VMs using Hyper-V on my personal computer running Windows 11. I'm able to create VMs but whenever I start and try to connect to them, I get a problem saying I'm unable to connect, seemingly after timing out the attempt. This happens regardless of VM OS, and started when I was running Windows 10. I haven't been able to create a VM that works either using quick create or making one more involvedly. I suspect that this is network-related somehow, as I was able to connect to a VM a single time when I started trying to do this, but it cut off my host's network connection.
-
Hi, I have installed a COMPLETE and FULL version of Kali Linux on Windows 11 Pro Hyper-V virtual machine with 4GB RAM and 3 CPUs with boot drive encryption however after a virtual machine reboot to boot into Kali Linux for the first thing it asks is my boot drive encryption password and whatever i do i cannot use ANY keyboard inputs/mouse AT all and it sucks i have spend an hour or more installing the damn Kali Linux OS and it just won't respond to my keyboard inputs in Hyper-V console even when i edit the boot grub before booting to remove Quiet/Interface and get a standard Linux boot style with outputs it asks for boot drive encryption again and it just does NOT respond to any of my inputs from my regular usb keyboard at all and my mouse isn't working either nothing works no response i am just hard stuck without the possibility of entering my encryption password at all it sucks *** help me please Thanks
-
Hey you amazing bunch off smarties im looking for help or direction ive got my little gaming machine AMD ryzen 5600 with NVidia 2060 16 GB ram So long story short im trying to use hyper-v so that when my daughter spends the weekends with me we can play minecraft together i want to have the vm running on my second display (tv) with its own Keyboard n mouse and a controller so far ive managed to set up the vm with internet, no sound, no gpu pass thought and it uses the same keyboard and mouse as my host im sure its possbile to do it just need some one to point me in the right direction really sorry if i posted this in the wrong place i looked it up but i dont know the jargon for half the things im researching
-
Hi there, i worked to create an easy version of the popular easy-gpu-p script. right now it has the capabilities to select the operation (new vm, existing vm add gpu-p and drivers, update gpu-p drivers) and input the values without editing the files directly. i hope that someone like that already has vm running appreciates the ability to straightforward add gpu-p + drivers with this menu. Link: Easy-GPU-PV With Menu
-
So I have 4 VMs that friends use to host game servers and other stuff on but I am trying to find a way to still allow the VMs internet access without allowing them to access devices on the same LAN as the server (i.e. everything else in my house). I assume the best way to do this is with VLANs but I can not figure out how to set that up, right now the router is running pfSense and I'm using an external vSwitch in Hyper-V so the VMs all show up on the same LAN as the server and that works but it has access to everything on that LAN. If I create a VLAN for the LAN interface on pfSense and assign it the same tag as the virtual switch on a VM the VM can't reach the router at all (I can't ping 192.168.4.1 (which should be the router)). pfSense Interface: pfSense VLANs: VM network adapter settings: If anyone has any ideas or a different way of doing this that would be awesome...
-
I hope I'm on the right sub-forum. Hi, I'm attempting to run Manjaro in Hyper-V, but it refuses to boot. It keeps giving me an error: Could not initiate memory: Not enough memory resources are available to complete this operation. (0x8007000E). Here's a screenshot of the error with the Task Manager. I've already tried lowering my RAM to 1024MB, but it still won't run. Here's a screenshot of my settings. Here are my specs: Thinkpad T14 Gen 1 BIOS: N2XET29W (1.19) Windows 10 Enterprise 20H2 (OS Build 19042.1083) i5-10210U 1 x 16GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz 256GB NVMe SSD Any help would be greatly appreciated!
- 10 replies
-
I've long wanted to experiment with using a virtual machine to run a ZFS raid and export that ZFS raid as an iSCSI block device to the host. It was just an idea, but with the new system I built it became a necessity. I built a triple use workstation for gaming, DAW and software development. I used two Windows 10 Pro boot partitions for gaming and the other for the DAW. The dev partition is Ubuntu 20.04. The problem? You can't share raid storage between Windows and Linux, except maybe if you dedicate a raid controller with drivers for both. Those are expensive, especially when they involve 4xNVME drives. I also have 2 x 6TB Seagate Ironwolf drives (nearline backups) and 3 x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo drives (mid speed storage). I use all this storage for my Windows Daw and for my software engineering work. I really needed to raid it all between two different operating systems. So, I tried my idea. For the test I used a pair of the Evos. One of the Evos is actually dedicated as a boot solution for the three OS partitions. I still haven't found a cross-platform way to BOOT raid from the same drives so one of the Evo is devoted to that. The Ubuntu VM config: Hyper-V with Ubuntu 20.04 2 cpus 3 GB Ram 1 Virtual Nic 2 x Samsung 970 Evos with 2 TB capacity ZFS "raid 0" Open-scsi target on a block device that used 80% of the raid pair. The Windows 10 Pro Host config: x3950 64 Gigs Ram Microsoft iSCSI Initiator NTFS formatting of the attached iSCSI device I actually tried a lot of different configurations of virtual cpus and ram. Anything over 2 cpus performed worse. Anything over 3 gigs of ram performed worse. The worst performances was 32 cpus and 32 gigs of ram. Well, when you see the results in the attached capture of ATTO, you'll see that it isn't possible to go read FASTER than the iSCSI solution as I slammed up against SATA transfer rates. Also 1 cpus and 1 gig of memory was pretty good, only about 10% less performant that 2 cpus and 3 gigs. Unfortunately, writes are not quite up to snuff, I think that somehow I was only able to write to the drives one at a time. In task manager I would see the two drives oscillate with the writes. This is more of proof of concept than a real benchmark. Maybe someone will want to run with this and do a better benchmark? I haven't tried the Ubuntu side yet, but I did a really simple POC of the whole solution with an attached USB drive and Ubuntu could read the NTFS partition on the ZFS block device just fine. I'm curious to see if its faster or slower than the iscis over virtual nic. I may also do this with the 4 x NVME but right now I have a coding project I don't want to disrupt with backing up the NVME dynamic disk raid and restoring it with ZFS over iSCSI. Images attached are the ATTO benchmark and one of the time times when I caught the Evo bumping up against SATA limits during the run of the benchmarks.
-
Hi, This will be my first post in this forum. So straight to the point: I have setup my PC to use Hyper-V and have been facing a problem with networking. I have added an external virtual switch in order to access my VMs from other computers within the network. Just last night I have noticed that since setting up Hyper-V with external switch, I've been experiencing random disconnections from the internet. This was especially annoying because I noticed this while playing some Left 4 Dead with friends. To be more specific, these disconnects happen in such a manner: PC will lose connection momentarily for approximately 5-10 seconds Connection is restored for around 30 seconds PC will lose connection momentarily once again for approximately 5-10 seconds Connection will be restored again, until such disconnects happen again Out of curiosity, after that gaming session I ran a ping -t on cmd and left my PC overnight. The following morning showed that I've lost around 30 packets throughout the time the command was run. Searching through the event viewer showed me event ID 22, 24, 21 and 23 recurring overnight. I've attached the screenshot of event viewer for reference. Several solutions that I've tried consist of the following: Disabled Virtual Machine Queue for all VMs in Hyper-V Manager Updated my Realtek ethernet drivers Deleted the external switch and created a new one Restarting the PC (cuz why not) All solutions however, have been to no avail. I'm still experiencing these issues at seemingly random intervals. I've searched everywhere and I have not yet seen anyone that has experienced the exact same problem as me so I'm really getting kinda desperate here and any possible solutions are very much welcome. Here are my PC specs: Ryzen 5 3600 GTX 1660 Super Asrock B450M Steel Legend G-Skill TridentZ Neo 32GB (4X8GB) 3200 MHz Windows 10 Pro Version 21H1, Build 19043.1110 Thanks in advance!
- 2 replies
-
- hyper-v
- virtualization
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
-
so i want to disable hyper-v since with it enabled i can't run a VM (my processor is Celeron N3150 (Brasswell)) and i just installed WSL and hyper-v got enabled, and i go search how to disable it, found microsoft documentation, but it didn't work in any ways, powershell ? failed, control panel (turn windows features on or off) ? failed as well, idk what to do again, this isn't a urgent thing but i hope you guys can help me (the instruction i followed : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/application-management/virtualization-apps-not-work-with-hyper-v )
-
Hiya I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with what I'm trying to do or if anyone is able to offer up any advice... All of this is in the context of a small business with roughly 6 employees (pc based). We currently have a windows 10 desktop PC acting as our primary server. From this PC we manage our databases, store all of our files and run our proprietary software for our employees (as it needs live access to the databases). All of our company data is stored on and backed up to this server and from here we backup to another on-site physical device which is hidden in an undisclosed fire-proof safe which in turn backs up to the cloud. 3 users have physical desktops on which they work and access the server. We have a 4th desktop pc for processing and specific tasks and then 3 users who access the server via laptops either connected to the network physically or remotely via RDP/VPN. For particular security, legislative and efficiency reasons, we need to do a fairly large upgrade which would involve new windows licenses, new hardware etc. In evaluating my options, there are two main options I see solving the problem. Upgrade the server and all physical desktops. Upgrade the server and set up VM's for all users, on-site and remote. (has particular security features I'm very interested in and also less to break or upgrade in the future.) Cost isn't really a big concern although it needs to be justifiable. I have no experience with VM's. My concerns/questions: Can we configure the VM's to run on the existing desktops/laptops? For basic operation, office suite, adobe acrobat, very low demand proprietary apps and basic web browsing (mostly simultaneous) what would the requirements be for each user in terms of CPU and memory allocation? Or rather, if all 8 users (and server overhead) were running, what would the ideal/min server hardware specs look like? I estimate on average 4GB memory making 32GB total? CPU something like an i7 (gen?)? In the event of a hardware failure on the server, how quickly/easily could we have it back up considering we have data backups and potentially replacement hardware? Would I need to purchase a copy of Windows for each VM or is there a way around that? Would Windows 10 be suitable for the server itself or would I be considerably better off with something else? My hope is that we would have a similar cost input to upgrading the physical machines with the added benefits of security, less physical hardware to break, better future upgradability, scalability etc. I chose Hyper-V because it's made by Microsoft and seems the best fit. Please feel free to leave your thoughts or make other suggestions.
-
Hello! So I have gone through the entire setup process for a Hyper-V Machine Setup, I have RTSS, Virtual Audio Drivers, Parsec, GPU Drivers, and everything, but I am wondering how I do the "1 pc 2 gamers" thing, because I cannot get it to work... how do I do the thing to do that? can I do it with a low end old gaming pc (integrated graphics)? Or can I do it with the local pc? just with two sets of peripherals plugged in? Or do I have to have another computer? Would love some answers thanks!!
-
- virtual machine
- 1 gpu 2 gamers
-
(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
-
I have a server that I am using as a seed box and nas however, I want to expand my home network with a local vpn so that I can set up remote access to the nas and have better security in general. Is it advisable to use virtualization to host the vpn and these other services on the same machine? I would also likely switch to using a dedicated nas os as right now I'm just using a smb share on ubuntu server. The computer itself is quite overbuilt for what it is doing currently with an i7 7700es 8gb of ddr4 3200 and gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 so I don't think performance would be an issue. Unfortunately googling for this just results in people asking if they can connect to a vpn when using a hypervisor so now I'm bothering you guys, thank you in advance.
-
virtualization USB port passthrough on a VM
JMTchongMbami posted a topic in Servers, NAS, and Home Lab
My question is, is it possible to make a physical usb port entirely set to be used exclusively for a VM. I mean, you plug something in the port, it won't ever show up and be accessed on the host. I use VMware workstation and the closest behaviour i can get is simply redirect any usb device connected while a VM is running to the foreground VM. If i then close said VM, the usb device will automatically be connected to the host. If no VM is running to begin with, the usb device will connect to the host. I don't want that, i want the USB port to be accessed ONLY by a VM, not by the host, ever. I'd like a usb port on my machine to be kinda safe to plug random stuff in that could ONLY be accessed in a VM environment with no potential (or at least less) room for mistake. Stuff like a rubber ducky, random "usb drive" found on the parking lot etc. You know what i'm talking about. I can also use Hyper-V if this behaviour isn't possible on workstation but is on Hyper-V. Also, if it can be done on Proxmox i'll take the tips also for my knowledge. I guess I'd need a Type I hypervisor for that kind of stuff? Thanks!- 6 replies
-
- vmware workstation
- hyper-v
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
-
So i was just gonna check up on my server pc that hosts my steamcache library. And the VM is completly black? Ive tried restarting botht the VM and the Host PC. Nothing helps, also tried adding more storage to the VM. How to fix this? https://imgur.com/fj8CPoU
-
Hyper-V maxium instances (Windows 11 Pro)
TenaciousD87 posted a topic in Programs, Apps and Websites
Hello! wondering if anyone knows what the maximum number of virtual machines i can run on a windows 11 pro host. Thanks, DA -
I'm trying to set up a Hyper-V VM but if I attempt to connect the the VM is just says 'Cannot coonect to the virtual machine...' but what's interesting is the preview works fine.... I have no clue what is wrong with it. I'm running Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021. Things I've tried: Disabling and Re-enabling Hyper-v (via Turn Windows Features on & off) Restarting VMMS service Checking to make the VMMS is listening on the right port (2179) Disabling NUMA spanning Creating a new VM Disabling Windows Firewall Removing vmconnect.exe from Windows Security Exploit Protection thing Adding my user to the Hyper-V Administrator group Probably something else I forgot Any more ideas?
-
- virtualization
- hyperv
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
-
Hi! I'm trying to connect to a virtual machine running on a remote PC. I set up wireguard VPN in hopes of it just working, but it does not. Any ideas on how to get this working?
-
Running Ubuntu 18.04 normal via Hyper-V (using it as steamcache server) I shut down the VM - the tried to boot into Ubuntu VM again and got a black screen - in GNU im trying to repair borken packages and i get this: https://imgur.com/a/xlcJ47k This is the SSD i have the VM in, it clearly has enough disk space, so whats the problem? Disk info in Hyper-v also shows there should be space Edit: System-summary shows disk is full - how and why? With 500GB of cached games on the VM - i sadly, had to reinstall ubuntu. This time i made sure that the disk size was sett to 930Gb - insted of 465.
- 6 replies
-
- ubuntu
- steamcahce
-
(and 3 more)
Tagged with:
-
I'm having issues trying to get emulation running on Android Studio and I was hoping someone has an idea on how to get it working? I recently rebuilt my PC going from I7-6850k to AMD 3900X with new Mobo and faster RAM. Prior to the rebuild I had it working with no problem, so I don't know if it's a compatibility issue with the Intel Software on AMD, but from what I've researched I can see other people are able to use it, so I must be missing a step somewhere? The error I get on trying to install is: If I try to run the installer directly I get a similar error message: I can confirm that Virtualisation is working as I use VirtualBox a lot. Confirmed in Task Manager: I've confirmed that HyperVisor is unavailable in Windows Features and HyperVisor Plaftorm is enabled (apparently it needs that to run the emulation) I also confirmed that Windows Defender Core Isolation is disabled (as it uses Hyper-V to perform it's task) But I'm stuck. I can't see what else I need to enable to get it working and without the emulation running I can't check what I'm doing *sad beeps*
-
I am a student in college (not a very good one, thus why I'm here asking for help) and I will eventually be in classes where I will need VMware, but that is at least a couple of years out. Currently, I have no experience using virtual machines, but I'm in some development classes that I believe would be improved if I could host XAMPP locally in order to test my php/perl scripting without having to upload it to the student server (which is time consuming during scripting/debugging), so I've concluded that it would probably be best to set up virtual machine capabilities in order to install XAMPP (on Linux, in a VM). I don't have any experience doing any of this, but I think I can figure it out. What I'm wanting to know is which Virtual Machine software suite is most similar to VMware, but FREE, since I really need to learn VMware, but I can't afford it currently (even with the student discount). I don't want to learn a program that will make learning VMware more difficult due to the need to "unlearn" things that operate completely differently, so I'm trying to get whatever free VM software is the closest to VMware in usability/UI. What would serve my needs best? Virtual Box? Hyper-V? Something else? I'd like to stress that I have zero experience with any of this, and I'm just going by what I could find using google search. Am I over-complicating this? I tend to do that. To be clear: I'd like to be able to run php and perl locally on my PC (Windows 10, 64 bit) so that I do not have to upload my webpages that include server-side scripting to the server to see if they work because it is very time-consuming.
- 17 replies
-
- vmware
- virtualbox
-
(and 3 more)
Tagged with:
-
Hi All! This is my first time posting here but I was hoping someone out there would have some information on the issue I am having. I have a custom built gaming desktop with the following hardware: ASUS Z170I PRO GAMING LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 FE DirectX 12 ZT-P10800A-10P 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready SLI Support ... Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics ... G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) Intel X99 Platform Extreme ... Crucial MX300 2.5" 525GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CT525MX300SSD1 CORSAIR CS-M Series CS550M 550W 80 PLUS GOLD Active PFC Haswell Ready ATX12V & EPS12V Modular Power Supply My goal is to enable virtualization on my MOBO for the purpose of running Hyper-V. I would build my computer with a clean install of Windows 10, do all Windows Updates, update all the drivers for the GTX 1080. And when I run the HTC VIVE setup, I would get a BSOD during the setup (specifically when the drivers for the Head Gear itself is installing) OR I would get a BSOD the next time I reboot/boot my computer. The BSOD does not give an error code or stop code, just a sad face. It would then prompt me to "Restore" to an earlier point. This will work 50% of the time and when it restores to an earlier point, it would be a point before Steam VR is installed. Other times it would loop in diagnosing the error and not being able to resolve it. When this happens, I cannot boot into safe mode, cannot do a repair, and cannot recover from this. It would loop in a BSOD and have no actual stop code or error code. When viewing the event log, the error I get is error 0x0 "your computer unexpectedly shut down due to a crash, power loss, or error" ***paraphrasing*** My computer works fine if I have virtualization enable on the MOBO and running Hyper-V with multiple VMs My computer works fine if I do not have virtualization enabled on the MOBO and running my HTC VIVE VR system There always seems to be an issue if I have both configured at the same time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
-
Sup LTT! So I created a short video tutorial (9 minutes in runtime) covering the installation of Pi-hole in the Windows operating systems via Hyper-V & using Debian Linux. This provides network wide ad-blocking as well enhanced security via DNS redirection, completely for free. You gotta keep in mind this works across your entire network; so phones, tablets, gaming consoles, smart televisions, etc. all benefit from this. It also has a pretty sweet web based GUI that you can use for blacklisting domains, looking up queries, checking on your clients, etc. Can make network management much easier depending on what type of setup you might be using. I tried to be as straight forward as possible & also put study aids on the screen throughout the process so that you don't have to try to see the tiny text I'm typing in as it's happening. This is not a process you should fear & is extremely easy to do, it delights me to be able to show off the ease of install inside nine minutes. Though I looked up the community guidelines and they specifically say I can't post this video I've made without; "2 - The video is only to complement your complete, written post on the site. You cannot simply post a video." So I'll include a bit of a write up as well to appease the mod gods! (or just Luke, I'm doing this to appease Luke) Now my default forum of choice on the net has been ArsTechnica for the last 18 years, so yes, you're going to see this posted over there too. I'm trying to share the love. Anyways back on topic, basically what we're doing here is opening up a hyper-v environment so you can run a copy of linux on top of your windows operation system. Why? So we can install Pi-hole which blocks over 100,000 ad-serving domains through a DNS redirect on your network. This has the included benefits of improving your network performance (since ads are blocked before they are downloaded altogether) & reducing your data usage if you happen to be on a bandwidth cap. To start you'll need an operating system capable of Hyper-V. Wikipedia has a beautiful list of all the supported operating systems, so check if yours is on there. If so you can do this! If you can have it but don't have it installed, you'll need to go into your Control Panel, then to Add/Remove Programs. In modern windows versions this is called Programs and Features. From there, inside the new window that pops up, on the left side will be an option to "Turn Windows Features On or Off", this is where you need to go to install Hyper-V. Simply check the box next to it in the new window that pops up & follow the install prompts. Next on our journey you'll need the newest version of the Debian Linux distro. (make sure to download the appropriate version for the machine you're running on, for example, a modern computer will require the amd64 iso) Why do we need this? Because Pi-hole was originally meant to be booted on top a Raspberry-Pi and it's grown from there. Here we don't require a Raspberry-Pi, anything that requires money, or even physical objects beyond what we already own. So now that we have Hyper-V installed & a fresh copy of Debian we begin. As shown in the video, you'll need to create a virtual switch first. This is very simple, just click the switch manager on the right & create a new one. Make sure to select your adapter that is currently supplying your internet connection. With that done we can simply create a new virtual machine, you really do not need beef settings to make this happen. It can be done on 1GB of ram & a single processor though like anything, it will benefit the more you open it up. In the video I gave the virtual machine 4GB of ram & 10GB of hard drive space, THIS WAS PLENTY. Make sure to select the Debian iso to be inside your virtual dvd drive when the machine is turned on. It's just like any other operating system install just much easier & faster. Once this is done we need to install Curl so that we can then install Pi-hole, we also need to make sure the machine is now on a static IP so that the other devices on the network always know where their DNS server is. I've actually put this on the screen in the video but if you're interested in reading it, the basic command process to this is: su root apt-get install curl nano /etc/network/interfaces auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.10.95 (your pi-hole static ip) netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.10.1 (your gateway) reboot su root curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash pihole -a -p newpassword set router manual DNS settings primary = 192.168.10.95 (your pi-hole static ip) secondary = 8.8.8.8 (emergency google backup) apply & push router changes across network connect to 192.168.10.95/admin (use pi-hole ip) As discussed in the video you're going to want to comment out the last two lines of "/etc/network/interfaces" before writing in your new static address. You're also going to want to select a static address that is outside of your DHCP lease range so that it doesn't accidentally get leased to another device if your Hyper-V happens to go down. Next as seen in the instructions above, we need to go into your actual router & change your DNS settings to point to the new Pi-hole installation. This will be your Primary DNS for your Secondary DNS we're going to use Google's primary server. Why? This is for emergency backup! If your hyper-v goes offline, you forget about it, or say, the machine it's running on is shut off altogether then your network will default to google instead of just going offline. Unfortunately there won't be any ad-blocking going on at that point but that's far better then everybody on your network being upset that there's no internet access. After this all we have to do is connect to the Pi-hole web interface via any browser. Just point your address bar at the static IP your Pi-hole is running on, drop a /admin after it & login. You don't really need to do this, there's not many reasons to come over and manage the software. Mainly it's where you can investigate all the clients on your network, see problem areas, blacklist them, or even whitelist domains if you need to. You can see device temps here, charts, graphs, hella logs, you name it. It's a very simple but powerful interface that works extremely well. At the end of the video, after recording live, you can see it's running on only 700mb of memory. It really takes absolutely nothing to run Pi-hole an it has massive benefits for everything inside your network. That's why I wanted to share it with everybody! Anyways if you have any questions feel free to post though I am not associated with the project at all. I've posted this same video on their subreddit though if you happen to want to drop an upboat for me. (it would be appreciated!) I'm sure they would be much more qualified at answering in-depth technical questions then myself, though I will try my best to help out where I can. If still interested you can view the video tutorial on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgUZ9fccBCU Much love, 'Gobby PS: Here you go Luke, that'll keep things interesting.
-
Hi guys, I am looking for an upgrade path for my current server. For right now it's serving it's purpose so I am prepared to wait a little longer to upgrade it. Here's what I have. Current Specifications MB - MSI Z77A-GD65 CPU - Intel Core(TM) i7 2600k @ 4.2ghz RAM - 32GB HyperX Fury GPU - MSI GeForce GTX 580 (Used for trans coding) Boot drive - Samsung 850 Evo 250GB (does the job) OS - Windows Server 2016 Datacenter The storage on the other hand is slightly more complicated and is where I would like to see significant improvements. Right now I have 3x 2TB WD Red drives in a RAID 5 using the on board raid controller... but here's where it gets dicey... That array is then combined in software (Using Windows Server File and Storage Services) with another Samsung 850 Evo 250GB in SSD Tiering mode. This is done to improve the read write speeds of the array and I get on average 500MB/s speeds on the array. The aim here is to saturate my network link of 1gbit and the hardware raid on its own was way too slow for me to be satisfied. I know this configuration is by no means ideal and I am very concerned for my data which is why I want t improve on this first and is one area where I would like a lot of advice on what to do and what products will support my needs here. I use this server primarily for storage of most of my data including my very large collection of movies which I host from this server through Plex to all of my many Chromecasts scattered about the house. For now this is doing just fine but storage capacity will need to be expanded in future when I start wanting to consume more 4k UHD content and I will certainly need to have some significant transcoding power if I want to start getting more 4k sources. Aside from it being used as a home media center though, I also use Hyper-V to host some Virtual machines on this system that are primarily used for development purposes... The main guest on this system is a Windows Server Standard 2016 development server used as a RAS (Remote Application Server) with Remote Desktop Services. I run a lot of my development applications through RemoteApp such as Visual Studio 2013/2015/2017 Pro (different versions to meet the requirements of different solutions I work on) I don't have a lot of upfront cash and would like to upgrade bit by bit... starting (I hope) with the storage. I would like to have a high enough storage speed to saturate my network link while still having some redundancy and would like to maintain as much expand ability as possible if I want to add more drives in future (I am satisfied with having to move all of my data off the array before expanding it if that's what is required for me to maintain the current architecture) I have tried software ZFS storage solutions in the past such as FreeNAS and UnRAID but this simply did not meet my windows requirements for running RAS., In addition to this the reliability of simply put... awful. I have so far had near 100% up time with my windows server since I made the move and I am very satisfied. So to cut the rambling short, here are my requirements Storage redundancy that doesn't rely on any one drive High enough storage capacity for a large media collection High enough storage speeds to saturate my network link (preferably 2 times over at 200 - 250MB/s) High CPU clock speed to deal with media encoding and virtualisation High volume of memory to deal with virtualization Some advice wold be very much appreciated. I do ramble a lot and may not have made myself very clear in places so feel free to pick me apart on that point to get any more information that would be useful in helping me, and possibly others, on my quest to create a stable and expandable storage and virtualization server on windows. Thank you in advance for your help