Virtual Machine stored on NAS

[StormEye]

I would like to know what is the best practice when it comes to running VM that is stored on NAS.

 

Currently I have a VM with Windows 10 Pro OS on it that I use it for performing tasks that require installation of pseudo-malware that I do not want to install on my rig (its government and financial institution sites mainly).

 

It is stored on my NAS (QNAP TS-853 Pro with 5x6TB WD Red Drives), and mapped the drive normally on my rig and run it through VMWare Workstation Player 12. Performance seems to be fine, I think, though there are some delays here and there, which does not bother me too much as I use it for short duration anyway.

 

I'm keep hearing (well reading online) about creating iSCSI for storing and running VM from there. So, lately I was wondering whether there is a better method of storing and running VM from a NAS than just shoving it in a mapped network drive.

 

I would like to get some advice from you if you have any.

 

Summary / TLDR

What is the best practice to store and run VM from NAS?

VM - VMWare Windows 10 Pro

Host - Main Rig (detail in my profile, if that matters)

NAS - QNAP TS-853 Pro with 5 x 6TB WD Red Drives

 

If other information is required to give more in-depth suggestion, let me know.

 

Thank you.

[MatthewEnderle]

Well If you're mapping it, you are creating a tunnel which in result allows a bridge from computer to computer.

[tt2468]

I use NFS shares. The speeds are adequate for my needs.

[leadeater]

SMB3 should be fine for this task if the NAS supports it. SMB3 is also Microsoft's preferred storage protocol for Hyper-V and are doing some advanced feature improvements in this area, likely doesn't apply to your NAS unfortunately since SAMBA doesn't really support any of these new SMB3 features.

As @Kyle Manning has already mentioned NFS should be fine. We have around 1000 VMs running off NFS shares at work but using ESXi not directly within Windows. I haven't actually used an NFS share from within Windows so no idea how good the support for it is and performance.

[Whaler_99]

I can't say there is a best practice on this. As long as it meets your needs and performs the way you need it to, why fix what isn't broke.

 

[wpirobotbuilder]

On 1/26/2016 at 9:44 PM, StormEye said:

I would like to know what is the best practice when it comes to running VM that is stored on NAS.

 

Currently I have a VM with Windows 10 Pro OS on it that I use it for performing tasks that require installation of pseudo-malware that I do not want to install on my rig (its government and financial institution sites mainly).

 

It is stored on my NAS (QNAP TS-853 Pro with 5x6TB WD Red Drives), and mapped the drive normally on my rig and run it through VMWare Workstation Player 12. Performance seems to be fine, I think, though there are some delays here and there, which does not bother me too much as I use it for short duration anyway.

 

I'm keep hearing (well reading online) about creating iSCSI for storing and running VM from there. So, lately I was wondering whether there is a better method of storing and running VM from a NAS than just shoving it in a mapped network drive.

 

I would like to get some advice from you if you have any.

 

Summary / TLDR

What is the best practice to store and run VM from NAS?

VM - VMWare Windows 10 Pro

Host - Main Rig (detail in my profile, if that matters)

NAS - QNAP TS-853 Pro with 5 x 6TB WD Red Drives

 

If other information is required to give more in-depth suggestion, let me know.

 

Thank you.

iSCSI is really good for when you want a device that looks like a hard drive -- programs in Windows, for example, don't always cooperate when installing to a volume that is obviously network storage. For example, I create a 250GB iSCSI target on my server and connected to it from my desktop -- I install games on it.

The other advantage of iSCSI is that the storage is dedicated to whatever is connected to it -- this is only a problem when lots of people are storing stuff on the same NAS volume.

For you, doing stuff by yourself, either option is fine.