unRAID VMs help

[MrCyanide]

Hey, so recently a put together a home file server using FreeNAS. The 7 Gamers One CPU and 8 Gamers 1 CPU videos really intrigued me. I am unfamiliar with unRAID and would like some help with a few ideas I have floating around, and if they are possible.

1. Do different VMs require different graphics sources? Could I run 2 off integrated graphics or would both have to come from dedicated GPUs?

2. Would it be possible to use it to run 2 VMs, one as FreeNAS (I am aware it can be risky running FreeNAS as a VM), and the other OS to be a Linux distro such as Mint? As the file server has a fairly powerful CPU, i5 4460, and would like to be able to make use of that.

3. Would adding Plex to a FreeNAS VM cause any issues?

4. A weird one here maybe, can you dual boot a VM? To choose if it's a Linux distro or OSX.

5. Would there be any issues having my main PC be a synergy host and one VM be the client?

 

I completely understand if this is not possible or could have some serious issues, I have done a little digging on this but am still a real noob with all this. Thank you in advance for any help! I'll be heading to bed shortly and work in the morning so am sorry if I don't reply for a while, but will do my best! Thanks guys

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, MrCyanide said:

Hey, so recently a put together a home file server using FreeNAS. The 7 Gamers One CPU and 8 Gamers 1 CPU videos really intrigued me. I am unfamiliar with unRAID and would like some help with a few ideas I have floating around, and if they are possible.

1. Do different VMs require different graphics sources? Could I run 2 off integrated graphics or would both have to come from dedicated GPUs?

2. Would it be possible to use it to run 2 VMs, one as FreeNAS (I am aware it can be risky running FreeNAS as a VM), and the other OS to be a Linux distro such as Mint? As the file server has a fairly powerful CPU, i5 4460, and would like to be able to make use of that.

3. Would adding Plex to a FreeNAS VM cause any issues?

4. A weird one here maybe, can you dual boot a VM? To choose if it's a Linux distro or OSX.

5. Would there be any issues having my main PC be a synergy host and one VM be the client?

 

I completely understand if this is not possible or could have some serious issues, I have done a little digging on this but am still a real noob with all this. Thank you in advance for any help! I'll be heading to bed shortly and work in the morning so am sorry if I don't reply for a while, but will do my best! Thanks guys

 

1. A general VM does not need a GPU, console access uses software rendering and after OS install you would normally RDP/SSH in to them for access.

2. Running FreeNAS as a VM is not advised, either use unRAID to do the disk pooling or keep FreeNAS on it's own system.

3. Shouldn't do.

4. Yea you can but why? Create a VM per OS. If you use disk thin provisioning 2 VM's uses no more storage than 1 dual boot..

5. No idea never used synergy.

[MrCyanide]

6 hours ago, leadeater said:

 

1. A general VM does not need a GPU, console access uses software rendering and after OS install you would normally RDP/SSH in to them for access.

2. Running FreeNAS as a VM is not advised, either use unRAID to do the disk pooling or keep FreeNAS on it's own system.

3. Shouldn't do.

4. Yea you can but why? Create a VM per OS. If you use disk thin provisioning 2 VM's uses no more storage than 1 dual boot..

5. No idea never used synergy.

Thank you for your reply, I think I'll reconsider trying this after all. This was really informative and I appreciate it!

[jwworker201]

Why don't use the plex docker on unRAID?
Also note if you want to virtualize things in unRAID the RAM for the VM (e.g. 4GB) won't be available for other VMs or the Host as long as your VM is running because unRAID does not share Memory.

And to question 5: I personally did not use Synergy but I think it shouldn't be a problem. But I think it would only make sense to use synergy if you have the VM hooked up to a extrernal source (a TV or other screen -> for this you need a pcie gpu you can pass through) because otherwise you have VNC or Remote Desktop (shure you have to click in the window to capture the mouse but this one clock won't kill you )