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Why must be ESXi for XPEnology?


Elpee

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Sorry, but I really dont know why a lot of people have been setting up ESXi 5.5 and installing xpenology on it. Why dont they setup a normal machine and boot from a usb stick instead that definitely saves them a lot of haedaches? Or they themselve want to prove they are IT poeple for nothing?

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my esxi 5.5 server runs off an mini ITX motherboard w/ i7 3770T (that would be wasted just for DSM). It also runs a VM with Windows 8.1 for Windows Media Center (to watch live TV with a cablecard via WMC extenders like xbox 360). It records to an iSCSI LUN from my DSM VM. I also have a Linux VM for when I need to play around with linux. It's also a lot easier to manage once you have it setup.

 

It also makes it a lot easier to test various things, like new releases of DSM, or DSM boot images such as gnoboot/nanoboot. Why play with real data when you can quickly make a test VM?

 

SDIBWX1.png

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my esxi 5.5 server runs off an mini ITX motherboard w/ i7 3770T (that would be wasted just for DSM). It also runs a VM with Windows 8.1 for Windows Media Center (to watch live TV with a cablecard via WMC extenders like xbox 360). It records to an iSCSI LUN from my DSM VM. I also have a Linux VM for when I need to play around with linux. It's also a lot easier to manage once you have it setup.

 

It also makes it a lot easier to test various things, like new releases of DSM, or DSM boot images such as gnoboot/nanoboot. Why play with real data when you can quickly make a test VM?

 

SDIBWX1.png

 

Dear Diverge,

 

Did you find any problem of nanoboot/gnoboot?

I got a problem, the DSM vm would halt by a random of time (some hours or some days),

It have no response, no error message, those happen on gnoboot/nanoboot,

last time in gnoboot, it show something about ext4 file system problem,

other then that the system running very smooth now,

While others vm still alive/active.

 

my esxi config:

- N40L 16G Ram

- RDM hdd for DSM by 9261-8i in Raid 0

- one pcie 1x intel lan

 

p.s. are your files all holding by DSM?

 

Thank you!

: >

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I've heard ESXi is headless. How do you run a VM with Windows 8.1 for Windows Media Center to watch live TV?

It is headless, but it has a client program (as seen in my screen capture) that is used to manage the VM's. From that program you also have remote desktop like control over VM's. And since I am only using the windows VM for WMC, I rarely have need to use the windows desktop, but when I do I just use vSphere client. I use WMC extenders to access WMC.

 

 

 

Dear Diverge,

 

Did you find any problem of nanoboot/gnoboot?

I got a problem, the DSM vm would halt by a random of time (some hours or some days),

It have no response, no error message, those happen on gnoboot/nanoboot,

last time in gnoboot, it show something about ext4 file system problem,

other then that the system running very smooth now,

While others vm still alive/active.

 

my esxi config:

- N40L 16G Ram

- RDM hdd for DSM by 9261-8i in Raid 0

- one pcie 1x intel lan

 

p.s. are your files all holding by DSM?

 

Thank you!

: >

 

I've had no problems with my esxi sever, but it is different than yours. Mine is an Intel based system, and all components have VTd support (direct IO). MY LSI raid card is not used by esxi, it is passed through to my DSM VM in IT mode. The array is at DSM level, not by the LSI card.

 

Motherboard - Intel DQ77KB

CPU - Intel i7 3770T

RAM - 16GB

OS - ESXI 5.5 on 60GB mSATA SSD

Storage - LSI 9201-8i w/ 4 x 3TB WD Red (DSM SHR volume) and 1x4TB (eSATA for backups).

VM1 - Synology DSM 5 - 4493 w/ LSI card passed through.

VM2 - Windows 8.1 w/WMC set to 500GB iSCSI target of Synology VM for WMC recording.

 

I haven't gotten around to finishing my case for it, but here's its current state http://goo.gl/N1Qs9m

edit: the motherboard used in those pics was the DH61AG, which I used for testing prior to swapping over my other motherboard.

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my esxi 5.5 server runs off an mini ITX motherboard w/ i7 3770T (that would be wasted just for DSM). It also runs a VM with Windows 8.1 for Windows Media Center (to watch live TV with a cablecard via WMC extenders like xbox 360). It records to an iSCSI LUN from my DSM VM. I also have a Linux VM for when I need to play around with linux. It's also a lot easier to manage once you have it setup.

 

It also makes it a lot easier to test various things, like new releases of DSM, or DSM boot images such as gnoboot/nanoboot. Why play with real data when you can quickly make a test VM?

 

SDIBWX1.png

 

 

What's the power consumption of your ring ? Do you think LSI card draws a lot of power?

Thank you !

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  • 3 months later...
I've heard ESXi is headless. How do you run a VM with Windows 8.1 for Windows Media Center to watch live TV?

It is headless, but it has a client program (as seen in my screen capture) that is used to manage the VM's. From that program you also have remote desktop like control over VM's. And since I am only using the windows VM for WMC, I rarely have need to use the windows desktop, but when I do I just use vSphere client. I use WMC extenders to access WMC.

 

 

[

I've had no problems with my esxi sever, but it is different than yours. Mine is an Intel based system, and all components have VTd support (direct IO). MY LSI raid card is not used by esxi, it is passed through to my DSM VM in IT mode. The array is at DSM level, not by the LSI card.

 

Motherboard - Intel DQ77KB

CPU - Intel i7 3770T

RAM - 16GB

OS - ESXI 5.5 on 60GB mSATA SSD

Storage - LSI 9201-8i w/ 4 x 3TB WD Red (DSM SHR volume) and 1x4TB (eSATA for backups).

VM1 - Synology DSM 5 - 4493 w/ LSI card passed through.

VM2 - Windows 8.1 w/WMC set to 500GB iSCSI target of Synology VM for WMC recording.

 

I haven't gotten around to finishing my case for it, but here's its current state http://goo.gl/N1Qs9m

edit: the motherboard used in those pics was the DH61AG, which I used for testing prior to swapping over my other motherboard.

 

 

I want to do almost exactly what you did Diverge. Setup Esxi, a windows 7 virtual box, and a xpenology virtual box. Also wish to pass through the onboard sata ports to the NAS part. Can you share your sequence and how you did it? I have managed to setup a bare metal one for xpenology(as a trial), but trying to see how I can do it with virtualisation.

 

Much thanks!

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I want to do almost exactly what you did Diverge. Setup Esxi, a windows 7 virtual box, and a xpenology virtual box. Also wish to pass through the onboard sata ports to the NAS part. Can you share your sequence and how you did it? I have managed to setup a bare metal one for xpenology(as a trial), but trying to see how I can do it with virtualisation.

 

Much thanks!

 

I run ESXi on a small Shuttle box, so I've not had an opportunity to do much passthrough but my understanding is that you must passthrough at the controller level. So if you passed your onboard SATA ports, you'd pass ALL of them (unless you have multiple onboard SATA controllers I guess).

 

I have a similar setup to Diverge with WMC running under ESXi. Presently, it's recording to a local 2TB disk but I'm setting up a XPEnology machine to move my recording to it via iSCSI. If that goes well, I'll then look to see if I can figure out a stable way to present more than 2TB to WMC for recording. Just moved up to 7 tuners and I'll have the storage available under XPEnology, so why not?

 

Don't know how I'll do it yet. I guess my options are to present multiple 2TB LUNs to ESXi, turn them into virtual disks and then span them within the windows VM. Or I suppose I could use the built-in MS iSCSI initiator in W7 to use a larger LUN directly. Not sure how stable either option would be.

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