[CDBUG-talk] FreeNAS in a VM?

[Patrick Muldoon]

> On Feb 25, 2015, at 8:16 AM, freebsd at fongaboo.com wrote:
> 
> 
> I have not actually run FreeNAS myself, for one because I don't have hardware to devote to it at the moment.
> 
> But I've been looking into it same as you, and was hoping to run it as a VM as well. That's when I ran into that post.
> 
> Their reasoning seems to be pretty specific to FreeNAS and ZFS. So I'd think other means of file-serving from a VM would be fair game.

I have a file server for home running as a VM,and it works fine.  But this is home  (3-4 users, not super heavy volume).  It is FreeBSD (10.1), running inside ESX 5.5.  Runs NFS for the other BSD boxes at home, and netatalk to do AFP for the Macs.  

As for running one for “real” users inside a vm, you really need to know the IO  load , and if your underlaying IO subsystems can handle it  (Along with the rest of the other VMS on them). I don’t think it is any different that any other application really.  You have X amount or resources, and once you run out them you run out of them..  So it becomes a capacity planning exercise. 

ZFS wants/needs raw disk access , so while you can build zfs pools in a vm, it doesn’t appear to be recommended. 

-patrick

--
Patrick Muldoon
Network/Software Engineer
INOC (http://www.inoc.net)

"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again."
- The Brain