Baremetal OMV or OMV as a VM in ESXi?

  • I am now running the ESXi server (the one with Q6600; I have decided to sell the Phenom) with OMV as one of its VM. I am getting only 40MB/s instead of 80 to 90MB/s in Samba, which is quite unexpectedly bad (I think I got about 70 when using the Phenom ESXi server)


    I am now considering using OMV baremetal and letting it become the hypervisor via VirtualBox. Will this let me still consolidate my IT stuff and also get better file transfer speeds?

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    ESXi performance on an old CPU like the Q6600 is going to be underwhelming. You will definitely get better performance with OMV running natively but you might not be happy with virtualbox performance on that system.

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  • Hmm, looks like I will have to bear with it until I can save up for a more modern setup; the NAS functionality is the main priority for now.


    But ok, let me lay down my requirements again to see if this is feasible, in order of importance.


    I need a NAS with SAMBA that can transmit my files well in a pooled environment (i.e. mergefs).
    It should have an UI that tells me the health of my HDDs from time to time so that I can pre-empt HDD failure with timely replacement. (i.e. the S.M.A.R.T capabilities)
    It should be able to back itself up into another Windows computer that already has an older copy of the data (i.e. Rsync or manual weekly FreeFileSync mirroring from that computer)
    It should be able to allow me to seamlessly replace the HDDs without needing to take down the entire NAS to do so (for now I need to do so; had to use Parted Magic) (i.e. RAID?)
    It should be set to be accessible worldwide by only me (i.e. VPN)
    Finally for this section, some transcoding ability will be nice (i.e. Plex)


    I also will need at least two instances of OwnCloud, which is Debian-based
    One for sharing files with my friends (legal stuff only of course!)
    Another for backing up my calendar and contacts from my phone
    For this section, I will need to decide if the OwnCloud plugin will suffice and also whether one of them can be replaced by Baikal, which means I need a LAMP stack for this.


    I also will like to have at least one instance of a LAMP stack (or even MEAN)
    Each LAMP stack will host only one web project/website
    Each stack is like my "production" (I hope this is the right term to use!) server for the website
    Idea is to let me update my website there and then access them from some computers (I may restrict this to my home network) as a way to test them before pushing them to a live server in the Internet for all to see.


    Finally, from time to time, I will like to have one or two *nix desktop VMs to play around with for educational purposes


    All in all, I think my setup will be OMV baremetal, with 2 OwnCloud VMs running together with OMV, and another 4 to 6 VMs containing LAMP, MEAN or *nix desktop OS that will be occasionally switched on from time to time.


    I know that maybe I should have said all these earlier lol; I hope now these will make my intent for my OMV project clearer for all! :)

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    With your description, I think you want ESXi with drives passed through to OMV VM. You can use snapshots and export to backup the VM itself.


    VMs would work well for your LAMP stacks.


    For linux desktops and to keep requirements low on current hardware, I would just install the remotedesktop plugin and remote desktop in. That will give you a lightweight desktop that requires very little resources. You don't have to install the plugin on your primary OMV VM. You could create a second OMV VM for that. I recommend another OMV VM for testing and use snapshots to rollback if something goes badly.

    omv 7.0.4-2 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.10 | compose 7.1.2 | k8s 7.0-6 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


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  • I wanted to pass through the HDDs to OMV (which would have most probably solved the file speed issue mentioned earlier), but the mobo and CPU do not support VT-d :(


    And I apologise if my earlier post was not clear; given my current hardware, I am thinking of not even using ESXi at all (it will be suitable for a more modern setup, that's most probably another story in another thread once I have the cash ;) ).


    I am thinking of first installing OMV baremetal, then use its VIrtualBox plugin to create each of the LAMP/OC/*nix VMs that I mentioned earlier.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Try it I guess :)

    omv 7.0.4-2 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.10 | compose 7.1.2 | k8s 7.0-6 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

  • Now in the midst of doing these tests, here's what I got so far:


    Onboard Non-Intel NIC, ESXi: 40 MB/s
    Onboard Non-Intel NIC, baremetal OMV: 40MB/s


    Intel NIC card (single port), ESXi: 40 MB/s
    Intel NIC card (single port), baremetal OMV: 80MB/s


    Intel NIC card (dual port), ESXi: 40 MB/s
    Intel NIC card (dual port), baremetal OMV: 80MB/s


    All tests done with same amount of RAM and CPU cores (6GB, 4 cores)


    This is one of the many examples on the Internet that shows how the quality of NIC can play a much bigger part in NAS duties as compared to say, CPU.


    Also to note that this ESXi setup is not optimal given the lack of IOMMU/VT-D/AMD-Vi; the inability to dedicate the SATA controller and thus having to use Physical RDM has indeed limited file transfer speeds greatly. I may do a restest to confirm this hypothesis once I manage to get some good hardware that allow me to do this.


    I think I will have to stick with baremetal OMV first for now, let's see if VirtualBox will suffice for my use case

  • Quick note: Still working on all these, but I noticed quite a few things. Let me just note these here first lest I forget:


    1. While VirtualBox is working fine and nice in OMV 2, I understand that there is a possibility that there won't be VirtualBox in OMV 3. What other alternatives should I consider?
    2. I just realised that there is NextCloud, will just use that instead of OwnCloud due to feature sets.
    3. I understand that it is possible to install the nginx and MySQL plugins and then install NextCloud using these plugins (see: Owncloud 8 and MySQL: alternative approach ). I am considering this approach instead of VMs but the main challenge will be on how can I run two instances of NextCloud with this approach. Something for me to check out.
    4. Same goes for my projects needing the LAMP stack; I need to see how to make all these work nicely without each project's files being messed up by others e.t.c.

  • Just managed to come back to this, am struggling to understand VirtualBox's logic when it comes to networking.

    In ESXi all I need to do is to create a virtual NIC for each VM and they can be connected to my other computers with the right IP addresses.

    This is not the case for VirtualBox; the VMs can connect to the Internet but not be connected to my other computers

    Erm, apparently all I needed to do was to set the VM's NIC to Bridged Networking for it to be able to get the IP address from my router like how I did it when using ESXi


    More testing and VMs ahead!

  • Update: I have 2 VMs running in the VirtualBox (nextcloud and OMV 3.x) in OMV now, all seems good so far.


    I may just consolidate the VMs further into this configuration:


    1 VM for outward facing duties (e.g. two separate instances of nextcloud). Will use Apache's Virtual Host to help in this


    1 VM for web development purpose; will not be exposed to the Internet. Will use Apache's Virtual Host to help in this


    1-3 VMs for playing around with; will not be exposed to the Internet too


    Meanwhile, looks like I will need better HDDs or better CPU+mobo+RAM combos; I am having performance issues when playing music from the OMV NAS and also do other duties with it like transferring of certain files

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