Proxmox | unRAID as a VM

When converting a bare metal unRAID installation into Proxmox VM, the setup is quite straightforward as there is nothing to really install.

The setup process however will vary quite a bit depending on your bare metal install hardware. To me, it was just passing through a couple of devices and I was all set.

Creating the unRAID VM

Set the VM ID and Name, and I checked the Start at boot if I need to restart Proxmox.

OS

Not using any image here, I'll remove the CD/DVD device later and pass through the USB stick later.

System

I changed the Machine to q35, checked the Qemu agent (needs to be configured later on unRAID)

Disks

Delete the Disks and leave it empty. Don't need it.

CPU

I'll start with 6 cores, just because I am still running Docker in unRAID, probably an overkill, but I will adjust it later when I unload the Docker containers elsewhere. I want to dedicate unRAID for storage.

Memory

I set the minimum to 6GB and max to 12GB and left Ballooning checked, again I will most likely adjust this later.

Network

I'll use my 10Gbs Bridge (single 10Gbs NIC).

** Note to self, check the multiqueue docs!

Confirm

Don't start the VM yet, just finish the VM creation.

Hardware

In the unRAID VM, the Hardware section

Remove CD/DVD Device

Select the CD/DVD Device and click Remove, it's not needed.

Pass-Through the USB boot stick

In the unRAID VM, go to Hardware and click Add and select USB device

Select Use USB Vendor/Device ID, and pick your unRAID boot device from the list. Uncheck the use USB3.

Passing Through the LSI SAS HBA controller

This is the controller to which all my disks are connected (The main Array and cache and docker pools.) Once this is connected everything should be the same as in bare metal installation.

Add a PCI Device

Scroll down to select the correct controller

I checked All Functions and PCI Express (only available if q35 was selected earlier in the Machine settings when creating the VM)

Change the Boot Order

In the unRAID VM go to options, select Boot Order, and click Edit

Drag the USB device to the top, and enable it. Disable the other devices.

Start the Server

If I need to I can easily revert the unRAID server back to bare metal, or migrate it to another Proxmox server. Or I can just boot the server from the USB straight to unRAID