Trying to access a VROC array from withing a VBox

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klyvthuryn
Posts: 1
Joined: 3. May 2022, 17:58

Trying to access a VROC array from withing a VBox

Post by klyvthuryn »

I have a system running windows 2016 server and Oracle VirtualBox. My hardware is a server PC with a VROC array, and I want to be able to access that array from my guest OS, which is TrueNAS (in short, I am trying to set up a NAS system on the server with the NAS software running in as VBox). I can get TrueNAS to load and run, but I have no way to assign the VROC array (which is 20.6TBytes) to the guest OS. I seem to remember a few years ago that there was a version of VirtualBox that allowed you to transfer a non system drive to the VBox, in much the manner as you would a USB device. Can anyone please shine some light on how to do this?

Thank you!
scottgus1
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Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Trying to access a VROC array from withing a VBox

Post by scottgus1 »

Typically, VMs work best with virtual hardware, and leave the physical PC's OS to handle the physical hardware.

There is a setup called Raw Disk Access, see https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#rawdisk, which can take a physical disk and pass it into the VM. It is an expert-only feature and can easily hose your whole system if not done exactly right, or if not double-checked for accurate setup the next time it's used. Forum policy is to not explain how to do it, because it's data-dangerous.

But it can be done for single physical disks. I do not know if a RAID-like array can be so controlled. On a Windows host, the disk to be Raw Accessed has to be taken offline in Disk Management, and all Virtualbox activity for Raw Disk Access has to be Run As Administrator.

If you decide to dive in, be absotively posilutely sure you have tested restorable backups!

A frame challenge: rather than put the VROC into the VM, let the VROC stay controlled by the host and put the VM's virtual disk(s) on it through Virtualbox. The host will maintain the hardware, and Virtualbox sees a 20TB drive to use for the VM's virtual drives. TrueNas should be able to use a 20TB .vdi (or a series of RAID-0'd or JBOD'd 2 or 4TB .vdi's, I forget if there is a size limit for a virtual disk)
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