NAS server with Drivepool under KVM/Proxmox Hypervisor.

[grimpr]

I was thinking running my file server under a Linux KVM hypervisor like Proxmox, pass the disks to a Windows 10 with Drivepool, are there any considerations? anyone knows if SMART works under KVM?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I don't believe that KVM supports SMART passthrough.

 

However, I do believe that it supports device passthough, so if all f the drives are on a single controller, you may be able to pass that through, and get the SMART data. 

 

https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Virtualization_Guide/chap-Virtualization-PCI_passthrough.html

 

Otherwise, the only hypervisor that I know that does this is VMWare's ESX. 

[grimpr]

I don't believe that KVM supports SMART passthrough.

 

However, I do believe that it supports device passthough, so if all f the drives are on a single controller, you may be able to pass that through, and get the SMART data. 

 

https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Virtualization_Guide/chap-Virtualization-PCI_passthrough.html

 

Otherwise, the only hypervisor that I know that does this is VMWare's ESX. 

 

Thanks Christopher, i have my Windows 10 Drivepool server backuped already, will try Proxmox and report with my findings.

 

Seems like SMART works with a SCSI passthrough in Proxmox, this is good news since Stablebit Scanner will work now. Will test and report back. Cant really decide which setup is best, a pc windows nas running vms or a hypervisor running a virtualized nas.

 

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/s-m-a-r-t-in-kvm-on-virtio-drive.30282/

[grimpr]

Hard disk SMART attributes are passed succesfully to a Windows 7 VM with Stablebit Drivepool and Stablebit Scanner under Proxmox KVM Linux Hypervisor, using SCSI Virtio and hard disk passthrough on the Windows 7 VM.

 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Fantastic news! Glad to see it! 

 

 

As for which is better? 

Yeah, that's a long standing argument.  It really depends on the Windows OS you're using, and what else you plan on doing with the system. 

[grimpr]

Update, i switched back to Windows 10 Pro with Hyper-V because Hard Disk Passthrough in Linux KVM had problems in my Windows 7 VM's, when checkdisk was run on any hard disk the virtual machine crashed immediately, after investigation i found that nobody in the professional/production vm crowd uses hard disk passthrough, they only use virtual hard disk files on top the hard disk because its much safer this way, the host hypervisor OS must always have direct control of the hard disks. So, SMART works under hard disk passthrough in Linux KVM but the are hidden problems, thankfully no data was lost and since i prepared for something like this it was only an image restore to bring me back to my previous setup.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Ouch, I'm sorry to hear that.  

 

I know that VMWare ESX has less issues with passthrough.  

 

But for enterprise, it's mostly Clustered file systems, or hardware RAID for storage, and then VHD created on those.   Drive passthrough is more pro-sumer stuff. So not as well developed in some hypervisors.