TrueNAS VM

So far I’ve been running my TrueNAS system on an ancient t310 bare metal. My HP ML110 G7 has also been bluescreening lately. I suspect it’s something RAM related but don’t feel like bothering with it. Fortunately one of the clients from my job recycled a PowerEdge t620. The plan is to consolidate the two; I’ll replace the server with the newer one and virtualize TrueNAS. I’ve also got a rack mount case that can hold 15 more drives. The plan is to mount a RAID card extender in it and connect it with a SFF-8088 cable, giving me a total of 27 drives I can have.

First, create the VM in ESXi. The memory needs reserved since I’ll be using passthrough on the RAID controller. The RAID controller is in IT mode since I’ll be using TrueNAS with it.

Installed TrueNAS on 16GB and gave it 24GB of RAM. Be sure to go into the RAM and reserve all of it since passthrough requires this. Use “Add other device” and passthrough the RAID card. I plan on updating when I get another SAS Expander Card for the DAS. I will be doing something similar to this. The t620 fits perfectly in the rack on a shelf.