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UlyssesOfEpirus
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How to simulate RAID 0 in a VM where the drives are specified in the UEFI firmware

Is something like this available in Workstation? Would like to simulate a physical machine that has Windows and other manufacturer-provided software installed on a RAID 0 drive made up of 2 SSD drives that are specified as a RAID 0 set in the UEFI firmware. Software called "Intel Rapid Storage Technology" for Windows comes with the physical motherboard and reports any problems so one knows when the drives need replacement. How can this configuration be simulated in a VM?

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wila
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Hi,


That's a fake RAID setup, IOW the RAID software is in the firmware and handled by the CPU instead of by special RAID hardware.

The VMware firmware does not have fake RAID software in there, so as a result it is not possible to imitate it like that.

But you can use software RAID in your guest. As this also uses your CPU for the RAID it is almost the same thing.

With a Linux guest it is a matter of configuring the disks as being part of a RAID and then setting up the disks for a RAID configuration using mdadmin (google "mdadm --create" )

In Windows you also used to be able to configure software RAID, last time I did so was in Windows 2000.

If you have a professional version of Windows 10 then from what I just googled this still can be done, for a non professional version it appears you need to use "storage spaces"

See for example:

https://superuser.com/questions/1001042/software-raid-windows-10

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva

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wila
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Hi,


That's a fake RAID setup, IOW the RAID software is in the firmware and handled by the CPU instead of by special RAID hardware.

The VMware firmware does not have fake RAID software in there, so as a result it is not possible to imitate it like that.

But you can use software RAID in your guest. As this also uses your CPU for the RAID it is almost the same thing.

With a Linux guest it is a matter of configuring the disks as being part of a RAID and then setting up the disks for a RAID configuration using mdadmin (google "mdadm --create" )

In Windows you also used to be able to configure software RAID, last time I did so was in Windows 2000.

If you have a professional version of Windows 10 then from what I just googled this still can be done, for a non professional version it appears you need to use "storage spaces"

See for example:

https://superuser.com/questions/1001042/software-raid-windows-10

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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UlyssesOfEpirus
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Thanks. What happens if you attempt to convert this physical machine to a virtual machine with the vmware converter?

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UlyssesOfEpirus
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Also is there a way to tell a VM that a virtual drive is on a physical SSD and should be treated as an SSD?

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wila
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Hi,

Doing a P2V with VMware converter is done via in guest services.

If you want to migrate host that runs on a fake RAID setup then I think you are fine as in that it migrates your host to a VM with a single disk.

But I haven't tried it myself.

re. your question about the SSD, you can assign a SSD virtual disk to your guest and as such that guest would treat that part of the disk as an SSD.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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