windows 1win7 virtio0

' ,',,, -pluggingsupportandalldevicesattachedshouldworkperfectly. USBassignmentistrickywhenitcomestosupportingawidevarietyofdevices. It'sgettingbetterandbetter,butit'sstillgotawaystogotoworkuniversallywithalldevicetypes. USBcontrollerpassthrough,however,isverysolid,andcanbeveryadvantageousingivingyouamore"native"experience.

Asfarasstorageperformancegoes,I'mwonderinghowyouwentaboutgettingthefilesontothearrayfromwithintheVMinthefirstplace. IfyoudownloadedafileinsideyourVM,thencopiedittothearrayfromtheVM,Iwouldn'texpectmuchimprovement,asyou'regoingthroughavirtualdiskimagelayer. Youcouldpotentiallyimprovetheperformancetherebypassingthroughanentireblockdevice(orperhapsevenanotheradd-onstoragecontrollerthatisdedicatedtotheVM). Italsodependsonthefilesystemsyou'reusing,howfullthosedevicesare,andanumberofotherconditions.

Lastly,Windows7istheworstofthecurrentlysupportedWindowsoperatingsystemswhenitcomestoperformanceasavirtualmachine. Windows8/8.1/10arefarbetterperformingasaVM. Windows7,whileatriedandtrueOS,justdoesn'thavetheoptimizationsthatthelateriterationshaveforrunningasaVM. Doesitwork? Yes. Doesitworkfairlygood? Yeah,itdoes. Isitasgoodas8.1or10? NotbyalongshotIMHO. AndthevirtualUSB3controllerIgaveyouasXMLdoesn'tworkwithWindows7,Iknowthat. Itseemstoworksolidin8.1/10though,andevenwithUSBcameras,althoughIamdebuggingsomeissuesstillthere.

Rightnow,theprimaryusecasesforVMsonunRAIDareprettysimpleanddirect: 

1-replaceadesktopPC/gamingrigwithaNAS+Desktopcombosystem,wheretheNASfunctionalityridesatalevelabovethedesktop,sodesktopissuesdon'tcauseNASissues. 

2-runheadlessserversforWindowsorotherapplicationsthataren'tavailable/stableenoughinDockerContainers.

3-buildamediaplayer/NAScombowithOpenELEC

Thereareobviousotherthingsyoucandowithvirtualizationbeyondthat,butwehaven'tfullyimplementedthemalljustyet,sothismaybeacaseofexpectingmorefromusthanwe'rereadytodeliver. Thatsaid,forfolkswillingtoworkwithusabit,wecanfindwaysthroughXMLeditstodeliverfunctionality,butagain,Windows7canbeamajordrawbackforusattimes.

Thatsaid,Iappreciateyougivingitashotandsometimetoworkthroughyourissues. Idounderstandtheneedtomoveonthough,butifyoueverdecidetogiveitanothershot,we'reheretohelp.