Roon Core on VM in Windows Server

Tinkering
1

I am new to Roon and want to see if my specs are up to running Roon Core in a VM on a Windows Server 2022 computer. I am most concerned about RAM and hard drive size for the Roon database. I have a very large collection that is currently on a Synology NAS. It will be at least 500,000 songs and may be as high as 800K. How much storage should I allocate to the VM for the database? How much RAM? Should I go with 64GB RAM? Can I have FLAC files on my Server and on a NAS (2 locations), or will this confuse Roon Core.

I know Roon Core is designed to be operated on a NUC, but I’ve read of people running it in a VM.

Roon Core Computer
-i5-13500
-32GB RAM
-500GB M.2 drive
Windows Server 2022
30TB storage on a Synology NAS and 40TB on the Server

I very much appreciate any help from experienced users.

2

I7, 32gb ram, do not run it in a vm.

1 Like
3

An i5-13500 is faster than an i7-12700 and has more cores. Why not in a VM. I read that people were doing that successfully.

4

Typically, more cores means slower cores, and single thread performance is important in Roon. You have a large library, and the ideal solution is to use physical hardware with local storage.

If you opt for the VM route, please note that it isn’t a supported configuration, and community assistance is available in the Tinkering category only.

5

Thanks for all the comments. Can someone recommend the size of SSD for a very large database? I am looking at around 500,000 tracks, possibly more.

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Anywhere between 2.5 and 4.5 TB depending on the length of the tracks for FLAC.

Spinning disk is fine, too.

7

I am asking about the size of the database on ROCK. I have about 50TB of storage.

8

More cores doesn’t really help in day to day usage, RoonServer mainly uses a single core, so, imho, it really needs the fastest individual core speed you can give it. And, I was thinking of a i7-13700K.

Your library size is going to put you in a very small percentage of Roon users. When you read what others are doing, you have to put it through the lens of your library. What can work well for a 80k track library, might not for a 250k library, etc.

As for a VM, well, that kind of indicates that you are going to be running something else on the PC, which, imho, you shouldn’t for such a large library. And as Martin mentioned, not a supported environment.

9

ROCK, i.e., an Intel NUC, won’t support the number of tracks you have. You need a dedicated fast i7 machine.

Regarding your question about database size, you are probably looking at around 25 GB, but this is an estimate since figures aren’t published. For instance, a library of around 4,000 albums will use approximately 2.5 GB depending on tracks per album, edits etc.

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Compared to the i7-13700K, the i5-13500 is 10% slower in single-core benchmark, but costs half the price. Amazon had it on special for $209. It is 15% faster than the i7-1260P, the fastest processor in a Roon Core approved NUC PC.

I have a ‘server’ that is in a case with 20 hot swappable drive bays. I have an Adaptec RAID controller with 5x 10TB drives in RAID 5, for 40TB of data storage. I also have individual drives with videos and such.

I want the server to do file storage and run ROCK in a VM. I’ve read of a number of people running it that way. I want to at least give it a try and see if it works. Since ROCK is mainly concerned about single-core speed, that should not be an issue, since most everything else on the server, will just be dishing out files.

My main concern is how much RAM and how big of an M.2 SSD for the database. I was planning on a 500GB drive and 32GB of RAM. I just want to make sure that I am not low on either of these numbers. I’ve done a lot reading on the forums, but was unable to find out for sure. At this point, maybe I’ll just go with 64GB and 1TB for the SSD.

11

As previously mentioned, you can neither run ROCK nor base your requirements on an Intel NUC.

ROCK is a bespoke Linux OS than runs Roon Server on specific models of the Intel NUC. You need to run Roon Server on Windows or Linux.

The fastest Intel NUC is for libraries > 12,000 albums, but certainly not libraries as large as yours.

If the database is going to be on a dedicated SSD, a 256 GB drive would be fine (and anything smaller is probably okay but not worthwhile on cost.)

12

RoonServer and it’s database exists on the C drive. So, how big a C drive do you need?

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I read one user who had 800,000 songs and he said the database backup was taking up 345GB. So maybe a 1TB would be worth it. Only negative is extra cost.

14

I doubt that figure is correct, and most likely was for multiple backups of the database.

15

That makes a lot of sense. It was not jiving with what other people were reporting. Thanks!

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Note, as @Rugby points out, that on Windows, the database resides on the C drive*. For Linux, it’s in /var/roon, so it could be mounted on a separate drive or partition.

*Which will include the OS, other applications, and user space.

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I decided to go with 64GB RAM and a 1TB M.2 PCIe drive. I’d rather have overkill, then to have a problem.

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A post was split to a new topic: ROCK using Virtual Machine

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I got the VM working! It took quite a bit of tinkering.