Modern virtualization stuff like VT-d means you can pass through your hard drive controllers to a FreeNAS VM and have it work just the same as if it were runnin

Modern virtualization stuff like VT-d means you can pass through your hard drive controllers to a FreeNAS VM and have it work just the same as if it were running natively. In fact, you can just keep a backup of your FreeNAS configuration on a flash drive install, so if your Hypervisor or VM fall apart, then you just boot to the flash drive without a hitch.