RookieKiwi

Hello All! As the title suggests i am currently running UnRaid on a IBM Server at present and i would like to switch this system to run ESXi and have Unraid running as a virtual so i have the ability to create windows VMs for lab work, I currently have 4x 4TB drives in an unraid array a 256gb cache SSD and no raid controller active. What i would like to know is if i use the cache SSD to install ESXi onto and i give my UnRaid VM access to the 4TB drives would it be able to keep the data currently on the drives and rebuild my array or would i be better off starting from scratch? also my currently licensed USB stick would there be any problems continuing my license with this stick or would i need to get a new license key? Sorry if these are stupid questions, i just want to understand what im about to do before i do it.

Hey im happy with that, Thanks for the answers guys really appreciate it

Okay i guess i was assuming it was like a traditional raid where data was also across the data drives, so my 1:4 parity ratio is all good then i can just start filling the other drives without problems?

Hey All, So originally i had 2x 4tb drives and a SSD for cache, i had an array with the 2x4TBs with 1 setup as parity and the other as data while i waited for my drive caddies to ship from china, the caddies have finally arrived installed them and 2 new 4TB drives, I checked the drives space, formatted and now they are in the Array and thats all good but my question is all the parity data for the single 4TB is in the parity drive still is there a way to span it across the disks on the array? or are drives data-only in this instance? Im sorry if this is a newbie question im just not 100% sure and want to make sure my data is as safe as possible. My parity and the original 4TB are basically full at this point and the two new drives are empty bar 30gb of usage. can anyone explain this to me? thanks!

Hey All! Been using UnRaid now for a couple of days and loving it, been looking at YouTube videos and particularly looking at SpaceInvaders pfSense series im thinking on doing a setup some what like the image attached. one question i have is with my Gaming PC i want the best performance in regards to internet ping/speeds and also getting files off my UnRaid server. With this in mind i was wondering would it be better for me to directly connect my gaming PC directly to the Unraid server on one of the spare network ports? And if i do this would i still be able to gain access to my files and other computers on the network or would copying data from the Unraid server from that connection be a bad idea? In my mind i was thinking if i was downloading a file from Unraid it would be unraid - switch - virtual - me and this could cause some congestion? Looking for some input folks! would really appreciate some ideas on this one, and thanks in advance this community has been great so far and im loving learning all this new information! look forward to hearing from you!

Hey Guys, Thanks so much to @meep and the rest of you for all your help you have answered all my questions exactly what i needed to know!

Hey Team, I am building a NAS for my house and have been debating FreeNAS vs UnRaid and after finding Spaceinvader One's Youtube channel im definitely leaning towards Unraid with the ease-of-use i have seen from many of his videos. My use case is i basically want a nice server that i can store all my "legitimate backup" copies of movies and music but also spin up some VMs for node apps and seedbox/vpn tools etc, i just wanted to ask a couple pre-sales questions about the setup first before finally committing. My setup is an oldschool Lenovo x3100 M5 Tower server with 16gb of ECC ram, Xeon quadcore E3-1231v3 processor, 1x 128gb SSD and 4x 4TB drives, now my questions are as follows Q - Is there any performance issues using a USB3 stick to boot Unraid and also in the event the USB stick dies do i simply format a new USB stick whack it in and it will have all my settings etc stored on the array itself? I want my SSD setup as a cache drive, 1x4TB drive as a parity and the remaining 3x4TB for data storage a couple of things i just want clarification around Q - is it worth getting a second SSD to raid0 for space/speed increase on the cache disk or does data not normally stay on this drive for long periods of time? Q - Does the USB flash or unassigned drives count towards the license or only the drives actively involved in the array/cache count? Q - is there a ratio required for your parity drive size to insure 1-drive failure? Q - when allocating memory to a VM is it 100% allocated to that VM or only when the memory is in use within the VM Q - if a share is set to "Prefer" cache disk is the data backed up onto the array at all Sorry for all the questions just want to make sure i understand everything before i commit the money! thanks in advance! James