ConnerVT

Plex relies on Internet connectivity for a number of things - authentication and how clients address/connect to your server are two that are first apparent. This was the first hit in Google of "plex without internet" - https://www.howtogeek.com/303282/how-to-use-plex-media-server-without-internet-access/

Interesting how your Plex appdata usage is so different than how mine is distributed.

Let's be sure we are all agreeing on our word definitions before getting too deep into this thread. Cache drive being the physical drive, which the Mover moves data (in this case, your photos) from the Cache to your data array. Appdata is the share where the docker containers keep their internal data (configurations, databases, cached information, etc). It usually resides on the Cache drive for fast/improved docker performance. Typically the Appdata share is configured as "cache only" and is never moved to the array. I will assume that your photos are stored on your array. My best guess what is happening is that the Photoprism appdata folder is just getting huge, which is one of the reasons I abandoned actively using it (Tried it - Didn't like it). My appdata folder grew to be 31GB in size, nearly all of it being thumbnails.

In your screenshots, I see you have subtitles selected (English (SRT)). Plex has, in the past and maybe still, used CPU transcoding when there are subtitles. Retry your test without subtitle selected. Also, be sure that you do not have leading or trailing space char on your GPU ID in the Plex template. I've been burned by this before.

The built in VPN Manager in Unraid is to make a more secure connection to the Unraid GUI. For connecting QBittorrent and other Dockers through a VPN, you are better off installing a QBittorrent docker that had VPN bundled in it. Binhex has some nice dockers with VPN and has excellent FAQ documentation for setting it up. There are also YouTube tutorials as well.

Try asking in the support thread of your docker in the Docker Container sub-forum.

You have confidence that the system you are using to transfer to/from your Unraid server can support 2.5Gbe fully? Same question for anything between the two (switch)? For example, my daily driver PC has a USB nic - It will receive close to 2.5Gb but only send around 1.8Gb. ITX motherboard so no PCIe slot available.

Generally (and I am going to be speaking in general terms in this post) when there are several of the same application in CA, they are basically the same. The way to look at it is that a docker has two parts - the application program and the docker "wrapper" around the application which translates/maps things between the application and the Docker engine running in Unraid. Typically most all inside these docker containers is the same application. Sometimes the author may tweak things a little, such as adding scripts/plugins/extensions for the application which you may have added if you had installed the application in a more conventional manner. As folks said above, unless there is a container you know has a different, specific feature you want (such a Deluge bundled with VPN) it really comes down to support. There are some major groups and individual superstars who do a great job with their repositories. Poking around in Community Applications and searching/sorting things, you will see who is most active. Then looking at how they handle their support (both which platform and their style). See which works best for you, then you'll have a better gut feeling the next time you need to decide whose version to install.

Realtek 2.5Gbe nics have been problematic for many Unraid users. In fact, I ditched mine for an Intel nic after hours of troubleshooting the same speed issues you are seeing. It looks as you may have a RTL8125B based nic. I would try installing the RTL8125(B) PCI Drivers plugin available in CA. It may help. (I would have tried this myself before swapping in the Intel, but the plugin came available after I swapped).

That is why I use rsync to back up. It will do a quick inventory of what is the same, and what is missing. Then only transfer that which is missing. The backup server can eat data at 1Gb speed on a 2.5Gbe network (plenty of head room for everything else), the drives write at around 200MB/s with no parity to deal with. My guess is that the data would be fully restored by copying it over faster than rebuilding the drive.

The only thing I exclude is my cache. It cuts my appdata backup for Plex in half - both in the size of the Plex appdata backup and in total time to backup 34 dockers. Cache = 11.7 GB Everything else (for Plex) = 13.5 GB /mnt/cache/appdata/plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/

That's the Moderator's uniform. 😋

It says so in your screenshot. You have two drives (Cache and Cache 2), each a 320GB drive. On the right, it shows the total size is 320GB, and that Cache 2 is part of the pool. Therefore, you must be configured as Raid1. To test, write something to the pool, and go back to the Main tab. Both drives should show write activity.

The best solution for your case is a Bluetooth speaker. Please don't think I'm being glib, I'll explain. Unraid does not support local audio devices (either on-board or HDMI from a GPU). There are no drivers included in the distro, as there are so many different possibilities for hardware. While Docker seems a logical alternative, the same issue applies - you would need a docker which you pass through the audio device and has the necessary drivers. It is a question that has been asked here before, and I have yet to see a working solution proposed. You can do this with a VM, but it isn't a great solution, especially when you factor in other users interacting with the system (the WAF - Wife Accepance Factor comes into play here). You would need to create a VM, install the required audio drives, then a player application which can then be accessed by another device (assuming you don't want your wife using the local Unraid terminal). This will use a bit of your server's resources and is prone to not working/issues (again WAF comes into play). A Bluetooth speaker is a simpler solution, and one your wife is likely most familiar. And she can then play whatever she wants in the way she usually does.

Two steps. First is to make sure that new system can work as well as old system. Then start swapping drives, starting with the Parity drive. As for two Parity drives, this is complete overkill. Dual parity allows for 2 drives in the array to fail and have redundancy. Typically folks with 10+ data drives may need this. For a small number of 2TB drives? Not worth the bother, complexity, and adds more opportunities to do something wrong. If you are concerned about your current drives failing you would be advised to replace them before doing this upgrade. For replacing cache (Pool) drive, Spaceinvader One's video is a good tutorial (I used that the first time I did it). It is in the manual HERE.

If a drive fails in my backup server, the restore process is: - Replace drive in backup server. - Run backup script from main server. My butt feels pretty pain free.

I am one who likes to do things in baby steps, rather than doing a number of changes all at once. Makes it much easier to diagnose and correct any issues that come up. This is my suggestion. First, Unraid handles disk assignments by drive serial numbers. The CPU and motherboard do not matter, so you can move all of your drives to new server hardware and all should work as it did on the old hardware. Sometimes drive controllers don't behave in the same manner, passing the drive serial number info the same. Handling of Docker and VM is a bit more complex, so do that after getting your array in order. First thing is to only start if your current system has no issues - Parity is valid and no data drive errors. Personally, before shutting down the old server for the last time, I would set Docker, VM and Array not to auto-start to allow you to do this when you are ready to do so. If you don't already have Unassigned Devices installed, do this before moving to the new hardware. Also make a list of drives/serial numbers of where they are assigned (print of Main tab works) and make a local backup of your flash (Main > flash > Flash Backup) and Diagnostics (lots of good info if needed). You should be able to install your old drives and new drives into the new server (assuming enough SATA ports. If not install your current array/cache and as many others drives as possible). When it boots, you can check your disk assignments. All of your array/pool assignments should be the same as they were on your old server. Your new drives should show as unassigned devices. Start the array, and check all is working as expected. Your plan for upgrading the disks in your array is flawed. All parity drives need to be larger than the data drives in the array. You also made it a bit more complicated than necessary. First thing to do is replace the Parity Drive and let it rebuild. You can then reassign a new 4TB drive to rebuild a 2TB dive's data. Having the 2nd parity drive, as you suggested, is not much benefit. The old 2TB data drive will be sitting in Unassigned Devices and is a backup of the data being rebuilt. Repeat until you have rebuilt all of the 2TB drives onto the new drives. For the Cache drive, follow the standard cache drive replacement procedure in the Unraid manual. Typically you use the Mover to move everything onto the array, reassign to your new M.2 drive, and use Mover to move it all back. Worst case, you may need to delete your docker image file, recreate it and reinstall your dockers (Docker > Add Container > Select Template). I won't get into VMs, as they are very sensitive to major hardware changes, and I've given you a lot to chew on for now. If coming from a healthy server, it really isn't all that scary or difficult. Even easier when doing things one step at a time.

There is a 4GB version of the T400 as well.

Thanks for the reply as well as having me revisit my old thread. I will likely be updating the script in the next few weeks (when I find time - who has any to spare?). My backups have been failing at times, which I believe has been due to some of my dockers not setting permissions correctly. As what I'm backing up is all media files, I will probably have the script set owner and permission before the first rsync command. I would also like to add a pass/fail check to each sub-directory (Movie/TV/Music) to make the messages more informative. So if you are still working on this, you may want to check back on that thread, as I will likely post a revised version of the script there.

The title "Scatter" is a bit misleading. What you observed is unBALANCED normal behavior. I generally move smaller chunks of data when I want to spread things across multiple disks.

Anything that is taking 1 PCIe lane to 8 SATA ports must be using a multiplier.

Also believe for Cloudflare Tunnel you need a true domain (not dynamic). And there are only certain types of data which can be sent through tunnels - http, ssh, rdp, and a couple(?) more.

You should be able to address a Unassigned Devices mounted USB drive as /mnt/disks/DRIVE_MOUNT_POINT as in: /mnt/disks/EXT_USB_FAN_1 I do something similar, using rsync and ssh to back up my main server's media directory to a second Unraid server. Below is a link to the detailed part of the thread I started (worth reading the whole thread) and SpaceinvaderOne's video on setting up SSH keys:

The I226 didn't solve the issue either. Doesn't take much Googling to find many reports, even a few from Intel itself. The question is how the issue manifests itself in the real world. The vast majority of complaints come from home users running Windows machines, with drivers from who knows where and when. I have i225-B3 chips (x4) in my firewall running OPNsense. Would of went with the i226, but at the time they weren't supported by pfsense (was undecided which I would go with, pf or OPN). Tried a Realtek in my Unraid server, nothing but problems, and spent a couple of weeks trying everything before switching to a i225-B3 PCIe nic. Immediately had no issues, Unraid and the default driver and settings reliably performed. My switch runs Realtek (works great) and a Windows desktop has a USB Realtek (never really sees full speed, but at least 2Gbe). In all, 2.5Gbe is a hack by design. If you really need to have 2.5Gbe throughput all of the time, you really should be looking at 10Gb fiber. But for a home network, 2.5Gbe and a little attention to your setup fits the bill. One day this week I downloaded over 8TB of data - 800Mb/s (I throttled 80% of my 1Gb fiber) to my Unraid box. No issue at all. yeah, only 1/3 of the 2.5Gb/s speed but a huge amount of continuous data.

Both, I believe, use port multipliers, which are not recommended for Unraid. In most cases, anything that uses only 2 PCIe lanes will require a port multiplier for 6+ SATA devices.