TimTheSettler

It sounds good but you can add the 5TB to the array so that it's protected by the parity drive. You then create a "torrent share" that uses only the 5TB drive and you configure all the other shares to not use the 5TB drive. So the 5TB drive becomes a member within the array but it has a specific purpose. You can also set the spin up / spin down settings.

I agree with ConnorVT that you should really have a new machine with the new drives. Start up the new machine, get used to it, slowly set it up the way that you want, and then copy your files over. Once you have two systems with the same data then turn off the old machine and use just the new one for a while. Once you're happy that it's working the way that you want it to then decide what to do with the old server. Move the drives over to the new server so that you have lots of space or re-use the old server as a backup server (archive). Do you only have one machine and this is your only option?

This is a great price for an 18TB Exos drive. I have 10 running in my servers and I bought a couple more as backups. https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/seagate-exos-x18-18tb-enterprise-hdd-cmr-3-5-inch-hyperscale-sata-6gb-s-7200-rpm-512e-and-4kn-fastformat-low-latency-with-enhanced-caching-st18000nm000j/15143598?cmp=seo-15143598&cmp=knc-s-71700000081849114&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7NPmwYvqgAMV0gqtBh1_9wVNEAQYAiABEgJrIPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I'm not aware of any special app that will do what you want but here's what I would do if I were you. Option 1 Build a new, cheap machine for about $500 and buy two 4TB drives. Each machine will have 1x4TB parity and 3x4TB data. One machine will be your main server and the other will be a backup server. The main server will use Vorta to back up all the files from that main server to the backup server. When the backup is complete store the whole computer in the basement. Possibly encrypt the drives in case the stored computer might be stolen. Possibly get a small case so that the backup server has a small footprint. Put the smaller drives in there. Easier to store. Use the SSD drives as backup drives or split them up and put two in each machine as cache drives. Option 2 Buy an 18TB drive. These are currently at a nice price. Connect it to the server as an unassigned device and copy all the data to there or use it as an archive for Vorta. One big array -> to one big HDD. Option 3 Use the SSDs as your backup. Copy everything from your server (the SSDs) to your current backup drives (the 2.5" HDDs) so that you have a copy there. Put the old 3.5" drives back into the array and use them like you did before. Leave the 3TB drive out (the one that is dying). This means you will have 1x4TB parity and 2x4TB data. Copy all data from one of the backup drives (2.5") to the server. Add that 2.5" drive (that you just copied) to the server. You would now have 1x4TB parity and 3x4TB data. Stop here or do the same with another 4TB drive. Add it as a data drive or parity. You would now have 1x4TB parity and 4x4TB data or 2x4TB parity and 3x4TB data. Stop here or do the same with another 4TB drive. Add it as a data drive or parity. You would now have 1x4TB parity and 5x4TB data or 2x4TB parity and 4x4TB data. Copy the data onto the SSD drives in logical chunks (movies, pictures, etc.) so that they each grouping fits onto a drive. This is what I used to do.

Syncthing uses encryption when syncing files. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/möbius-sync/id1539203216

I took a different approach. This is pretty easy to do. All phones are synchronized to unRAID using Syncthing. When you take a picture on your phone then syncthing copies that to unRAID. I then use Vorta (Borg) to back up those folders. Vorta runs each day and uses incremental backups so if nothing changes then nothing happens. If something changes then only the changes are backed up. If files move around then the new locations are noted as changes but the contents don't change (it uses deduplication). What to do: Install one of the Syncthing dockers in unRAID. Create one (or more) folder(s) in unRAID that Syncthing can see. This is where your pictures will be synchronized to. Install Syncthing on the phones. Link Syncthing in the phone to the unRAID Syncthing (as a device). Using Syncthing on the phone and on unRAID, link the camera folder on the phone with the folder you created in unRAID. Install the Vorta docker in unRAID. Set up an archive (another folder in unRAID). Tell Vorta when to run, where the source files are (the picture folder in unRAID) and where the archive will be (your new archive folder). Benefits: If the picture folder gets too big you can move files out of the folder to a backup or other folder. This will delete the files on the phone. You can also tell Vorta to use the picture folder as a source AND the other backup folder as a source. When you move files from one folder to the other one then Vorta simply notes the change but the archive remains the same size. If you accidentally delete a picture then you can recover it from the archive.

Hi Jagger. I'm not sure how Windows is related to unRAID or how having unRAID and Windows is a problem. I have some Windows machines and Android phones/tablets. All work with unRAID through shares or syncthing. And of course my TV and Roku using Plex in unRAID. Everything is compatible. Of course I don't have Windows 11 yet (trying to avoid for now). Is there something in Windows 11 that won't work with unRAID?

Can you elaborate on the following? How many HDDs did you have in the array before? What size of drives were they? Where are they now? How many HDDs do you have as your backup drives? What size of drives are these? How many SSDs did you buy? What size of drives are these? How many drives can you physically fit into the case? How many SATA ports do you have (how many drives can you connect to the system)? How much data are the hard drives holding right now (in total - across the board)?

Wow, it's been ages since I heard of a daughter card. Had one in my old 386. I'm always worried about switching from one system to another without some kind of backup in place. What I mean is that I would do one of the three following things with #1 being preferred and then #2 and finally #3 as a last resort. Buy some new hard drives and build a new system. Copy the data from one to the other so that you have two identical systems (from a data perspective). Use syncthing to keep both systems in sync. Or use Duplicati or Vorta to use one system as a backup for the other. Buy a couple new hard drives and build a new system. Copy the data from the old system to the new one. When a hard drive becomes empty in the old system (because the data was copied to the new system) then add it to the new system so that you have more space. Gradually all the data will "move" from the old to the new but everything will be protected by the parity drives. Unplug the unRAID USB from the old system along with the hard drives and plug those things into the new system. Away you go. Your new system will start up with the same settings (and hard drive mapping) as the old system.

One thing that I came across as a difference was the LAN chipset. I bought a motherboard with Intel I219V and I originally installed TrueNas. I then read that it's better to have the I219LM for something like TrueNAS because the OS was server-grade. In fact the spec specifically says, "Server operating system support" among a few other features. But, I have no idea what any of that really means. In the end my onboard I219V seems to be doing just fine with unRAID. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/content-details/333229/intel-ethernet-connection-i219-product-brief.html?wapkw=I219LM vs I219V Maybe someone here can shed some light on the difference is between a desktop LAN chipset and a server LAN chipset.

I've moved drives around and I'm pretty sure that it uses the model + serial number of the drive to identify it. You should be able to take apart the computer and then re-assemble it and, assuming you have the original configuration, it should be able to just pick up where you left off. If you don't have the original configuration then, as Decto states, you'll need to identify the drives back into their proper place.

I use Vorta. I also use the Wireguard VPN in unRAID to connect the computers over the internet.

I wanted to write up an article on "Backup Strategy". As I state below, when you talk about "backups" you should really be talking about a backup strategy and "copying files" or "using parity" is only a part of that strategy. This is a work in progress and I welcome suggestions, critiques, and comments. Definition A person or thing that can be called on if necessary; a reserve. Computing: the procedure for making extra copies of data in case the original is lost or damaged. Why is data backed up? A backup is created to protect the original by duplicating it so a backup strategy should involve protection so as to avoid the need of creating, maintaining, and having a backup in the first place. How can files be lost or damaged? They can be lost by being stolen digitally (hacked or ransomware) or physically (computer or hard drive burgled). They can also be lost due to negligence (accidental deletion) or on purpose (virus or ransomware). They can be damaged by time (bit rot), deficient hardware (drive failure), or by physical means (fire or other “act of God” event). Backup Strategy When people talk about “backup” they mean a backup strategy. Copying your files to another location is the most simple form of backup but it’s really a part of an overall strategy. There are two main parts of a backup strategy and these are further split up into other areas. Protection Encryption Access Quality Hardware Location (Offsite/Lockdown) Redundancy RAID/Mirror/Parity Copies/Snapshots/Archive Prevention and Recovery As you develop your strategy it evolves into a more effective method of prevention and more consideration is put into the ease of recovery.

Is that good or bad...?

I'm not sure if this will help or not but this is what I've done. Let's say that we have two servers and on each server there's a share/folder called "documents". Use syncthing to synchronize the files in the "documents" folder. Any changes on one server would be synchronized to the other. Then, using Duplicacy, set up an archive somewhere on one of the servers and tell Duplicacy to back up the "documents" folder to that archive. I use Vorta/Borg and it runs each day taking a snapshot each day. If there are no changes then the archive remains the same size. If I move some files around in the folder that is being archived then the archive stays the same size because the file contents haven't changed but the archive records the change of location. The daily snapshot gives me a history of file movements if I need to track that. If a file was deleted or changed unexpectedly then I can recover it at any point. This setup solves the following problems or provides these features: Off-site backup. If any server goes down you can recover from the other server. Multiple synchronized file servers. Backup archive: Incremental recovery. File change history. Efficiency from deduplication.

Awesome video. Thanks man!

The cache drive article is good but I would say the following: The cache drive serves two main purposes. It provides storage of things that need good performance like docker images. As the article above states, having 50GB to 200GB is good for this need. It provides a buffer for transferring files. Transfer across network Since the mover runs every hour it's good to have 450GB for this (1000Mbps * 60 seconds * 60 minutes / 8 = 450GB/hr). Internal file transfer is another story but how often will that happen? So 500GB is good but barely. 1TB is much nicer and 2TB is great. The article concurs. How many cache drives are needed? I would say two because the cache is basically mirrored. So two is better than one. Do you need three or four? Not really but you could use the extra drives to add to the first cache (and its mirror) or you can add a second cache (one cache for dockers and such and the other cache for file transfers).

Single is better than multi? I thought the idea was to have dedicated rails for dedicated power?

It's cool that the Z790 actually support 8 SATA ports (https://www.intel.ca/content/www/ca/en/products/sku/229721/intel-z790-chipset/specifications.html). The motherboard uses a Realtek LAN which many will tell you to stay away from. So far I've been lucky (?) since it's worked for me on my one server but I might be one of the lucky few. Generally it won't work because the Linux driver has problems. I once installed OPNsense on a mini-PC using Realtek and it kept crashing. The motherboard has 4 M2 slots which is also pretty cool. I see that you plan to get 4 cards for those. Consider bumping up the size since 1TB and 2TB are good prices (bang for your buck). Some people really like ASRock. Give them a try. CPU: Are you trying for efficiency or for capability. Make sure it can do virtualization and has transcoding capabilities. Read about that in other places here on this forum. I would argue that it's the hardware features that you should be really interested in. You have an odd set of hard drives. I'm assuming that you have these lying around somewhere already otherwise I would just buy some 18TB drives (best bang for your buck). Even if you get three of them you're farther ahead.

I think he's right about the advantages: Parity implementation allows for any size of disk to be added to the array. Can be installed on almost any hardware allowing any type of system to become a server. Not limited to custom hardware enclosures/solutions. Intuitive web-based interface. Impressive support of and choice of docker containers and VMs. Not so sure about all his negatives: Performance due to way parity is implemented. Maybe in the grand scheme of things but if it's mainly a server that you access through your network to store files or watch movies then performance is great. Cost. This one is odd because he doesn't like the license cost (I tend to agree) but earlier he said that it was "cost effective" when you considered the fact that you're not tied to particular hardware. Lack of deduplication or compression. This depends on the file system you use. If you use ZFS then you can do both although deduplication is not worth it. If you use btrfs then you can do compression. Lack of enterprise support like LDAP. Lack of hardware support.

Why not keep the old NAS and use the new one as the main unit. The old NAS becomes your backup. Use Vorta or Duplicati or whatever backup software you want to back up the data to the other NAS. Obviously you'll have limited space so you just need to decide what gets backed up. At some point you might want to just convert that whole thing into another unRAID machine.

It might seem disheartening when a feature is added to a product and only a few people use it at first but I think it's one of those "look-ahead" things that gives me confidence in unRAID. If I never see improvements, be they features or bug fixes, then I get worried about the future of the product. Keep up the good work and please keep adding new things here and there.

I don't know about you guys but all questions like this one, where you ask is this better than that, seem to be answered as a comparison and then "depends on your needs". Has anyone ever got, "Oh yeah, you need to use this one for sure otherwise you're an idiot for choosing that other thing."

Ouch. ChatGPT misspelled set up. It bothers me that setup is used as a verb when it's a noun. XFS is easier to manage and setup set up than ZFS, but lacks some of the advanced data protection features of ZFS. And while we're on the subject. This is wrong too. It should be "Shut down the system".

Same with me. Never had power problems but I've had SATA cables that "break" when re-seating the connectors. I can only guess that the SATA cable was crappy and moving it around broke a wire in the cable. Problem: Hard drive not recognized but is getting power. Solution: New SATA cable. This happened recently to me after a power failure. The server was on a UPS. There are shutdown log entries showing that the server was shutting down when the UPS hit the low-level warning. Maybe it ran out of power just before the final shutoff. Not sure since I wasn't there. Problem: Server wouldn't start due to weird error. Solution: "Repair" flash drive in Windows and then restore from the latest backup. Server came back up without any problems. I have a similar problem. For me right now it seems to be a tray/motor problem. I just use a pin to force the tray open. Once it's open then the tray will open and close like normal for a bunch of times and then, out of the blue, the tray will get stuck again. I've come across a number of fan-related problems. Usually they are because the fan is old or gummed-up and accumulated dust. An old server I had would make some god-awful noise when it started up but if you smack the fan housing then the fan re-seats itself and never makes noise again unless it's shut off and turns back on. Noisy fans due to age. They accumulate dust. If you don't clean them regularly then the dust adheres to the fan over time and makes the fan spin in erratic ways. New fan worked for about a month then failed. It caused the server to turn off. I had it plugged into a fan connector that told the motherboard to turn off the computer if the fan RPM speed dropped to a low level. This was designed to avoid an overheating CPU. It's a cool feature but not when you don't know about it. Took me hours to figure out that the failed fan was the cause of the server shutdown.