Zonediver

Thats not rude - it's a fact - QuickSync transcoding needs "extra money" (PlexPass) - thats useless. Investing in a stronger CPU makes more sense. But his Xeon is fast enough - so he dont need QuickSync transcoding and can safe money too.

You said, you use a Xeon... which Xeon? Normaly this CPUs are more the strong enough for transcoding. My i7-3770 can transcode 5x 720p/4Mbit "on the fly parallel" - with only 3 cores + HT - the 4th core (+ HT) is reserved for unraid and all dockers...

For "what reason" do you need a Graphics card for transcoding??? The "CPU" will do this out of the Box - you dont need a graphics card...

Why?

Why do people use this crapy sh.. of QuickSync transcoding? The quality is terrible and i dont pay for a PlexPass only for this - a useless feature (for me)... 😉

If you have a free PCIe x1 slot, take a Intel i210-T1. https://skinflint.co.uk/hp-i210-t1-e0x95aa-a1112135.html?t=alle&va=b&vl=at&v=e&togglecountry=set Thats the cheaper HP-Version.

For the SAS 9201-8i you need at least a PCIe 2.0 x8 (or x16) slot - this HBA is not compatible with PCI.

It depends what you claim... Need VMs? More transcoding-power? More cores? Its up to you 😉 My sys is from 2013 and there are some upgrade reasons: AVX2 for dual-parity (not supported by my CPU), Intel-NIC onboard, DMI 3.0, More PCIe-x16 slots, More cores and so on. But as long as the sys is running, i let it run...

Only the manual can tell you the truth 😉

Again, what says your manual? Is the config "one cpu only in slot 2" ok for a bootup? read the manual first. As far is i know, if you use two cpus, you need at least 4 RAM-modules to boot properly and some Mainbords didnt boot if a singel cpu is populatet at socket 2...

Could be a RAM problem. Is the RAM configuration "for two cpus" correct? Normaly when using a second cpu, RAM config must be checked. What says the manual? How many modules min.? Dual-Channel, Triple-Cahnnel? How many RAM-slots? Population in which slots? If all is correct, check the RAM for function - if necessary, each module individually. Second guess: If the server was running with only one cpu, check the PSU - is it strong enough for two cpus?

First of all, i dont use VMs - i use all the cpu-power for Plex-transcoding. But what i did: I pinned the cores to different functions - you can do this at the docker settings - each docker has its own cpu-pin setting. The i7-3770 has 4 cores + 4 HTs. I use the first core + HT for unraid and my dockers - beware: unraid preferes the lower core numbers starting from core 0! VERY IMPORTANT: Do not mix the physikal cores with "wrong" HT-cores. Example: Core 0 and core 6 (on my CPU) - thats a NOGO because it is slowing down things. Always match the "right" cpu-pair. The other three cores (+HT) are pinned to Plex for transcoding. This setting gives the base system enough air to work - even if Plex is 100% transcoding. Core-pinning: 1st Pair - Core 0 and 4 (HT) ... unraid and all dockers except Plex 2nd Pair - Core 1 and 5 (HT) ... Plex 3rd Pair - Core 2 and 6 (HT) ... Plex 4th Pair - Core 3 and 7 (HT) ... Plex INFO: There is no way to restrict or determine cores for unraid itself. Unraid starts at core 0 and uses as many as needed - normaly up to 2 or the first pair (physical and HT), sometimes a third. If you do a parity check, it is recommended to turn off all VMs and dockers (if possible) to give unraid itself "more power" to work.

Each VM need at least a dedicated core... 4-5 Cores away. Your unraid basesystem need at least one (better two) cores. If you need "really" 5 VMs (for whatever), take a Xeon with 10-12 Cores or more because in such a config, you need also ECC-RAM. And beware the RAM-size - you will need a lot of RAM...

I would say, lets pin this suggestion on top of "General Support" so everyone can see it - otherwise you will give this information for the next 50 years again and again 😉

There is something wrong with your port forward - check the router manual "how to set a port forwarding" and try it again.

TLER or Time-Limited Error Recovery is Western Digital's method of improving drive error handling in RAID applications. But unraid is no RAID... so? Explanation: Is there any benefit to using TLER / CCTL / ERC drives? Maybe. These features usually come on "Enterprise" grade drives (WD Caviar RE series, Seagate Barracuda ES, ES.2, Samsung Spinpoint F1), which are built to take the constant, hard use of business environments. So investing in these more expensive drives is probably a smart move if your NAS is under constant heavy use. But it will be the more robust drive construction and not TLER / CCTL / ERC that will make your RAID NAS more reliable. ...and again - its for a RAID-NAS...

What is IP 10.0.0.4? Your unRAID-Server? Protocol you need is TCP - you dont need UDP. At my Router, i must forward the port from my WAN-Interface to the unraid-IP - so i need to specify "two" IPs. But i dont know how your router handle this. Did you enter the port also in the Plex interface? This does not work without this (red marked) entry. (The word "Fernzugriff" means remote access)

Is your router configured for Plex? Maybe not - Port 32400 must be forwarded in your Router/Firewall to your Plex-Server.

EDIT: I found a better and easier solution... Open the sleep-plugin settings and put the following in (under "Custom Commands after wakeup"): sleep 120; hdparm -y $(ls /dev/sd*|grep "[a-z]$") >/dev/null 2>&1 This will do the standby command for all HDDs "120sec after the wakup only once" - and this is exactly what i want to do. Important: Dont forget the semicolon 😉

I've been using the spindown/sleep for almost 10 years now. Not a single HDD died of it. The oldest in use is over 5 years old (a 3TB WD-Red). Four HDDs died due to Platter problems (weak sectors), but not a single one has affected the motor or the mechanics. The REDs have a Load Cycle Count of 600.000. It takes a long time to reach this limit...

Using a Lexar FireFly 8GB since end of 2012 - no problems so far. If you buy a new stick, buy the Kingston DataTraveler SE9 - its recommended.

You need a HBA which is compatible with unraid - a LSI 9207-8i or a Adaptec HBA 1000-8i for example. But i think, you can use the H200 - its the same as the LSI 9210-8i. All you need is to flash to IT-mode because the H200 is a RAID-Controller. See this (Example): https://techmattr.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/updated-sas-hba-crossflashing-or-flashing-to-it-mode-dell-perc-h200-and-h310/

What you do, is pushing the button "Spindown". But it depends on the HDD-model if they go in "real" standby or just active/idle. I had an old WD-Green in my server - this stupid '§%*"& did never go into "standby" so i removed it 😉

It has nothing to do with the spindown. The Info in the Dashboard, that it says "standby", is wrong! It can be active/idle too. This command sets all drives to a defined status - from "active/idle" to "standby" - nothing else.

If executed, yes - thats why you can use the cron every 15min. But this has no negative effect - the drive will change his state from active/idle to standby - nothing else. Working disks are not affected.