reconstruction

I appreciate the heads up, I'll look into this a bit more before committing one way or another. The main use of this VM is going to be syncing a music library across multiple mobile devices. I have an older Mac mini that I'd like to remove from service if I can get this reliable. Frankly, the slow interface can be tolerated for the sporadic use this system will get. I just know it *could* be better. The OS is currently "Big Sur" and I don't have any plans to upgrade at this point. I have my laptop for day to day things.

ahhh, that's a great point that I missed. I'll keep looking for something inexpensive to see if I can boost the performance. I have a few marked down from reading around: Sapphire RX470 RX590 RX560 RX6600xt So far, looks like I should avoid: RX580 RX6700 RX550 XFX RX560 No personal experience with any of them - frankly, the only reason I have that MSI card laying around is that I used to use it as a dedicated card to an ESXi VM a LONG time ago to give a physical interface. my iGPU is passed through Plex and is killing it. I don't want to take away from that performance, so I'll look to pick something up to help the Mac out a bit.

Wondering if anyone has any suggestions - think I need to find a GPU to pass through for my VM. The web/VNC connection is extremely laggy to the point to where it's painful to use the system. I have an older MSI R6450 card laying around (Card Specs) that I could throw in if it would help, although with it's age I'm not sure how much it would really help. My goal is to keep the VM headless, just have it be a bit more responsive via the web/vnc connection. My other VMs are not nearly this laggy.

Wanted to thank everyone who took their time to give their $.02 here and in other threads (I was lurking/searching quite a bit). System is online... VMs & Dockers are up and running. Still migrating files but I'm very pleased with how things are running right now. Very happy with the performance of the VMs on this system. It's really nice to have them housed all on one system versus spread across multiple older devices (they will eventually be depreciated). I didn't think I was going to like the web/"VNC" access as much as I do. It's been handy when I've been off site and VPN into my home network. Sometimes the wifi I'm on is slow enough that RDP doesn't work well and the web interface works flawlessly.

my current DRP consists of a 5TB USB drive that I backup critical data to and lock in a fireproof safe. I also have encrypted cloud backups for some items. I typically format it and copy the data over every 6 months. 5tb is enough to cover my critical data... the rest would just take a while to rebuild if something happened to it. I'm not fancy enough to use tape or anything else. I'm too cheap to turn my old server into a backup server - and frankly, I don't need 2 servers in the office. Everything is a compromise; this works for me so far. Frankly, most of the stuff I do with this server is "playing" and learning stuff. If I ever get really serious about it, I'll just backup to back blaze or something.

Thanks for the heads up on that, you just saved me a huge headache in the very near future!!! I’m migrating from a 11-12 year old Ubuntu Server that I ran for a few different things. Switching to unraid will simplify a lot of things and make maintenance easier. Having a web gui to work with is really nice, previously I was setup for token based SSH sessions which I only had configured on 2 computers in the house…. Now I can use my phone for basic things, which is nice. Part of what prompted me to go to UnRaid was the simplification of user and file management. I used multiple logins across multiple computers for various tasks and inevitably ran into file ownership issues between the systems - this was my own fault in the long run. One thing I do like about the granular level permissions is its defense against crypto/ransomware. Frankly, I’m less concerned about HDD failure and more concerned about getting my data encrypted by some kid with nothing better to do. The simple solution for me is to just use more shares on unraid and less folder nesting. Not as pretty from a data Managment perspective, but it’ll work. Each physical and/or virtual machine will only get access to write to folders needed for their task. Unraid is replacing the old ubuntu server I used for file storage and a MacMini that I used for a virtualization host (VMWare Fusion). Both will be retired once I’ve verified that everything is happy on the new system. I did consider migrating the VMs from fusion to the new system, but in the end it makes more sense to just rebuild. I will miss the snapshot feature - but i can still physically backup the VMs for “disaster recovery” if needed.

Appreciate it, thanks

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Built a new system and installed unRaid for the first time this past weekend. I-7 12700k, z690 chipset, 64gb ram (32x2). Bios updated to most recent version. Bios shows 64gb ram - ram passes Memtest86 Everything is running well…. But is unraid seeing 32 or 64 gig of ram?? the listing of “32 GiB DDR4” under Memory is throwing me off

I actually did that with pen and paper before I installed anything on the system. Figured out my file structure and user permissions. i do wish there was a simple way to control sub folder permissions, but I can make things work as-is. Rather than have /ShareA/Folder1 and /Folder2…. I’m just dropping everything to the base level. More overall shares, but can still make it work. had an issue transferring some large files (20+gb files) from ubuntu to UnRaid…. Connection time out errors right and left. Moving the files to an external drive on the old server and will manually move them on unraid once the copy process is done in a day or two.

Well, we are up and running. Got the system built the other day, last night powered it up and ran a memtest86 as a verification that everything was good. I was 100% underwhelmed when booting unraid for the first time... was expecting a typical software installation. Nope, it just booted up and started working. Lot easier to get going than the ubuntu/esxi/other systems I've worked with in the past. Created a mess of user accounts, a few shares/basic folder structure for everything. Setup a Time Machine docker to keep my mac's happy - backed up very quick, that was nice. Set the shares I plan on using to "private" as I'm a firm believer in only giving users access to stuff they need, rather than everything. Having an issue mapping folders from my Mac right now, but I'm sure that's just an mis-configuration somewhere that I haven't found just yet. So far, seems like a pretty legit file management system..... very intuitive. Well, figured out my mapping issue.... search is my friend. Samba needed to be set to "export"

Well, looks like the last of the parts needed for the build will be here 2/27... so its time to start ironing out some things. My initial game-plan: -Build out system -Configure BIOS -MenTest86 -Install unraid -configure HDDs & NVME (Cache/VMs.... will reach forums/wiki for best practices) -configure shares/folder layout (I'll be hitting the forums/wiki for this... it looks like this is MUCH different than what I'm used to with ubuntu from what I've gathered so far.) -Manage user level permissions/folder permissions (read only/write access/deny) -Migrate Data from old system to new system (my poor router.....) -Plex Docker -Configure TimeMachine backups / other system backups Then there's the part that I'm not 100% sure how to proceed. Part of what kicked this all off and pushed me to upgrade away from my existing server was I was out of space to create a SQL database that's going to be somewhat large - I just didn't have enough space to work with the data. Eventually, there will be a web access to the database, however it will NOT be internet facing. Only local (or VPN) into my home network. I figure I can either do a MySQL and Apache/PHP docker or I can do an ubuntu server VM and run both on that. Any suggestions there? I'm a HTML/PHP newb, but will muddle through it over time (projects keep me sane!).... I have a few PHP buddies I can ping as time goes on - once the system is up and running.

I figure 8 drives will be the max, but I'll have an abundance of SATA ports. The MB has 8 ports (one gets disabled if I install a 3rd NVME), and then add the 8 ports from the LSI card. Doing the math on how much storage space - I should be good for a long time. Server that's getting retired lasted us 10 years, I'll be thrilled to get 10 out of this one.

I ordered a 9221 in “IT mode” - frankly speed isn’t an issue for the data access, with exceptions to the VMs which will have their primary drives in a nvme pool.

Well, after doing some more reading... here's the current plan: -Meshify 2 Case (full size, not XL or Compact) -i7-12700K -64 GB Ram -ASRock Z690 (Newegg Link for Example) -LSi Card that'll support 8 additional SATA Ports -2 WD Black 500gb NVME Drives -Several 140mm Fans (as many as I can fit without blocking room for HDDs) -Corsair CP-9020235-NA Power Supply (supports 14 drives) -Extra HDD Trays for t he case I'll have Sata ports to spare at that point, enough ram to run the VMs that I want/need to run, and enough airflow to keep everything happy will be inside a cabinet that's setup with several AC Infinity fans that push/pull air across the cabinet connected to a temp controller. Has worked great on the existing systems that are in that cabinet... one of which is going to be retired for this build) Edit to add Well, plan is moving forward Meshify 2 Case, RAM, ASRock Z690, LSi Card, WD NVME, Power Supply are all ordered. Waiting for some things to get here before I figure out what length SATA cables I'll need, how many 140mm fans I'm going to cram into the case, etc. I'll order extra HDD brackets when I place the next order. Haven't ordered the processor just yet, hoping to find a sale.

Appreciate the feedback. I'm looking forward to the project, gunna take my time picking out the parts. So far, I'm looking at a Meshify 2 full size case (the XL is too large for where it's going to live). Loaded with fans it should stay nice and cool. The system will go on a "pure sine wave" UPS that my current server is sitting on. Good to know it'll take a while to build - I won't be in a hurry when the time comes. Going to spend a bit of time getting it secure as I can.... always paranoid about file security/data integrity.

Yeah, that was poorly communicated on my part. unraid would manage the storage... I wouldn't be using any form of raid controller anymore when this system goes online.

Looking to do some changes in my home network file storage and a buddy is pointing me towards unraid, but I'm curious if I'm headed the right direction Current setup: Old (OLD!) Xeon HP tower server running Raid 5 (4-4TB drives), Ubuntu 20.04. Samba shares/Time Machine, mySQL, Plex (poorly), and a few other little things. What I'm looking to do/use so far (several things are up in the air as I figure things out) -i7 12th gen processor -64 GB ram -LSI card to run 8 14tb NAS drives in Raid 5 (will have a spare HDD to swap in whenever failure strikes) -Some kind of motherboard (Haven't decided on form factor yet) -Case to support 8 HDDs (Haven't decided on form factor yet, but needs to be a tower... no racks) -PSU sufficient to spin up everything System goals (everything will be LOCAL access only, no internet exposure - I have a VPN server if remote access is needed) -samba shares/permissions control & TimeMachine backups -MySQL -Apache/PHP -Plex (only in-house sessions, not looking to run a dozen transcodes at once) -2-4 Linux VMs accessable via VNC or xRDP I would anticipate the Unraid being mostly headless/CLI - Having a web guide accessible from the primary use systems would be nice. This seems like a more elegant solution than my current ubuntu server. Thoughts/suggestions/feedback/jokes?