Spritzup

I'm leaning towards the Xeons right now, as the less than $900 CAD, I can get 16 physical cores, 64GB of memory and a server class motherboard. I know I'm missing heatsinks in that equation, but I'm unsure as to what will fit in the case. ~Spritz

Perhaps limited wasn't the correct word to use... more that less competition and the weaker dollar means that often time prices are quite a bit higher here. So a 'budget' board in the US often carries a premium here. In any case, I'm also in Ontario and am well aware of the big 3 as well as others. To be honest though, Newegg is usually overpriced. I've only ordered from them when they were the only one who had the product. ~Spritz

Good Morning Fellow Hoarders, While the question in the post title seems simple enough, let me expand so that you all have a better idea of where I'm coming from. This story starts with a pie-eyed boy who wanted nothing more than to play Witcher 3, but to his horror he realized that his nearly 7 year old PC (Q9550, GTX 560ti) was no longer up to the task. This got him thinking about his server build in the basement, and how he could upgrade it to be both a storage server and a gaming PC (or 2!) using USB over ethernet and HDMI over ethernet. This would involve moving away from server components and running an i7 with a enthusiast focused motherboard, and 32gb of ECC memory. A few other bits and pieces and he would have a multi-purpose system that would simplify future upgrades. Hell, his wife even wanted to get in on a simple desktop for her needs. But then reality struck, with kid #2 starting daycare in a few months, and other higher priority expenses coming down the pipe, the timing of this upgrade was not to be. After much soul searching, and asking the spirits for guidance, it was decided to hold off on the server upgrade until next year. In the meantime, he would purchase the bare minimum components he needed to get his current desktop somewhat up-to-date (~$200 CAD). While disappointing, this solution made the most sense... And then, the Book of Face decided to upgrade their servers... throwing a bunch of server class memory and CPU's onto the open market. This could be a game changer, as with even the weak Canadian $, he could get an incredibly powerful dual core server grade system for less than the cost of an i7... but is it the right path to take, or nothing more than a distraction! A method to distract him from the one, true path... only time will tell. Spoiler alert, that boy in the story was.... ME! All kidding aside though (that was fun to write), these are my needs and my limitations. My current hardware is in my sig, and I intend to re-use everything but the CPU, Mobo, and possibly the RAM. What I need/want the system to do is as follows --> Needs Run unRaid (duh!) Run Plex with a mimimum of 2x 1080 streams Run the normal selection of apps (CP, HP, Mylar, Sonarr, etc) Run 1 Win10 gaming PC Run 1 Win10 low power PC Have headroom to spool up other VM's if required Enough PCIe x16 slots to run everything I need Enough Sata3 slots for multiple SSD's Limitations I'm in Canada, so that limits what's available and has the potential to greatly increase cost. Thanks for any insight/help! ~Spritz

Ok, as I continue down this rabbit hole of moving back to unRaid, 2 more questions have popped up. 1. To cache pool or not to cache pool. I've read mixed experiences with the cache pool, and am unsure of which direction to go. Will unRaid notify you if the cache pool is running in a degraded state? That may sway my decision. 2. Does the unassigned devices script auto mount devices (or automount defined devices), or is this an entirely manual process? Thanks again for all the great feedback ~Spritz

Can anyone comment on how the virtual networking done in comparison to esxi? For example, in esxi, I can create virtual switches and assign physical nics to those switches, and then logically assign my vm's to them. Is something similar available in the unRaid virtual world? Thanks! ~Spritz

Thanks again for all the help. Can anyone comment on how the virtual networking done in comparison to esxi? For example, in esxi, I can create virtual switches and assign physical nics to those switches, and then logically assign my vm's to them. Is something similar available in the unRaid virtual world? For migration, has anybody else done a large scale migration to unRaid? I have ~35TB worth of data and want to minimize downtime. Building another server is not really an option. ~Spritz

That was sort of my thinking... I may pick up another cheap 500ish gig SSD so that I can have a cache pool... seeing as they've plummeted in price. I assume that once the docker image loads, it's running primarily in memory, thereby negating the fact that it would be running off of a HDD. I agree with you in theory (simplification is a driving force behind this migration), but I'm afraid having everything running off the cache drive will overwhelm the cache drive. It's why in the past I've had a download scratch disk. Though I imagine that if I run a docker with nzbget it should have an option to point to a download location... which then could be another drive (or am I out to lunch?). Thanks for all the comments ~Spritz

Linuxserver.io looks awesome, you seem to hit all the big projects! The only ones I see missing are Calibre Server, Maximus (https://github.com/mescon/Muximux), and the Google Play uploaders (photo and music) but I can either learn how to build a docker or throw up a VM. Another question is the best way to configure my "extra" drives. I'll explain a bit better... Currently I have my storage array setup with 2 parity drives and 17 data drives. The migration of that to unRaid is straight forward (relatively speaking). However, I also have a 240gb, 256gb and 512gb ssd as well as a WD 750gb Black drive that I use outside of the storage array for various tasks. Currently both the smaller SSD's are used for my VM datastores, and the 512gb SSD is used for the Flexraid cache drives. Lastly the 750gb Black is used as my scratch drive for my downloads. *phew* all that to say, is I'm not sure how that would translate into the new unRaid setup... suggestions? Thanks again for all your help. ~Spritz

That's great to hear! One last question (for now), is once a docker is installed, am I dependent on the docker creator to update the software or can I just use the softwares built in auto-update. Thanks again! ~Spritz

That would be the plan, though I still need to do some more reading on how Dockers work, and how to build them. I have a bit of an odd setup in that I run 3 instances of Couchpotato (Our Movies, Chick Flicks, and Kids movies), and I use Sonarr as my TV downloader. It'll be interesting to see what they can do. Now the real issue will be the migration, and how to minimize downtime. ~Spritz

I'm intrigued by this turbo write mode and write cache? Can you elaborate? ~Spritz

Awesome, thanks for the replies. To be honest, the community is a large part of the reason that I'm looking to come back. Very helpful and knowledgeable. ~Spritz

Afternoon All, I'm seriously considering coming back to unRaid from Flexraid. I was a user of unRaid from 4.7 up to 5.5, but then decided to try something else. That being said, I have some questions regarding unRaid 6. 1. Has performance of the array (not counting cache drives) increased? 2. How does the cache pool work? eg - If I have a 240gb, 256gb, and 480gb ssd in the pool how much space do I have in the pool? 3. How does the virtual networking compare to VMWares? My system currently has 6 NIC's in it. 4. Is dual parity on the roadmap? If not, will unRaid see the software raid on my supermicro board (I assume not) 5. I bought my license (I hope my usb still works!) back in 2011 when 4.7 was current... can I simply upgrade to the latest version? I currently run esxi on my server, and while I realize that unRaid runs fine under vmware, I'm looking to simply my life. I no longer run multiple VM's, instead just running a download VM (NZBGet/Deluge) and a Python Server (CP, HP, Mylar, Sonarr, etc)... so I feel that these can easily be integrated into unRaid's VM implementation. Lastly, what kind of resources does unRaid require now that it has these additional capabilities? Thanks in advance! I'm sure I'll have more questions as I plan this migration out ~Spritz

Yeah, I've run RDM drives before and ended up switching to passthrough a few years ago. However, I was talking to the VMWare guys at my work about it and they had some suggestions on how to get RDM working properly. My big concern is essentially being able to recreate my array without losing any data. ~Spritz

Good Morning, I'm currently passing through my M1015 and HP expansion card to my unraid box. However, I'd like to use those controllers with esx, and simply use RDM drives within Unraid. Is it possible to move from passthrough to RDM without risking my data? Thanks for any help! ~Spritz

Awesome! So in the next release, I'll be able to have mover run every 4 hours? If that's the case, I'll be patiently waiting ~Spritz

Hey bonienl! I'd like to thank you for all your hard work you've done on this GUI, it's awesome! I do have a question/request though... I would like to have my mover script run every x hours, however from the GUI I can only have it run hourly/daily/etc. Is it possible to either have that feature added, or is their a way to override the GUI settings? Thanks in advance. ~Spritz

Just a quick question (with a hopefully quick answer), but what version of NFS is unRaid running? Thanks! ~Spritz

I have 2 of the above mentioned cards for sale. They're about 2 years old, and I just pulled them from a working system. Looking to get $75 each, or $140 for both. They both come with full height PCI brackets. I'm located in Canada, so shipping will be whatever the canadapost site says. Cheers, Spritz

Thanks for the link! Seanant, please cancel my order. More than a week and still no communication means that I take my business elsewhere. ~Spritz I ordered from the above link @7am this morning, and I just received shipping notice @215pm. Tried too, sent you a PM, never heard back. Hence my above post.

Thanks for the link! Seanant, please cancel my order. More than a week and still no communication means that I take my business elsewhere. ~Spritz I ordered from the above link @7am this morning, and I just received shipping notice @215pm.

PM Sent... sorry about the questions it contains

Yeah, I had saw that, but it was for 4.7. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Hey All, I suspect I know the answer to this already, but figure it doesn't hurt to ask. Does anybody know if the HP series of controller cards are supported in unRaid 5? Specifcially the P410? Thanks in advance! Cheers, Spritz

I had already started to look into that, but unfortunately both links give a 404 error.