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Tried running a Win10 VM on my unraid box with the intent to be able to VPN in during down time at work and mess around in visual studio on some personal projects. However, it seems incredibly slow loading anything, user inputs delayed, and high CPU usage. Comparatively, running a Win10 VM on my gaming PC feels quite snappy (hosted and accessed on same pc). Differences between unRaid machine vs. my gaming PC: Hardware Unraid machine - Core i3-4360 w/ 8gb DDR3 ECC memory *VM stored on SSD cache drive and never moved to array Gaming PC - i7-11700k w/ 32gb DDR4 memory Network Unraid VM is accessed over wired LAN via VM Console (VMC) Hyper V VM on gaming PC is accessed from the same gaming PC (connection not over ethernet) Configuration Is there something wrong with my Unraid VM configuration causing excessive slowness? Currently pinned to CPU 0 only, but same result with CPU 0 / 2 and leaving it on CPU 0 / 2 and CPU 1 / 3 Given 3gb memory out of 8gb available on the machine Demo video (Unraid at beginning, Gaming PC VM at end) Is my unRaid Win10 VM this slow due to old hardware, accessing over ethernet vs. from same PC, or an Unraid VM configuration or other incorrect setting?

Got it, Thanks! So just pop it in, assign disk, and start rebuild. Then it will just rebuild the pre-existing 3TB of data and write zeros for remaining 7TB?

Current config is (2) 10TB and (4) 3TB drives with a single parity setup. Bought a 14TB drive to replace the existing 10TB parity drive and let Unraid rebuild parity with the new 14TB parity drive in place. Now I want to take the old 10TB parity drive and replace a 3TB data drive in the disk array. Do I need to preclear, or at a minimum format, the old 10TB parity drive before adding to the disk array and letting it rebuild?

As an update, preclear finished successfully this time around. Installed into array as parity drive, rebuilt successfully and seems to be working fine. SMART test also showed no errors. As mentioned above, the errors were like due to some USB issue and not disk fault.

Got it, thanks! What in the log makes you suspect USB problem and not a disk problem? For example, can those returned hex values be looked up and point towards a USB problem? Or are you going off of experience where these types of errors show up, but disk preclears fine -> usually USB problem? Last question, what would cause a 3TB drive to run with no errors, but 14TB is consistently throwing I/O errors around same % of the preread process?

Thanks. I'll let the preclear run its course, assuming it doesn't hang up, and then plug in drive to another PC via SATA and check SMART status. Looks like a few more sectors popped up with I/O errors (16 sectors total now) and at 56% preread. If SMART test passes, how would you interpret the I/O read errors at various sectors during this preread? Additional, what else should I be looking for in the logs for additional issues (ie. power issue, connection issue, etc)? Full diag logs attached, preread cycle at 57%. tower-diagnostics-20221231-2338.zip

Just bought a WD Red Plus 14TB (WD140EFGX) that I intend to replace & upsize the parity drive with. My normal process is to put the new drive in a USB3.0 external drive enclosure, plug into Unraid box, and preclear it before adding to the array. However, the 14TB drive keeps hanging within the first 2-4% of the pre-read cycle and has I/O errors showing up in the syslog. After a half dozen attempts, the preread process made it passed this 2-4% mark (13% and going strong), but had the same I/O errors listed in syslog. So I/O errors still there, just this time the preclear process didn't get stuck and hang for eternity. Are the consistent I/O errors during the first few % of pre-read indicative of a bad drive? Something funky happening as a result of doing this process via USB external vs. SATA? Related to software versions and preclear (Unraid 6.11.5, UD 2022.12.28, UD Preclear 2022.12.23)? syslog.txt

Been delaying on getting a better backup solution situated and was thinking piecing together a second unRAID pc might be the best solution. My spare lower capacity drives that were taken out of my main unRAID box would go into this second box. Then I'd either use syncback or duplicati to copy the important portion of data from my main box to the second unRIAD box. These backup drives would then be pulled from the second box and kept at work. Periodically, they would be brought home to allow for updates. This would also allow cast-offs to be added to the second box and increase the unRAID "drive" without requiring the backup software to have to completely rebuild. Thoughts on this?

Do you store the backup servers offsite? Then do you remotely update your "important" files or physical bring the server & disks to your main server for backup?

That's a good idea and had considered this. This is likely the cheapest and most reasonable option, however, my OCD of not having a 1:1 copy of everything else is yelling at me haha. Do you just use an old computer or did you buy a cheap option to house these drives and run an OS for backing up? EDIT: Another fairly cheap option.....Costco has sale on Seagate 8TB external for $130.

What's the cheapest way to build a 2nd unRAID box and populate it with storage space? Any suggestions, options, or other ideas? This setup would be for backing up my primary box and to keep it at an offsite location. In other words, it's not going to be running 24/7, would not have a parity drive, does not need brand new server grade disks, no need for processing power to transcode, etc. After reading some iffy reviews about crashplan and calculating my initial upload of 13 TB to take 16 months, online backups are out. My preferred option is to have a second unRAID box that I can leave at work and bring it home every couple months to locally sync new data to. The challenge is building one as cheap as possible. Luckily there's only two main components: a functional computer that can hold HDDs and the HDDs. I'm thinking my best bet is to find a used PC (mini-itx or micro-atx for smaller size) or a NAS box that can support 4 or 5+ HDDs. Think I'll be able to find something used < $150. Quite a few old servers for around $200, but server rack cases would be a pain to carry to/from work compared to a mini-ITX PC or small NAS box. As far a populating hard drives, the cheapest I can see to get many TB is: a) look at re certified and/or used drives. WD RED 10TB Refurbs are readily available for $200 ($20/TB). or b) wait for a special on external hard drives to gut. Seagate 8TB external runs $150 with no sale = $18.75/TB. Sure they aren't "NAS-grade", but they'll only run for maybe 1 day/month to sync new data.

Perfect, thanks. Time to order another 10TB. Do you run preclear via USB external enclosure too?

Currently have 6x 3TB WD Red drives in an 8-bay silverstone ds380 enclosure with single parity for a total of 15 TB (13.6 TB actual). Running out of space. Bought a 10 TB WD Red to swap in as new parity drive and that frees the 3 TB to be added to the data drive array. However, I overlooked the fact that all 6 sata ports on my motherboard are taken. I then planned to add a PCIE expansion card, but then found that even low profile cards will stick into the hard drive slot, limiting my case to only 7 HDDs (only 1 more than # of mobo SATA connectors). My next thought is that it would be better to swap the 3TB drives with 10TBs for additional space. Is upgrading from 6x 3TB to 2x 10TB / 4x 3TB a solid upgrade plan? Am I missing any glaring issues of going with this plan? Since my number of SATA connectors are currently all utilized, is a cheap USB HDD enclosure the best way be able to preclear the new HDDs using unRAID? After preclearing both new drives, is the proper HDD swap order: -Pull current 3 TB parity drive and install new 10TB parity drive -Let it rebuild parity on new 10TB drive -Pull one of the current 3 TB parity drives and install new 10TB data drive -Let it rebuild data

Any tips on finding used server pulls? For example, the copycat Dell H310 flashed to lsi 9211-8i below. Looks like a genuine Dell card (I know, looks can be deceiving), tested by seller, with 152 sold and 100% seller feedback. Can this card really be that bad? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-H310-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-w-LSI-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/162834659601?epid=19006955695&amp;hash=item25e9b3b911:g:3TgAAOSwTf9ZWHPf:sc:USPSPriorityMailSmallFlatRateBox!48334!US!-1:rk:1:pf:0 EDIT: On second thought, another option might just be to start swapping my 3TB WD Reds with 10 TBs

This makes sense, however I'd rather not buy a server pull. 1) I'm too impatient to hunt around trying to find a server pull. 2) I'm not fond of saving $50 to get used hardware that has been potentially running 24/7 for 10+ years. Would this lsi 9211-8i card on amazon be a safe choice (link here)? Would have to flash to IT mode myself though.

From researching on this forum, I think I've decided on an lsi 9211-8i preflashed to IT mode. Fairly cheap (around $55) and seem to work well as far as speed and unRAID compatibility goes. My question is, how do you tell the bad/cheap china knockoff cards vs. good cards? For example, are these both good and ready to work plug-n-play with unRAID 6.1.9? https://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID-Dell-H310-6Gbps-SAS-HBA/263996322238?epid=19006955695&amp;hash=item3d776831be:g:e7YAAOSwO2hbsmMA:rk:2:pf:0 https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-IT-Mode-Genuine-LSI-9211-8i-8-port-PCI-E-Controller-Card-US-seller/142748462843?hash=item213c78aefb:g:rAMAAOSw~GRayFPr:rk:4:pf:0

Awesome, good to know! Seems I'm just a bit slow getting on to this trend. Time to wait for a new nvidia shield to come out (or whatever steps up to take its place).

Like a lot of people on here (just an assumption...), I have a plex media server running on my unRAID machine. Works great. On the frontend, I have a Pi 3 running a RasPlex build. As far as the PMS on unRAID and RasPlex on the Pi, everything works very well for the most part. Links up easily to my Harmony remote, plays all of my tv shows/movies without hiccups, and only consumes about 4 watts while powered up. More time with this setup revealed quite a few limitations in Plex, mainly the small number of "unsupported channels". What if I want to run Fox Sports Go, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon music, Youtube, Netflix, etc. Some channels are available, but others aren't. This leads to Kodi. Kodi allows for much more customization and plugin support, however still requires app 'ports' and 3rd party development work to keep these plugins functional over time. Usually I like to go the route of customization and building DIY rigs, but lately have been asking this question - is there any reason why you wouldn't just buy an "out-of-the-box" device with either Android TV OS (NVIDIA Shield) or iOS (AppleTV)? Running either of these OS', gives you access to major app stores. This means that any popular app is likely to already have been officially developed and released by the owning company. Take Netflix or Pandora or Amazon Music for example. When an update is released, it always has the potential to mess things up and require additional 3rd-party development or a port rework to keep it functioning in Kodi. Why not just go to the app/play store and download the Plex/Kodi app in addition to your other apps. That way you have easy access to stream your local media via Plex or Kodi and also have access to everything else released in the app store with full update support. Before the time where every app imaginable was available, I understood the power of taking a service and unofficially turning it into a Kodi plugin, but now it seems like that gap is closing. Thoughts?

Hmm maybe I'll reconsider then. An SSD for the empty 2.5" slot would work out. How much does Plex actually suffer? It seems like the number of writes would be fairly small with most of the interactions being reads (watching a show/movie). Wouldn't writes only really happen when the library is changed and updated or keeping track of show/movie positions and "watched" lists? Unless Plex is constantly rewriting movie/show position, updating library, tracking activity data, etc.

I had a few questions about the unRAID file structure, how it interacts with dockers, and typical file organization conventions to follow. So to walk through the file structure of how I understand it...... In the background, unRAID is split up into separate disks: /mnt/disk1/ /mnt/disk2/ ...disk3, etc On the frontend, you see your disks split up based on your defined User Shares under /mnt/user/. For example, if you had 3 shares - one for media, personal files, and then apps/dockers - you would see the following regardless of how disks were assigned/split between shares: /mnt/user/media/ /mnt/user/personal/ /mnt/user/apps/ **I'm aware of cache drives, but don't use one. I prefer to have an extra physical hard drive slot in my case in exchange for the writing performance hit. AKA omit /mnt/cache/ in this example. Now you want to create a docker.img on your dedicated apps/docker share. The file path would look like: /mnt/user/apps/docker.img Once created, you go to the "Docker" tab and add a container. At this point you have a chunk of hard drive space named 'apps'. Within the 'apps' share hard drive space you have a virtual hard drive defined - docker.img. Then each container/docker added essentially creates ANOTHER virtual hard drive space WITHIN the docker.img that contains the OS and files to run whatever "docker" you are installing. So if I understand correctly, the OS and plugin/docker application files are contained within the docker.img and then the data/configuration files for that docker is stored on a main user share space, such as /mnt/user/apps/. Let's say we are installing plex and currently have our 3 previously noted user shares - media, personal, apps. Step 1 Step 2 Does this all look correct? Specifically if I'm understanding correctly that the data/configuration files are stored on the main user share and the docker OS/application files are stored within docker.img.

I set up owncloud via the app installer in unRAID and can successfully access it via my internal IP (https://192.168.0.104:8000). However, I cannot access it using my external IP on my PC and phone (using cell network) via https://xx.xx.xx.xx:8000/ or https://xx.xx.xx.xx:8000/owncloud. The unRAID box is setup under a DIR-655 router with port 8000 forwarded for 192.168.0.104 (unRAID TOWER) and the mobo address (192.168.0.103). I even tried setting the TOWER address in DMZ mode. Am I forgetting to configure an owncloud setting or trying to access it remotely using the wrong link?

Wow, way more to take a look at than expected haha. I messed around with it some more yesterday night. 1) Stopping the array and executing 'powerdown' at the command line worked fine - no parity check 2) When using the "Time on battery before shutdown (seconds)" at 30 seconds, the box shut down (killed powered and all), worked fine - no parity check 3) I had the UPS shutdown feature enabled before, but what happened in my case is that is seemed like the UPS just turned off before unRAID was fully shut down/powered off. Maybe there's a weird issue with using the "minutes remaining" and "% left" with certain hardware/UPS combos? I'll check the things you mentioned and try to test your #2 problem as well.

Ahhh okay. So from this statement, I take it that dockers/VMs continue running after the array has been unmounted. My assumption is that the UPS sends the shutdown signal, arrays unmount, but the docker hangs and the flag for a clean shutdown is never set and the unit never actually powers off. Sorry, I was a bit unclear. The unRAID box was running for the 90 minutes or so and never fully shutdown/turned the power off. However, when supply source for the UPS was turned back on (with the unRAID box still running and never shut off), I checked the unRAID status via GUI from another PC. At this time, I could see that the array was unmounted, with the important detail that I never had to press the physical power button to start it back up. Good to know! Never really considered the discharge cycles on the UPS. I might change it to a 5 or 10 minute shutdown. Typical outages for me are split 50/50 with flickering power with on/off every few minutes or the extended 4 hour+ session

I'll have to check on the 'seconds' setting when I get home. If it's set to something super low where it basically shuts down immediately on loss of power, it should still perform a clean shutdown, right? As for the UPS, it's only about 9 months old. If I had to place a bet on it, I'm pretty sure the UPS battery condition is not the problem. The most recent time this happened I was doing electrical work and shut off the main power. The power was off for about an hour and a half with only the unRAID box on (45 watt draw while idle). After the ~90 minutes, I booted my main PC which is also on the UPS and ran for 10-15 minutes while checking the unRAID status. Over this time, the UPS never ran out of juice and the unRAID box never 'powered off', but the array was unmounted. Since you mentioned VMs and Dockers......the only docker I have is Plex Media Server. How would I be able to tell if this was causing the hangup?

My unRAID box is hooked up to a CyberPower 1500avr UPS. Within unRaid settings, it's set to shutdown at 25% remaining or 15 minutes. However, when power to the UPS is lost, it seems unRAID performs actions immediately - even though the UPS power is at 100% with 150 min+ of estimated time left. The strange thing is, when the power comes back and I go to the main unRAID status page on my main PC, it states there was an unclean shutdown and the disks are no longer mounted (and initiates a parity check). The other weird part is that I never had to press the power button on the unRAID PC case to turn the unit back on. It's almost as if the box stays powered up, but uncleanly unmounts the disks as soon as a loss of power is detected at the UPS. Any ideas to resolve this?