Current Setup and Use:
2 Drobos
Intel NUC server Plex
The drobos are filling up, so I was in the process of building a FreeNAS server, then I found UnRaid. I like the idea of being able to expand as needed, thus I am leaning towards UnRaid instead.
As with building a new project, you get excited and the project becomes more than it you initially planned and more grand.
I have went from thinking about buying a used server off of ebay, building from scratch, replacing my current CPU/MB with a new one and using it as the server. But, due to various reasons, 4k Transcoding, compatibility, cost, form factor, etc... It just made more sense to use an older PC that I have laying around and using the Rosewill 12 bay chassis. And eventually, build a more robust server as a VM Host and spin Plex as a VM.
I have a couple of questions before moving forward with this project.
I understand that UnRaid, is installed on a USB. If I want to upgrade the hardware, is it as easy and replacing it and the USB will still recognize everything? This most likely means going from a desktop grade setup to Xeons.
In a similar fashion, backing up the contents of the USB, to another USB. Would they be interchangeable in case of USB failure?
With dual parity, do I start with 3 of 4 Hard drives?
This might sound a bit silly, but, I like organizing things. Since the largest drives are always the parity, I plan on putting them at the end of the chassis. If I purchase a bigger drive, I would remove one of them and put the bigger drive in. Do I have to wait for it to rebuild the array or can I just pop it in, put the "old parity drive" into its new slot and call it the day?
As stated, eventually, I plan on building a more robust VM server. It will serve the Plex Host that is capable of transcoding 4k and a lab environment. For the lab environment, disk usage will be localized. So really, the only connection between the storage and this server is Plex.
In this setup, are cache drives even recommended?
Thanks,
Ryan