AT0MAC Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 I just build a very simple backup box, running unraid Had some things laying around, just enough to build a server out of. So it ended up with 5 drives, with a total usable storage of 8TB + 250 cache + 4tb parity 8GB RAM Got a 400watt passive power supply in there for low noise too, and a lot of Noctua fans, so all in all im pretty happy. The thing is, the CPU running all this, is a N3050 I was honestly very curious if this would ever work, and it does, it actually works as I expected. I just cant help but think, if I would get a faster response by using a more capable CPU of a newer date? I'm thinking something like a Ryzen 2xxx or 3xxx, I do have a pair of 8GB DDR4 unused and a 212Evo cooler, so all I would need is a MB and a CPU - but would it be worth it? I seriously only use it to transfer files to, as a backup, once a month (the N3050 is used in some cheap NAS drives too, so cant be all that bad) What is your opinion? This is btw my first real serious encounter with unraid, learning as i go Quote Link to comment
AT0MAC Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 the reason im asking, is when i access the files, it stalls a little and takes some time to update the folder im looking in, like my image library im not sure if the cpu is the limit, or its simply just because its mixed drives its spread across and take a little to get it working (its not long, we talk a few seconds, i just noticed it stalls every time i go a folder back or deeper) Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 4 minutes ago, AT0MAC said: stalls every time i go a folder back Cache Dirs plugin Quote Link to comment
AT0MAC Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 1 minute ago, trurl said: Cache Dirs plugin sorry, what? i imagine its a plugin i have to install and run i just found this, is that what your talking about? Quote Link to comment
AT0MAC Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 (edited) just found this, seems to be the same thing but easier to read https://wiki.unraid.net/UnRAID_Plugins_for_V6 ill guess i give this a go later, thanks Edited March 25, 2021 by AT0MAC Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 4 minutes ago, AT0MAC said: i just found this, is that what your talking about? That is a very old thread which was originally for a script developed for much older versions of Unraid, but there might be some useful information in it about how the plugin works. You should probably start with the official support thread for the current plugin instead though. Do you have Community Applications installed? If so, just go to the Apps page and search for Cache Dirs. You can also go to the support thread for any plugin by clicking its Support link (?) in the listing for the plugin on the Apps page, or from the Support link for the plugin on the Plugins page after installing it. Unfortunately, that official support thread is also the thread for a lot of other plugins by that same author so there is a bit to wade through there. After you install the plugin see if you can figure it out from its description and settings. 1 Quote Link to comment
AT0MAC Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 yup ill see what i can figure out. might all just need some tweaking and this little sub $50 motherboard/cpu combo is not too bad for something simple and lightweight Quote Link to comment
AT0MAC Posted March 27, 2021 Author Share Posted March 27, 2021 On 3/25/2021 at 3:32 PM, trurl said: That is a very old thread which was originally for a script developed for much older versions of Unraid, but there might be some useful information in it about how the plugin works. You should probably start with the official support thread for the current plugin instead though. Do you have Community Applications installed? If so, just go to the Apps page and search for Cache Dirs. You can also go to the support thread for any plugin by clicking its Support link (?) in the listing for the plugin on the Apps page, or from the Support link for the plugin on the Plugins page after installing it. Unfortunately, that official support thread is also the thread for a lot of other plugins by that same author so there is a bit to wade through there. After you install the plugin see if you can figure it out from its description and settings. Lol, wait a second, I had actually not installed the CA... But I have now! Thanks. So installed the plugin and whatever it did, this was exactly what I needed. There is a little CPU usage all the time, but whatever, thats fine, at least everything is surprisingly snappy - i mean, this is one of the absolute slowest CPUs you can find in modern time, and it still works pretty damn well Problem solved Quote Link to comment
AT0MAC Posted April 3, 2021 Author Share Posted April 3, 2021 So... I have been running this server for a month or so now, it's actually running pretty well. I just use it to stash copies of data in, like dumping it for long term storage in case something goes wrong. It's basically a glorified external drive. I'm still thinking it would maybe benefit from more CPU power, like when I parity check it takes quite a while, and so do mover script - I'm very unsure if that's just the drive speed, or if it's part of the CPU also? I can see in parity check the CPU use between 85-100% In general moving data it use between 10-60% CPU When mover runs, it uses around 70%-100% CPU I suspect its the drives alone that's the biggest bottleneck, but I do have a few motherboards/CPU with lot more power I could switch to - if it would make sense, I'm just not to sure it actually would I will never run heavy dockers or media stuff, this is not the box for that Quote Link to comment
rilles Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 I have an old AMD Sempron in and old case where I toss all my old drives. I run the sleep plugin. its a unraid box without a parity drive or cache. Once a month my master unraid sends a WOL packet and rsync's to the backup box. It uses about 90% cpu but has no issues pushing the drives close to 90Mb/s then back to sleep it goes for another month. Quote Link to comment
AT0MAC Posted April 6, 2021 Author Share Posted April 6, 2021 8 hours ago, rilles said: I have an old AMD Sempron in and old case where I toss all my old drives. I run the sleep plugin. its a unraid box without a parity drive or cache. Once a month my master unraid sends a WOL packet and rsync's to the backup box. It uses about 90% cpu but has no issues pushing the drives close to 90Mb/s then back to sleep it goes for another month. Hmm that sounds pretty clever tbh... My aproach is little more manual, but this is also my 1st actual unraid build so... Well, I think I kinda answered my own question, I was playing with caching dirs settings and found a usable medium that both gives me a pretty good speed when searching the NAS for something, but also dont use a whole lot of CPU. Cant honestly see why I would upgrade the CPU/RAM, this uses super little power and does everything I want. So Ill just leave it as is Quote Link to comment
Vr2Io Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 (edited) 34 minutes ago, AT0MAC said: So Ill just leave it as is Agree. When I first meet Unraid, I use J1800 to act as backup server, it host 13 disks, it work well just performance drop significant if use dual parity ( i.e. 83MB/s to 60MB/s, single parity fine ). As upgrade to 10G network, then I merge main + backup in one powerful machine. ( Not 7x24, power draw crazy ) Two months ago, I also setup J1900 as small 7x24 server for camera recording, VM, docker. It work well but haven't enough power to do backup in parallel, then I switch to current build. To summarize : J1900 + 2 disks, around 30w Ryzen 1700 + 3 disks + 10G NIC, around 70w, can do all job which I need. Edited April 6, 2021 by Vr2Io Quote Link to comment
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