Hardware check for migrating to Unraid


Recommended Posts

Hi All,

 

First time here, sorry If I am not following any forum rules. I decided to move my NAS from TrueNAS core to Unraid for the following reasons.

  • TrueNAS is becoming too complicated to manage for a home user.
  • The forum is too highbrow and unfriendly for noobs.

I hear that people here are more community driven and would help out to start my journey to Unraid. I have so many questions to ask, however I will limit to just my hardware.

 

I am a home user, primarily using NAS for music, movies and photos all served through plexmediaserver (TrueNAS Jail install). I would like to replicate similar setup in Unraid.

 

My question is more focused on a decision about need for hardware upgrade before migration. To be honest I would not want to upgrade as the current setup works fine for my needs. However, would be willing to rebuild if I get such advice from any of you.

 

Hardware: (Low power setup)

- Motherboard - AM1H-ITX

- CPU AMD Athlon 5350 APU with Radeon

- RAM: 16GB (DDR3-1600)

- Disk: 3TB x 3 HGST disks

- OS Boot: from USB

 

My current limitation with hardware is motherboard only has 4 SATA port out of which 3 are in use. The last one would be reserved for Parity drive in Unraid. This means there is no chance of adding extra disk when I need to expand. I do have an LSI SAS9200-8i which can be used to expand but I have never used it so far and not sure of its compatibility in Unraid.

 

My Requirement:

- 3 x 3TB (approx 9TB data) - current

- 1 x 4TB (parity disk)

- Future expansion from 9TB to 17 TB ( next 5 years )

- Atleast single stream 4k transcoding capabilities.

 

My questions:

- Given my requirement and ageing (but very reliable) hardware, should I upgrade to newer CPU with better MOBO with ateast 8 SATA ports? If no, can I continue to use this until my CPU/MOBO dies? I would like to move the discs to new hardware and use without needing to rebuild the array. Is that possible?

 

- For hardware transcoding in Plex, I would like to use hardware encoding. Can I add a cheap nvedia card just for transcoding with hardware passthrough in docker (plex)?

 

- Is it recommended to use Unraid installed on USB?

 

- Is there a recommended SAS board for expanding SATA. 

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks for reading this lost post.

Link to comment

Hello and welcome.

 

I have no experience with your hardware or anything similar, so I cannot comment on that.

 

7 hours ago, blazerguns said:

Is it recommended to use Unraid installed on USB?

it is mandatory as the licence is linked to the flashdrive GUID.

 

7 hours ago, blazerguns said:

Is there a recommended SAS board for expanding SATA. 

You can check there : 

 

7 hours ago, blazerguns said:

For hardware transcoding in Plex, I would like to use hardware encoding. Can I add a cheap nvedia card just for transcoding with hardware passthrough in docker (plex)?

Depending on the Hardware you end up using you could also use the Intel iGPU for that (if it is recent enough, a few generation back should be OK, to be confirmed by people with more knowledge in the matter)

As for Nvidia cards, this could help you make a decision : https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new

 

7 hours ago, blazerguns said:

I would like to move the discs to new hardware and use without needing to rebuild the array. Is that possible?

Never did it myself but I know that it is possible. There are a few steps to consider when you do the HW change, especially if you are using VMs, but it is generally going well from what I read in the forums.

Link to comment

Uhhh... I think it will be much more difficult to switch your array over from TrueNAS to UNRAID.  Depending on the RAID level you have your current server running, it will either be difficult (if mirroring) or impossible (if striped).

 

UNRAID doesn't use conventional RAID levels, but rather (can) maintain a Parity drive, which if present, is used to emulate or recreate a data drive that becomes non-accessible.  I wouldn't want to trust my existing data on my drives to being successful trying to implement on a new system.

Link to comment
13 hours ago, ChatNoir said:

Hello and welcome.

 

I have no experience with your hardware or anything similar, so I cannot comment on that.

 

it is mandatory as the licence is linked to the flashdrive GUID.

 

You can check there : 

 

Depending on the Hardware you end up using you could also use the Intel iGPU for that (if it is recent enough, a few generation back should be OK, to be confirmed by people with more knowledge in the matter)

As for Nvidia cards, this could help you make a decision : https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new

 

Never did it myself but I know that it is possible. There are a few steps to consider when you do the HW change, especially if you are using VMs, but it is generally going well from what I read in the forums.

Thanks for this info. Very useful information to know. If I am not wrong, Intel sells them as integrated graphics. Since I do not have intel CPU, I have to look at Nvidia GPU or any other vendor to providing the encoding/decoding. I need to compare the cost of these cards against buying NVedia Shield as that could also be used as PlexMediaServer.

In FreeNAS world, people dont like users installing Plex on NAS devices. I understand the reason but for home users it makes no sense to have multiple servers. 

Link to comment
18 minutes ago, Zonediver said:

You are right... i didn't see the "TrueNAS" and was thinking about "unraid-to-unraid" ;-)

Ah, I did mean unraid in my current old CPU/MOBO migrated to unraid in brand new hardware with same version of OS. I would never think of moving array from TrueNAS to Unraid.

As long as I am keeping the parity disk in correct SATA slot (assuming slot 1), data drives can be in any order? Sorry for asking this multiple times, but I wanted to be sure.

Link to comment
56 minutes ago, blazerguns said:

As long as I am keeping the parity disk in correct SATA slot (assuming slot 1), data drives can be in any order?

 

Yep - Parity-disk must be in the "Parity-Slot" - rest doesn't matter 👍

In other words: Be careful to asign the "right Disk" to the Parity-Slot!

This has nothing to do with the SATA-Connector - unraid identifies the disks by their serial numbers.

So check the SN from the Parity-Disk and asign it to the Parity-Slot 👍

Edited by Zonediver
Link to comment
5 hours ago, Zonediver said:

 

Yep - Parity-disk must be in the "Parity-Slot" - rest doesn't matter 👍

In other words: Be careful to asign the "right Disk" to the Parity-Slot!

This has nothing to do with the SATA-Connector - unraid identifies the disks by their serial numbers.

So check the SN from the Parity-Disk and asign it to the Parity-Slot 👍

Right. That makes sense.

Link to comment

And normally, you should not have reassign the drives if you change your hardware. The disk assignement is on the flashdrive and should be OK on your new server.

It's always a good idea to disable the Array auto-start in this situation to check that everything is good before going too far. ;) 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Uhhhh (again)....  I think we're getting distracted again.

 

Even if the data is on a mirrored RAID level on the TrueNAS system, the drives aren't going to be a "drop in and configure" into an UNRAID system.  I seriously doubt the file systems (as in the UNRAID shares) are identical.  So it will be a dangerous undertaking to do this with live data on the drives.

 

As I see it, I would think there are 2 possible paths for moving from TrueNAS to UNRAID:

 

-- Duplicate files to move from the TrueNAS system to a temporary remote storage, rebuild/reconfigure current system to UNRAID, move files from remote storage to desired shares on UNRAID server.

 

-- Build new hardware to run UNRAID (with at least some array storage).  Begin moving data from TrueNAS to UNRAID.  If TrueNAS is mirrored RAID, possibly prune moved data from TrueNAS server to enable removing cleared drives from TrueNAS and installing in UNRAID, giving more space for storage.  Continue moving data (and drives) until complete.  Build parity.

 

If you end up buying some new hardware (CPU/MB) and wish to do hardware transcoding, I would go Intel.  I'm mostly an AMD guy, but believe that you want to have 7th generation Kaby Lake (7xxx) or newer to handle x265 4K transcoding.  If you go the GPU route, the nVIDIA Quatro P400 is likely the best value.

Edited by ConnerVT
Link to comment
1 hour ago, ConnerVT said:

Uhhhh (again)....  I think we're getting distracted again.

Huh?

16 hours ago, blazerguns said:

unraid in my current old CPU/MOBO migrated to unraid in brand new hardware with same version of OS. I would never think of moving array from TrueNAS to Unraid.

 

Link to comment
13 hours ago, ConnerVT said:

Uhhhh (again)....  I think we're getting distracted again.

 

Even if the data is on a mirrored RAID level on the TrueNAS system, the drives aren't going to be a "drop in and configure" into an UNRAID system.  I seriously doubt the file systems (as in the UNRAID shares) are identical.  So it will be a dangerous undertaking to do this with live data on the drives.

 

As I see it, I would think there are 2 possible paths for moving from TrueNAS to UNRAID:

 

-- Duplicate files to move from the TrueNAS system to a temporary remote storage, rebuild/reconfigure current system to UNRAID, move files from remote storage to desired shares on UNRAID server.

This is the approach I am taking. I never intended to just move the array from FreeNAS to Unraid.

13 hours ago, ConnerVT said:

-- Build new hardware to run UNRAID (with at least some array storage).  Begin moving data from TrueNAS to UNRAID.  If TrueNAS is mirrored RAID, possibly prune moved data from TrueNAS server to enable removing cleared drives from TrueNAS and installing in UNRAID, giving more space for storage.  Continue moving data (and drives) until complete.  Build parity.

My question was more inline with moving Unraid array from current hardware (CPU/MOBO) to a new upgraded MOBO and perhaps intel CPU and just plug and play. Other have indicated that it is possible as long as I take care of "Parity Slot" it should be simple move. Thanks for the advice, much appreciate it.

13 hours ago, ConnerVT said:

If you end up buying some new hardware (CPU/MB) and wish to do hardware transcoding, I would go Intel.  I'm mostly an AMD guy, but believe that you want to have 7th generation Kaby Lake (7xxx) or newer to handle x265 4K transcoding.  If you go the GPU route, the nVIDIA Quatro P400 is likely the best value.

This is a great recommendation. Thanks for that.

Link to comment
On 7/17/2021 at 5:55 PM, blazerguns said:

keeping the parity disk in correct SATA slot (assuming slot 1)

Parity is NOT slot1. Slot1 is data disk1. Parity slot is clearly labeled Parity. If you look at syslog you will see that Unraid refers to parity as slot0.

 

And "slot" only refers to where a specific disk is assigned. It has nothing to do with where it is in the case or what port it is connected to. Unraid tracks disk assignments by disk serial number.

Link to comment

I switched over from True NAS almost a year now. you will like how much easier stuff is in unraid.  after 30 days you have to pay and get a regular license. But its worth it for all the support you can get on the site. The only thing I miss from TrueNAS/FreeNAS is the snapshots and being able to setup shadow copies on my shares. That is a big let down for me.

But going by what your saying If you just doing file shares and plex. You should be ok with what you listed. And just remember transcoding won't really come into play unless you got a big fat 5 or 10gig 4k HDR or 1080P movie and your going to throw the play back to a device that can only do 720p.

My self all my TV's have the Plex app and can do 1080p or more. So I'm not worried about much transcoding. 

But again if your like down sizing the play back to 720p a lot for like Wifi pad's. Just start to get more 720p files and use a different share or library. That's what I do for the remote play back people I share my plex with. I figure if they want something better they can go get their own server and set something up.

 

But I do suggest you get a cheap PCIE Sata card to get more sata ports like the one they linked above. I've seen that one on amazon for like 20 to 25. And it would be nice to have at least a small SSD for cache/dockers a 240gig should be under 40 dollars for a okay one. But if your doing to do like 4 ore more transcode sessions at 1 time. you might want more than 240gig's. 

You don't have to spend a lot unless you want to. Myself I'm always using hardware that's several years old for my NAS testing projects.  Once you get this running you won't miss TrueNAS that's for sure. The guys on them fourms can be real jerks and they have a over excited opinion of telling people they need to always use ecc ram. I got extremely tired of hearing that. And FreeBSD sorry to say this but it sucks. Debian Linux is so much more easier to get help if your really stuck on something.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
9 hours ago, trurl said:

Parity is NOT slot1. Slot1 is data disk1. Parity slot is clearly labeled Parity. If you look at syslog you will see that Unraid refers to parity as slot0.

 

And "slot" only refers to where a specific disk is assigned. It has nothing to do with where it is in the case or what port it is connected to. Unraid tracks disk assignments by disk serial number.

Thanks for the info. I think it will make more sense once I have the OS running. Waiting on a new hard disk to arrive to build the OS

Link to comment
6 hours ago, Bizquick said:

I switched over from True NAS almost a year now. you will like how much easier stuff is in unraid.  after 30 days you have to pay and get a regular license. But its worth it for all the support you can get on the site. The only thing I miss from TrueNAS/FreeNAS is the snapshots and being able to setup shadow copies on my shares. That is a big let down for me.

But going by what your saying If you just doing file shares and plex. You should be ok with what you listed. And just remember transcoding won't really come into play unless you got a big fat 5 or 10gig 4k HDR or 1080P movie and your going to throw the play back to a device that can only do 720p.

My self all my TV's have the Plex app and can do 1080p or more. So I'm not worried about much transcoding. 

But again if your like down sizing the play back to 720p a lot for like Wifi pad's. Just start to get more 720p files and use a different share or library. That's what I do for the remote play back people I share my plex with. I figure if they want something better they can go get their own server and set something up.

 

But I do suggest you get a cheap PCIE Sata card to get more sata ports like the one they linked above. I've seen that one on amazon for like 20 to 25. And it would be nice to have at least a small SSD for cache/dockers a 240gig should be under 40 dollars for a okay one. But if your doing to do like 4 ore more transcode sessions at 1 time. you might want more than 240gig's. 

You don't have to spend a lot unless you want to. Myself I'm always using hardware that's several years old for my NAS testing projects.  Once you get this running you won't miss TrueNAS that's for sure. The guys on them fourms can be real jerks and they have a over excited opinion of telling people they need to always use ecc ram. I got extremely tired of hearing that. And FreeBSD sorry to say this but it sucks. Debian Linux is so much more easier to get help if your really stuck on something.

Love the comments. Thanks a lot for that. I am waiting to start off on this journey. I am waiting for my new WD Red Plus to arrive to start using Unraid. You are right, really not a big fan of transcoding. I have most of my videos converted to H264 MP4 and my tv is where I used plex and it can handle 1080p and 4k so it would very rare. I never usually use ipad etc for this purpose. 

 

I hear a lot about cache drives (perhaps to improve performance). I have not yet thought about it, but given your experience it is worth throwing in a 250G SSD in the mix for cache and docker files?

Link to comment
12 hours ago, blazerguns said:

I hear a lot about cache drives (perhaps to improve performance). I have not yet thought about it, but given your experience it is worth throwing in a 250G SSD in the mix for cache and docker files?

Well here is the thing when I was on TrueNAS I was using a small SSD for my jails. a single 240 gig. I noticed when I used a SSD for applications instead of the array. things seamed to run alot better.

 

Now when I switched over to unraid I had that same question. But I found out why kind of quick a cache drive helps.

Unraid is not like TRUENAS and running a ZFS Pool. You need to keep a good schedule for Parity checks. And your disc I/O on your array its not the same like a Zpool. I tend to see unraid run a little slower because The way the disc I/O works and with the parity.  I mean if you just had Plex and 1 or 2 TV's yeah it could fine but if you wanted to watch a nice big fat movie file and your system is in the middle of doing a parity check. you will wish you did have a cache drive then.

Also I find when I used a cache drive dockers used less memory. Not sure how that is actually related to anything.  think it must have something to do with how it has to cache a little bit more application cause of I/O.

And I'm not talking about a big memory savings. I mean I noticed my plex ap would use about 312megs sometimes. and when on the array disc it would run about 740megs. 

But its like I said you can spend a little bit or a lot. If I knew you in person I would give you a 240 gig SSD cause I have a few of them. and they are pretty cheap. But it would cost me more in time and postage to mail one to anyone.

 

I also agree with ChatNoir Check out Space Invader's Video's I followed his for a few things I'm doing on my box.

Once you see like all the stuff people can do and how really simple it is to setup. You might want to actually want to do more than what you planing and might want to rebuild or spend a few dollars. But I would check it out. cause it really is alot easier to get help and do stuff with unraid. I even tried Open Media Vault before choosing Unraid. Which I liked way better than TrueNAS. But to be honest I didnt like how the docker setup was I felt like it was missing alot of things. and I couldnt figure out for the life of me how to assign a seperate IP address to my 1 docker I setup. Cause I really like to separate somethings like that. Unraid made the whole thing so easy I couldn't go back and try to make it work I was already hooked.

 

 

 

Link to comment
20 hours ago, blazerguns said:

I hear a lot about cache drives (perhaps to improve performance). I have not yet thought about it, but given your experience it is worth throwing in a 250G SSD in the mix for cache and docker files?

 

A Cache-SSD is "mandatory" in my opinion.

.) It holds all Dockers

.) It caches Plex-trancoded data (if not transcoded to RAM)

.) It holds all stuff what you move from your PC to unraid, and then the Mover can move it to the array - so it "speeds up" your File-Transfer.

So its one of the most important drives for unraid.

Edited by Zonediver
Link to comment
9 hours ago, Bizquick said:

Well here is the thing when I was on TrueNAS I was using a small SSD for my jails. a single 240 gig. I noticed when I used a SSD for applications instead of the array. things seamed to run alot better.

 

Now when I switched over to unraid I had that same question. But I found out why kind of quick a cache drive helps.

Unraid is not like TRUENAS and running a ZFS Pool. You need to keep a good schedule for Parity checks. And your disc I/O on your array its not the same like a Zpool. I tend to see unraid run a little slower because The way the disc I/O works and with the parity.  I mean if you just had Plex and 1 or 2 TV's yeah it could fine but if you wanted to watch a nice big fat movie file and your system is in the middle of doing a parity check. you will wish you did have a cache drive then.

Also I find when I used a cache drive dockers used less memory. Not sure how that is actually related to anything.  think it must have something to do with how it has to cache a little bit more application cause of I/O.

And I'm not talking about a big memory savings. I mean I noticed my plex ap would use about 312megs sometimes. and when on the array disc it would run about 740megs. 

But its like I said you can spend a little bit or a lot. If I knew you in person I would give you a 240 gig SSD cause I have a few of them. and they are pretty cheap. But it would cost me more in time and postage to mail one to anyone.

 

I also agree with ChatNoir Check out Space Invader's Video's I followed his for a few things I'm doing on my box.

Once you see like all the stuff people can do and how really simple it is to setup. You might want to actually want to do more than what you planing and might want to rebuild or spend a few dollars. But I would check it out. cause it really is alot easier to get help and do stuff with unraid. I even tried Open Media Vault before choosing Unraid. Which I liked way better than TrueNAS. But to be honest I didnt like how the docker setup was I felt like it was missing alot of things. and I couldnt figure out for the life of me how to assign a seperate IP address to my 1 docker I setup. Cause I really like to separate somethings like that. Unraid made the whole thing so easy I couldn't go back and try to make it work I was already hooked.

 

 

 

You have sold me on SSD, so 250G would do or should I get the 512G? Also, thanks for the detailed explanation very helpful. I will watch those videos while I wait for my drives to arrive.

Link to comment
1 hour ago, Zonediver said:

 

A Cache-SSD is "mandatory" in my opinion.

.) It holds all Dockers

.) It caches Plex-trancoded data (if not transcoded to RAM)

.) It holds all stuff what you move from your PC to unraid, and then the Mover can move it to the array - so it "speeds up" your File-Transfer.

So its one of the most important drives for unraid.

Any size recommendations?

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.