(SOLVED) Build Question/Suggestions - Migrating from Windows Server Storage Pool/Spaces to unRAID

[NightOps]

My current server running Plex and filestorage/IIS functions is a 9 year old hand-built rig running a Xeon E3-1245v3, 32GB RAM (16GB reserved for a RAM Disk used for Plex Transcoding space), 2x 120GB SSD in RAID0 for OS, 9x 2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 drives in RAID50 (3 parity disks) as a Media drive, and a secondary 4x2TB RAID10 array for user files and applications/backups, and a single 10TB IronWolf Pro drive for making a backup of my Plex library and appdata.

 

Besides Plex, I also have a Trakt.TV VIP account setup in Plex webhooks, and I have PlexTraktSync running on my current Windows box to update Trakt with everything that has been played already.

 

I finally got around to getting all the hardware I needed, and I had originally planned on running everything in Windows again, but after finding out about unRAID and checking out how active this forum is in helping/etc, then I thought I might give unRAID a try.  Here's what I'm working with:

Intel i5-12600k

Asus Z690-P D4

64GB RAM

SanDisk 128GB Cruzer USB 2.0 Flash Drive with an internal USB 2.0 header to USB female port adapter

500GB NVME

6x 4TB WD Red drives for Media

2x 2TB Seagate drives for apps/backups/personal user files

Intel Pro/1000 PT quad NIC

 

The below is based off of: 

 

 

My understanding of the overall Alder Lake situation is that the iGPU will work fine with modprobe i915 in my go file, and that the 2.5Gb ethernet jack will not work until unRAID switches to kernel 5.15+, hence the Intel quad port NIC.  I'm hoping to get NIC bonding running, and I'm pretty sure my Unifi 24-port POE switch can handle it (it works fine right now with my Windows box and dual on-board NICs), so my biggest first hurdle will be to see if my Asus Z690 can switch down to PCIe 1.0 and run the card so it can get recognized.

 

That being said, there are a ton of unRAID Plex setups out there, and almost just as many "guides".  I will probably have at most 4 transcoding streams, and maybe 2 or 3 direct play streams running at any time, so I know this is probably all overkill, but I want it to be as future-proof as possible... so... any suggestions for exactly how I should set up my unRAID members / Plex docker?  I'm planning on running LSIO Plex Pass, but certainly not set on anything.

 

The beauty of all this is that I can test all of this out while my current system is still running, I just want to get it buttoned down before I make the swap.  Thanks again for your assistance/advice!

Edited December 15, 2021 by NightOps

[Squid]

7 minutes ago, NightOps said:

and that the 2.5Gb ethernet jack will not work until unRAID switches to kernel 5.15+

I've got 2 motherboards with 2.5G ports (Intel I225-V) (and a 3rd with an add-on card Realtek RTL8125)  and they all are working with 6.10RC-2 (kernel 5.14.15) and getting full speed.  The bitch though was having to buy switch that supported that speed

[SimonF]

15 minutes ago, Squid said:

Intel I225-V)

Do you know tbe rev for yours mine in 03 on z690 and not found by6.10rc2 but works on ubunytu wit 5.15 kernel

Edited December 5, 2021 by SimonF

[Squid]

[8086:15f3] 06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I225-V (rev 02)

[Squid]

BUT, is it recognized at all?  There is a post kicking around here somewhere where the user had to force via ethtool a connection at 2.5 in order to get the adapters to work at that speed (I did not).  If anything, I was expecting the Realtek to give me troubles, but it's also rock solid

[SimonF]

No not even at 1G.

[NightOps]

Sounds hopeful at least... the Z690-P D4 runs Realtek 2.5Gb.

 

Is there any kernel support (ATM or upcoming with an ETA) for the E/P core architecture?

[NightOps]

Ok, so running everything on a test bench.  The 2.5Gb onboard NIC is working fine on 6.10.0 rc2.  The only hiccup I'm having is with the iGPU.  I think I've done a decent job at following the Rocket Lake iGPU thread... here's what I've done so far:

 

Blacklisted the i915 in /boot/config/modprobe.d/i915.conf (echo "blacklist i915" > /boot/config/modprobe.d/i915.conf)

Installed Intel GPU Top app

Added "i915.force_probe=4680" to /boot/config/go

 

When I check for /dev/dri, the directory does not exist.  My parity is in the process of rebuilding/syncing, so I haven't tried rebooting yet since trying the above steps.  If I try to run intel_gpu_top it returns:

"No device filter specified and no discrete/integrated i915 devices found"

 

What did I miss?  What did I screw up?

[NightOps]

Evidently I just needed to reboot.  I now see /dev/dri, and the corresponding 3 subdirectories.  When I add it as a Device to the Plex container I now have the option to enable HW acceleration/encoding.  When viewing content from my Plex container, I can see in Plex Dashboard that it's now hardware transcoding.  Damn...thing is smooth as silk compared to my old Windows server