Migrating from Windows 10 - am I missing something?

[Marbles]

Hi all,

For the past 6-ish years I've been running a media server based on windows, initially with Storage Spaces and eventually with Stablebit Drivepool and Scanner. The machine runs Radarr, Sonarr, Jackett and a Plex Media Server.

Lately I've decided to move to a different OS, and after a fair bit of research I've landed on Unraid.

I'm fairly technically inclined, but my experience with OS's other than windows is minimal at best.

My current setup is a single 10TB WD Red Plus and 3 8TB Seagate Barracuda's (plus 2 4TB WD Purples which I will not carry on to the new build), with an i3-7100 and a B250 motherboard, in a Fractal Design Node 804. Windows is running of a 500GB Samsung 980 NVME SSD.

I also have a couple of 16tb Seagate Exos drives on the way, which will replace the 2 WD Purples in my current build.

 

I've created a "checklist" of sorts, and would appreciate any input you guys may have considering anything I may have missed.

 

My plan is as follows:

1. Replace the 4TB's (already cleared from existing files) with the new 16TB's.

2. Create an array from the 16TB's, with one of them acting as Parity, with Turbowrite enabled (as suggested in this thread:)

3. Setup Sonarr, Radarr, Jackett in docker and make sure they are working as intended.

4. Mount the 10TB and 8TB's as unassigned drives, move the files from them to the array, and add them to the array after they are emptied.

5. Add the SSD as a cache drive.

6. Import Sonarr and Radarr libraries.

 

Does the above sound like a reasonable course of action, or is there anything I should be doing differently?

 

Thanks!

[trurl]

You should install cache before setting up dockers, you want them on fast pool for performance and so your array can spindown since these files are always open 

[Marbles]

Thanks @trurl, I didn't consider the spindown issue, and will definitely set up the dockers on the cache drive. I still have a lot to learn in regards to dockers, as they are a completely new concept for me.

The reason I wanted to set up the cache drive after setting everything else up is that it currently holds my Windows 10 install, and I wanted to have it as a fallback in case I completely mess up the Unraid install and decide to revert to my current setup.

 

I guess I'll just create an image of the drive and back it up, so I can revert that way.

[trurl]

You can install dockers to the array and move them to cache later, it is only slightly more complicated that way. Since nothing can move open files you have to disable Docker and VM Manager in Settings before any of that can be moved.

[Marbles]

I'd rather do it the right way, so I ordered a new 500gb nvme ssd which I will use as the cache drive, and keep the old one with the current Windows install as a backup in case I run into problems.

 

Just one more question - I'll be following Ibracorp & TRaSH's guide on setting up the shares and dockers.

They don't really mention installing the dockers to the cache, other than configuring the "data" share to use cache.

I assume that by following this guide, my dockers will be effectively installed on the cache drive, as you suggested, or am I missing something?

I apologize if this is a very basic question, but Linux and Unraid specifically are uncharted territory for me, and I want to make sure I'm doing it right the first time 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Marbles

[trurl]

The shares related to dockers and VMs are appdata, domains, system. These are cache:prefer by default which will get them created on cache if cache exists.

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Shares#Default_Shares

[JonathanM]

31 minutes ago, Marbles said:

I'll be following Ibracorp & TRaSH's guide

Be aware that they do not follow some of the long standing traditions of how to set up and work with media shares, so you will need to educate yourself on the differences if you try to use other existing guides in tandem with their setup.

 

There really isn't a right and wrong way for the most part, just be aware you are probably in the minority setting things up that way. There are very good reasons to set things up the way they do, so don't think I'm trying to change your path.

 

Best to learn how things work so you can troubleshoot with some knowledge instead of blindly following guides.

[Marbles]

Thanks @JonathanM!

 

Are there any downsides or disadvantages to setting things up their way compared to the traditional way?

 

I totally understand what you're saying about learning rather than blindly following guides, and I've looked at the extensive documentation available for unraid, but honestly it's a bit overwhelming for someone who is completely unfamiliar with the basics of Linux, which is why I'm looking for a beginner-friendly "hand holding" step-by-step guide to get me up and running.

 

Can you recommend something similiar to TRaSH's guide that follows the long standing traditions you refer to, or point me in the right direction?

 

Cheers!

Edited July 21, 2022 by Marbles
spelling

[Marbles]

After reading around a bit more, or rather educating myself as @JonathanM suggested, my understanding is that the "proper" or "common" way of setting this up would be as follows:

1. create the following user shares: /mnt/user/downloads, /mnt/user/movies, /mnt/user/tvshows

2. In qbittorrent (my preferred client), set /data to /mnt/user/downloads (in which I will create /complete and /incomplete folders)

3. In Radarr & Sonarr set /data to /mnt/user/downloads (and point to the /complete folder in the apps themselves), and /media to /mnt/user/movies and /tvshows)

 

Does this look right?

[JonathanM]

That is the traditional way of doing things in Unraid. There is a reason for the new methods though, here is the main example.

 

The single share subfolder methods take advantage of linked files to allow multiple apps to see the same file with multiple paths, for example when a torrent is done downloading, instead of copying it to the media destination and taking up double the space until the torrent is deleted, the same file can be linked to both torrent client and final consumption destination.

 

Whether the space saving and extra complexity is worth it to you is a question I can't answer. If you only keep torrents until 1:1 or the equivalent, then it's probably not worth bothering. If you try to keep massive amounts of content seeding, then it's probably worth figuring out and maintaining the more complex setup.