I bought a router for when I do my unraid set up but I only bought a 4 port router, I was wondering if I bought a switch and ran it like the following if it would work.

 

 

 

 

 

Modem > 4 port router > main pc/xbox/internet switch/living room PC (switch) > HTPC/Unraid server

 

Will the switch just act as giving me extra ports from my router?or should I switch the living room PC and the unraid server connections around so the unraid server goes directly to my router instead of through a switch? Thanks for any help.

 

Edit: I also plan on having a couple smaller NAS machines to back up data on my unraid server, or would it be ok to trust a unraid server with a 40TB collection of HD tv and movies and just have a couple of pre cleared ready disks laying around incase of failure.

I'm no expert but don't see why not. I have a 2 port router and 2 switches (one connected to each port of the router). So,

 

Router port 1 to 4 port switch then to PC1, PC2 and Unraid Server

Router port2 to second 4 port switch then to Laptop, Dune media streamer, etc

 

Everything "sees" everything else on the network and I stream full uncompressed BD rips from my Unraid server to my Dune media player with this configuration - no probs. 

I'm no expert but don't see why not. I have a 2 port router and 2 switches (one connected to each port of the router). So,

 

Router port 1 to 4 port switch then to PC1, PC2 and Unraid Server

Router port2 to second 4 port switch then to Laptop, Dune media streamer, etc

 

Everything "sees" everything else on the network and I stream full uncompressed BD rips from my Unraid server to my Dune media player with this configuration - no probs. 

You'll find most of us have configurations like you propose.  In fact, the router can be a 100Mb/s and the switch a 1000Mb/s.  All the high speed devices connect to the switch, and only low speed devices connect to the router (if you even need to use its ports at all)

 

 

Will the switch just act as giving me extra ports from my router?

Essentially, yes.

 

or should I switch the living room PC and the unraid server connections around so the unraid server goes directly to my router instead of through a switch? Thanks for any help.

Unless your router has Gigabit lan ports, I would only make one connection to the router - from the switch.  Make sure that you buy a Gigabit switch in order to achieve the best possible transfer speeds within your local network

Alright thanks guys but can someone reply to this?

 

Edit: I also plan on having a couple smaller NAS machines to back up data on my unraid server, or would it be ok to trust a unraid server with a 40TB collection of HD tv and movies and just have a couple of pre cleared ready disks laying around incase of failure.

 

I would like to know if unraid is really that safe ya know.

Nothing is that safe. Backup everything that you can't replace or don't want to replace There have been a lot of cases of a second drive failing while a replacement drive is being rebuilt. In this case, the contents both drives are lost.

it should be fine...

 

i have from the internet >==> a craptastic SMC modem/firewall/router >==> linksys e3000 router. that has 1 HTPC, a ps3 and a 360 on it and a Cisco business class switch Gb switch.

 

the Cisco only has other switches on it (3 switches and 2 routers). it has 1 trednet 8 port in the server room, 1 netgear FS108 in the computer room, another FS108 that has the woman's PC, one of my desktops and a printer on it. the E3000 going to internet and a WRT610N that is running DD-WRT going to a second WRT610n setup as a bridge with another PS3, 2HTPC's, and 360.

 

I probably am a prime candidate for hard wiring my house and 24 port switch... but it goes to show you can have a mess of switches and still transfer at full gigabit speeds.

 

as far as backups... I am going build a second unraid box and sync the data i don't want to loose.

 

I am going to keep it turned off and  then every other Monday I'll have it power up and sync the shares on 2 boxes that i want backed up.

 

I'll probably never need to "use" the second unRAID box.. but it is good to have for both the back up of files and as a back up server, and if box one goes down (or loses drives)... i can turn on box two while i fix box one.

Alright thanks guys but can someone reply to this?

 

Edit: I also plan on having a couple smaller NAS machines to back up data on my unraid server, or would it be ok to trust a unraid server with a 40TB collection of HD tv and movies and just have a couple of pre cleared ready disks laying around incase of failure.

 

I would like to know if unraid is really that safe ya know.

 

Only you can really decide what backup strategy (if any) to adopt. Everyone will have thier own views. However, to help ypu make a decision, just remember that with an Unraid server, if one disc fails, it can esaily be replaced with no loss of data. If two disc fail, then the worst case scenario is that you would lose the data on those discs but not the remaining discs. This is one major advantage of Unraid, because with a "conventional" Raid array, data is striped accross multiple discs so if two discs fail, all data in the entire array would be lost.

 

Personally I don't bother with my movie collection - I have the optical media as a back up in any case. What I consider to be criictal data is stored and synchronised on 2 PCS, backed up on my Unraid server and again, at an off site location. You have to weigh up the time and cost of maintaining back up copies against the time and cost of losing the data.

Alright, to DGA who said about replacing a drive and having a second fail during that time. Is it possible to run two parity drives to protect against this?

Not at this point in time.

 

It has been mentioned as a possible future possibility.