New Unraid build


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Hi Unraiders, 

I am in the process of creating a mid ranged unraid server that has the capacity to host more than 10 hard drives ( i will buy UNRAID PRO License from the start ), the main purpose of this build is data storage for pictures and videos (server user is a professional photographer), initial budget is around 1700$ and hard drives  will be added quarterly, I new to servers and raids but not new to hardware and not afraid to get my hands dirty. initial build that I had in mind


CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G Processor ( or better 5750G) 
CPU cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock AM4 X570 Steel
RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 ECC Server ram
Cache SSD: WD_BLACK 500GB SN770 NVMe
POWER SUPPLY: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 850W
CASE: Cooler Master HAF X


hard drives I am thinking to buy ( I may start with 3 or 4 ) :  

Western Digital 10TB WD Red Plus (WD101EFBX) 
Seagate IronWolf 10TB NAS Internal (ST10000VN0008) 
Toshiba N300 16TB NAS HDWG31GXZSTA


questions I have regarding unraid : 
1- Lost a piece or all hardware ( what's the difference if we lost CPU, RAM, motherboard, raid card, Power supply) ? 
2- Dead flash memory ( can we have a hot backup ?can I have 2 flash's at a time  ) 
3- Are hard drive hot swappable ? with system up ?
4- What happens if we have a sudden shut down ( lose of power ), how easy is it to recover from that ?  can it damage the whole thing?  
5- What's the process for dead hard drives replacement ? 
6- Safe temperature for device and idle temps ? 
7- Will cache drive will be in the middle between drives and users ? lets say my cache drive is 500 gb and that my daily usage of data is 300-480 gb a day 80gb will be sent to the unraid server each 4 hours or so, how the cache work  will be both stored in cache and in side the drives ? what if a pc needs a file that was sent to the server today will the cache be used for read and write ? 
8- do we need ECC memory ? the whole idea of my build to have a Ryzen pro is for that ? 

 

Use case is like the below picture, each editor will be connected to the Unraid server via a switch we will have multiple pc accessing the server at a time and coping and writing data from the server.  312859942_myserver.thumb.png.00a53635352fe31cdfb9e2b0902583d4.png

 

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  1. Any hardware can be changed including all and assuming no compatibility issues Unraid should just boot up and find your disks if they are there and your flash drive with its configuration is intact. The only likely compatibility issue is RAID cards, which are NOT recommended with Unraid. Unraid IS NOT RAID.
  2. You should always have a current backup of flash. My Servers plugin will keep a copy on Unraid cloud, and/or you can download a zipped copy of flash from the webUI. You cannot have multiple flash drives named UNRAID connected at the same time, so no "hot" backup.
  3. No point in doing hot swap with array or pool devices because Unraid will not do anything with a disk until you assign it, and you cannot change disk assignments while the array is started. This is actually a feature since it gives you multiple options on how to recover from multiple scenarios. Hot swap, if supported by hardware, can be used with Unassigned Devices, such as for making backups.
  4. Any writes that haven't been flushed might be missed. Typically parity might be slightly out-of-sync when this happens which is why unclean shutdowns always cause a non-correcting parity check on restart.
  5. Shutdown, replace disk, reboot, assign new disk to the same slot, start array to begin rebuild. More details with multiple scenarios in the wiki: https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Storage_Management#Replacing_disks
  6. Disk temperatures are monitored and warning thresholds can be set. Plugins to monitor CPU and mobo temp.
  7. Cache can be used in multiple ways, but each file will exist on a pool (cache) or on the array, not both. Each user share has settings to control how it uses cache. Often pool will be a temporary storage for writing files before they get permanently moved to the array. Some user shares can be kept permanently on pool for better performance. Lots more details in the Wiki: https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Storage_Management#Pool_.28cache.29_Operations
  8. ECC not required but nice to have. Definitely possible to have RAM problems that aren't detected otherwise which can of course cause all kinds of problems including corrupt data.
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