newbie questions

[znelbok]

Hey all

 

Looking at adding an unRaid system to my fully automated house.  I currently use a 12 bay enclosure with a SATA raid card in windows (raid5), but it has its limitations, such as expanding the sets as required, so these limitations bring me here after looking around at the various options.  I was looking for a drive extender option as like that in WHS, but I think this will suit me better.

 

My Questions (apologies if they are obvious or have answers somewhere, but there is so so much information here it is hard to find specific info.  2 days reading so far).

 

1. Can unRaid be expanded as required.  If I have 10 drives currently installed, can I add a new drive without having to break the "raid set" and re-create it (I know its not a raid set, but bear with me)

 

2. Can I reduce the number of drives.  I currently have four 320Gb drives installed.  I want to replace them with a single 2TB drive and remove all four from the set.

 

3. I read from a third party forum site that you can remove a drive and read it in a PC.  Is this true?  Should the system fail and I need data off  drive, can I pull a drive and look at what files are stored on it?

 

4. If a drive fails, does the system need to be shut down for the replacement drive to be installed, or if you have hot swap bays, can it be done while on-line?

 

5. How do we know a drive has failed?  What monitoring is available?  I can see that there is a web interface, but I want to be alerted to a problem, not have to regularly check.  Is SNMP support  included.  My HA system can poll the server via SNMP and get various data out of the MIB tree and then alert me on a change.  Are there other options for monitoring of the system?

 

6. Am I reading correctly that the system boots from a USB key that holds the license information as well, or is it the key just holds the license information?

 

7. Does unraid use the SMART technology built into drives these days?  Is it exposed to the user in any way (SNMP etc?)

 

Thanks - looking forward to building a 24 bay unit based on the Norco RPC-4224 case, so there will be a few more questions I am sure as I read through all the information here on the forums.

 

Mick

 

 

[joshpond]

Ok, Others may add or correct if I get any thing wrong:

 

1. Can unRaid be expanded as required.  If I have 10 drives currently installed, can I add a new drive without having to break the "raid set" and re-create it (I know its not a raid set, but bear with me)

Yes if you have the correct license that allows more disks, just add more hdds in and the array will be expanded.

 

2. Can I reduce the number of drives.  I currently have four 320Gb drives installed.  I want to replace them with a single 2TB drive and remove all four from the set.

Yes, the easiest way is probably to add the 2TB drive and copy everything over.

 

3. I read from a third party forum site that you can remove a drive and read it in a PC.  Is this true?  Should the system fail and I need data off  drive, can I pull a drive and look at what files are stored on it?

Yes, as long as the OS you are using can read reiserfs. With linux possible not sure about windows.

 

4. If a drive fails, does the system need to be shut down for the replacement drive to be installed, or if you have hot swap bays, can it be done while on-line?

Have to turn off system, add drive and then turn back on again. No hot swap. I think there is something in the roadmap for it not to be added as a feature but I could be wrong.

 

Hope that helps

 

Josh

[znelbok]

Thanks Josh - very helpful

 

I added a few more questions as you replied.

 

Mick

[cyrnel]

5. How do we know a drive has failed?  What monitoring is available?  I can see that there is a web interface, but I want to be alerted to a problem, not have to regularly check.  Is SNMP support  included.  My HA system can poll the server via SNMP and get various data out of the MIB tree and then alert me on a change.  Are there other options for monitoring of the system?

 

The web page will show an indication, and you can configure built-in and add-on packages that alert you via email/sms to conditions, normal or abnormal. Haven't seen SNMP but I haven't looked. Shouldn't be too tough to write a stub.

 

6. Am I reading correctly that the system boots from a USB key that holds the license information as well, or is it the key just holds the license information?

 

The default is unRAID boots from and holds license on a USB stick. It really doesn't affect boot time relative to all the staggered spinups, and disk ports are considered prime real-estate. Installing to disk is possible and documented but not officially supported.

 

7. Does unraid use the SMART technology built into drives these days?  Is it exposed to the user in any way (SNMP etc?)

 

Yes, back to #5. unRAID watches it. You can schedule additional watching/reporting as you like.

 

Sounds like you should download the 5.0b and give it a try. The free version supports 3 drives (2 data, 1 parity) and will provide the bulk of the experience.

[znelbok]

 

2. Can I reduce the number of drives.  I currently have four 320Gb drives installed.  I want to replace them with a single 2TB drive and remove all four from the set.

Yes, the easiest way is probably to add the 2TB drive and copy everything over.

 

Do all the drives appear as "single" drives in the system.  Being used to raid where the whole lot appears as one large drive I am curious as to how when you add a drive you can specify that you copy the data to it.

Does this mean that you direct where files are written within the system, or is this some sort of management function that is not available to the "general' user.

 

I would try it out but I do not have anything that will work.  All my drives are used on port multipliers that are supported by the raid card.  I am not wanting to break them for a test and the server needs to be available for running the house.

 

I will do a bit of searching on SNMP.  Its pretty common so it should not be hard to add.  I think its probably in the linux distro anyway (not that I know anything about linux)

 

Mick

[Johnm]

 

Do all the drives appear as "single" drives in the system.  Being used to raid where the whole lot appears as one large drive I am curious as to how when you add a drive you can specify that you copy the data to it.

Does this mean that you direct where files are written within the system, or is this some sort of management function that is not available to the "general' user.

 

there is a web gui that lets you fine tune your shares.

 

in it you can set what drives the share can and can not use.

How to use up each drive (1:fill one up and move on. 2:fill one up 1/2 way move on to next drive. after the last drive, it starts at drive 1 again, repeating utill all are 100% full 3:find the drive with the most free space and use that).

you can set at what folder depth it splits folders from one drive to the next. This is to keep you ending up with for example a DVD rip and preventing the vobs splitting to more then one drive.

 

The share would look like a large raid array to your client just like your raid5 arrays. If you let your Media share use 20 3TB drives, it would show up as a giant 60TB drive.

 

If you wanted to, you can set it to use drives 1-15 for media, drives 16-18 applications and 19-20 for back ups. In the above example, you would see a 45TB media share, a 9TB application share and a 6TB backup share.

 

you could also allow the shares to use all drives and let unRAID just put them where it thinks is best based on your criteria.

 

you can also just share out each drive if you wanted to and 20 shares..

 

You can also have hidden shares. those things the kids dont need to see..

 

I hope this helps a bit

[znelbok]

Great, it sounds like there has been a lot of thought put into it and lots of options for good control, as well as being easy with a default option to let unraid look after it.

 

Impressed

 

Thanks

 

Mick

[bobbintb]

6. Am I reading correctly that the system boots from a USB key that holds the license information as well, or is it the key just holds the license information?

 

The default is unRAID boots from and holds license on a USB stick. It really doesn't affect boot time relative to all the staggered spinups, and disk ports are considered prime real-estate. Installing to disk is possible and documented but not officially supported.

 

one thing to add, the license file it stored on the usb, but that license file is unique to that usb drive. so if somehow that usb quits working, that license will not work on another usb key.

 

also i would highly recommend giving the free version a try. i was looking for a raid type solution but didnt like not really being able to upgrade the size of my drives without having a bunch of smaller but still usable drives lying around. i found unraid as it sounded like what i wanted but wasnt sure. gave it a try and then bought the pro version. as far as network storage goes unraid is superb and i havent seen any product that even compares to it. plus the community support is fantastic.

[znelbok]

Still have some more questions, even though I have committed to a 24 drive cage - build to start in early October when the case gets here, everything else is on the floor waiting to go.

 

When I rip a BR disc, I do it on my ripping machine - This machine is not always on the network and thus I use a SATA dock for it.  Can I add a SATA dock to the unraid and hot swap a drive in and out or would I be better off having a USB-SATA dock and just use the hot swap features on USB (and slight performance hit).  How do I then transfer the data from the sneaker net drive to the unraid drives?

 

Is there a torrent client?

 

Print Server capability?

 

Backup utility - I want to be able to back up all the PC's in the network to a local drive.

 

 

[BRiT]

Yes. eSATA dock port or USB works.

 

Yes. Torrent clients are available.

 

Yes. Print server capabilities are available.

 

Yes. There are several different WinOS clients capable of backing up to unRAID.

[znelbok]

Thanks BRiT

 

When you say WinOS clients backing up to unRAID, is this something that is running on Unraid or is it just using unraid shares as a location to backup to?

 

I want something that is transparent or not at all on the WinOS machines and all running in Unraid - where it monitors the specified folders ona remote PC and then copies the files when they have changed.

 

Mick

[prostuff1]

I want something that is transparent or not at all on the WinOS machines and all running in Unraid - where it monitors the specified folders ona remote PC and then copies the files when they have changed.

I don't know of any program on unRAID that does that, except for rsync but that you will have to set up on your windows machine also.

[znelbok]

I do a little with VM's at work and at home. I have a need to run a windows server for my home automation system.

 

I did a little reading here on VM's and it would appear that I could use ESX and then have UNraid as a guest OS.

 

Now since I am using an i3 2100, will this be suitable for using as a VM host processor with having W2k3 server as a second guest or is it a littel underpowered?

 

lots of VM questions come to mind but I will keep reading before asking again.

[Johnm]

I do a little with VM's at work and at home. I have a need to run a windows server for my home automation system.

 

I did a little reading here on VM's and it would appear that I could use ESX and then have UNraid as a guest OS.

 

Now since I am using an i3 2100, will this be suitable for using as a VM host processor with having W2k3 server as a second guest or is it a littel underpowered?

 

lots of VM questions come to mind but I will keep reading before asking again.

 

yes and no..

 

NO being the safe answer.

 

the I3 does not support VT-d (or even VT-i I believe). because of this, you can not pass hardware directly though to the guest OS. You are also limited to 32bit guests in an emulated mode.

 

Because you you are using 32bit guests, you could put 2k3 and unraid on top of esxi by assigning individual drives.

 

this would be a bit of a PITA for maintenance.

 

on top of that. ESX is very picky about hardware. you would need to verify the rest of your hardware as compatible.

 

it is usually easier to plan an ESX box from the ground up using a shopping list from the HCL.

[wsume99]

When you say WinOS clients backing up to unRAID, is this something that is running on Unraid or is it just using unraid shares as a location to backup to?

 

I want something that is transparent or not at all on the WinOS machines and all running in Unraid - where it monitors the specified folders ona remote PC and then copies the files when they have changed.

I actually just got this up and running on my server.  You can use rsync to do this. It is already part of unraid unraid. You'll need to install rsync server on your windows machines - just Google cwrsync and you'll find instructions on how to install it on your windows machines. You can then write a script that runs on the unraid server on a defined schedule (aka cron job) to wake your windows machines (using etherwake) and then backup the files from the windows machines onto your server. It works great and it's not that difficult to get up and running.

[trurl]

...Google cwrsync and you'll find instructions on how to install it on your windows machines....

I am using DeltaCopy as rsync server on Windows.

[wsume99]

...Google cwrsync and you'll find instructions on how to install it on your windows machines....

I am using DeltaCopy as rsync server on Windows.

I tried using DeltaCopy first but had trouble getting it working properly. The important thing is you just need to get rsync running on a windows machine somehow - it doesn't mater if it's DeltaCopy or cwrsync.

[znelbok]

so on unraid there is a rsync client that accepts connections from the rsync clients on each of the nodes on the network?

 

I though it would be the other way around, the server resides on unraid and a client on the nodes that you wish to have backed up.

 

I will give them a go whne the system is up and running

 

Mick

[dgaschk]

The rsync server does not run by default. There is also an rsync client on unRAID so you can run the server elsewhere.

[Joe L.]

so on unraid there is a rsync client that accepts connections from the rsync clients on each of the nodes on the network?

 

I though it would be the other way around, the server resides on unraid and a client on the nodes that you wish to have backed up.

 

I will give them a go whne the system is up and running

 

Mick

unRAID has both the rsync client and server.  The server must be configured and started by you (there is no graphical interface).  Once running, you can invoke the client software from anywhere else.

 

I start my rsync server on my second server with this line (you can add it to your config/go script)

rsync --daemon --config=/boot/config/rsyncd.conf

 

The config file (/boot/config/rsyncd.conf) looks like this:

uid            = root

gid            = root

use chroot      = no

max connections = 4

pid file        = /var/run/rsyncd.pid

timeout        = 600

log file        = /var/log/rsyncd.log

 

[mnt]

    path = /mnt

    comment = /mnt files

    read only = FALSE

 

On my first server ( tower) I invoke commands like this to sync specific user-shares to the second server (tower2).  I cd to the /mnt directory and give relative paths.  You can use whatever options you prefer... these are some that work for me.

cd /mnt

rsync -rlpgoDvrH --timeout=120 --progress --size-only user/Pictures tower2::mnt/user/

rsync -rlpgoDvrH --timeout=120 --progress --size-only user/Movies tower2::mnt/user/

 

Joe L.

 

[S80_UK]

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On my first server ( tower) I invoke commands like this to sync specific user-shares to the second server (tower2).  I cd to the /mnt directory and give relative paths.  You can use whatever options you prefer... these are some that work for me.

cd /mnt

rsync -rlpgoDvrH --timeout=120 --progress --size-only user/Pictures tower2::mnt/user/

rsync -rlpgoDvrH --timeout=120 --progress --size-only user/Movies tower2::mnt/user/

 

Joe L.

 

 

Is the second r a typo?  Should it be t?  (or have I misunderstood something?)

 

cd /mnt

rsync -rlpgoDvtH --timeout=120 --progress --size-only user/Pictures tower2::mnt/user/

rsync -rlpgoDvtH --timeout=120 --progress --size-only user/Movies tower2::mnt/user/

 

I found that my backups were being overwritten each time because the timestamp of the original file was not preserved.  The t fixes that.

 

EDIT: (answering my own question) I wasn't using the --size-only option since I wanted to capture date changes.  However, if I omit --size-only then I need to add the t to ensure the correct timestamps are applied to the backups