build unraid server?

[snowy-shaman6239]

hi at all,

 

I wanted to move my plex server to unraid. so I have to format my existing drives, right? when done, I can copy my media files from backup to the freshly formatted unraid HDDs. Is it recommended to NOT include parity on first fill-up? so drive speeds will not be decreased by parity?

I would like to copy media at best speeds (160 MB/s) and then activate parity when all files are copied to the new location.

is that possible?

[Frank1940]

Yes.  Just don't assign the parity drive until you have finished the copy.  (When you do assign a drives to be parity and start the array, Unraid will imediately begin to built parity on that drive.  It takes about two hours per TB of the capacity of the parity drive.)   I would recommend that you maintain those old plex drives as a backup until you have parity built on your Unraid server. 

[snowy-shaman6239]

thanks for your quick reply. just "inserting" the old plex HDDs into unraid is impossible due to unraids file system, I guess. so I have to find a way to copy the contents from one HDD to another, right?

[Frank1940]

It depends a bit.  Have a look at the Unassigned Devices plugin as it can mount disk that have certain formatting schemes.  

 

          https://forums.unraid.net/topic/92462-unassigned-devices-managing-disk-drives-and-remote-shares-outside-of-the-unraid-array/

 

and the Unassigned Devices Plus plugin which adds to  the list of supported file formats.

 

       https://forums.unraid.net/topic/92462-unassigned-devices-managing-disk-drives-and-remote-shares-outside-of-the-unraid-array/

 

As long the disks are not a part of RAID setup, the odds are good that you read those Plex disks. 

 

EDIT:  I just realized that both Plugins are supported in the same Support thread...

Edited August 12, 2023 by Frank1940

[snowy-shaman6239]

the original HDDs are windows formatted NTFS disks that I would like to integrate without formatting.

[itimpi]

Just now, snowy-shaman6239 said:

the original HDDs are windows formatted NTFS disks that I would like to integrate without formatting.

The UD plugin can mount them outside the Unraid array for reading/writing.    However if you want them to be part of the Unraid array then Unraid has to partition and format them (which wipes any existing content).

[Lolight]

12 hours ago, snowy-shaman6239 said:

thanks for your quick reply. just "inserting" the old plex HDDs into unraid is impossible due to unraids file system, I guess. so I have to find a way to copy the contents from one HDD to another, right?

You can also copy data over your network.

It's not the fastest but might be the easiest way.

Check out "Spaceinvader One" videos on youtube for tutorials on Unraid.

[snowy-shaman6239]

I bought an external enclosure where I can put one disk at a time and copy it over. Will certainly take me a week. But writing speeds should be unaffected when I do not have parity ON, right?

[itimpi]

36 minutes ago, snowy-shaman6239 said:

But writing speeds should be unaffected when I do not have parity ON, right?

 

Yes - you should get the writing speed of the disk you are currently writing to (as Unraid does not do striping).