New to Unraid and Have Questions

[W1nks]

Hi, I've just started reading up on what Unraid is and have some questions.  I am looking to build a small Unraid system starting with (2) 2TB HDs and (1) 3TB HD and using SMB.  I would then plan on adding more 3TB HDs as needed.  Here are my questions:

 

1. Is speed going to be fine using Unraid?  I plan on just using it for streaming HD Videos (Some 1080p with DTS-HD Audio) and possibly Sick Beard.

 

2.  Can I just use the SATA ports on the motherboard?  If the motherboard was to fail would I be able to retrieve my data still?

 

3. What are drive cages need for?  Most cases have plenty of areas for holding the HDs.  I was just wondering why they seem so important.

 

4. Can you add hard drives whenever you would like by just simply inserting the new HD and boot up the machine?

 

5. I read a little bit about how 3TB HDs were not fully supported yet.  Is this coming in version 5?

 

6. How power efficient is Unraid?  Can you have it go to sleep after a certain time and then WOL later when needed?

 

That's all the questions I have for now.  I am sure more will come up as I get these answered and do more research.  Thanks for all the help!

[jeff.lebowski]

1) Yes, transfer speeds are fine for streaming any content across a gigabit network. If you are not already equipped for a GB LAN, do so, or simply copy or cut the file(s) to a local disk, then watch.

 

2) a) Of course. b) Most likely, but I'll defer to others.

 

3) Cages allow for easy replacement of disks, but also to maximize available space. Five disks in the space of three optical drives = win. Cages generally have their own fan as well. More air is good.

 

4) Pretty much. The disks should be tested first, using the pre_clear script found in the forums. But once they're pre_cleared, they are simply added to the array via the controls within the unRAID OS.

 

5) No clue, not interested yet as the price of 3TB disks is not in the "sweet spot". For me, anyway.

 

6) A lot of users have posted their power usage numbers in the build thread section. Since all disks are mainly sitting idle 99% of the time, it's usually just the fans and processor running. Don't skimp on the PSU, though. Lots of disks require lots of power on startup. A cool idea would be a "turbo" PSU, that allowed for 800 watts at startup, then throttled back to 200 watts when the disks go idle. Pipe dream...

[BRiT]

5) Support for drives larger than 2.2TB has been in the 5.0 beta series for some time now.

 

6) My unraid system stays powered on 24/7/365. When the drives are idle they spin-down. I have power management enabled so with the cpu idle, the system draws around 35-40 watts total as measured from the wall. This was with an Intel i3 530 cpu and 8 GB ddr3.

[mbryanr]

Hi,

1. Is speed going to be fine using Unraid?  I plan on just using it for streaming HD Videos (Some 1080p with DTS-HD Audio) and possibly Sick Beard.

 

2.  If the motherboard was to fail would I be able to retrieve my data still?

 

 

1. No problems streaming multiple clients. I can stream 2 <maybe more but never tried> There is a thread around here showing test results of streaming to multiple clients.

 

2 Yes.

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Replacing_the_Motherboard_in_Your_unRAID_Server

 

Found the video streaming tests:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=9746.msg93536#msg93536

[W1nks]

Thanks for all the quick responses!  A few more questions:

 

1.  It sounds like you assign different discs for media shares (disc1\media\movies, disc2\media\tv, disc2\backup\documents, etc.).  Can you just set it so it just puts the data in the opens spots?  I'm not sure if I'm describing this right but I would like to put in my 3 discs (1 parity, 2 storage) and create a share for 'Media' and 'Backup'.  Do you need to assign specific discs for the shares or can they just be all placed on the first disc and then once that's full it automatically starts using disc 2, then disc 3, etc.?  Hopefully you understood what I was trying to ask.

 

2.  Since I will be mostly just using it for a media server could I get away with a lower powered dual core CPU and 2-4GB or RAM?  I want something with a little speed but don't want to spend too much if I don't need it.

 

3.  What is "User Level Security" in the Plus version?  Just setting up usernames with different privileges on different shares (such as read, read/write, etc.)?

 

Again, thanks for all the help.  I wasn't expecting to get answers this fast so this was really nice.  It sounds like I better document all my hard drives and settings in case of a failure.

[jeff.lebowski]

1) the disks are filled as needed by the allocation method. It's complicated and I don't fully understand it. I use high water with a minimum free space of 31457280. This is approximately double the size of my largest file. When I add a completely empty disk to the array, that disk begins to fill until it reaches half full (IIRC), then the other disks begin to fill again. I think...

Basically, you designate shares such as TV, Movies, Music, etc. The software fills each disk as determined by your allocation method.

 

2) Low power CPUs are all that's needed for what you want.

 

3) Sounds like you have the correct explanation, but I don't use it.

[mbryanr]

1. You can create disk or user shares.  I think of a user share as a form of JBOD with additional option. You can include or exclude any disk in the array.  <The parity drive is not included in any share>

Three choices in how you wish to fill your array:

a.  Highwater - progressively selects which drive to write to.

b.  Most Free - writes to the drive with the most available space in the share

c. Fill-up (Disk1....n ) as each fills up.

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Un-Official_UnRAID_Manual#User_shares_2

 

2. low power single or dual core are sufficient (I happen to have a Sempron 140).  Check out Raj's prototype designs and the UCD thread for other user builds

3. http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Un-Official_UnRAID_Manual#User_level_security

[W1nks]

Thanks for all the help.  One last quick question.  Is there a preferred allocation method that most people use?  Or is it just whatever you prefer?

[mbryanr]

I believe that would be highwater....or at least that is what I use with no issues.

[Johnm]

Thanks for all the help.  One last quick question.  Is there a preferred allocation method that most people use?  Or is it just whatever you prefer?

 

On my media unRAID I use most free to try and spread the media out across more drives. that way I can stream to 5 media clients and not worry about trying to play 5 blurays off the same disk at once.. that is because everyone tends to watch the newest movies added to the server all at the same time.

 

on my backup unraid, I use fill-up to pack the data into as few disks as possible.

[Traxxus]

I would definitely go low power, I am using a Sempron 140 as well, its a single core 2.7 GHz, with just 2 GB of ram and it's just dandy.  Cheap too, I believe I got a combo deal on sale, mobo+cpu for 70 bucks.

 

As for allocation methods I just do it myself, put all the movies in a Movies folder, TV shows in a TV show folder (XBMC can use multiple sources so it doesn't matter if you have them separated), and stuff I'm storing in Backup.  I can see why people may use it if they start out with a large amount of hard drives, but I buy my hard drives as I go since they are getting cheaper every day.      

[Tybio]

I would definitely go low power, I am using a Sempron 140 as well, its a single core 2.7 GHz, with just 2 GB of ram and it's just dandy.  Cheap too, I believe I got a combo deal on sale, mobo+cpu for 70 bucks.

 

As for allocation methods I just do it myself, put all the movies in a Movies folder, TV shows in a TV show folder (XBMC can use multiple sources so it doesn't matter if you have them separated), and stuff I'm storing in Backup.  I can see why people may use it if they start out with a large amount of hard drives, but I buy my hard drives as I go since they are getting cheaper every day.      

 

It helps when you start doing things like upgrading disks and when you use the SAB/SB/CP setup to automatically download and copy content onto the array.  Trying to manage all that by hand would be a bit of a pain.  If you are only adding content you grab yourself, then it is totally workable to manage the disks yourself.

[kizer]

As for streaming I've been able to easy stream (4) 720 streams on my setup. I would of tried more, but I well ran out of devices to stream to at that time. LOL

[neilt0]

See my sig for streaming tests.

[W1nks]

This was kind of answered about my power options but does it have a sleep mode (turning off everything, cpu, etc.)?  I am just wondering this because occasionally I will go a few days without usage or only use it for about an hour some nights so it seems like it would be most power efficient and prolong the life of my hardware if it could sleep.  Thanks for the responses!

[Traxxus]

This was kind of answered about my power options but does it have a sleep mode (turning off everything, cpu, etc.)?  I am just wondering this because occasionally I will go a few days without usage or only use it for about an hour some nights so it seems like it would be most power efficient and prolong the life of my hardware if it could sleep.  Thanks for the responses!

 

It does, depends on the motherboard whether it will work or not.