Okay... so what is the best strategy to relocate just my media files to my new Unraid server. I will stipulate in advance:

I am patient, and this doesn't have to happen fast IF using a slower transfer method is better/safer

I would like to convert all videos to h.265 to reduce the files sizes should I do this before or after transfer?)

I have a fair amount of Apple content so I assume I would have to account for that when converting to H.265

I have 32TB (8TBx4 of available storage now (plus a single 8TB parity drive), and I plan to preclear and add the drives from the Synology afterwards (10TBx5 plus 8TBx4, all IronWolf NAS). Its barebones, and other than some cache pools, I don't have anything I couldn't wipe and start over.

Server: AMD 5600x CPU, 32GB DDR4, Dual M.2 dives for cache (plus drives specified above)

Synology: only 1GS transfer rate on Synology (DS 916+ with 8GB RAM, plus DX 503 expansion chassis)

What would you recommend?

I'm sure there are better ways, especially if by chance your Synology disks are each singles with valid file systems on them, but since we don't know how you've got things configured, here's how I would go about it:

 

Create desired shares on UNRAID and use rsync to transfer files categorically over the network.

 

For example if you have a large Apple Music library and create a "music" share on UNRAID, you would proceed to copy all the music files from your Synology device to that share as one session.  Repeat for TV shows, photos, etc as required.  That way if something breaks along the way you can easily find out where things left off, double-check the latest file edition for corruption, and continue from there.

 

For mounting shares on UNRAID check https://docs.unraid.net/legacy/FAQ/transferring-files-from-a-network-share-to-unraid/

I usually mount network shares in the /mnt directory on UNRAID but you may choose anywhere you like.

 

rsync can show progress, verify and then safely remove source files with a single command, such as

 

rsync -av --progress --remove-source-files /mnt/synmusic/* .

 

This copies and verifies, then erases the source files.  If you want to skip the --remove-source-files option you'll retain a backup of each file until you know everything is safe.

 

That command assumes you're currently in the UNRAID destination share before executing - e.g. cd /mnt/user/music.  "synmusic" is the name I chose to use for the mounted music share from the Synology device.  If you have just one master share from your Synology device and just a bunch of subdirectories, perhaps "synology" is a more appropriate label, then your rsync command might reference /mnt/synology/music/*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks - would you convert to H.265 before or after the move?

1 hour ago, Dojimaster said:

Thanks - would you convert to H.265 before or after the move?

 

Never having done a conversion to H.265, I am not aware of how the physical resources (CPU, GPU, etc.) affect the time required.  You really  need to figure that out for the two servers where you would being doing it.  Of course, you will also need a file size reduction factor to figure out how much time would be saved in the transfer if you did it before making the transfer.  

 

You are the only one who can put together the numbers to decide where to do the conversion.  (Personally, I would probably not do the conversion on the existing files but set things up so that all future files were saved in H.265 unless there is another reason why the conversion is desirable.)