Need advice on a new install/setup

[markboler]

I am about to buy a new mini-system, and I intend to use UNRAID for it.

I want to buy a rack mount intel 13 or 14th gen system.  I am thinking of that CPU with the integrated graphics, 2 nvme SSD pci4 (or5) drives, DDR5 64 gig of RAM, 2 NICs etc. 

 

I want this server to host 10 or more Docker containers and some VMs. I only want to use this system to do that. Host Docker and VMs.

I have a synology NAS with 70 tb of space to store stuff into.

My primary use of this new server will be to host Plex in Docker along with some of the ARR docker apps as well. 

My thinking is to have 2 NVME SSDs of 2 tb each, 1 to host the images on, and the VM virtual disks, etc. and not sure what to use the other one for.  I have no room in the case for spinning disks on this one, but I suppose I could expand it to 2 nvmes of larger size and 2 SATA 2.5 inch SSds for other things if I need it.

It has integrated UHD intel grpahics so that I can use it for transcoding with Plex. So I figured the 64gig of DDR5 RAM would help with that too.

So my question is, what would be recommended for me to set it up?  What drives should I use as array disks? Parity? Do I need parity since I can always host my images in the NAS and copy them back and forth if needed.

Should I have some parity set up for config info for the containers, etc.?  Should I have a cache disk? I think I will only have SSDs in this system so not sure I need that.

What does everyone recommend? I am new to UNRAID but like what I have seen so far.  But I have not purchased the hardware yet so I could change the specs on that as long as I keep it within a reasonable budget.  Given that I am not going to use this thing for anything except hosting VMs and Docker containers, and that I want to put my Plex on it. I also have to have it fit in a 1U rack with only 12 inch depth to fit in my home rack. And I don't want it to consume too much power - hopefully not more than 200 watts or maybe 300.

My current thinking is a micro itx board sitting in a 1U mini rack enclosure.

Thanks

 

[Scheev]

Parity is always a good idea for data safety. Unraid stores the docker data in a share folder called appdata, if you want that backed up then parity is important. Same with the array data. But if all that data was suddenly gone and that doesn't bother you then its risky but could be done

 

The beauty of unraid is mix and matching sizes and types of drives into an array, so you could conceivably have a mix of SSDs in the array and it wouldn't really matter.

 

A cache is useful for ssd -> hdds because when you download a movie or tv it can be done initially to the cache. Then later moved when you are not accessing it. Thus speeding up the process by writing to the cache first and moved later. In terms of all ssds? maybe not as useful. Maybe could be setup to go nvme -> SATA ssd? smaller benefit but still useful.

 

Now a few TB of SSD storage right now might seem like a lot of storage but I could forsee that becoming a problem down the road as you accumulate shows/movies because the arr suite makes it dead easy. So I would consider rethinking how much storage you would want for a media server.

 

My advice: Definitely have a parity drive, and increase the storage capacity.

[Bizquick]

Wow seams like a lot of power just to be the front end server to run some dockers and VM's but I guess it depends on the VM's.

From what you said you have your Synology NAS as your storage array. If your keeping that for your media storage. You should be okay with your setup. There is many ways you can do your connections to connect your data to your dockers or VM's The simple way is just creating SMB shares with Unassigned devices.  Years ago when I was getting my feet wet with unraid. I needed to transition my setup from FreeNAS. And all my Plex Shares I just mounted it with a SMB shares till I figured out how I wanted to setup my Data array in unraid and copy my data.

Its wasn't the best way I wouldn't recommend it on 1Gig nics if your going to stream 4K video. Worked fine for me on most cases. But at that time I don't think 4k video was even a thing. So I would say it depends on your I/O Speed and NIC speed for that kind of setup. Anyway. For what your spec'ed out I would do what what your planning put the 2 NVME's in the array and make one a parity. You can put your dockers and VM's all in your array because it sounds like your data is going to be in the synology NAS. you will want some sort of backup in case your parity was to fail you in the event the other NVME fails. You could find a script to backup the array to a SMB mounted share or write one. If you dont want to script anything and your not using to much memory for hosted VM's you could also use one of the many backup dockers to back up your array to your Data synology box. this would be one way of setting things up. It would work fine till you could build something to have 1 box do all of it. If I had this Idea your doing I would run like this for a while till I could build 1 nice box running unraid. And when done find some extra data drive I could stick in the Synology box and setup a script to back up the unraid arrays and turn off and on the synololgy box. many ways to do stuff like that though. I think this is the only way I could see using a Mini with some NVME's and unraid. And memory that's a good amount of memory unless your VM's need a large amount. if this was me and I just needed this for a Media front end like your talking about. I could do this with 32gigs easy. 16 gigs would be tight. But I might be able to pull that all if I didnt have VM's. Oh and I would use ZFS format on any of the array drives. it will just slow it down.

With parity you will be in good shape.

 

Good luck though. I might try to build something similar with some of my older hardware to get an Idea how that might work out. I just would have to sub the Synology with something else in my old hardware bins I got some Qnaps the company retired this year. I might use that in my test case. Oh my mini would be much older though only a Dell 7060 with 32gig ram. But I can make something similar.

[Vr2Io]

23 hours ago, markboler said:

My current thinking is a micro itx board sitting in a 1U mini rack enclosure.

Recommend go to minpc route, if you don't need spinner disk for capacity. As you need Plex and hardware transcoding then go to Intel platform.

 

I use Morefine S500 minipc, with 64G RAM, two M2, and two LAN to host docker only, use for home automation, CCTV and TV recording, it serve me several month well.

 

To summarize

. Docker size only ~6GB, I put them to ram disk.

. CCTV ~12GB for three day, also store in ram disk and finally archived to M2.

. The 2TB M2 is the storage for all, other 256GB M2 was for backup purpose, to backup appdata, Unraid USB image etc.

. Zigbee USB dongle to connect Zigbee device.

 

Really compact and power efficient ~20w, no need build/DIY.

 

You need evaluate does minipc can fullfil your requirement, my purpose / planning have much different with you.

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Vr2Io

[markboler]

Those are all really great replies. Thank you to everyone. This helps me a lot. I will use everyone's suggestions.

 

[Bizquick]

Just to let you know I tried something similar to this for about 5 days last week.

It actually worked just fine.

I use a Qnap TS-1283XU-RP  (it the smallest Qnap Work retired.) I used 8 -- 6TB NAS drives in it that. And let the Qnap os make a raid 5 array (I didnt know the QNAP OS very well so that took me a little bit to understand and figure out. And still dont know much about it) But this NAS I had 2 options for the NIC connections 1 gig or 10gig. I used both the 1 Gig NIC's for my first test. Now for the Unraid frontend like I said my test hardware is limited. But I did unraid on a little Dell Mini Optiplex 7060 with a i7 8700T 32Gig's ram. I used a 2TB nvme and 1 Sata 2TB SSD.

I used the Mini to run the dockers (Plex, Radarr, Sonarr, SabNZBd, etc)  in unraid I did SMB Mounts to the Qnap Data Share. (The Datashare had all my folder shares set to what I needed) Now when it came to the unraid box. I tried 2 ways. First time I just wanted to make it very simple. So I used the NVME and the Sata SSD in the main array and didnt waist time with a cache array.  This worked for the most part. But I think long term its expensive and it felt strange to me If I had 2 NVME slots I would have left it alone. But in my case with the 2 interfaces were different. I ended up changing it up. Plus NVME's cost more and I didnt like the downloads doing all those writes and deletes. I ended up splitting it. I created a cache pool with the NVME and then a data array with the SSD. I didnt have parity or a mirror on my cache or array. But what I did do is I used Appdata backup plugin. That did a backup of my dockers and apps running on the NVME to my SSD array.  Then made a user script to nightly copy that over to a qnap share and scheduled that. I figured this was good enough because that was where all the data array was. So then the real question some might ask. Well what was the SSD doing besides being a holder for you Appdata backups etc.. And the answer to that is I wanted to use the Sata SSD to be my Temp download area. So like when I SabNZB downloads. it writes and unpacks on the SSD drive. Then when it move's the data It moved into the Big Data array. I like this idea because Sata SSD are much cheaper and easier to replace. The I/O on 1 gig NIC's is perfect for this. And easly not hard to setup the folder paths in the ARR's to do this. The last step it moves the files the Share I'm using for Plex to look at.

In the end this actually worked really well. I just prefer to have all my stuff in 1 box. But If I already had a lower end Synology or Qnap box and I just wanted a easier OS to work with to be a frontend for my apps etc.. This worked pretty well. Much better than trying to run those ARR's with plex on a brand name NAS while also being a storage array. I even streamed 1 of my 4k movies just fine. Over all for the 5 days tested. I did about 300gigs in downloads and watched plex with it for 70 something hours. I even had 2 steams going when my coworker watched stuff from my box. Now I mostly just watch 1080p and Internet remotes connections only watch 720p. In the end I could run this way pretty well.

I think if your not giving up you synology data array yet. I wouldn't spend a lot making a frontend. I did this with Intel Gen 8 hardware and it ran pretty decent. If your not quite there yet to make a switch to run all into 1 box. I don't think you need to spend that much to make what it looked like you were looking for. But if your looking to expand and do like a game host server with this doing you media needs too. Then yeah your original hardware Ideas might be what you need for a beefy frontend.

 

But if not all your looking for is a better front end. You not need to spend that much.

I'll bet you could even find a cheap premade Intel Mini to do this better than my Optiplex 7060 mini.

Again my stuff is Gen 8. and you can buy 10th and 13th gen stuff that would run circles around my old gear.  I will say I had a fun time attempting and creating this. At least I used my old gear to do something interesting.