I have 8 HDD each with 3TB running on Windows (Plex server) through a LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i which won't work properly with unRAID due to not having IT mode.

 

So here is my migration plan, let me know if I missed something or can improve somehow (I have a tight budget):

 

Present Setup:

• Windows 10 with 8 HDD with 3TB (24TB , 16TB usable due to RAID)
  • LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i (3 HDD 3TB in Raid 5 + 3 HDD 3TB in Raid 5)= 12TB
  • Z97-GD65 GAMING On Board Intel RAID controller (2x3TB Raid 1)= 3TB

 

Future Setup (N100M ASRock)

• 12 TB Seagate Enterprise Capacity v7 ST12000NM0127 (for parity) (135€)
• 8 TB Seagate BarraCuda (173€)
• 6 ports: Asmedia ASM1166 (PCIe 3.0 x4 physical, x2 electrical) (LSI SAS 9260-8i doesn't have IT mode) (43€)
• I'll keep 4x3TB of the existing HDD
• Silicon Power PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD 1TB (62€)

 

How I'd like to run unRAID

• 12 TB Seagate parity for 8TB Seagate Barracuda + 3TB (existing HDD)
• 3 TB parity for 2x3TB (existing HDD)
• NVMe SSD for cache and OS is this possible ?

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 20242 yr by out_sid3r
missing motherboard name

11 minutes ago, out_sid3r said:

NVMe SSD for cache and OS

The Unraid OS is not installed to any of your storage. The boot flash drive contains archives of the OS. These archives are unpacked fresh at each boot into RAM, and the OS runs completely in RAM. Think of it as firmware. The flash also stores all settings from the webUI (your configuration) so they can be reapplied at boot. 

2 minutes ago, trurl said:

The Unraid OS is not installed to any of your storage. The boot flash drive contains archives of the OS. These archives are unpacked fresh at each boot into RAM, and the OS runs completely in RAM. Think of it as firmware. The flash also stores all settings from the webUI (your configuration) so they can be reapplied at boot. 

What happens when I install Plex Server from the Apps ? It runs on a container right ? Can I use the same storage as the cache ? Sorry for the basic questions. Regarding the HDD I'm thinking of buying and the storage expension board (Asmedia ASM1166) , what do you think ?

Typically, your media would go on the array, with plex (and other containers) keeping working data (the plex libraries, for example, that keep track of your media), in the appdata user share, and executable code (the docker.img) in the system user share.

 

appdata, system (and domains for VM vdisks) user shares should be kept on a fast pool such as cache so dockers/VMs will perform better and so array disks can spin down since these files are always open. This is the default location for these user shares and they will be created there as long as cache is already installed before enabling Docker and VM Manager.