Hi,

 

I just ordered the following hardware for my first UNRAID server and need a few recommendation what can be a good setup to put me in the right direction.

The intended uses are as follows:

- backup for important data (a lot of family foto, documents ...)

- docker containers (bitwarden, UI controller, plex and others - I don't know which one yet :-))

- movie repository (the main data but not so important)

 

my setup:

- Supermicro MB X11SCH-LN4F

- NVMe SSD 2TB (2 pcs.)

- Intel i3 9100

- 128GB RAM ECC (Kingston)

- 18TB SATA (2 pcs. 1 for parity, 1 for data)

- 6TB SATA (4 pcs. for data)

 

I think ZFS should be an option for the important data and for the movie repository mabye XFS / BTRFS?

 

Thanks in advance for the suggestions!

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/164095-noob-setup-questions/

it looks like you are wanting to put the 2 18 drives as unraids disk 1 and array. They will use xfs by default.

The 4x 6tb disk would be a pool of 4 disk and clicking on the name you can change and set them to zfs.

The NVME in the top slot can be iommu set for vm passthorugh for later use with direct HD access, or both added to a pool of 2 for the cache disk using btrfs.

Some disk 1 x18

parity x18

 

delete existing cache pool

 

create 2 pool devices called cache

add both NVME or just the 1

create a 4 disk device pool

*Community app install zfs plugins first...

Add all 6TB drive

I would recommend a raid z2 with 4 disk may only be able to do raid z1
come up with a name repository

add all 4 disk then click repository name at top right and set file system to use zfs.

Make array and format drives with 1 day and come back (at least 12 hours for parity and other to finish...

Since you want to do a UI controller, I would recommend some network settings to use a docker macvaln setup.
unraid network settings
https://forums.unraid.net/topic/147455-support-unifi-controller-unifi-unraid-reborn/?do=findComment&comment=1384213

in my setup i chose to do teh nvme as disk 1 and array and cache:


then use plugin to backup the data from data loss id disk failes: 


I chose disk 1 and cace to be nvme for read/write speeds for VM and dockers. I run a Plex server and have my main media libarary on a zfa raid z1 pool.

 

Hello bmartino1,

 

thanks for your information! I'm still a bit confused with the configuration but I'm sure it will become clearer once the hardware is up and running

 

With a zfs raid z1 pool all all drives are always running so it consumes more power right? My thought was a mix of ZFS for the important data (2x NVMEs) and the SATA drives for the other, less important data (1x18TB parity, 1x18TB and 4x6TB array)

 

 

 

While sata/molex power to a drvie they are technical always running. unraid spins up and down the drives dependent on data load and accesses.

I have only noticed that all drives in my ZFS are spinning and active when doing a zfs scrub and sometimes with more than 3 access different media from plex.

the draw can increase a bit, but 60% of the time the drives are spun down and not in active use. In theory its like the drives go into standby so unless you are constantly writing or reading from the drive it will always be running and you won't get any energy saving befits from UnRaid. 

Per Oracle/ZFS:
 

Quote

ZFS on Linux defaults to using up to half of system memory for cache, yes, though this can be adjusted, and memory will be released to other processes when necessary.

However, this does not really affect power consumption directly. A RAM module will draw the same amount of power regardless of how much memory the system is using.

Any tiny amount of additional power draw that's even tangentially related to using ZFS (like occasional CPU and HDD usage from running regular snapshots and scrubs) is more than offset by the benefits that ZFS provides.

My setup I use a mix of array and cached for unraids default configuration and services and use zfs for long term storage/space.

It comes down more to how you handle your data and where you want to store xyz path for xyz service.
Since I run a lot of docker and vm/lxc. i want decent read/writes, so my array 1 holds VM Vdisk files. A lot of unraid templates expect a cache pool device. Unraid likes to pair 2 disk for data protection with parity.

see the manual/ docs: https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/manual/storage-management/
https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/manual/what-is-unraid/

This is how I chose to set up my system and how I want to interact with unraid and my hardware...

My array doesn't have my important data (it still has data I use every day for unraid operation, but not backup and storage for services...). I chose to store that all in zfs:


However, the array does have data for Unraid services such as as my directly where I store VM Hard disk files and Unraids default location to store the Docker img file and VM libvirt img file.

lets look at the cache drive now:


I use my cached disk for docker data. in my setup (Picture in last post) I only have 1 disk in that pool. You may see a warning under shares about unprotected files. This is due to no mirror in that pool.
 

I use a plugin to back up its data to ZFS. So it is something I can ignore. (I use the appdata backup plugin see support on form: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/137710-plugin-appdatabackup/



When making a zfs data set, I often have to go to shares and make sure the data in that data set is set to the correct storage medium:

^Which is directed on how I chose to set up my disk configurations.
 

Per your setup and questions you want:
 

Quote

The intended uses are as follows:

- backup for important data (a lot of family foto, documents ...)

- docker containers (bitwarden, UI controller, plex and others - I don't know which one yet :-))

- movie repository (the main data but not so important)

 

*You will need to come up with a desired configuration for your backups.
[ this would be either on the 18 tb configuration or the 6 TB configuration ]

*A location for your dockers installs and there data (this can be one and the same)
[ the default docker install data is located in the cache pool. data that is used can exist else where... ]

*and a location for you Media library
[ atm my media library is still incomplete and after ripping all my hard copies and other tools i have 5 TB of movie data. Video media can get big fast... ]

So:
There is no default setup as it is how you want to use the hardware you have and how you want to interact with them.

Choosing the correct file system is also needed here for and when the time comes to replace a disk and or recover data.

ZFS is great for power consumption, raid 1 and raid 0 technologies but still new to how it should be setup. It can be a challenge to fix zfs latter... The same can be said to replacing a disk 1 or disk 2 in a setup array.
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/819-5461/gbcet/index.html

While zfs is in unraid when replacing or recovering from a failed disk. It can be a bit tricky and hard. There is support on the form when this happens.
Mainly using oracle docs on zfs to run a zfs disk replace and unraid tools new config while keeping the other setups to fix disk assignments.

You could also set a drive to be uses as disk 1 in the array to satisfy unraid for use and use the unassigned plugin / terminal commands to manage your own linux paths.
It bit advanced and in the weeds but doable...

array / disk 1 and parity drive unless told there fs to be something else they will be xfs. I tried to set array fs to zfs with complications. It is recommended to use any zfs as a pool device. Unraid expects a single disk(can even be a different flash drive) to bring all its services up.

Over the years, The default was a xfs disk 1 with mirror backup to xfs disk as parity and a ssd/nvme as btrfs fs as cached disk for dockers.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/file_systems

But i'm not sure that how you would want to interact with them.

For this reason:
I would only recommend having the nvme as array setup / disk 1 and or cache as this is what unraid defaults is looking for to use unless you tell it to user a different location.

i only recommend this due to experience with building many machines, and with older version of unraid this has been the new norm. (older verison didn't have "trim" and other features needed for SSD and NVME drives.)

 

Edited May 14, 20242 yr by bmartino1

Hello bmartino1,

 

many thanks for the detailed reply! I will take a closer look at it

 

regards,

 

Neo78