Unraid Future Feature Desires Poll

[Matthewmilesuk]

On 8/8/2024 at 7:37 PM, Espressomatic said:

I'm fine with the way things are for my personal use. I'm just thinking out loud about what can be beneficial for a higher-level customer who doesn't have either our experience, or knack for digging up technical info.

 

There's still a big market out there for the very tech-literate crowd, but the market for more consumer-focused individuals is huge. People who aren't going to even be looking at things like TruNAS, ProxMox, etc. But might be headed toward proprietary solutions from QNAP, Synology, etc. and might not mind stepping up to a simple bolt-together alternative.

On a personal level, I'm more interested in remote management of Unraid systems that I can deploy for others who would love the benefits of what this type of system can offer, but aren't necessarily up to doing even a pre-made Synology solution. So not quite a homelab for those ppl, but a storage and application server that "just works" (with a casual maintenance schedule) - plex, home assistant, etc.

I agree with the above. I think there are some commercial decisions which could be made here - specifically to increase adoption and market share away from ready-made solutions like Synology and Qnap.

 

I have only been using Unraid for a fortnight, and was tempted by the “Unraid array” option as I have outgrown my Synology NAS in terms of drive bays. The thought of having a 30-drive array was VERY appealing, and I equated this to the SHR/SHR2 format that Synology offers - parity protected, can grown in drive capacity over time, can use variable size drives. When I found out I could only set this up as a single array (and then had to use other pool options), I was a bit disappointed.

 

However, 14 days of playing has convinced me Unraid is the right solution for me and I’ve just bought a lifetime license.

 

I would consider myself fairly technical - I’m not a sysadmin, dev, etc in everyday life, but am an experienced ‘tinkerer’ and home enthusiast. My suggestion would be to create wizards in the system to help with core functionality:

 

Initial config

How do you want to use the system?

NAS-type device (no VM or Docker)

Apps & Services (docker and/or VMs)

All rounder (show me everything)

 

Create a storage space

What is the purpose you’re trying to achieve?

Parity protected storage long-term

Unprotected, fast, SSD storage

Etc

 

This is LESS about the file system type and more about the end goal. Less technical users won’t know the difference between xfs, zfs, btrfs, etc. and most won’t care. They want to know their data is protected against a couple of drive failures, if it’s fast for multimedia creation, if it’s safe for long time storage of documents, etc. 

 

Create a cache

Outline WHY this would help

What drive types are best (SSD or NVME)

Create as a read or write cache (again, Synology offers this)

 

If you’re looking to tempt people away from the other ready-built players, then you have a real opportunity to not only win market share but also educate your customer base. Give simple or advanced options for config, remember that not everyone has been using the software for years and it can be very daunting! YouTube and the community forums have been SUPER helpful for me, but there is an opportunity for Limetech to create some basic e-learning (which isn’t hard these days!). System overview, understanding different filesystem types, docker management, VM management, community applications, etc. help build up knowledge so users become more invested in your ecosystem. You could possibly look at certification options for installers/professional users too?

 

Lastly, could you publish a planned development roadmap? For example, there’s lots of “ooh multiple Unraid arrays will be supported” but no idea of when this will likely be, so people end up drawing their own conclusions which can lead to misinformation being spread and potentially hurting the product. Could you pin down features (and requests you’re progressing from this thread) into a basic roadmap:

V7.0 - major release (clearly outlining features like you’ve done with the beta releases, but AHEAD of release)

V7.1 - multiple unraid arrays, new mobile UI, iOS and android unraid connect companion app

V7.2. - etc

 

I don’t think anyone would be upset if features get bumped to a later release and an explanation given ahead of time, and it’s not something to hold you to account over (well, maybe a little), but it would help manage customer expectations and let everyone understand where their requests feature, plan for any major upcoming changes, etc. This should be fairly easy if you’re using an Agile-based sprint planning cycle or Kanban approach?

 

One final thing… I’d personally like to thank the Limetech team for your hard work, community engagement, and thoughtful development. It shows true passion for your product, and means that it continues to meet the needs of your customers. Lots of companies don’t get this right, but from what I’ve seen so far; you are nailing it!

 

I’d be very happy to chat through with the developers or other Limetech colleagues to give a total “newbie” view or feedback if that’s of interest.

Edited August 14 by Matthewmilesuk
Spelling mistake

[Brian_Lee]

On 7/9/2024 at 7:19 PM, SpencerJ said:

 What feature do you want the most in upcoming Unraid releases?

 

I hope to develop an app that can manage the switches of virtual machines and containers and display system status information. It would be best if it has its own proxy to directly access the internal container web interface, which is safer without opening the public network.at last Integrated Backups and Responsive WebGUI  Urgent need.

[cprn.1337]

Webui for mobile device.

[piyper]

Just a comment,

Out of the choices above, most either have a process for getting around the deficiency or could be accomplished by the work of our community developers as an app or plugin. It is always nice to know what is wanted and what cool ideas people have, but it would also be nice if priority was given to the things that only the folks at Unraid can do and do not have an easy work around.

 

[globadyne]

ZFS Snapshot Replication Via Gui or ZFS Master Plugin 
Responsive UI 

[guybrush2012]

An onboard backup feature

[dopeytree]

I'd mainly like UI tweaks.

 

More data but in a Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Way.

 

- What's my most used disk?

- How many hours has it run?

- How many unraid users are there in the community?

- What's my power consumpter this month compared to last month?

- How many files were modified this last week?

- How many files were deleted this last week?

- Random Linux fact

- This months in season vegetable from the garden

- This day in history

 

A wait to quickly drill down how much space folders are using but make it an unraid feature so we can see per share and per disk etc.

Something like www.daisydisk.com the way it's interactive.

[itimpi]

2 hours ago, dopeytree said:

A wait to quickly drill down how much space folders are using but make it an unraid feature so we can see per share and per disk etc.

You can do this already using Dynamix File Manager plugin (which is integrated into Unraid 7).

[jclaydon1969]

On 7/9/2024 at 11:19 AM, SpencerJ said:

 What feature do you want the most in upcoming Unraid releases?

 

 

 

 

It would be nice to select a zpool as the secondary storage option when using the mover to transfer. or maybe it exists and I'm just not understanding how it works..

[bmartino1]

3 hours ago, jclaydon1969 said:

It would be nice to select a zpool as the secondary storage option when using the mover to transfer. or maybe it exists and I'm just not understanding how it works..

I think better vdev control would be needed first before move could be use or leveraged to go to a specific zfs point.

zfs master plugin is great and with some of zfs native especially in beta 7. the we ui would need more in terms of how vdevs are create, used and maintained without th use of the terminal...

https://klarasystems.com/articles/openzfs-understanding-zfs-vdev-types/

[JorgeB]

12 hours ago, jclaydon1969 said:

would be nice to select a zpool as the secondary storage option when using the mover to transfer. or maybe it exists and I'm just not understanding how it works..

You can do that with v7.0.0-beta