Unraid Newbi - exited, but confused out the optimal server setup disks/hardware

[wildduck]

Hi everyone,

 

I’m an already aged software developer (60) and new to Unraid and the forum.
 

Although I have read a lot in this forum and elsewhere, I’m still - maybe even more - confused about the initial setup for the home server I have in mind. As of today, I have a historic, super loud, super-slow, 4-Bay QNAP NAS used for photo & music storage only, no apps … I hate this machine, really! For backups of my MacBook and MacMini I use Time Machine, CCC (https://bombich.com) various usb 2.5 USB HDD and SSD drives and iCloud (2TB).

 

But the main purpose for the home server initiative are my software development purposes, mainly for data processing, analytics & AI using Python, C and Rust. As of today all happens on my 24GB RAM, 1 TB MacBook. Some tasks, esp. AI model training and (stress) testing, can take up to several hours, rarely days and are required on a regular basis. I use containers in my CI/CD pipelines.

 

I recently stumbled over Unraid, installed it on an old ThinkCentre M90 Nano … and wow that seems to THE perspective for the setup I have in mind. Only a single server tower case will fit in to my setup, so that’s given. Here’s what I have and need:

 

Existing Hardware:

- A case that fits perfect in the only available spot underneath my desk. It is quite roomy, can take am eATX Mainboard and 4x 2.5, 2x 3.5 drives internally.

- 10Gb switch for my home-office, a 10Gb connector for each my MacBook and the MacMini.

- an older 1x NVidia TITAN RTX GPU

- …anything else needs to be purchase.

 

Use Cases (Basic):

- Access to, backup and management of all my private files. Mainly, photos and documents, currently 600GB, perspectively never more than 2 TB - I’m already an older guy, so most of my photos have already been shot . I tested and intend to use PhotoPrism and Paperless-ngx for that purpose.
- Backups of my Mac computers using Time Machine.

- Individual Backups from/to various locations using CCC and Pyhthon scripts.

 

Use Cases (Work):

- Deploying, orchestrating and running docker containers, ideally remotely from my Mac, via a deployments script. IS THIS POSSIBLE WITH UNRAID? e.g.: build anything on the Mac, push it with rsync to the server, run a script to spin everything up?

- Some containers (normally just 1, but sometimes also 2) need to access the GPU. Is this possible that containers can access and share the GPU?

 

Use Case (for fun only - not a must, but nice to have):

- Run a Windows VM to play racing games using my Fanatec Hardware and monitor, all plugged directly into the server.

 

Intended setup:

- AMD 9000 CPU 8 cores, 16 threads, air-cooled

- Mainboard with 4x PCie M.2 SSD slots

- 96 or 128GB RAM

- up to 4x M.2 SSD

- up to 4x 2.5 SATA SSD

- up 2x 3.5 HDD

 

Requirements:

- I need +/- 4TB for all data for all private, professional and fun purposes - as of today it‘s 1.6 TB all together.

- My dev containers need as-fast-as-possible disk access to max. 2TB of data. The tasks are quite read- and write heavy, memory-intense (the more the better) and would benefit dramatically from the GPU - as of today it’s 600 GB data all together, max 1TB.

- My photos and documents need to be as-save-as-possible, performance is not so important, I assume.

- I want to run +/- 5 containers from the Unraid store.

- I want to 1 VM with Windows 11 utilizing the GPU for gaming, with a fast single (logical) disk.

- I want local /internal backup of documents and photos as files/folders (600 GB). These files need be synced to iCloud (or other). Photos need to by synced with AWS (Amazon prime).

- When not needed for dev and data science tasks, the systems should be as quite as possible - I hate HDD noise.

 

Now to my questions and confusion…
- How many disks do I need and how should I size and organize them?

   - Should I just put 4x 4TB M2 SSD into the motherboard, setup a single array, some shares and I‘m already done?

   - …or should I or need to somehow physically separate private files storage (1.5 TB), from container storage, from analytical data, from VM disk (500GB)? If so, how?

   - Should I add 2x 12TB HDDs for internal (nightly) backup or should I go for 2.5 SSDs, costs aside?

   - Do I still need a cache, if anything is on M2 SSDs?

 

Many thanks in advance for tips and recommendations…