February 10, 201214 yr I am planning on setting up a unRAID server to replace my current Ubuntu server. I have some questions about setup procedure and best ways to do things: I really like to have a nice step by step procedure written out for me to follow, so this is going to be a really long post, but hopefully if it works out good it will help others too. My current Ubuntu server does the following: - serves files to my network (Laptops and HTPC) - Sab, SB and CP - Webserver (internal, have a php addressbook, and working on a recipe book) I plan to use the unRAID for all the same stuff. I have a Lexar flash drive on the way, should have it in a couple days. I plan to by a pro license for it. I currently have these HD's - 2TB WD Green WD20EARS - 1TB WD Green WD20EADS - 1TB WD Black - 1TB WD Blue - 500GB WD Blue - 500GB WD Blue - 200GB WD Blue (this will be used for cache drive) As they are right now: - 2TB with about 1.2TB of data - 1TB with about 0.9TB of data - 1TB with about 0.8TB of data - 1TB Empty - 500GB Empty - 500GB Empty - 200GB Empty (this will be used for cache drive) My plan is to use unRAID 5.0b14 (I believe moving to 5.0 stable when it comes out will be easier this way, rather than starting with 4.7) The server will have a monitor and keyboard, so no need to telnet in, just run commands from console. I'm going to setup the server with the three empty drives (1TB, 500GB, 500GB) in it, then I think these are the steps I should follow: 1. format flash drive to FAT with name UNRAID 2. copy contents of 5.0b14 zip file to flash drive 3. run make_bootable 4. download and copy preclear_disk.sh to root of flash drive 5. create unmenu folder in root of flash drive 6. download and copy unmenu_install to the unmenu folder 7.a eject flash drive 7.b plug flash drive into server 7.c turn on and change BIOS settings to boot flash drive 7.d boot into unRAID 8. Login as root 9. check networking ifconfig eth0 If there is a good ip address then networking is working 10. edit config\network.cfg to: (to setup static IP) USE_DHCP=no IPADDR=192.168.101.99 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 GATEWAY=192.168.101.1 11. reboot 12. at Tower login: type: dmesg|grep SATA|grep link 13. Install unMenu cd /boot/unmenu ./unmenu_install -i -d /boot/unmenu ./uu echo "/boot/unmenu/uu" >> /boot/config/go 14. Install Screen (from another computer) (since the server is not headless, I probably don't need this?) //tower:8080 Pkg Manager -> screen-4.03-i486-1.tgz Download screen-4.03-i486-1.tgz Install screen-4.03-i486-1.tgz. Enable Re-Install on Re-Boot 15. Install Mail & SSMTP (from another computer) //tower:8080 Pkg Manager -> gcc-4.2.4-i486-1.tgz Download gcc-4.2.4-i486-1.tgz Install gcc-4.2.4-i486-1.tgz Pkg Manager -> View All Available Packages -> ssmtp_2.62.orig.tar.gz Edit Configuration Variables Forward "root" email to: [email protected] [] Enter the e-mail account where mail to root will be forwarded. E-Mail Server: smtp.gmail.com [] Mail Server Address used to send e-mail. Use TLS?(YES/NO): YES [] If using a secure connection to the mail-server, set this to YES. Mail ID: myemail [] Your e-mail account on the mail server. (just the ID without the @server.com) Needed if your mail server requires authorization, leave blank otherwise. Mail Password: mypassword [] The e-mail password used when SENDING e-mail. (sometimes different than the one used to read mail) Needed if your mail server requires authorization, leave blank otherwise. Mail Domain:[email protected] [] Mail originates from this domain. (For many E-mail servers you can use "localhost", for gmail you can use "[email protected]") From Line Override (YES/NO): [] Make message appear to originate from mail server. Re-Write [] If non-blank, make mail appear to come from domain. (Some mail hosts will not allow the mail to appear from elsewhere, so leave this blank unless you need to specify an alternate domain of origin) Save View Values Download ssmtp_2.62.orig.tar.gz Install ssmtp_2.62.orig.tar.gz Enable Re-Install on Reboot Go to console to Test -> Log in as root echo -e "Subject: a test\n\nThis is the email body." | ssmtp -d root 16. Preclear drives (on Console) Log in as root cd /boot ./preclear_disk.sh -m [email protected] -M4 /dev/sda Yes ALT-F2 Log in as root cd /boot ./preclear_disk.sh -m [email protected] -M4 /dev/sdb Yes ALT-F3 Log in as root cd /boot ./preclear_disk.sh -m [email protected] -M4 /dev/sdc Yes 17. After Preclears are done CTRL-D out of each Vterm 18. Add Drives to Array (from another computer) //tower Devices Leave parity blank for now drop down next to disk1 and select disk to assign drop down next to disk2 and select disk to assign drop down next to disk3 and select disk to assign click Main -> Start Click Format 19. Create User Shares (from another computer) Main -> Stop array Shares -> Enable User Shares -> apply Main -> Start array Shares -> edit shares properties NameAllocation MethodMin free spaceSplit levelExport MoviesHigh Water251658243read/write TVShowsHigh Water20971523read/write AudioHigh Water10485763read/write PicturesHigh Water10485763read/write 20. Take the other two 1TB disks with data on them and put them in external esata case and plug into laptop and copy to unRAID over network, I can't mount them to the unRAID directly, because I am pretty sure they are ext4, so I'll have to boot into Ubuntu on my laptop. 21. After data is transferred stop array, shutdown, add drives to server, boot up start array, start preclears on new drives. When finished stop array, add drives to array, start array and format them. 22. copy data from 2TB drive, stop array, shutdown, add drive, boot up, start array. 23. Start preclear on 2TB drive 24. stop array, add 2TB as parity drive, parity-sync will start, start array. 25. when parity sync is complete run manual parity check. 26. Start preclear on 200GB 27. stop array, add 200GB as cache drive, start array, format. 28. Set each array drive to use cache 29. I now should have a fully setup unRAID with my data on it. 30. Create apps directory on cahce at /mnt/cache/.apps 31. Now I should be able to use this: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14760.0 for getting Sab, SB & CP up and running. Now some other questions: What special settings to create an APPS folder on the cache for things like Sab, SB & CP to be installed to? FIXED above I've seen stuff on the forums about people losing the Sab, SB & CP settings on a reboot, how can I avoid this? What about my webserver? Is LAMP or something similar working already for Sab, SB & CP? If so is there a www folder to drop my html and php files into? Can I start this project with another flash drive and the free license, then copy everything to the new flash drive when it gets here and buy the license? That way I can get the empty drives precleared and ready to go. Is using 5.0b14 the wrong way to go, should I just use 4.7? Did I miss anything / comments on my planned procedure / tips / suggestions?
February 10, 201214 yr I am planning on setting up a unRAID server to replace my current Ubuntu server. I have some questions about setup procedure and best ways to do things: That's a good idea. I wish I was as meticulous. However, best laid plans etc.. I'll comment on some stuff, I'm not going to say if this is all going to work for you as read though. The server will have a monitor and keyboard, so no need to telnet in, just run commands from console. That's useful for the initial install but I'd really consider thinking about getting comfortable with remote access once the system is running. 7. edit config\network.cfg to: (to setup static IP) In principle I can't see a problem doing this - however - if you have a dhcp server on your LAN and you can get a temporary address I'd be inclined to go that way and then, once the server boots, reconfigure the network 'properly' via the web interface. I've seen 5 do some odd things during configuration and I'd be keen to stick to the official path for this. But your way might work and, at this stage, it's easy to backout and start again so a minor point. 12. at Tower login: type: dmesg|grep SATA|greg link You'll have to login as 'root' first (there will not be a password set at this time). Then you can run your command. For clarity I presume you mean dmesg|grep SATA|grep link (and you've just made a typo). 23. Start preclear on 2TB drive (this will be the parity drive, does it need to be precleared?) Functionally no. But the preclear will help test the drive for bad sectors before hand. So doesn't hurt. 26. Start preclear on 200GB (this will be cache, does it need to be precleared?) As above, it's not an array drive so the function of the preclear isn't needed. But preclear will test the drive a bit for peace of mind. 27. stop array, add 200GB as cache drive, start array, format? Yes, it will need formatted. You'll then need to configure each of your shares to use the cache drive. What special settings to create an APPS folder on the cache for things like Sab, SB & CP to be installed to? Do you mean persistently keep apps on the cache drive? So they're never moved to the array? Easiest way is to install them into a '.' directory which the mover script will skip. i.e /mnt/cache/.apps I've seen stuff on the forums about people losing the Sab, SB & CP settings on a reboot, how can I avoid this? I'm not familiar with the recent plugins but I'd suggest making sure nothing is installed in memory and everything is on the cache disk. This should be easy to test. Install, configure them and then reboot.. What about my webserver? What about it? Is LAMP or something similar working already for Sab, SB & CP? They all use python with various modules and sqlite so there is no LAMP stack required for them. There are other plugins to do all that and unraid 5 notionally uses an install of php internally for emhttp. Though this is, I think, slightly restrictive. If so is there a www folder to drop my html and php files into? Not without installing another plugin. You can put them in a subfolder off /usr/local/emhttp (i.e /usr/local/emhttp/myapp -> http://tower/myapp) but be aware of how the emhttp php environment behaves. I'm not sure an off the shelve php app will work without any massaging. And this doesn't help you with mysql. Can I start this project with another flash drive and the free license, then copy everything to the new flash drive when it gets here and buy the license? That way I can get the empty drives precleared and ready to go. Yes - just make sure you bind the license to the correct flash ID when you buy it! Is using 5.0b14 the wrong way to go, should I just use 4.7? This will largely depend on your hardware and what your needs are. They're still beta for good reason and some hardware would mandate you should be on an earlier beta for compatibility. Worth reading through the beta threads on this. I, personally, would stick with 4 (again if it meets your immediate requirements) if you're new to this as you probably won't want to be fighting the foibles of 5 until you're more comfortable with the system. Though 4.x does still have the edge case data loss bug that has been fixed in 5 - but never backported. Pick your poison. Did I miss anything / comments on my planned procedure / tips / suggestions? As above - just be aware things will diverge and don't worry if they do. All of this until you start recycling your drives with data on them is reversible and you can start from scratch again. There is an argument it would be good for you to go through the install iterations then tear it down and start again from scratch just to help you streamline the process and become more comfortable with how everything works. Similarly before you put your real data on it may be worth you putting some fake / unimportant data on the array and simulating drive failures etc to see how recover will work. As a more advanced path - which you may or may not be comfortable with - there is an increasing percentage of users installing unraid as a guest under esxi. This would let you leave unraid to be a bit bucket and have other guests running alongside to run your web services etc. This, in my mind, is much better than fighting unraids packaging and ram filesystem concepts as well as avoiding having to reinvent the wheel to make a lot of things work. Plenty of threads around on this if it interests you but there is a lot to consider and it may require different hardware. Hope this helps. This place will be very open to helping if you hit any bumps and I'm sure there will be others along to fill in the gaps I've missed / give you better answers
February 10, 201214 yr Very nice and methodical writeup. Just wanted to point out that you have set the split level to 3. Be sure that is what you want. Below is my directory structure and my split level is set to 2: Library (shared) | | --- Movies | -----------Men In Black\ ---------- Men In Black 2\ | --- Movies.Kids | ---------- Spy Kids\ ---------- Spy Kids 2\ | --- TVShows | ----------- House\ ----------- Castle\ | --- TVShows.Kids | --------- Phineas and Ferb\ --------- Berenstain Bears\ This way, all my movies and TVShows stay together on the same drives. Depending on the sub directories for the various movies / tv shows, split level 3 may be right or wrong. I would just think about it carefully so you don't have to move files around. Good Luck
February 10, 201214 yr Author The server will have a monitor and keyboard, so no need to telnet in, just run commands from console. That's useful for the initial install but I'd really consider thinking about getting comfortable with remote access once the system is running. I am comfortable with remote access, I just thought it would be easier during setting up and getting stuff sorted out the way I want. 7. edit config\network.cfg to: (to setup static IP) In principle I can't see a problem doing this - however - if you have a dhcp server on your LAN and you can get a temporary address I'd be inclined to go that way and then, once the server boots, reconfigure the network 'properly' via the web interface. I've seen 5 do some odd things during configuration and I'd be keen to stick to the official path for this. But your way might work and, at this stage, it's easy to backout and start again so a minor point. Yeah, that is a good idea, I will do the initial setup with DHCP, then change to static after. FIXED 12. at Tower login: type: dmesg|grep SATA|greg link You'll have to login as 'root' first (there will not be a password set at this time). Then you can run your command. For clarity I presume you mean dmesg|grep SATA|grep link (and you've just made a typo). Yes I'll have to login as root, yes that was a typo. FIXED 23. Start preclear on 2TB drive (this will be the parity drive, does it need to be precleared?) Functionally no. But the preclear will help test the drive for bad sectors before hand. So doesn't hurt. The drive has been in use for over a year, but I will do a preclear anyway. FIXED 26. Start preclear on 200GB (this will be cache, does it need to be precleared?) As above, it's not an array drive so the function of the preclear isn't needed. But preclear will test the drive a bit for peace of mind. 27. stop array, add 200GB as cache drive, start array, format? Yes, it will need formatted. You'll then need to configure each of your shares to use the cache drive. I have had this drive for several years, it is currently the boot drive for mu Ubuntu server, I will still do at least one preclear and format it. FIXED What special settings to create an APPS folder on the cache for things like Sab, SB & CP to be installed to? Do you mean persistently keep apps on the cache drive? So they're never moved to the array? Easiest way is to install them into a '.' directory which the mover script will skip. i.e /mnt/cache/.apps So hidden directories will be ignored by the mover script? That is easy enough, great. I've seen stuff on the forums about people losing the Sab, SB & CP settings on a reboot, how can I avoid this? I'm not familiar with the recent plugins but I'd suggest making sure nothing is installed in memory and everything is on the cache disk. This should be easy to test. Install, configure them and then reboot.. Yeah, after I posted this I was doing some more research on the forums and found the answer. So I just install them within my /mnt/cache/.apps such as /mnt/cache/.apps/sickbeard What about my webserver? What about it? Is LAMP or something similar working already for Sab, SB & CP? They all use python with various modules and sqlite so there is no LAMP stack required for them. There are other plugins to do all that and unraid 5 notionally uses an install of php internally for emhttp. Though this is, I think, slightly restrictive. If so is there a www folder to drop my html and php files into? Not without installing another plugin. You can put them in a subfolder off /usr/local/emhttp (i.e /usr/local/emhttp/myapp -> http://tower/myapp) but be aware of how the emhttp php environment behaves. I'm not sure an off the shelve php app will work without any massaging. And this doesn't help you with mysql. I do some more looking around for a solution to this, I want to still have my internal webserver running, so I need something similar to a LAMP stack with a http server, MySQL and PHP. Can I start this project with another flash drive and the free license, then copy everything to the new flash drive when it gets here and buy the license? That way I can get the empty drives precleared and ready to go. Yes - just make sure you bind the license to the correct flash ID when you buy it! Yes, I will use the GUID from the new Lexar drive. Is using 5.0b14 the wrong way to go, should I just use 4.7? This will largely depend on your hardware and what your needs are. They're still beta for good reason and some hardware would mandate you should be on an earlier beta for compatibility. Worth reading through the beta threads on this. I, personally, would stick with 4 (again if it meets your immediate requirements) if you're new to this as you probably won't want to be fighting the foibles of 5 until you're more comfortable with the system. Though 4.x does still have the edge case data loss bug that has been fixed in 5 - but never backported. Pick your poison. How difficult will it be to move to stable 5.0 when released, I figured the transition will be easier if I am starting with the a beta. Did I miss anything / comments on my planned procedure / tips / suggestions? As above - just be aware things will diverge and don't worry if they do. All of this until you start recycling your drives with data on them is reversible and you can start from scratch again. There is an argument it would be good for you to go through the install iterations then tear it down and start again from scratch just to help you streamline the process and become more comfortable with how everything works. Similarly before you put your real data on it may be worth you putting some fake / unimportant data on the array and simulating drive failures etc to see how recover will work. As a more advanced path - which you may or may not be comfortable with - there is an increasing percentage of users installing unraid as a guest under esxi. This would let you leave unraid to be a bit bucket and have other guests running alongside to run your web services etc. This, in my mind, is much better than fighting unraids packaging and ram filesystem concepts as well as avoiding having to reinvent the wheel to make a lot of things work. Plenty of threads around on this if it interests you but there is a lot to consider and it may require different hardware. Hope this helps. This place will be very open to helping if you hit any bumps and I'm sure there will be others along to fill in the gaps I've missed / give you better answers I think that I may end up creating my unRAID server and just use it as a NAS, then setup a second server running Sab, SB, CP and LAMP stack. I have plenty of old hardware around, but maybe I'll get a Atom based motherboard and build my second server with that, something small that will draw little power. Very nice and methodical writeup. Just wanted to point out that you have set the split level to 3. Be sure that is what you want. Below is my directory structure and my split level is set to 2: Library (shared) | | --- Movies | -----------Men In Black\ ---------- Men In Black 2\ | --- Movies.Kids | ---------- Spy Kids\ ---------- Spy Kids 2\ | --- TVShows | ----------- House\ ----------- Castle\ | --- TVShows.Kids | --------- Phineas and Ferb\ --------- Berenstain Bears\ This way, all my movies and TVShows stay together on the same drives. Depending on the sub directories for the various movies / tv shows, split level 3 may be right or wrong. I would just think about it carefully so you don't have to move files around. Good Luck My directory structure will be like this: Movies | --- G | | | --- Bambi\ | --- PG | | | --- Home Alone\ | --- PG-13 | | | --- Pirates of the Caribbean\ | --- R | | | --- Fight Club\ | --- NC-17 | | | --- Showgirls\ | TV Shows | --- TV-Y | | | --- Baby Einstein\ | --- TV-Y7 I think you get the idea, I know I showed 3 for pictures and audio as well, but I will still need to figure out exactly how I want those, so that is on my todo list. Thanks for all the help.
February 11, 201214 yr unMenu has a mySQL package and 2 web server packages if the built-in web server is not sufficient.
February 11, 201214 yr I would also test the speed of that 200gb drive. if it is an older drive, it might actually perform slower then using the array with out a cache drive. If it is to slow for a cache drive, it could still be mounted as an application drive for Sab, SB and CP. (or use it for cache and bypass using it on shares... you'll cross that bridge when you get there) If you could afford another 2TB drive, I would pick one up and start with the new 2tb drive for parity (after a preclear or 2) so that you have parity the entire time. It looks like you could use the space own the road soon anyways. You plan is well thought out though. Good luck.
February 11, 201214 yr Author unMenu has a mySQL package and 2 web server packages if the built-in web server is not sufficient. Yeah, I'll try the built in one and see how it works, then I'll try different packages, if nothing satisfies me then I'll setup a dedicated webserver, at that point I will also use it for Sab, SB & CB. I would also test the speed of that 200gb drive. if it is an older drive, it might actually perform slower then using the array with out a cache drive. If it is to slow for a cache drive, it could still be mounted as an application drive for Sab, SB and CP. (or use it for cache and bypass using it on shares... you'll cross that bridge when you get there) If you could afford another 2TB drive, I would pick one up and start with the new 2tb drive for parity (after a preclear or 2) so that you have parity the entire time. It looks like you could use the space own the road soon anyways. You plan is well thought out though. Good luck. I think basically I really only plan to use it as a application drive. I don't think I need the speed increase, I won't be sending put too much new data to the unRAID server, only downloads and I have only a 3mb connection, so it is only coming in around 350 kb/s, which the array should handle that speed without an issue. (possibly have the availability of a 10mb connection coming to my area this summer, fingers crossed, but even at that speed shouldn't be an issue) So I guess I will just set it up as an application drive and not worry about it for now. I am hoping to wait until the drive prices come back down. I understand the desire for parity the whole time, but I have been using my current setup for over a year without any form of backup. The only stuff that is backed up is my pictures and some documents, which is the only stuff that really matters if I lose. So I figure I'll take the chance running for the relatively short period of time until I get the parity drive in there.
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