I'm finally looking to update my aging (~2017) unraid server (first build). It's... sort of been cludged together and while it functions, I know it's not very optimized. The plan is to build a completely separate server and copy files over. I have several questions on current best practice and my searches have been inconclusive.

 

The server is used mostly for Plex/*arrs (Mostly usenet, with a little bit of torrents). But I'd also like to expand into backups and Home Assistant. Zero plans for VMs.

 

 

Trash vs SpaceInvader share structure

I believe I currently have roughly a SpaceInvader share (though to be honest I didn't follow his guides, just muddled through). It's kind of a hodgepodge that I'd like to clean up

 

 

I have two main problems I'd like to fix:

1. My entire system slows to a crawl whenever usenet is unpacking something. My understanding is that the unpacking process is maxing out my single cache SSD, which is also what runs all my apps and is why I have issues. I believe the recommended fix is multiple cache pools. One for appdata and one for downloads/unpacking. I don't fully understand how to set this up however.

 

2. I semi-frequently want to watch something that I've downloaded asap, but it takes forever to move the files to my media share. My understanding is that the Trash guide solves for the second problem, but I don't know that it solves for the first problem.

 

Ideally I'd like a solution that solves both problems, but if that's not possible, then I'd prefer to solve the usenet unpacking issue as a priority. With these considerations I'm not sure how to setup cache? Should I do 1 cache pool for apps, 1 for main share and 1 for usenet unpack?

 

Other Settings

I'm also unclear on other general settings and things that might no longer be best practice. When I first setup my server parity check was run weekly. I think I've seen that this is no longer recommended? When and how often are recommended for parity, mover, trim, etc?

 

Best practice for users and security? Any other settings to take a look at?

 

 

valhalla-diagnostics-20250113-1442.zip

Edited January 13, 20251 yr by greenskye
Added diagnostic file

For #1.. I cannot speak to a sata ssd, but a gen3x4 or higher nvme drive (in raid1) is plenty fast for my arr/nzbget suite as well as hosting all my system, appdata, isos, and domains where I run Pfsense, a Ubuntu server, and HAOS.  You would be best served to utilize CPU pinning especially for your unpacking.  If you let your entire CPU loose on that, you will probably feel it if using other functions like video transcoding.  

 

 

#2.  (This is for environments with <5 simultaneous users)  I watch all my somethings directly from spinners on the array.  I takes maybe 20-30 seconds to spin up the drive and go.  For TV show binges, use the Split Level function in Share Settings to make it so you keep all your TV series on same drive.  That will eliminate disk spin up time between episodes.

 

59 minutes ago, greenskye said:

Should I do 1 cache pool for apps, 1 for main share and 1 for usenet unpack?

Suggest a pair of nvme in raid1 btrfs for the redundancy.

 

Parity... I run it once a month still.  Reading around, seems many options for once a quarter.  Every week seems overkill.

 

Users... Only give them the highest permission they need

 

Security ... This is a rabbit hole.  Here's a couple:  keep your shares hidden.  Don't punch a bunch of holes in your firewall.

 

Did you have certain hardware you were leaning toward?  I imagine something with an igpu would do the trick for you.

19 minutes ago, Veah said:

For #1.. I cannot speak to a sata ssd, but a gen3x4 or higher nvme drive (in raid1) is plenty fast for my arr/nzbget suite as well as hosting all my system, appdata, isos, and domains where I run Pfsense, a Ubuntu server, and HAOS.  You would be best served to utilize CPU pinning especially for your unpacking.  If you let your entire CPU loose on that, you will probably feel it if using other functions like video transcoding.

[...]

Suggest a pair of nvme in raid1 btrfs for the redundancy.

Ok, hadn't looked into CPU pinning before. That seems like a good option for usenet.

 

My plan is dual NVMe drives for appdata as a cache pool, mirrored. It looks like the new ZFS options would be good for this? (At least in 7.0).

 

Should appdata and usenet unpacking be on the same cache drive? Or have two cache pools? I have spare sata SSDs I could throw in simply for separating apps from active downloads/unpacking.

 

19 minutes ago, Veah said:

 

#2.  (This is for environments with <5 simultaneous users)  I watch all my somethings directly from spinners on the array.  I takes maybe 20-30 seconds to spin up the drive and go.  For TV show binges, use the Split Level function in Share Settings to make it so you keep all your TV series on same drive.  That will eliminate disk spin up time between episodes.

So I'm not sure what I've configured wrong. I have a /Downloads share (cache only) and a /Media share (Cache enabled). But copying a completed file from /Downloads -> /Media takes forever. Like sometimes 20-30 minutes. So if I download something I want to watch right away it takes a tediously long time to become available in Plex.

 

I don't understand why the process is so slow, because both locations should exist on the same SSD cache drive. Should be writing from /Downloads ssd location -> /Media ssd location and then the mover moving it into the main array nightly. But it's so slow.

 

I want the move from the download location to it's final media location (ignoring if it's in cache or main array) to be faster so it shows up in Plex sooner.

 

19 minutes ago, Veah said:

 

Users... Only give them the highest permission they need

 

Security ... This is a rabbit hole.  Here's a couple:  keep your shares hidden.  Don't punch a bunch of holes in your firewall.

 

Honestly I don't even understand what a user in unraid is even for? So far it's just me who accesses it so I think I just gave myself all permissions. I just didn't know if I was supposed to do something like have an admin account and separate account for when I access files via SMB or something.

 

19 minutes ago, Veah said:

Did you have certain hardware you were leaning toward?  I imagine something with an igpu would do the trick for you.

Current build is:

Xeon E3-1225

Supermicro X10SL7-F

20 GB DDR3 ECC

Quaddro 2200

1 TB Sata SSD

36 TB array (14 TB Parity, 12 TB, 2x 8 TB, 2x 4 TB)

 

Proposed new build (repurposing old gaming machine, marked with *)

*i7-9700k

*MSI MPG Z390 GAMING PLUS ATX

LSI 9400-16i HBA card

*32 GB DDR4

*Quaddro 2200

2x 1 TB NVMe for appdata/cache pool mirrored (ZFS?)

Reuse existing 1 TB sata SSD for download cache?

Purchase much larger parity drive (tired of keep having to upgrade it). 24 TB? 26 TB?

Purchase some new high capacity data drives (2x 18 TBs?)

Reuse any >= 8 TB drives from existing system.

 

I also have a wide variety of small sata SSDs (500 GB or less) and older HDDs (4 TBs or less) if needed for anything, but I mostly assumed they weren't worth the space.

Working down.

-Dual nvme is great.  I use btrfs but I've read folks use zfs as well.  I believe it's slower but offers lots of other options that I am not best suited to speak on.

-You could put appdata and have usenet unpacking on the same drive.  That's what I do.  Sounds like you have another ssd you want to use anyway so either way seems valid.

-I think you got your mover going backwards on the Downloads share; don't know if that's part of your loading problem.  The images here are my Media and Download share settings.  My nvme_top is a btrfs mirror and the array is all 18TB spinners with 1 parity.  I think you can get to where you want if you try and copy those settings.  Use the Download for both your Downloads and Unpacking drives.

-If you are the only user, security probably won't be an issue provided you don't mess with things you don't know about.  Just be sure you are not using default passwords on your home router.

-Looks like a good build.  Might not even need to install the quadro, I'm not sure how well that igpu transcodes.  Could save a bit on power if you don't need to put it in there.  Same with the lsi card.  If you have enough sata available on MB, you can leave it out too.

-Parity drive, it needs to be equal or larger than the rest.  16 and 18 have been good cost/TB for a while.  The 20s may be getting there next.  I shop in this area for now.  It mostly depends how much money you want to spend.  FOR PERFORMANCE... Go with CMR drives!  Do not do SMR.

-If course play around with left over drives as desired.  Even smaller capacity ssd can host VMs which could be something to play with later on down the road.

Edited January 13, 20251 yr by Veah

15 minutes ago, Veah said:

-You could put appdata and have usenet unpacking on the same drive.  That's what I do.  Sounds like you have another ssd you want to use anyway so either way seems valid.

If this is what you do and you're not having problems, then it seems simpler. Maybe my system was just too old + my config issues were causing the problem.

 

15 minutes ago, Veah said:

-I think you got your mover going backwards on the Downloads share; don't know if that's part of your loading problem.  The images here are my Media and Download share settings.  My nvme_top is a btrfs mirror and the array is all 18TB spinners with 1 parity.  I think you can get to where you want if you try and copy those settings.  Use the Download for both your Downloads and Unpacking drives.

Wow, can't believe I've had that backwards for like 7 years. Updated the mover and pinned the CPU in NZBGet to CPU 0, so hopefully that helps. Between this and a new system, I'm hopeful this is no longer an issue.

15 minutes ago, Veah said:

 

-Looks like a good build.  Might not even need to install the quadro, I'm not sure how well that igpu transcodes.  Could save a bit on power if you don't need to put it in there.  Same with the lsi card.  If you have enough sata available on MB, you can leave it out too.

Since it's a consumer motherboard it doesn't have quite enough ports. Or it does if I was going with all high capacity drives, but spending a bit for an HBA card and giving me plenty of Sata ports seems useful. Plus I've been itching to get a rackmount case for my server rack and this helps justify the upgrade

 

And the iGPU would maybe be enough, but I've already got the Quadro and it's working so why not.

15 minutes ago, Veah said:

-Parity drive, it needs to be equal or larger than the rest.  16 and 18 have been good cost/TB for a while.  The 20s may be getting there next.  I shop in this area for now.  It mostly depends how much money you want to spend.  FOR PERFORMANCE... Go with CMR drives!  Do not do SMR.

-If course play around with left over drives as desired.  Even smaller capacity ssd can host VMs which could be something to play with later on down the road.

In your opinion is it worth buying a higher size than normal parity drive just to not have to replace it for a bit or better to just stick with your chosen 'standard' size?

 

I'll admit this is mostly an emotional decision for me as I almost always buy drives one at a time. Never getting to actually 'use' my latest drive because it's always the biggest and therefore becomes parity was annoying to me (started out with 4 TBs drives, then didn't get to use my 8 TB until the next year when I bought a second 8 TB, same story for when I upgraded to 12 and then 14 TB.) But I'm not sure if I'm just being ridiculous about it. The last several years I tend to buy 1 drive every black friday, but I know lots of people drop $$$ on a bunch of drives all at once. Maybe this time I should just stick with 3x 18 TBs with 1 being parity instead? It means when I do buy a 20 or 22 TB drive next time I don't get to use it though...

6 minutes ago, greenskye said:

In your opinion is it worth buying a higher size than normal parity drive just to not have to replace it for a bit or better to just stick with your chosen 'standard' size?

I would find the sweet deal i can now and buy a few of them all the same.  If you find good deals later on for larger drives, just upgrade your parity drive first. 

Also a more complex trick... With some HBAs it is possible to stripe a pair of disks and have that aggregated drive show up in unRAID as a single device.  Ie: hardware raid a pair of 18TB drives into a single 36TB that unRAID sees.  Use that as parity.  I've tested that with an adaptec 71605, I don't know if the LSI may also be capable of that while having the other ports show up like regular IT mode.

Edited January 13, 20251 yr by Veah

On 1/13/2025 at 6:06 PM, greenskye said:

I almost always buy drives one at a time

That's arguably the safest way to do it. It eliminates a bunch of shared variables that can kill a drive prematurely, like shipping damage.

 

The last thing you want is to have a bunch of drives that were shipped with inadequate packing that FedUPS drop kicked across their warehouse. Or a whole box of drives that got dropped at the distributor, so they don't have any external signs of damage, just high g loads that probable won't matter, but could.

 

If you really want to get a bunch of the same drives, try to stagger the purchases ideally both in time and location. Never buy 2 that will ship in the same box.