UNRAID/MAC Basics


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Hi All,

 

I've been running 5.0 Beta 14 solidly for a couple of months now. I have everything working very well with my mostly-Mac network.  I had perviously searched this forum for a post like this and never found one, so I thought I'd share some of my configuration info for other Mac users -- especially those like me who are not server/'NIX savvy. I hope this helps someone else with their setup.

 

Basics:

UNRAID 5.0 Beta 14, 6 2TB Hitachi 7200 RPM Drives, Intel G620 CPU, 2 GB RAM, 4U Rack Case

Mac(s) running OS X 10.7.3 (Lion) on a Gigabit Ethernet (wired)/802.11n (wireless) network.

 

I followed the UNRAID installation and initial configuration instructions found in the FAQ/Manual/Forum. I created a user "myname" and password, and set permissions to "Owner". To keep it simple, I chose the same username and password as my primary Mac user account. I'm on a closed network behind a firewall, so I'm not worried about this. I also created a username "wifename" so she could log into UNRAID and use it for Time Machine and storage.

 

If you want to use AFP you must have a user name and password. AFP does not work with guest access.

 

I set up these shares: "Big Disk", "Media", and "TM". I enabled Parity. I used high-water allocation and enabled the cache for everything except the TM share, which I limited to a single disk in the array (the sparse bundles should reside on the same disk).

 

The hardest part of this was wrapping my head around the different protocols. We Mac users rarely, if ever, need to trouble ourselves with file transfer protocols. Just connect to the server and use the Finder. UNRAID offers both SMB (Windows) and AFP (Mac). Mac OS X will see and connect to SMB "Sharepoints" on a network, but interacting with them is not as full-featured as it is with AFP. Windows does not, by default, recognize or connect to AFP "devices" (shares), so if you have Windows boxes on your network you will need to use both protocols.

 

UNRAID uses the term "Export" to mean "turn on" or "enable".

 

I started with Time Machine. One of the advantages of version 5.0 is built-in Avahi (a previous add-on that allowed easy interaction with AFP). Follow these steps to set up a share for Time Machine:

 

1. Create and name your share. I called mine "TM".

2. Under "AFP Security Settings" choose Export/Yes (TimeMachine).

3. Set the Volume Size Limit. I chose something close to 1 TB. If you don't do this Time Machine will slowly fill your server to capacity.

4. Set user permissions. You will need to give yourself (user "myname") and any other users Read/Write privileges if you want to back to to Time Machine.

 

Here's the tricky part: Mac OS X will not automatically "see" UNRAID AFP shares in the Finder. You first have to manually connect to them, then OS X will (most of the time) find them in the future.

 

1. In the Finder, choose Menu Bar>Go>Connect to Server ... (or just hit Command-K).

2. Enter [ afp://localIPaddress/TM ]

3. Open Time Machine System Preference

4. Choose "Select Disk..."

5. Select the "TM" share (it will look like an attached disk).

 

Time Machine should work properly at this point. In the future, it will automatically find and connect to the "TM" share every time it wants to back up for you (hourly).

 

For other shares:

 

1. Create and name your share. I called mine "Big Disk" and "Media".

2. Under "AFP Security Settings" choose Export/Yes.

3. Set user permissions to "Read/Write"

4. In the Finder, choose Menu Bar>Go>Connect to Server ... (or just hit Command-K).

5. Enter [ afp://localIPaddress/Big Disk ] or [ afp://localIPaddress/Media ] or [ afp://localIPaddress/whatevertheheckyoucallyourshare ]

6. In your Finder window navigate to your Mac's top level directory. Mine is called "Home iMac".

7. Select and drag your share(s) to the Finder Sidebar. It will self-sort under the "Devices" list.

8. I set all my shares to automatically mount on login. You do this via the System/Users & Groups/Login Items System Preference.

 

Note: you cannot set SMB shares to automatically mount this way. With SMB shares, you must manually connect to the UNRAID server each time you log in. AFP allows OS X to automatically do this for you, which is very helpful when storing your iTunes library on your server (see below).

 

To use the UNRAID server with iTunes, I created a dedicated share for media and copied my entire iTunes media folder to it. I set the split level to 3 to take advantage of the array. In iTunes, I set the UNRAID share/folder as the default media location. I use iCloud, so I leave my iTunes Library file in the default user/music/iTunes location on my Mac. Each of my Macs has its own local library file.

 

Before I figured out how to configure AFP properly, I was just using SMB. This presented an annoying little problem: every time I logged back onto my Mac I had to remember to connect to the server before launching iTunes. If iTunes launched, but could not find the server, it would change back the media location to the default user/Music/iTunes location. If I then downloaded something from Apple it would go to the wrong place. Using AFP fixed that.

 

I recently created one more share: "Scans". I have a networked KM Biz Hub that has a nice scanner. I previously sent the scanned files directly to my Mac via FTP, but that is not a really good option. Plus I had to make sure the Mac was on when I scanned. I set up my UNRAID server to receive the scans. The Biz Hub only offers FTP and SMB protocols, so I was forced to "export" SMB on my server. This is where the "Yes (Hidden)" setting comes in. I don't want to access the server via SMB, but I want the server to be accessible via SMB to my scanner. Here's how to set up the server to be accessible (e.g.: as a drop box) via SMB, but connected on your Mac via AFP:

 

1. Set AFP Security settings to "Yes" (as well as "Private" or "Secure" with user permissions)

2. Set SMB Security settings to "Yes(Hidden)"

 

You can now access your share via SMB with a direct connection, but it will not show up in your Finder Sidebar under the server. You can now connect to the server via AFP just like the other shares above, and you don't have to mess with the SMB protocol at all on your Mac.

 

This info is obvious to many of you, but it wasn't to me when I started using UNRAID. I hope this collection of info helps out someone like me who is just starting out with UNRAID and Mac OS X. I love it and am thrilled that it works so well.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for the information.  I had been using unRAID v 4.7 for some time and was connecting via my Mac (10.7.3) to my shares via SMB.  as others have reported, Lion's changes to SMB have made connections to SMB mounts even less fun than they previously were.  So i have upgraded to v 5 and have attempted to make my user shares accessible via AFP.  I have followed all of the instructions above but I can not mount any shares (I get a share does not exist message).  I can mount to disk shares, but, of course, the user shares are what i need to access.  suggestions?

 

thanks for your help

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  • 4 months later...

Mac tips......

 

Thank you for your information on how to optimize the use of unRAID with a mac.

 

Can you explain more detailed on how you use iTunes with the library on the server? Also, do you use iPhoto and keep that on unRAID as well? I think I've figured out how to use the iTunes-library with my server but keep running into problems with iPhoto. The amount of photos is getting to big to fit on my MBP so I'd like for it to be on the server. Still like it to be backed up using TM if that's possible...

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi

 

Great tips. finally got time machine to work on unraid :D. the problem now is i can no longer get connected to my other share. in either afp or smb. neither work. i have followed all your steps. i keep getting this error " there was a problem connecting to  server".

 

im using 5.0 rc8

 

 

Thanks

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  • 2 months later...

You are a life-saver! I really appreciate the time you spent writing this up. Since this is Mac related, can you tell me if it is possible to hide one TM backup share from another Mac? I have TM1 and TM2, one being mine, the other being my wife's. I don't really want her to see my backup if she is browsing the server just so she only sees things that pertain to her and her MBP.

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You are a life-saver! I really appreciate the time you spent writing this up. Since this is Mac related, can you tell me if it is possible to hide one TM backup share from another Mac? I have TM1 and TM2, one being mine, the other being my wife's. I don't really want her to see my backup if she is browsing the server just so she only sees things that pertain to her and her MBP.

 

AFP doesn't have hidden shares. You can make the share private.

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You are a life-saver! I really appreciate the time you spent writing this up. Since this is Mac related, can you tell me if it is possible to hide one TM backup share from another Mac? I have TM1 and TM2, one being mine, the other being my wife's. I don't really want her to see my backup if she is browsing the server just so she only sees things that pertain to her and her MBP.

 

AFP doesn't have hidden shares. You can make the share private.

 

Thanks for the information.

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  • 1 year later...

I notice that the original post states that SMB shares can't be mounted at login. I know this thread is a little dated but since it's linked in the wiki I thought I would reply here regarding this issue. I have 3 different Macs running OSs from Snow Leopard (10.6.8 ) all the way through Mavericks (10.9.2). None of them have any problems mounting SMB shares at login. Perhaps this issue is specific to unRaid, I don't have my server completed yet so I can't test this. I find that doubtful though.

 

I'm wondering if there is still any real benefit to enabling AFP at all? I know that using AFP allows some direct browsing features from Finder, but with the use of auto mounting those Finder features are limited. Apple has stated that they will continue to push the boundaries with SMB and will continue to support AFP for now but will not be making any advances to AFP and I'm sure at some point will drop support for AFP completely.

 

Does the use of AFP provide for any special use and control functions with unRaid?

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Time Machine requires AFP. Otherwise, use SMB in Mavericks.

 

Thanks. Hadn't thought of time machine. I use a dedicated external drive for TM backups though. Saw a couple of threads back and forth that AFP was much faster/slower than SMB. I'm guessing this was before Apple adopted SMB2 support though and is no longer relevant. Thanks again for the reply.

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  • 4 months later...

I am running both Mavericks and the Yosemite beta on two different macs and I am using Unraid 5.0.5.

 

I have done most of the items listed in the original post except one.  I export my shares via SMB and AFP both public (no password assigned) and I am still able to connect to both, but browsing folders in my unraid shares from finder is very slow. 

 

When I connect using any windows machine, browsing folders on the shares is just as fast as browsing files on local machines.  I set unraid to never spin down the drives so the delay is not due to waiting for the drives to spin up.  I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if so, how can I fix it?  any advice woudl be appreciated.

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I have my drives spin down after 45 minutes and if I click Tower in the left of finder Im viewing the folders and files in about 5 seconds. It used to take much longer but I turned off show icon preview in finder. Once my Tower is up I can browse the folder in it without any delay. Its the same with my macbook pro connected wireless to the network or wired.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

 

I too am experiencing very slow SMB write speeds .  Circa 1MB/s with SMB or CIFS.  Using AFP gives me 20-30MB/s.  I upgraded to 10.9.5 this morning and no improvement.

 

Has anyone got any suggestions for changing the SMB conf file on Unraid to improve performance or any other suggestions?

 

Many thanks,

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