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servers consolidation into unraid

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i recently discovered jellyfin and started thinking about consolidating a cpl of servers into unraid

i have an existing license for my main unraid server, but i think ill start from scratch on a new machine, with bigger hard drives (12tb, only 1 + parity at the beggining)

i will need to import some encrypted zfs pools that live on 2 mirrored drives and will run jellyfin and other various dockers on the machine

i have a couple of questions

  • how to transfer the usb, this is prob covered in the docs, will look for it, if anyone has some pointers, will appreciate them

  • is there an equivalent to docker compose ? ive only seen maintenance through the gui (installing, updating, etc), not a big deal, im just more cli oriented

  • about the encrypted zfs pool, i remember reading very recently that importing zfs pools from other systems is supported now (not zfs import i understand, more like connecting the drive and running zfs/zpool commands on it), just don't know if encryption is supported, i dont mind entering the encryption key on each start (planning to leave the server 24/7)

on a side note, i dont fully understand why some ppl runs unraid with pools only, no parity protected array, parity is unraid's distinctive feature in my opinion, otherwise why not use some linux distro ?

any suggestion/comment will be appreciated

  • Community Expert

OpenMediaVault is the Other Linux Distro. How you want to interact and use it is on you... There is truenas scale, 45drive rocky linux. casa os etc...

How you want to interact with it and what you want it to do... Unraid has a lot of nice friendly 1 click and done setup and community support...

how to transfer the usb, this is prob covered in the docs, will look for it, if anyone has some pointers, will appreciate them


With The unraid usb there are a few DOCs I can refer you too:

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/manual/security/flash-drive/

https://docs.unraid.net/legacy/FAQ/usb-flash-drive-preparation/

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/getting-started/manual-install-method/

The general gist is get a unraid flash drive backup... Make a new working bootable unriad USB.

*Copy the flash backup config folder and copy it on the USB replacing any and all files... (this will restore any and all unraid configurations, scripts, dockers, configurations...)
contact support for unraid license issues...

is there an equivalent to docker compose ? ive only seen maintenance through the gui (installing, updating, etc), not a big deal, im just more cli oriented

Using unraid plugin docker compose, you can run compose. I would use unraid for docker only at this point in review other competitor Nas projects...(I'm partial to OMV [OpenMediaVault])

https://www.openmediavault.org/

Unraid docker systems uses the community maintained CA app store. you would search the unraid CA for apps

you can review some dockers and CA templates for so 1 click install options for unraid docker..
https://unraid.net/community/apps?srsltid=AfmBOoq1KN5FEks80Y-ifyAzbAWN3WdxT6ixngx0pw3wKoJetH3jcl-R

otherwise, with the docker compose pluign you can run and make your own docker compose files and run on unraid:
https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/jellyfin#:~:text=docker%2Dcompose%20(recommended
example with immich compose on unraid:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/190532-guide-immich-docker-setup-docker-compose/

It is recommending to use a unraid CA template app over compose to help with docker updates and maintenance...

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/manual/docker-management/

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/troubleshooting/docker/

Essential the CA template is a xml page that constructs the docker run line to make and use dockers.

about the encrypted zfs pool, i remember reading very recently that importing zfs pools from other systems is supported now (not zfs import i understand, more like connecting the drive and running zfs/zpool commands on it), just don't know if encryption is supported, i dont mind entering the encryption key on each start (planning to leave the server 24/7)

Review unriad ZFS DOCs: https://docs.unraid.net/category/zfs/

In unraid v7 you can ditch the unraid traditional xfs formatted array in favor of multiple pool setups. If your running zfs it will be a pool device.

The array was more for a mixed grouping of disk liek you have a 120 GB ssd, a 80 GB hard drive and a 1 TB disk drive

Ideal unraid setup with that mixed disk would be Disk 1 80 GB, parity 1 TB, cached pool disk 120 GB ssd...

As unraid and disk setups evolved and were maintained if you have atleast 3 disk of the same size, the traditional unraid array doesn't make sense anymore (don't get me wrong, still usable) but going pool only and zfs only

3x 1 TB in a raid z1 as example... give you better interactions, space at the cost of some ram...

A nicety that Unraid did for us as most people were using a spare disk or usb to fulfil the older unraid disk 1 requirement...

In terms of encryption... that a bit of a different beast..
https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/manual/security/data-encryption/

I personally don't recommend running encrypted disk on unraid. While possible, this does require some knowledge and scripting to be secure and safe...


review
https://www.reddit.com/r/unRAID/comments/1fhpoa2/guide_how_to_use_native_zfs_encryption_with/

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/162128-how-can-one-securely-autostart-an-encrypted-unraid-array/

review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPPnY3jbRKg


more info on encryption can be found here:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/189555-disk-and-dataset-encryption/

There are 2 good forum post lost on the forum with scripts going over encryption and array start up and shutdown do to the need for the root file encryption key...

Edited by bmartino1
Data - typo

  • Author

thanks a lot, will read a bit more

1 hour ago, bmartino1 said:

As unraid and disk setups evolved and were maintained if you have atleast 3 disk of the same size, the traditional unraid array doesn't make sense anymore (don't get me wrong, still usable) but going pool only and zfs only

3x 1 TB in a raid z1 as example... give you better interactions, space at the cost of some ram...

right, a zfs z1 setup does have parity (similar to unraid), but vdevs are static, i remember reading they were working on dynamic vdevs (adding disks to the pool), but im not sure that has been merged yet (i can be mistaken)

  • Community Expert

are you referring to the zfs special disk?

like l2arc, hot spare, etc... ???

yes vdevs are static, I was not informed of dynamic vdevs with any zfs setup...

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

unraid 7.1.2 has quite a bit of the zfs openzfs stack implemented with kernel 6.12

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/177887-os-70beta4-best-practice-storagediskcache-configuration/

v7 has this implement,

v6 does not: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/46802-faq-for-unraid-v6/page/2/#findComment-1256329

I can refer you to the release note and announcement form pages that go over the zfs additions and implementations.

with v7.1.2 and openzfs v5 unraid had implement quite a bit of zfs stuff, imports from truenas, special disk added to existing arrays.

Release notes:

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/release-notes/7.0.0/ https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/release-notes/7.1.2/

Announcements post with each release:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/190077-unraid-os-version-712-available/

I went over quite a bit with another user can't seem to find that post atm but it went over quite a bit of unraids zfs implementations.

You confused me with dynamic vdevs...

In OpenZFS, dynamic vdevs allow for flexible storage configurations that can adapt to varying workloads and hardware conditions.

For example, RAIDz1 and RAIDz2 vdevs can dynamically adjust their stripe width to optimize performance and space usage. RAIDz1 stripes data across all disks in the vdev with one disk reserved for parity, while RAIDz2 uses dual parity for added redundancy.

However, some vdev types, like DRAID, do not support dynamic stripe widths, which can lead to inefficiencies in space and performance when storing small data blocks.1 To mitigate this, SPECIAL vdevs can be used to store metadata and narrow blocks more efficiently, reducing wasted space and improving performance.

When setting up a ZFS pool, it's important to consider the redundancy and performance requirements of your workload. Properly configuring vdevs can significantly impact the overall performance, fault tolerance, and scalability of your storage system.

For more detailed information on vdev properties and their impact on ZFS behavior, you can refer to the OpenZFS documentation on vdev properties.

https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/man/master/7/vdevprops.7.html

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/05/zfs-101-understanding-zfs-storage-and-performance/

  • Author
5 hours ago, bmartino1 said:

In OpenZFS, dynamic vdevs allow for flexible storage configurations that can adapt to varying workloads and hardware conditions

with dynamic i meant being able to add disks to the vdev, which is not possible at the moment, vs an unraid array where you can keep adding disks protected by parity

  • Community Expert
4 hours ago, jbrodriguez said:

with dynamic i meant being able to add disks to the vdev, which is not possible at the moment, vs an unraid array where you can keep adding disks protected by parity

Kinda unRAID default area using parity only setups a mirror type and requires a separate parity for each disk 1, disk 2, etc where I can runs a d3 un protected but would want to go after a parity 3 disk.. eventually you lose more this route and have to rely on unraid parity for disk replacement latter...

So you would need 4 disk to have a true d1 parity and d2 parity.. etc

When you have more than 4 disk of the same size, unRAID array system doesn't make sense on the long run..

Where with ZFS and vdev I have have raid 5 setup, get disk performance and extra space on the table. I find it easier to replace a ZFS failed disk. And I can upgrade each disk in that raodz1. So 3x 1tb I can slow go after 4 to replace 1 drive, resolver and end up with 3x 4tb and get a better space overall. This is the closest I seen to getting dynamic vdev.

To me, It seems your referring to expanding the ZFS vdev. Where setting the raodz1 ZFS pool is at the initial start and while possible to expand and change, not easily added on to with our a re-wipe of the disk.

How you want to interact with it and what you want it to do.

Parity | Unraid Docs
No image preview

Parity | Unraid Docs

Parity is used by Unraid to protect against data loss. If a drive in the
Storage Management | Unraid Docs
No image preview

Storage Management | Unraid Docs

To assign devices to

Edited by bmartino1

  • Author
10 minutes ago, bmartino1 said:

expanding the ZFS vdev

yes, this is the word i was looking for :)

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