October 26, 2025Oct 26 Hi, I have been looking into building my first custom nas after some disappointing experiences with Synology. I read some advice that the ssd cash should be mirrored because it flushes it to the array at night? My build will be used for Plex, Photo backup and maybe some docker. It will be build with some new hardware and some I already have. Would the mirrored 256 be enough for this or would you recommend going larger? I dont do many writers to the system in a day.With that build I could stay in the cheaper license option. I'm curious to hear what you think or have any advice?Intel N150 4c32GB DDR54x 4TB WD Red10G Network Cach options from SSDs I own: 2x 256GB NVME2x 512GB NVME 3x 512GB Sata SSD
October 27, 2025Oct 27 Community Expert To ZFS or Not To ZFS tha is the questions... Unasgend disk plugin should allow you to mount or reuse your old synology didk to copy dat off...I would recommend going without the unraid array reusing all disk... My caveot and not is the CPU The intel n150 is not a bad cpu but you will be processor limited for running plex and other...4 cores is not alot to be running docker systems and other things....So I would ditch the unraid array go zfs and pool disk setups only...see her for more info plugins and some ohter gneeral best practices...https://forums.unraid.net/topic/177887-os-70beta4-best-practice-storagediskcache-configuration/#findComment-1478045Review ZFS on unraid video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR5RCItyCsw so array set to none.Cache mirrored 2x 256 GB NVME on BTRFSSave your docker appdata here, save unraid system files like the VM libvrist and docker image here.make 2 zfs named pools4x 4TB HDD raidz1 (1vdev) - Called HDD used for deep storage (Backup data, Miroded data form all drives 321 backup rule)3x 512 GB SSD raidz1 (1vdev) - Called SDD used for large storage but faster then deep storage (Pictures, Video files)this leaves the 2x 512 nvme as addon where you can use as zfs special disk for metadata and speed or an additional pool of 2x btrfs / zfs mirror disks for things like VMs...https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9kJPJx1OZrQ However, 4 cores is a bit limited to run plex and adational docker services and vms.So example share layout and setup with ZFS and the master plugin these can be datasets as well with comporession and other settings setup...Here’s a quick overview of what each default share is for:appdata: This is where all the working files for your Docker containers are stored. Each Docker container usually has its own folder here.system: This share holds the essential files for your Docker applications and the XML templates for your VMs.domains: This share is designated for storing virtual disk images (vdisks) that your VMs use.isos: This is where you can save CD ISO images that you want to use with your VMs.Backup: Somethign you can create and use somehting like the plugin appdata backup with your cached setup of 2x 256 BTRFS Mirror settupMedia: a place to store your Plex libray content. TV show, Movies, ETC....Cloud: Generic samba/nfs Share Name for genericetc etc all shares can be datasets as well ZFS has overhead and can be a bit more ram heavy. I would recomend the swap plguin as most of that 32 GB of ram may be sued for otehr docker services...As appdata is a unraid default docker path and should be on the btrfs cache disk I reomcend mirroring them...RAID IS NOT A BACKUP! its redundancy to keep the machine up and alive for files to exist across mutiple disk.a good practiced backup file is a file on atleasts 2 disk in 2 locations with 1 copy of the fill off site. This way if recovery of the file is needed the file is avalbe off site or on another disk. Review the Unriad docs:https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/shares/Since using mutiple or wanting mutiple dockers review docker network info:https://bmartino1.weebly.com/guide-dockernetworks.html for pictures and Other docker implementations I recommend setting up composehttps://bmartino1.weebly.com/immich-on-unraid-docker-compose-guide.html I would recomend plex via linux server in the CA(Comunity apps)
October 27, 2025Oct 27 Community Expert 13 hours ago, Robin_o said:Hi, I have been looking into building my first custom nas after some disappointing experiences with Synology. I read some advice that the ssd cash should be mirrored because it flushes it to the array at night? My build will be used for Plex, Photo backup and maybe some docker. It will be build with some new hardware and some I already have. Would the mirrored 256 be enough for this or would you recommend going larger? I dont do many writers to the system in a day.With that build I could stay in the cheaper license option. I'm curious to hear what you think or have any advice?Intel N150 4c32GB DDR54x 4TB WD Red10G NetworkCach options from SSDs I own:2x 256GB NVME2x 512GB NVME3x 512GB Sata SSDI read some advice that the ssd cash should be mirrored because it flushes it to the array at night?depends on how you setup shares and other unraid settings... https://docs.unraid.net/category/manage-storage/ mirrored 256 GB is enothe to hold quite a bit of Core systems in terms of space.a docker vdisk image woudl be 20 by default Id increase it to about 50 - 80 GB.Phots and plex libraies take up the most space. My medai libray for plex is a goo 7 TB in and of it self.Plex docker and app data(configuration etc) will be fine on a 256 GB mirroed disk. the plex libray content will not. depending on what you chose to ineract with it and what you what whats stored where and what it will be doing... Edited October 27, 2025Oct 27 by bmartino1 forum weridness slow taking data
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