Hi everyone 👋

I’m fairly new to Unraid and currently planning a setup that will handle mixed workloads — mainly file storage, a few Docker containers, and occasional heavier tasks like media processing or testing apps.

I wanted to ask the community about best practices for long-term stability, especially when Unraid is doing more than just basic NAS duties.

A few things I’m curious about:

• How do you balance CPU pinning between Docker containers and the host?

• Any general rules for memory allocation to avoid random slowdowns?

• Do you prefer keeping heavy tasks in VMs, or is Docker usually enough?

• Are there common mistakes beginners make that cause instability later on?

I’ve read through some docs and older threads, but I’d love to hear real-world experiences from people running Unraid daily.

Thanks in advance — looking forward to learning from you all!

I would say no matter VM or Docker are stable in Unraid, the keypoint are what VM or Docker you run.

In long time ago, I run NVR (Windows VM) and Homeassistant VM in 7*24. there also several docker and non-always on VM. 8 core CPU pinned 4 for Unraid and docker, remain 4 for VM ( each VM allocate 3 and share those 4 core ).

But currently I change NVR and HA in docker and change to a miniPC (6 core), no pinning and no VM.

The original platform just run those non-always on VM, so it usually in power off.

In general, you need tried, observe and plan youself. In each milestone, I keep little bit optimize, the last milestone were I build a multi-power source DC system for that miniPC ( with big battery capable to power up 10hrs+ ). I need it always on even in some longer power outage.

Edited January 30Jan 30 by Vr2Io