Hi All, after a LOT of research, I decide to build a unRAID server.  The Plan is to use that server to also serve as a personal PLEX Streaming server for up to 10 devices (some are remote).  I'll probably use Xen for VM for the Plex, Sab, Couch, Owncloud.etc.

 

Anyway, this thread is to get comments on the hardware I just ordered for my Build :

 

Case:                  Lian-Li PC-A77F (All aluminum Full ATX tower with 12x5.25in)

Powersupply:      Seasonic X-Series X-850 850W GOLD

Hard drive 5in3:  4 x iStarUSA BPN-DE350SS (All aluminium)

Motherboard:      SuperMicro X10SLL-F-O Server board (2SATA3, 4SATA3, 2 PCIe for the HBA)

Memory:            4 x Samsung DDR3 1600 ECC RAM (from the SuperMicro Official certification list) - Total of 32GB

CPU:                  Xeon E3-1240v3 (Haswell)

HBA Adapter:      2x LSI 9240-8i (will probably flash to IT mode - I think it's required ??)

 

I currently have a QNAP TS-569L NAS device with 5 x WD Red 3TB that i will re-use.  I also have 2 x 4TB WD Green and couple of 1TB that I can also use.

 

I have 0 experience with Unraid!  I know i'll have to buy a licence (which I plan to do once the server is all assembled).

 

Any recommendation ??  Does the hardware should be fine with Unraid ?  What good Scripts or Extensions you guys runs on your unraid Servers ?

 

Thank you !

 

 

 

It looks like you're sinking a lot of $ into the project; it should last you a long time. The best thing to do is search and read this forum for the topics you have questions on and what you want to do.

 

My other suggestions (not necessarily in this order)

1. Stick with the stock webGUI for the time being

2. Install unMENU

3. Install PreClear script and read up on how to use it

4. PreClear your new drives at least 3 times

5. Get a UPS and use acpupsd script

6. Install SCREEN and read up on it

7. Read up on the plugin procedure

8. Read up on what to do when a drive "red balls"

9. Read up on correcting and non-correcting parity checks

 

What do you recommend for cache drive? And parity drive?

 

 

To each his own. The parity drive will have to be the largest capacity drive. It's going to do a lot more work than the others over time. Think about having a PreCleared spare handy. NAS versus Consumer...read the forum.

 

Cache? Another good opportunity to read the forum. I think there's even a sticky called, "To Cache or Not to Cache." Spinner or SSD? you decide. I use a refurbed SSD I got from Newegg (I like living on the edge)

Yes, i'll read a lot

 

What scares me a bit is that the Unraid server won't be host here and I won't have any physical access to it.  I will be able to ship Hard disk to Add/Replace other disk, but I need to make it simple for them. 

 

The Unraid sole purpose will be to host all media for Plex Media Server and maybe couple of other VM (because I'll have 10 Dedicated IP address).

 

 

The mobo I choose have IPMI 2.0 Dedicated Network jack, so I can connect to it for admin tasks.

It sounds do-able with what I know of IPMI. The biggest problem I can see with remote management of unRAID would be the case where "the system becomes unresponsive" or "I can't connect to the GUI." This seems to be the case with an Out-Of-Memory (OOM) issue and the EMHTTP process fails. EMHTTP, from what I understand, is the unRAID process including webGUI.

 

When this happens you can't just restart the service and get back to normal; there's a way around it, but it's easier to reboot or hard reset. This will usually trigger a parity check because the array was not cleanly shut down. You'll have IPMI, but in some cases a fall-back is the unMENU GUI.

 

I don't have experience with Plex and I'm sure it's great. I would think running it as a VM would be a big advantage at preventing the OOM condition for unRAID. In my opinion, I like the concept of giving DOM0 (unRAID server) a single CPU and access to all memory. Your VM's can/should have enough CPU/Memory to adequately function even if it looks on paper you've over-committed memory. Since you'll have 32G of memory, budgeting it shouldn't be too hard. I'm sure others have a different view of CPU/memory allocation. You want to protect the unRAID process from failing.

 

HTOP is an enhanced (console-based) process viewer and is nice to add to VM's; I don't remember if it's baked into unRAID by default.

 

With drives and PreClear, since you're doing remote management, do the PreClear process yourself and ship to remote site. It's a simple and straight-forward process, but there's no GUI,it seems to overwhelm some users and SCREEN can be confusing. Irregardless, you should exercise drives before use and PreClear does a good job.

 

With the firepower you're putting into your system another consideration is to hardware mirror the cache drive(s). It's supposed to become part of unRAID (software mirror) but may take awhile. I haven't tried this technique, but a little dual-port RAID 1 SATA III controller is pretty cheap and so long as unRAID recognizes that "array" it gives you a extra level of redundancy.

 

Best of luck with the project!!

Progression on my Unraid Server

 

Hi, I started this thread when I ordered my server Parts 10 days ago.

 

Currently, i'm still missing some key parts (RAM, HBA cards) to complete my build.  I decided anyway tonight to start assemble the parts in my case (that I just received today!) because, why not !

 

The case is very Big!  I didn't remember how big was a Full ATX Tower !! 

 

I started by removing the Lian-Li Internal Drive cage (they were nice, with a big fan), but inconvenient for hot-swaping drive in a Unraid server and I wanted the Red Look from my Drive cages

 

After that, I added the motherboard (Supermicro X10SLL-F-O), then the PSU.

 

I also connected most of the Power/Reset/HDD LED/Power LED on the right pins headers of the board.  I choose to not connect any of the top connectors because I won't use them (server will go in a Colo datacenter).  What's good about this motherboard is that it get a Internal USB connector, I'll connect a Sandisk Cruzer 16GB (the recommended model from Lime-Tech) the USB key right inside the case.

 

I then removed all the 5.25in blank and started to install all my 5in3 drive cage.  I did put 5 brand new WD RED 3Tb in the 5 first bay.

 

I finished by installing the CPU and Heatsink (Xeon E3-1240v3 + stock Intel Fan).

 

Issues

 

My first issue was with the Drive cage #1 (the top one).  The Lian-Li first 3 x 5.25in bay had some metal "L" shape bracket to hold CD-ROM drives.  I just pried them and I was then able to add my drive cage #1.

 

I'm having some issues with SATA power connection.  I choosed the Seasonic X-Series 850W PSU (fully modular) and my drive cage (5in3) are the iSTAR-USA.  my issue is that the power connectors are too close from each other on the iSTAR-USA 5in3 and because the SATA power cables from my Seasonic are too short.  Also, the connectors on the drive cages are not in the right orientation... I think i'll have to go buy some good quality cable and create my own custom power cable (with the connector that goes in the modular PSU of the Seasonic).

 

See next reply to this posts for pictures

Other pictures...

And the last picture.  The Motherboard look so tiny in that BIG Full tower ATX!

It's coming along, thanks for posting the update. Yes, it will work out better to have custom PS cables for the cages. I've seen connectors available, but I haven't looked for cable. I imagine you can get that locally at a hardware store. Could you post a picture of the back of the cages as stacked up inside the case?

i'll take some pictures tonight, in about 1 hour, but I finally ordered some "Y" Sata power adapter.  I'll use more than 1 rail (even if I would have enough) just to spread the load.  I know that Seasonic says 70A for 12v rail (1 rail only), but the PSU still have 3 or 4 Modular connectors for the 12v rails.

 

This is the one I ordered :

 

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10226&cs_id=1022604&p_id=5184&seq=1&format=2

 

They should work great because they are not "L" shapped, but strait connectors, that should help with the 2 Connectors on each 5in3 cage being too close from each other.

Here is all the 5in3 from inside...

 

And a close up on the Power Connectors.  They are on the left and close to each other + close to the fan side...

 

Thanks for the photos! So, it looks like the orientation of the iStar cages doesn't matter and they give you mounting holes for both mounting styles.

Hi,

 

Today, I received the ECC RAM

 

I had time to add it to the build and I have a working server (I still need the Y power cable) and the HBA Cards, but I can use it with 5 bay.

 

I connected the 6 Onboard SATA cables to the First 5in3 + 1 on the 2nd 5in3.  I connected the 2 power SATA on each 5in3 (but still need the Y cable to connect them all).

 

I did the first boot ever of that new computer...

 

and nothing happened when I push Power... check the PSU switch... nothing.  Finally, I opened the case and the Motherboard power was half disconnected! Don't know why, so I push it down and the time, turning on the PSU switch bring the LED up.  Power Up, and it booted!

 

I did start playing with Unraid 6b5a (just saw that there was a new version ).  I also ordered my Pro Licence because I also have received my Sandisk Cruzer Micro 16GB and got the GUID. (just got the licence while writing this post!).

 

I installed it, booted with Xen.

 

First, I tried to login by SSH with root / no password.  It did not worked.  After reading more... I discovered it was with Telnet! wow... didn't know some product was still using that old telnet.

 

anyway, I started 5 Telnet sessions and started 5 distinct pre-clear script (1 per drive). 

 

It started at 24c for each drives.  Now at 18-19%, it rise only to 27c, so I assume it's good.

 

Tomorrow, i'll add 3 drives (from my QNAP backup device) - Another WD Red 3Tb, a WD Green 3Tb and a Seagate Baraccuda 4Tb.  Later, when it will be stable, i'll transfer the content of my QNAP to the Array and when finished, and verified... i'll pre-clear those 5 x 3Tb WD Red, so in total, i'll have those drives to start my Unraid :

 

11 x 3TB WD Red

1 x 3 TB WD Green (for CACHE Drive)

1 x 4 TB Seagate (for PARITY Drive)

 

33TB Total + the Cache (3TB), a good start I guess

This morning, I went to check on my laptop how the Preclear script went during the night.  All the 5 instance of Telnet was stuck displaying 44 or 45%.  Clicking that windows only showed that the Host closed the connection during the night.  So no preclear was completed. 

 

I wonder, how to have it completed ?  Can it be launched in screen or other stuff like that ?  I guess my laptop just lost the wifi or it went to deep standby (even if plugged-in)...

SCREEN is your friend  :-)

 

#1. you do not run preclear on laptop using WiFi

#2. and this was learned the hard way DO NOT RUN PRE-CLEAR WITHOUT USING SCREEN!    :-P

Is Screen part of the 6.0b5a build or I need to add it ?

 

1. I only have a laptop in Wifi   (rMBP).

2. If I use Screen, #1 doesn't matter I guess

 

How would you launch it from Screen ? (Command line you use please !)

 

 

sorry I can not help at the moment.

I used it last time 3 years ago. if I need it now I would have to research all my self :-)

 

just do a search for SCREEN  here on the forum. use cups as lower case will return

a lot more unrelated results.

I do believe you need to install it as it does not come with the setup.

the easiest way is to install unMenu and use that to install the SCREEN

 

as for how to use it.

 

you open the session

type screen

and than run the preclear.

 

after that you can close the session.

when you get back, there is a command 

screen -r

that will show you all currently running screen session and the ids for them.

here the link for some help full post here

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=22163.0

 

BTW SCREEN is not unraid utility is't linux utility you can learn how to use it in linux manual.

 

also not sure if it's true but I have seen some people say that unraid v6 main screen have report page with screen session data on it.

 

 

It's also a good idea to have your unRAID server on a UPS when doing PreClears. If there's a power glitch/bump (loss of power) during the process it will cause PreClear to stop and once it has stopped you will have to start all over again from the beginning. PreClearing the 4TB will take at least a day or ~36 hours.

 

Getting the motherboard power connector to fully latch can be tricky. Sometimes you have to press down rather hard and once the MB is mounted in the case there's not a lot of "back support" because of the mounting standoffs and it can be difficult to get the right angle to see/feel it latch. You have to support the board behind the connector with your fingers (or some other static-free wedge) while firmly pressing the connector. I haven't heard of many broken boards, but I don't want to be the first to experience it 

 

Good luck with SCREEN!

Good idea for the UPS. I already have one, just forgot to connect the server to it.

 

I'll do it tonight. Unfortunately, i forgot to let my mbp open with teamviewer, so i can't start it from the job, anyway, no ups connected yet.

 

For the parity, will you use a 4Tb or 3Tb? I guess if i want to ever use a 4Tb drive in Array, i should put a 4tb right now because latter, ill have to replace it because parity need to be at least the size of the larger drive in the Array.

 

I'll check screen also.

This is the phase of the project that can be the most frustrating. Things come to a halt while PreClear (PC) runs. Yes, we realize it's best to lay a good solid foundation, BUT oh, it takes some time! It's recommended you do 3 cycles of PC on each drive, so the hours really add up. Yes, you can specify in the command how many cycles of PC you want and that can save time.

 

Of course, you don't have to PC all your drives at once and you can add them when you get low on space. Really, there's no need to have 20TB of storage when you have 3TB of material. But, you're right, you have to use the 4TB drive for parity.

 

I see you have only one 4TB drive. Now, even though you will have run PC on that drive if it fails in 6 months (or even "red balls" because of a write error) what are you going to do? Order a replacement from Newegg or run down to Best Buy if they've even got one. Now you've got to PC it, which takes some hours 36+ and during this time your system is now non-fault tolerant.

 

Consider the value of your data. Now is a good time to plan your backup or disaster recovery. That means at least a PC'd spare drive. Consider also a second (smaller) unRAID system for backing up crucial data, or some cloud service.

Finally, I think I'll do the following :

 

4Tb - not in Unraid, stay in my Time Capsule because it will be my sole NAS storage at home, I'll store my iPhoto/Aperture on it.

 

Unraid server at colocation site :

 

10 x 3Tb - WD Red (Array - Data share).

1 x 3Tb  - WD Red Already Pre-cleared (Spare for the Parity or any failing drive) - Can I power down or Spin down that drive to not age it until it is needed ??

1 x 3 Tb - WD Green (Parity Drive).

1 x 2 Tb - WD Green (Cache Drive).

 

I'll probably have a Owncloud VM Appliance and will mirrors my iPhoto Library in a Private share on Unraid.

 

What do you think of that ?

 

It's a plan. You'll have to decide what works the best for you and make it work.

 

One of anything is not good; as we know drives fail. It's good to spread things around, but a pain to remember where it is.

Now... I just want to build Lots of Unraid server...