Cache only unRAID setup ?


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Is it possible to fire up unRAID with only a dingle drive, that being a cache drive ?

 

I want to start familiarising myself with v6, docker, VMs etc but the only spare kit I have is a Lenovo T400 laptop. I really don't need any data drives, just the OS and place top play with the plugins etc.

 

I could add an external USB disk if that helps.

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I believe you can create a normal unRAID array WITHOUT a parity drive (some folks do this at initial setup/startup...they copy all their data over to the data disks and THEN assign a parity drive which then calculates parity on all the new data in one pass.)

 

Use a FREE key...assign just one data drive...voila...instant one drive unRAID.

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I believe you can create a normal unRAID array WITHOUT a parity drive (some folks do this at initial setup/startup...they copy all their data over to the data disks and THEN assign a parity drive which then calculates parity on all the new data in one pass.)

 

Use a FREE key...assign just one data drive...voila...instant one drive unRAID.

 

Yeah, but I need a cache drive to test and configure the containers, plugins, VMs to so wrk as they would on the live box.

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Actually I don't think EVERYTHING requires a cache drive.  VMs for instance can be setup on a drive that is not the cache drive and not part of the array.  Not sure about docker or the plugins you want to use however.

 

I would say, no you can't do this with one drive. You are going to need a single disk to start the array, and this today is going to format as reiserfs. You will need another drive formatted as btfrs for docker. Since you mentioned you have an external USB drive, as long as it's seen by UnRAID you could format it as btfrs and load it as the cache drive, or just work with it outside of the array (the BTFRS start guide explains how to do this).

 

There may be a way to format the internal disk as BTFRS but since UnRAID isn't supporting it yet, I don't know if you can, or how UnRAID will respond to it currently. You could try, but you'd be pretty far out on a limb. :)

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Actually the btrfs cache does make it all a lot harder.  I don't think I can make this work unless I can get the external disk to be recognized as a cache.

 

I wonder if there is much of a demand for a portable era environment for unRAID.  Some hacked and put together config that let's you run an unRAID like setup for the purpose go plugin and docker dev on a laptop.

 

Probably not much demand but if I can get a group of people to yell and scream enough you just never know....  ;)

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Actually the btrfs cache does make it all a lot harder.  I don't think I can make this work unless I can get the external disk to be recognized as a cache.

 

I wonder if there is much of a demand for a portable era environment for unRAID.  Some hacked and put together config that let's you run an unRAID like setup for the purpose go plugin and docker dev on a laptop.

 

Probably not much demand but if I can get a group of people to yell and scream enough you just never know....  ;)

 

I wouldn't hold your breath. :)

 

a more likely solution would be if you can install some virtualization software on the laptop and create virtual disks to present to the VM. You could then carve off a reiserfs partition for UnRAID and a btrfs partition for the cache.

 

I'd look at ESXi as the best bet as it's a layer 1 hypervisor. I am pretty sure someone (maybe Ironic) has already posted a VM of 6.0 beta6 - I seem to remember seeing it in the last few days.

 

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