unRAID Project Roadmap Announcements

[dalben]

Using the volume of chatter in this forum to form the basis of what the unRAID masses do and want it silly.  We here are the vocal minority.

[BRiT]

Using the volume of chatter in this forum to form the basis of what the unRAID masses do and want it silly.  We here are the vocal minority.

 

Yes, we are also the ones who have influence in our respective circles. If we recommend a different product then that would severely impact the future financial state of LimeTech.

[dalben]

Using the volume of chatter in this forum to form the basis of what the unRAID masses do and want it silly.  We here are the vocal minority.

 

Yes, we are also the ones who have influence in our respective circles. If we recommend a different product then that would severely impact the future financial state of LimeTech.

 

We're just the more technically inclined of the unRAID population, or those that want to do more than set and forget

[grumpybutfun]

In your opinion

 

I'd say its a fact. unRAID 6 is going to have virtualization, Docker, plugins, etc.

 

FreeNAS, Open Media Vault, Proxmox, Neth Server, Smart OS, Clear OS, Openfiler, Turnkey Linux and I could keep going.

 

All of those do some, same or more than unRAID 6 can and so does every other opensource NAS product and store bought ones.

 

My 7 year old POS unRAID box doing all kinds of apps, functions and even running XBMC still only consumes 10% of the horsepower it has.

 

Not to mention there are MILLIONS of Home media users with NAS boxes and how many times do you see in Plex, XBMC, here, etc. where someone lost their data because of an app? Its either hard drive failure or user error. Not Linux up and corrupting data on our machines because its pissed off we are running mysql on it.

 

What he said is true in the corporate world about dedicated data storage but I am not a fortune 500 company and do not have a data center or billions of disposible income.

 

Also, two unRAID servers is foolish for several reasons as I pointed out several pages ago if you want better fault tolerance, flexabilty, management, high availibilty, security, managed from one GUI. etc. This also shows he is stuck in 2005 too.

 

I'm all for options. unRAID could easily strip out the stuff in 6 and make a NAS appliance to give those people peace of mind. I wouldn't bet on it though.

 

People have been asking about unRAID 5 status for months and all Tom does is show his distain for his paying customers by not even bothering to take 5 minutes of his time to respond to us commoners when he already knows the answer. Even Jonp said he is waiting for his permission to share the news. The joke is on us and he is the only one laughing (which is at us).

 

I am convinced that we all have "Stockholm Syndrome" and he knows it. He "beats" us, we believe we deserve it and cause he loves us. Some users will thank / defend him and ask for another "beating". Sad really... But that is our reality and his idea of customer experience / service.

[WeeboTech]

People have been asking about unRAID 5 status for months and all Tom does is show his distain for his paying customers by not even bothering to respond to a simple question that he knows the answer too. We all have "Stockholm Syndrome" and he knows it. He "beats" us and we think we deserve it and cause he loves us. Some users will Thank Him and ask for another "beating". Sad really... But that is our reality and his idea of a customer experience / service.

 

I don't think it's as sinister as that.  With the team of people working many hard hours to release a 64 bit unRAID 6, I think they are concentrating on the future.

 

They will let us know where 5.x will end up.

 

We as a community have been asking for a number of features, of which they are trying to incorporate into a viable stable product.  Before we take out the pitch forks and shove words into Tom's mouth, let's be patient and see where the next release brings us.  We've had more solid communication in the last year then in a long time.

[squirrellydw]

Just because a lot of people are on the forum asking for this or that doesn't mean the majority of users want something.  Most people don't/won't post if they are happy with what they have.  However when they want something they ask and bug for it.  I would say it's not a fact.

 

I use plugins and glad that is an option however when I first started using unraid that was not my intention.  JMO

 

As for 5.0, I believe it is dead and can't blame LT for killing it.  Why have two versions, 5 is fine and stable.  Stop working on it and put all effort towards 6 is the smart thing to do I would think.

[grumpybutfun]

I don't think it's as sinister as that.  With the team of people working many hard hours to release a 64 bit unRAID 6, I think they are concentrating on the future.

That is horsecrap and you have a bad case of "Stockholm Syndrome" to the point you are one of his defenders even.

 

How do I know? I own an IT / Outsourcing Consulting business and work just as hard and deal with more complex customers / issues regarding software / infrastructure / deployments / implementations that are 1,000 times more complicated than anything unRAID is doing. Yet, I still find time to respond to paying customers questions and even unRAID people too. Not to mention, I still found time to create a 64-Bit unRAID, Virtualization, install unRAID in CentOS, Debian and Arch before Tom did.

 

Tom has been in MIA for MONTHS now and has a LONG and DETAILED history of ignoring us and not communicating. Busy my ass... He either doesn't give a shit, laughing at our stupidity or both. My guess, both.

 

They will let us know where 5.x will end up.

 

We are well aware. When Tom feels like letting us bottom dwellers know he will wave his hand and permit Jonp to share the news.

 

We as a community have been asking for a number of features, of which they are trying to incorporate into a viable stable product.  Before we take out the pitch forks and shove words into Tom's mouth, let's be patient and see where the next release brings us.  We've had more solid communication in the last year then in a long time.

 

Elan over at Plex gets the whole communication / Road Maps / Investing in the company (Tom is 10 years late) / Branding / Marketing / Customer Experience / Customer Service / Going the extra mile (instead of the half baked shit Tom does) / etc. He took XBMC and put all of the following above around it (showed it some love too) and made over $100 Mill in the last 2 years. I will email Elan and tell him he is doing it wrong and conduct his business like Tom. His revenues, word of mouth, subscriptions, reputation, etc. will soar I'm sure.

 

Quit making excuses. There isn't a soul here who treats his boss the way we are by Tom and nobody here who owns a business treats his customers the way we are either.

[WeeboTech]

I don't think it's as sinister as that.  With the team of people working many hard hours to release a 64 bit unRAID 6, I think they are concentrating on the future.

That is horsecrap and you have a bad case of "Stockholm Syndrome" to the point you are one of his defenders even.

 

BOGUS. I've made my complaints known.

I respect Tom, but I've also voiced when I'm not optimistic as to releases and when I am.

With all due respect, I just don't vocalize it the same way as you.

 

How do I know? I own an IT / Outsourcing Consulting business and work just as hard and deal with more complex customers / issues regarding software / infrastructure / deployments / implementations that are 1,000 times more complicated than anything unRAID is doing. Yet, I still find time to respond to paying customers questions and even unRAID people too. Not to mention, I still found time to create a 64-Bit unRAID, Virtualization, install unRAID in CentOS, Debian and Arch before Tom did.

 

Tom has been in MIA for MONTHS now and has a LONG and DETAILED history of ignoring us and not communicating. Busy my ass... He either doesn't give a shit, laughing at our stupidity or both. My guess, both.

 

He's not MIA. He's hired people to help field some of the work for him.  We've seen changes.

Doesn't mean it's 100% there in comparison to other projects.  It surely isn't as sinister as is being portrayed.

 

They will let us know where 5.x will end up.

 

We are well aware. When Tom feels like letting us bottom dwellers know he will wave his hand and permit Jonp to share the news.

 

Speaking frankly.. or should I say grumpily... I can understand this feeling too.

From what I've seen, I know we'll get an answer when they are ready.

 

We as a community have been asking for a number of features, of which they are trying to incorporate into a viable stable product.  Before we take out the pitch forks and shove words into Tom's mouth, let's be patient and see where the next release brings us.  We've had more solid communication in the last year then in a long time.

 

Elan over at Plex gets the whole communication / Road Maps / Investing in the company (Tom is 10 years late) / Branding / Marketing / Customer Experience / Customer Service / Going the extra mile (instead of the half baked shit Tom does) / etc. He took XBMC and put all of the following above around it (showed it some love too) and made over $100 Mill in the last 2 years. I will email Elan and tell him he is doing it wrong and conduct his business like Tom. His revenues, word of mouth, subscriptions, reputation, etc. will soar I'm sure.

 

Quit making excuses. There isn't a soul here who treats his boss the way we are by Tom and nobody here who owns a business treats his customers the way we are either.

 

Oh jeeze... I'm not making excuses, Just re-iterating that they will respond with a 5.x status when they are ready.

There are still internal discussions going on (that I'm not privy too)

[Brucey7]

I retired in 2007.  Virtualization had been the focus of management consultancies for many years before then simply to reduce costs, it's got nothing to do with making more use of processors.  Most corporates had many servers in their datacenters and by consolidating them with virtualization they could save money.  That was the business driver (less hardware, smaller footprint, lower electricity bills).  I would rather have one large server than 2 small ones anyday.

 

unRAID (IMHO) is not ideal for most business users, we could talk about the technical reasons, but at the end of the day, it's just not secure enough.  Suppose Tom gets run over by a bus (or assassinated by unhappy users whilst MIA) where's the support?  is the source code open source? is it lodged on escrow somewhere?  where's the fallback plan, where's the fallback plan for the fallback plan?

 

I can't see any reason why anyone would reasonably want to go virtualization at home if unRAID was sufficiently scalable.  Virtualization is complex, brings a whole new set of problems and is for propellor heads.  I would rather go out for a meal than study another manual.  If you can run that extra add-on on a separate box then don't even waste a minute trying to get it on your server, KISS.  All these fancy extras are just noise.

 

All I want is a scalable, cost effective, low cost of ownership, reliable file server.  I don't want to be waiting for large disk support (and I wouldn't be suprised to see disks bigger than ReiserFS will support as soon as next year).  I want a button to turn it on and a button to turn it off, and to grow it at 3TB every month.

 

The vocal minority are the ones who don't simply leave it in a cupboard to do "what it says on the box" but write on here about this or that new feature.  I strongly suspect most users just want it to work out the box.

 

I have another concern, by increasing the complexity of unRAID, a small development company might be tempted to save time and not document the code properly, there are usually lots of warning signs if that were the case, and guess what - they're all here.

 

Servers are an enabler and a necessary evil, they aren't an application.

[PeterB]

I wasn't here in the early days, having come onboard around v4.5.  However, it is my understanding that unRAID has grown from Tom's 'home project' requirement for storage for his home media collection and that early discussions about the 'project' took place in AV Forums.

 

That is certainly still close to my requirements and expectations for unRAID.  However, as technology improves, it makes sense, to me, to make use of the unRAID hardware to perform the task of media server as completely as possible, and to add other 'home-type' functions where possible.  I do not need, and cannot afford, to have multiple servers running 24/7, each performing one single task.

 

For me, I find that it is beneficial to make the media players as dumb as possible - to this end, my players have no storage installed - no disk drive, no flash drive ... they boot from the unRAID server (PXE) and obtain all of their data from the server.  All the searching and downloading of media is performed by the server, the media database is held on the server ... etc.  This 'centralised' model works well for me and minimises the effort required to maintain the total media system.

 

Plex has been mentioned and the principle seems good to me - even the transcoding is performed on the server.  However, I hate the functionality of the Plex UI and after a short trial I abandoned it.

 

Now, I mentioned that I cannot afford to run multiple servers, so my unRAID box also acts as a server and repository for my (personal) email, with online archives going back to 1995.  If I remember correctly, that was the date when I first had an Internet connection at home, subscribing to the Demon service in UK.  Further, the unRAID box serves as a repository for my personal financial and tax records, and is also where I store all my photos (from the digital era - including contents of PhotoCDs from the days when I was still using conventional film), and serve those to a digital photoframe..

 

I do all of this on one physical server.  I cannot comprehend how anyone has sufficient (personal) data requirements to justify multiple fileserver/RAID systems,  A second server, as an online backup, would be a desirable luxury, but I manage without.  If the worst should happen - yes, I would lose some of my photos.  I could live without my media collection, although most could be recovered by re-ripping or downloading.  Financial records are still duplicated in a paper filing system.

 

Is my requirement/use of unRAID atypical - I suspect not.

 

My background is in IT consulting - having established, owned and managed a consulting company in UK over more than 15 years, whose clients included several multi-national companies and government departments.  However, I'm aware that my skills and experience belong to the last century - current use of unRAID is an interesting learning /educational experience.  I am now enjoying a quiet (early) retirement in the Philippines.  I am extremely grateful to several people on here, including Grumpy, for sharing their up to date skills, knowledge and experience.

 

 

[NAS]

Sorry to break it to you, but you are in the severe minority in this opinion

 

I have to agree.  I come from a very similar background as Brucey7, and would have fired the same people for the same things he describes.  I use unRAID very differently than I did any server in the corporate environment. The home market, and home entertainment/media storage and serving that media up to an array of devices is a very different ballgame then file services in a corporate environment.  It's a lot more like a small company environment where getting any $$$ for capital expenditures is asking for rain in the Sahara.  Make do with less and stack multiple functions on each box.  The maturity of visualization severely enhances the security of that stacking, so the guy running an buggy nightly build of an SQL engine on that SAN can't crash it like he could in the old days.

 

"One box one purpose" has been my matra for as long as I can remember. However with visualization and now docker that has changed.

 

My NAS boxes and my firewalls are my last hold out for "one piece of hardware does one thing".

 

Why was this my matra?... because I want the primary purpose of a device to not be impacted by the secondary functions i.e. my funky cool addon taking my file server offline. But with VM and container technology this isolation can be achieved at the kernel level and not at the hardware level.

 

The importance of this cannot be over stated. It is a paradigm shift in established logic.

 

Throw in that bottom hardware is vastly more capable and efficient than it was a few years ago and my matra is not only old hat it is positively bad design.

[Brucey7]

My systems are purely for storing home media, but with over 15,000 movies, mostly large HD1080p and growing at 30-50 per day, over 35,000 TV series also growing at the same rate, typically 3TB every month.  Scalability is important to me.

 

My apps run on a client (windows isd designed for running multiple apps so it's where I run my apps), my data is on the servers.  I don't put apps on my servers and vice-versa although I do hold the catalogue for Ember & XBMC on home theatre clients, simply because with vast amounts of data it's too slow to bring them down a cable on demand.  My clients are SSD based because of that.

 

I am also from the UK but I live in Thailand.

[superloopy]

IMHO there is far too much "noise" in the direction unRAID is going.

 

It's a fileserver system for storing data and that is all it should do to the best of it's ability, in the simplest, safest way at the minimum cost.  I have zero interest in virtualization, docker, unMENU, Sickbeard or indeed any add-on's whatsoever and I view all development in this direction as bad news (increasing risk).  I keep my add-on's where they should be on a completely separate system.

 

We are getting perilously close to the volume limit for a disk in the ReiserFS, disks will probably exceed it within 5 years.  1 parity disk is not enough.  64 bit support is useful. more than 30 disks supported is useful.  Everything else is noise and limits the attraction of unRAID to anyone doing a serious study into what they choose to buy to store their increasing collection of home data on, and lets be honest, that is the current & future market for unRAID, it's not the hardcore band of hobbyist/enthusiast who wants it to make them a coffee of tea first thing in the morning whilst singing yankee doodle dandy.

 

I currently have multiple RAID6 servers, an unRAID server filled to capacity with 22 drives and another system on order from Greenleaf.  I am a retired Global IT Director of a fortune 500 company and I keep my servers where they should be, out of sight.  If one of my staff tried to run applications on a mission critical SAN he would have been fired on the spot.  I rely on my fileservers to serve data... on demand with a minimum TCO and maximum reliability, as the saying goes "KISS".

 

I would far prefer to run on one big, safe, economical, reliable, expandable server and for what it's worth, that's the only development I would like to see from Limetech.

+1 ... my view also! This forum view that users who hold these opinions are 'in the minority' is clearly not right. Maybe it's time to break the link between virtualisation and core nas unRAID and come up with a brand new product line. Core unRAID users are clearly not interested in virtualisation and do not want it as a component of any future release. LT should appreciate these views even if those virtualisation afficionados do not.

 

[NAS]

Anyone that argues that core users dont want addons needs to take a deep breath and look at every single home user nas on the planet.

 

They may not care about virtulsation and containerization much in the same way they dont need to care about engines but want a car with a stereo and cruise control.

 

Need to stop obsessing about this.

[grumpybutfun]

+1 ... my view also! This forum view that users who hold these opinions are 'in the minority' is clearly not right. Maybe it's time to break the link between virtualisation and core nas unRAID and come up with a brand new product line. Core unRAID users are clearly not interested in virtualisation and do not want it as a component of any future release. LT should appreciate these views even if those virtualisation afficionados do not.

 

Not saying your idea is not wrong or a bad one but I think you do not have a good understanding of Linux and how Virtualization works on it.

 

You are talking about enabling Xen, KVM, VMware with 3 little check boxes in the Kernel config when compiling it. Every single Linux Distro I can think of has those enabled by default. Including Red Hat, CentOS, Debian and even Slackware. In fact, I can't think of a Linux Distro that doesn't have it enabled. You have MILLIONS (probably BILLIONS) of servers with Virtualization enabled (although many not using it) doing 10,000 more complicated things than unRAID and handling Petabyte, Exabyte and Zettabyte of data no sweat.

 

Where it would impact users like you is if they were to integrate it into the unRAID WebGUI. They have abandoned that idea and I suspect it will be a long time before they ever get around to it again / if ever. At this point all they have to do is update a few apps when new versions are released (which you would never see nor use). That takes minutes / hours, not days or weeks.

 

Your idea of separate Virtualized unRAID version is a good idea should they ever decide to put the finishing touches on it. The reason why I would do this is because with PCI Passthrough with tons of consumer motherboards and video cards out there... You have to run a bleeding edge Linux Kernel (especially for KVM) and even that will require patching for various things for the foreseeable future. Since we are talking about a 3 or 4 man company who does not "outsource" the Linux OS to CentOS / Debian / etc. (which has 100,000+ developers / Maintainers) they are not going to be able to keep up with all of those hacks / patches for the Kernel(s) and apps those programs use.

 

They could drop unRAID "normal version" back down to a long term supported Kernel (like many Linux Server Distros / Appliances do). On the unRAID "Virtual Server Edition" run a more bleeding edge Linux Kernel for those users.

 

That is what I would do if I was them if they continue to use Slackware as the Base OS. If they were to ever switch to CentOS / Debian / etc, they could handle this via their own Repo and have a Virtual Kernel / Apps that would install through a package manager.

[dalben]

Anyone that argues that core users dont want addons needs to take a deep breath and look at every single home user nas on the planet.

 

They may not care about virtulsation and containerization much in the same way they dont need to care about engines but want a car with a stereo and cruise control.

 

Need to stop obsessing about this.

 

Agree.  I arrived at unRAID after getting annoyed with the whole plugin/add-on environment over at QNAP.  Before that I was a ReadyNAS user.  If all I wanted was storage then those purpose built products would still be my primary focus.

 

My needs are simple (I think).  But those needs mean Sick Beard, Sanzbd, couchpotato, headphones, MySQL, XMBC Server (headless), Transmission and flexget need to be on the server, working seemlessly.  In the end I don't care if it's via plugin, Docker and VM as long as it's easy to setup, and "set and forget" for the most part.  The last thing I want is a seperate box to handle the media aspect on the server.  It makes no sense when I have a server that is rarely utilised.

 

On the same token, there is no requirement to run Windows VMs etc so I'm not sure where a VM would be handy.  Maybe as a firewall, but that's about it.

 

IMHO LT just need to put v5 to bed officially.  Even if they don't honour what they were going too, just say so.  They wont be the first comopany to have a change of tactic and direction mid flight.  The fact that they add into v6 what I wanted in v5 doesn't matter as much as they don't expect me to pay for the upgrade.  Docker has also bridged the gap between v5 & v6 in terms of how plugins were handled.

 

Stockholm Syndrome in IT ?  That's the sole domain of Apple and Apple fanbois.  At least unRAID does what it set out to do.  Apple just looks polished.

[grumpybutfun]

Stockholm Syndrome in IT ?  That's the sole domain of Apple and Apple fanbois.  At least unRAID does what it set out to do.  Apple just looks polished.

 

I have only owned an iPod and iPhone back in the day. Both worked great and looked great. I've used a Mac here and there and the look and feel was awesome. Didn't many apps though.

 

Apple is the richest company in the world so they must be doing some things right.

 

In other news... Most of the anti-captialist I meet all worship Apple / Apple products. They don't seem to know / mind they are the richest company in the world and sitting on $150 Billion in cash. I love selective / fake outrage.

[kal]

Stockholm Syndrome in IT ?  That's the sole domain of Apple and Apple fanbois.  At least unRAID does what it set out to do.  Apple just looks polished.

 

obviously never been an emc customer

[dalben]

Actually I am. EMC, Hitachi and IBM SANs are the bastards I deal with at work.

[blockhead]

All I want is a scalable, cost effective, low cost of ownership, reliable file server.

 

Right?

 

I think it should be agreed that unRAID must achieve the above baseline without Docker, Xen, or KVM. As long as it does this without any add-ons, then it's a real NAS. Pile on the virtualization all you want after that. It's called gravy!

 

I should say my definition of "reliable" means that I can RELY on it to safeguard my crap in a reasonably intelligent manner, not just sit there without crashing. At this very moment I'm moving data off of a failing disk. How do I know it's failing? Because I check the syslog every day. Why? Because I've learned that's what I have to do to keep my stuff safe on my unRAID box. When last night's parity check completed with zero errors and all green balls, most users would think that's a damn good indication of overall system awesomeness. But I know the deal. I know how this works. So I go to the syslog, like I do everyday, and there are bunch of read errors on disk 4. But the green balls!! I go back to Main... oh. Yes. There it is, the number forty-seven, nestled snugly next to other numbers like fifty-four million three hundred and fourteen thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight, and one billion eight hundred and ninety million blah blah blah. It's in the Errors column. That's how y'know it's bad. HOW can that be the only indication of a problem? I don't need it to do the RMA for me; I just need it to tell me something is wrong AND take some proactive steps to protect my stuff. I know this isn't a support thread but can someone tell me why a drive with 47 errors can get a green ball? The drive is obviously not dead because I'm reading it right now, but isn't there a yellow ball? Can we get some yellow balls in here? Just a few tiny yellow balls!?!

 

If I understand this debate at all, it's that the V-word folks are thinking the way to build the more reliable / intelligent server we all want is through the V-word. Do I have that wrong? I'm hoping that's not the only way. If that ends up being the only way to do it, then I guess I'll do it. But get ready because just as between your grandparents and every electronic device they own, there are gonna be frickin problems and you are all now my grandkids.

 

(I'm just attaching my syslog in case anyone thinks I'm lame enough to make sh*t up.)

syslog-2014-07-08.txt

[billington.mark]

Id be interested to hear a response to grumpys earlier posts on the use of slackware over a more widely used, widely supported distro.

I understand that it would be a 'starting from scratch' sort of scenario, but is it something we can expect in the distant future? (eg v7, v8?)

[jumperalex]

Stockholm Syndrome in IT ?  That's the sole domain of Apple and Apple fanbois.  At least unRAID does what it set out to do.  Apple just looks polished.

 

I have only owned an iPod and iPhone back in the day. Both worked great and looked great. I've used a Mac here and there and the look and feel was awesome. Didn't many apps though.

 

Apple is the richest company in the world so they must be doing some things right.

 

In other news... Most of the anti-captialist I meet all worship Apple / Apple products. They don't seem to know / mind they are the richest company in the world and sitting on $150 Billion in cash. I love selective / fake outrage.

 

blah blah blah cognitive dissonance blah blah blah

 

there I fixed that for ya ;-)

[sacretagent]

Elan over at Plex gets the whole communication / Road Maps / Investing in the company (Tom is 10 years late) / Branding / Marketing / Customer Experience / Customer Service / Going the extra mile (instead of the half baked shit Tom does) / etc. He took XBMC and put all of the following above around it (showed it some love too) and made over $100 Mill in the last 2 years. I will email Elan and tell him he is doing it wrong and conduct his business like Tom. His revenues, word of mouth, subscriptions, reputation, etc. will soar I'm sure.

 

PSSSSTTT barkley manages everything at plex

 

   

[squirrellydw]

Elan over at Plex gets the whole communication / Road Maps / Investing in the company (Tom is 10 years late) / Branding / Marketing / Customer Experience / Customer Service / Going the extra mile (instead of the half baked shit Tom does) / etc. He took XBMC and put all of the following above around it (showed it some love too) and made over $100 Mill in the last 2 years. I will email Elan and tell him he is doing it wrong and conduct his business like Tom. His revenues, word of mouth, subscriptions, reputation, etc. will soar I'm sure.

 

PSSSSTTT barkley manages everything at plex

 

   

 

Maybe thats what LT needs.  Dogs make everything better.  I think LT is doing a great job and just keeps getting better and better.

[smakovits]

The issue occurs when you are already streaming media and concurrently access a spun down drive.  When you do, the stream will stop for up to 4-5 seconds.  I've posted this video on here before and Tom has even seen it, but here it is again.  This video shows me playing some music off my server through J. River Media Center while trying to scrape information for new movies (also on the server) using Ember Media Manager.  To do so it scans each disk for new movies.  When it does, the stream stops. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lj-ISONmBo

 

This also happens whenever SickBeard or Couch Potato copy files to my server.  Also if I simply browse the directory via Windows Explorer or copy files to a spun down drive.  If all the drives are spun up there is no problem.

 

This is a windows issue, not an unRAID issue.  Basically, windows only opens a single "channel" to the unRaid server, regardless of how many connections are required.  If one of those connections has to wait for a drive to spin up, then all connections are paused because they are all running through the same channel.

 

The way that I solved it on my system (probably similar to yours - the HTPC is also running Sickbeard / Couch Potato / SabNZBD), was to create a VM using VirtualBox (dirt easy), and install Windows on it and then SB/CP).  Then there is no pauses, since the VM Windows is using its own channel, and not sharing the host's (even though they are going through the same ethernet port)

 

Squid,

 

Your statement is not accurate.  I have this exact same issue, but instead of Windows, I am watching a video via my popcorn hour player, my nzbdrone application runs in a VM, independent of popcorn hour and unraid.  When a new file is to be copied, my PCH locks the video, then suddenly comes back.  Most annoying thing ever, especially if the freeze occurs 3-4 times during the same video.