I'm running v5.05 and don't have any issues but I like to keep up with what's happening with unRAID. I'm sure many users like myself would like to know if v6 is the next version of unRAID when it's released as a final and out of the beta stage.

My only concern is it's seems like you have to run plugins on v6 from a Docker container and it looks like this has to be installed on another drive like a share on the cache disk. As I have no need for a cache disk does this mean I'm going to need to purchase a small SSD or in my case I would use and industrial 4gb SATA DOM due to them using SLC memory and having over 30 times the life expectancy of a say a 32gb consumer SSD.

Since beta8 (not recommended for other reasons, wait for beta9) docker installs to a virtual drive, which is actually a file that can be on any drive, so a cache drive will not be necessary.

 

I don't remember if we have gotten a clear statement on v5, but I doubt it will be changed much except for perhaps minor patches. Only a small minority of people whose hardware can't run 64bit and refuse to upgrade their hardware will need v5 anyway.

Thanks for that. Yes I did read about possible data corruption due to possible issues with the Linux update. I won't consider moving until it's out of beta and someone has written a guide on running a basic NAS on it with just a few plugins. Even though I consider myself pretty computer Savvy it's all to complicated and confusing at the moment and no doubt will put many users off upgrading until absolutely necessary.

unRAID 6 can be run as-is from Limetech. It also still support plug-ins the same as V5 and there will still be basic plug-ins that will run that way without using Docker.

Also, Tom has basically indicated that v5 development is dead.

 

The following was from a post on July 10:

 

"What about unRaid 5 you ask?  The plan is to NOT "backport" any work that has gone into unRaid 6.  Sorry, I know in the past I wanted to add some more features to unRaid 5 before marking it end-of-life.  But the situation has changed considerably.  Mainly it doesn't make sense to continue working on a 32-bit platform with a PAE kernel.  The sooner people can move to unRaid 6 the better.  Worried about more memory requirement?  That is why we are generating two bzroot images.  Worried about all your application plugins?  That is why we have spent many many man hours vetting docker for this purpose; and guess what? It's awesome!  Don't let all the chatter about VM for this, VM for that.  If you want to run a NAS with maybe a handful of specialized apps or even purely "stock" - moving to unRaid 6 will be easy."

 

You can assume that unless something earth shattering (such as the ReiserFS bug LT is dealing with) that 5.0 is complete.

 

However... as lionelhutz mentions.... if you want to run 6.0 just like you do 5.0 today there are plugins still available. PhAzE has been working over the last several months to update all standard plugins to 64bit and update to the latest versions. If this is your preferred method moving forward, you are covered.

 

However, if you decide you want to try Docker moving forward for plugins you can do so without having any additional disk (cache, ssd or anything else). You can choose to store the image file on one of your array disks (with the understanding that that particular disk will likely never spin down). The preferred path would be to install on a cache drive, but it's entirely optional.

 

As to whether you get a spinner or ssd or whatever else... it's going to depend on your requirements. Initial Docker image files are being built at 10GB, however if you want to run Plex the library may need more space than that depending on how many shows/movies you have. Also, if you are looking at SAB/SB/CP plugin's you usually want to store that data on the cache drive as it's processed and then move to the array - so again you will need more space.

 

There is no hard and fast rule at this point - it's largely based on your specific requirements and use case.