is unRaid for me

[mrmarkfr]

I have a WHS2011 install right now running on q6600 processor and 8gb ram, running 8 HDD drives, ranging from 1-3TB, totaling 17TB, with data replication happening with the use of a software called Drive Pool. Other than the Windows updates, which can be a pain, it works fairly well. It's in a room in the basement, and I usually use it headless through RDP for some Windows utilities programs I run on it.

My concern is that WHS2011 is becoming non-supported as of Apr 2016, replaced with a $400 Server Essentials, not the same product for the same use(I use the server in my house for a media server, network printer access, and daily PC backups).

 

I'm looking at unRaid as a replacement for WHS2011, that will allow me to share my media on NFS shares, ideally allow me to have a USB printer hooked into it that can be shared by the windows machines, handle replication on a folder by folder basis, allow me to use a variety of drive sizes, and run a backup software system to allow me to do bare metal recoveries, just like my WHS2011 does.

 

Can unRaid do this?

 

[theone]

You can have unRAID with Windows as a VM (VirtualBox or KVM) for your utilities, backup application and printer server.

 

As for folder-folder replication - why do you need it.

If you have unraid with fault tolerant protection and on top of that a backup scheme then you dont need it.

 

[mrmarkfr]

I'm still learning, but I run folder level replication currently as a sort of software raid.  It sounds like with unRaid, and fault tolerant protection, I wouldn't need it anyway.  I just referenced it because that's what I'm running currently.

Would Crashplan give me the bare-metal recovery ability I'm looking for?  It's currently built into WHS, which is one of the things I'm trying to replace.

[mrmarkfr]

reading through the benefits a little more, I'm starting to get a better understanding(still a long way to go).

I have currently

1x 1TB WD black (OS drive)

5x 2TB WD Green(with the Idle3 mode fixed)

2x 3TB WD Red

 

with this combination, how do I decide which should be the parity drive(or does the unRaid look after that), and how much storage would I have in the end(currently 90% of my folders are replicated on my WHS system, so my 15TB of storage works out to about 7TB.

 

Is there a getting started guide that I should be reading through, sort of a Dummies Guide to unRaid?

[trurl]

reading through the benefits a little more, I'm starting to get a better understanding(still a long way to go).

I have currently

1x 1TB WD black (OS drive)

5x 2TB WD Green(with the Idle3 mode fixed)

2x 3TB WD Red

 

with this combination, how do I decide which should be the parity drive(or does the unRaid look after that), and how much storage would I have in the end(currently 90% of my folders are replicated on my WHS system, so my 15TB of storage works out to about 7TB.

 

Is there a getting started guide that I should be reading through, sort of a Dummies Guide to unRaid?

Parity drive must be as large or larger than any other drive in the array, so 3TB would be the choice among these.

 

The unRAID OS boots from a USB flash drive and unpacks into RAM, so your former OS drive could also be used for data.

 

3TB parity leaves 1x 3TB + 5x 2TB + 1x 1TB = 14TB, but you might want to use the 1TB drive as cache instead.

 

Note however that you should also have a plan for backing up critical data.

[mrmarkfr]

What's the purpose of the cache, any benefit of using an SSD there instead(I have a couple of small(64Gb) SSD that aren't being used, or is speed not an issue?

[trurl]

What's the purpose of the cache, any benefit of using an SSD there instead(I have a couple of small(64Gb) SSD that aren't being used, or is speed not an issue?

Speed is the whole point of cache. Writing directly to the parity-protected array is actually 2 reads and 2 writes so it is somewhat slower than a simple write. Writing to cache is a simple write to one disk. unRAID will move cached data to the array at a later time but until it gets moved it is not protected by parity. This move is scheduled during the night by default, so the cache drive can be a lot smaller than your array drives since it only needs to hold one day's worth of written data.

 

Many people also use the cache drive for plugins, dockers, VMs, since it is faster and will allow writes without spinning up the parity drive.

 

[Frank1940]

Not quite sure what you are planning to use the same hardware for your new server as for your present setup.  If you are planning this, you can quickly test to see if it is compatible with unRAID by simply installing the operating system on any unused UBS flash drive.  Plug the flash drive into any USB port and boot from it.  (You will probably have to go into the BIOS to set the Flash Drive as the first boot drive.) 

 

Then you can access the unRAID server from another computer using the GUI and any web browser.  Just don't start the array or format any drives.  Basically, you are verifying that the LAN chip set is supported-- most are.  You will also be able to see how you mange your server. 

 

The only thing that I saw in your wish list was using the server as a printer server.  The feature is not currently in unRAID.  I don't know if anyone has added this feature via a Docker item or plugin. 

[mrmarkfr]

I have some hardware coming in for a HTPC that I'm about to build for a friend(Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H, A6-5400K, and 4Gb DDR3), I'm going to try running it on that to see how it works before I build her HTPC, with a few spare drives I have floating around.

If/when I decide to move to unRaid(I'm liking what I see currently), I'll either have a SFF Windows box beside it for any Windows app(Media Center Master for one), and I can put the printer on that, or I'll run the printer through my router's USB ports.

I've looked at Amahi standalone, Amahi on Fedora19, and FreeNAS, but from the look of it, unRAID seems the best choice of replacement for me.

 

[JonathanM]

Just don't start the array or format any drives.

If you assign a disk to a slot, it will mess with the drive. DO NOT ASSIGN ANY DRIVES THAT CURRENTLY HOLD IMPORTANT DATA, even as a test or just to experiment. It is safe to boot a machine with unraid to test stuff out, just don't play with drive assignments.

[mrmarkfr]

I have a stack of sata drives that I'm don't care about any data on them, they were pulled from my server as I was running out of room(a few 500G 3.5 drives)

Do I have to do anything to the drives before using them in unRAID, or will unRAID do all prep when I load them.

Is there a starting guide I should be reading, I don't want to be asking stupid questions that are already spelled out.

[Frank1940]

I have a stack of sata drives that I'm don't care about any data on them, they were pulled from my server as I was running out of room(a few 500G 3.5 drives)

Do I have to do anything to the drives before using them in unRAID, or will unRAID do all prep when I load them.

Is there a starting guide I should be reading, I don't want to be asking stupid questions that are already spelled out.

 

Here is a link to the basic starup:

 

    http://lime-technology.com/unraid-server-installation/

 

And here is a link to the 'How-to's':

 

  http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/How-To%27s

 

And a link to the 'unofficial documentation' prepared by the user community:

 

  http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Unofficial_Documentation

[trurl]

I have a stack of sata drives that I'm don't care about any data on them, they were pulled from my server as I was running out of room(a few 500G 3.5 drives)

Do I have to do anything to the drives before using them in unRAID, or will unRAID do all prep when I load them.

Is there a starting guide I should be reading, I don't want to be asking stupid questions that are already spelled out.

 

Here is a link to the basic starup:

 

    http://lime-technology.com/unraid-server-installation/

 

And here is a link to the 'How-to's':

 

  http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/How-To%27s

 

And a link to the 'unofficial documentation' prepared by the user community:

 

  http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Unofficial_Documentation

Especially read the Configuration Tutorial linked in the Unofficial Documentation Getting Started section.

 

Having said that, the wiki is not always completely up-to-date, so consider it a good starting point for learning enough to ask good questions, and then please ask!

[JonathanM]

Do I have to do anything to the drives before using them in unRAID, or will unRAID do all prep when I load them.

Unraid will modify them as needed. If you are playing with the 5.06 release, data drives will be formatted with Reiserfs. If you use the latest beta (6b12 as of this writing) you can use Reiserfs, XFS, or BTRFS. XFS is the default for new data drives in the current beta. The parity drive doesn't have a format or file system, it will be used as a raw device. Current best practices point to using XFS, as Reiserfs is losing favor and BTRFS is still teething.