Will there ever be support for multiple parity drives?

[lgo51]

Dynamic file integrity

Searched all of "All unRAID Application Template Repositories / Support Threads" #37958 but all the 'dynamic's were for DNS or IP ????

 

This is a bit weird... a NAS without intrinsic multiple parity or bit-rot protection and only some obscure 3rd party plug-in  

 

[JorgeB]

This is a bit weird... a NAS without intrinsic multiple parity or bit-rot protection and only some obscure 3rd party plug-in  

 

Dual parity is available on 6.2-beta.

 

Dynamix File Integrity plugin

[tdallen]

It is here Dynamix File Integrity plugin - one of the top most discussed plugins in the Plugins forum.  And as already mentioned, unRAID 6.2 with dual parity support is in public beta.

 

I suppose you say something similar about SnapRaid - a NAS without intrinsic real time parity update?  Or a drive pooling solution?  In truth SnapRaid is a good product and so is unRAID.  Neither is perfect, so you have to make some choices and evaluate tradeoffs when you select your solution.

[Helmonder]

To each his own..  But someone might benefit from my standpoint:

 

If you worry about loosing data (and therefor about bitrot) the first thing you should do (imho) is make sure you backup your data.. The chance of catastrophic failure of your system is larger then bitrot (I have been running unraid for a lot of years, doing regular parity checks and there never has been an error, and a parity check would definately trigger an error with bitrot.. So I am not saying bitrot cannot happen, I am saying it is not something that easy happens.

 

I worry about my data, so I have a backup. I backup using crashplan to another unraid server. Crashplan constantly checks the backupped data for bitrot and heals it if it is detected.

 

So I think I am covered..

[lgo51]

It is here Dynamix File Integrity plugin - one of the top most discussed plugins in the Plugins forum.  And as already mentioned, unRAID 6.2 with dual parity support is in public beta.

Thanks for that!  ...but now thinking unRAID isn't for my needs (backup repository, a 'vault', rot-proof and drive failure tolerant).  Here's the clincher; "This utility only reports file corruption but does not have any means to repair it. This action is with the user."

 

I suppose you say something similar about SnapRaid - a NAS without intrinsic real time parity update?  Or a drive pooling solution?  In truth SnapRaid is a good product and so is unRAID.  Neither is perfect, so you have to make some choices and evaluate tradeoffs when you select your solution.

Very true... but cron and mhddfs can solve both of those for me... maybe not the 'perfect' solution, but seems to be better suited for data archival than what unRAID offers, which appears to be AV server / gaming / one-box-does-it-all oriented... cute toy, but doesn't have the resume for trusted data archival.

 

Cheers

[Helmonder]

It is here Dynamix File Integrity plugin - one of the top most discussed plugins in the Plugins forum.  And as already mentioned, unRAID 6.2 with dual parity support is in public beta.

Thanks for that!  ...but now thinking unRAID isn't for my needs (backup repository, a 'vault', rot-proof and drive failure tolerant).  Here's the clincher; "This utility only reports file corruption but does not have any means to repair it. This action is with the user."

 

I suppose you say something similar about SnapRaid - a NAS without intrinsic real time parity update?  Or a drive pooling solution?  In truth SnapRaid is a good product and so is unRAID.  Neither is perfect, so you have to make some choices and evaluate tradeoffs when you select your solution.

Very true... but cron and mhddfs can solve both of those for me... maybe not the 'perfect' solution, but seems to be better suited for data archival than what unRAID offers, which appears to be AV server / gaming / one-box-does-it-all oriented... cute toy, but doesn't have the resume for trusted data archival.

 

Cheers

 

All correct.. but for the "cute toy" remark... bit of a shame.. success bro!

[lgo51]

All correct.. but for the "cute toy" remark... bit of a shame.. success bro!

Not really... just like a smartphone that doesn't make reliable calls... when it's prime directive is to be a PHONE, the rest of the stuff is just a toy.

[JimPhreak]

All correct.. but for the "cute toy" remark... bit of a shame.. success bro!

Not really... just like a smartphone that doesn't make reliable calls... when it's prime directive is to be a PHONE, the rest of the stuff is just a toy.

 

But who are you to determine what UnRAID's "prime directive" is?  Sounds like you decided that in your own head.

[itimpi]

One thing people seem to get hung up on nowadays is bitrot protection (that is not detected at the hardware level) which in fact is incredibly rare, and historically very few NAS type solutions have offered this.  Having good protection against disk failure is the main thing for most users.  For those who are paranoid about bitrot with unRAID you can now use BTRFS which at least has built in detection of bitrot issues, or use the file integrity plugin which can now give similar checks for any other supported file system.

 

You also want to have a system where even if you get more failures that are protected by parity the chances are that you will not lose data.  One area where it is very hard to explain to a user who has not had problems is how important it is that each drive in an unRAID system is a discrete file system that can be manipulated individually even after extreme issues so even those with no backups rarely see significant amounts of data loss even in multiple failure scenarios.

[lgo51]

All correct.. but for the "cute toy" remark... bit of a shame.. success bro!

Not really... just like a smartphone that doesn't make reliable calls... when it's prime directive is to be a PHONE, the rest of the stuff is just a toy.

 

But who are you to determine what UnRAID's "prime directive" is?  Sounds like you decided that in your own head.

Oh my, let's see..... yeah, that'd be the CUSTOMER      Don't tell my ya'll learned nothing from the tech bubble at the turn of the century!

[JimPhreak]

All correct.. but for the "cute toy" remark... bit of a shame.. success bro!

Not really... just like a smartphone that doesn't make reliable calls... when it's prime directive is to be a PHONE, the rest of the stuff is just a toy.

 

But who are you to determine what UnRAID's "prime directive" is?  Sounds like you decided that in your own head.

Oh my, let's see..... yeah, that'd be the CUSTOMER      Don't tell my ya'll learned nothing from the tech bubble at the turn of the century!

 

You're not making sense.  What have YOU (the customer) decided UnRAID's primary purpose is?

[Helmonder]

One thing people seem to get hung up on nowadays is bitrot protection (that is not detected at the hardware level) which in fact is incredibly rare, and historically very few NAS type solutions have offered this.  Having good protection against disk failure is the main thing for most users.  For those who are paranoid about bitrot with unRAID you can now use BTRFS which at least has built in detection of bitrot issues, or use the file integrity plugin which can now give similar checks for any other supported file system.

 

You also want to have a system where even if you get more failures that are protected by parity the chances are that you will not lose data.  One area where it is very hard to explain to a user who has not had problems is how important it is that each drive in an unRAID system is a discrete file system that can be manipulated individually even after extreme issues so even those with no backups rarely see significant amounts of data loss even in multiple failure scenarios.

 

This is really really such a big thing... The average raid set wil be TOAST if more then an allowed amount of drives fail.. That terrifies me... Its why I run RAID10 at work with spare disks on a shelf..

 

The simple ability to pull drives out of my enclosure and just put them in a windows box and read them is such a big selling point for me..

 

But... to each his own..  Some people might be extremy scared of bitrot and not worry about the other thing... To me personally that is weird, like having earthquake insurance for your house but building fires indoors on your table..

[JimPhreak]

One thing people seem to get hung up on nowadays is bitrot protection (that is not detected at the hardware level) which in fact is incredibly rare, and historically very few NAS type solutions have offered this.  Having good protection against disk failure is the main thing for most users.  For those who are paranoid about bitrot with unRAID you can now use BTRFS which at least has built in detection of bitrot issues, or use the file integrity plugin which can now give similar checks for any other supported file system.

 

You also want to have a system where even if you get more failures that are protected by parity the chances are that you will not lose data.  One area where it is very hard to explain to a user who has not had problems is how important it is that each drive in an unRAID system is a discrete file system that can be manipulated individually even after extreme issues so even those with no backups rarely see significant amounts of data loss even in multiple failure scenarios.

 

This is really really such a big thing... The average raid set wil be TOAST if more then an allowed amount of drives fail.. That terrifies me... Its why I run RAID10 at work with spare disks on a shelf..

 

The simple ability to pull drives out of my enclosure and just put them in a windows box and read them is such a big selling point for me..

 

But... to each his own..  Some people might be extremy scared of bitrot and not worry about the other thing... To me personally that is weird, like having earthquake insurance for your house but building fires indoors on your table..

 

Agreed.  I have a backup of my important data (non-media) to a local USB external drive on the premises.  I also have a cloud backup of that same important data.  I also have my entire UnRAID array (56TB) mirrored to a second UnRAID array off-site via VPN connection.  To me, having a good backup plan puts my mind at ease much more than bitrot protection does.

[bonienl]

One thing people seem to get hung up on nowadays is bitrot protection (that is not detected at the hardware level) which in fact is incredibly rare...

 

I have been monitoring bitrot on my system (around 20 TB of data) for over a year and never encountered any bitrot, I concur with itimpi that bitrot is very very rare.

 

[itimpi]

One thing people seem to get hung up on nowadays is bitrot protection (that is not detected at the hardware level) which in fact is incredibly rare...

 

I have been monitoring bitrot on my system (around 20 TB of data) for over a year and never encountered any bitrot, I concur with itimpi that bitrot is very very rare.

I think a much more common problem is 'brainrot' where a user does something silly after a failure and turns a perfectly recoverable situation into a potential data-loss nightmare

[trurl]

Another thing the OP might consider is how much support does that other solution offer in the event of any problems.

 

This user forum is the best anywhere at helping others.

[garycase]

... I think a much more common problem is 'brainrot' where a user does something silly after a failure and turns a perfectly recoverable situation into a potential data-loss nightmare

 

    Agree completely.    Not sure I'd use that term, but the description is very accurate.