Feature Information / Question: Folders Spanned Across Disks

[DavidIrwin]

Hi,

I am not yet an unRAID user and wondered if someone could answer some questions before I start trying to see if this will work for me.

 

I am looking to create a home media server based on an HP MicroServer which I already own, and am fairly sure unRAID will do what I need, but wanted to confirm before I start the process of setting up and migrating.

 

1. I intend to use either an internal microSD card or USB memory stick as the boot device. Are either of these an issue?

2. I will have to gradually add hard disks as I migrate the data from an existing Windows Server 2012 install (NTFS format drives) Can I do this within unRAID or will I have to connect the drives to a Windows machine and copy data across the network onto the unRAID machine?

3. My data is predominantly two types, TV series and Movies. I would like these to be shown as two shares or folders but the data within them will have to spread across more than one drive due to the quantity of data. Is this possible?

4. I intend to install and use Plex, SickBeark, Couchpotato and SABnzbd on this server to manage my media. Are there any limitations which may cause me issues running these?

5. I am not a linux expert, will I have to do much setup at the command line to get the above to work or is it fairly simple/web gui based?

 

I have had a month of issues having tried this setup with freeNAS only to find that managing the storage and adding drives progressively leads to a situation of one drive fails and all data lost which I really want to avoid. As this is a home setup I will be running with minimal resilience and no backup for some of the data (I can always re-rip my DVD/BluRay discs if I have to) but would rather not lose all my data in the event of a failure.

 

Thank you in advance for you help.

 

David

[switchman]

Read through these and and it will probably answer most of your questions. 

 

Short answer is:

1 = both will work.  Mem stick is preferred, but with correct card reader microsd cards could work.

2 = any NTFS disk will need to be mounted on a windows machine and data copied over as it is easiest way. 

3 = Yes

4 = Depends on your server hardware.

5 = You can do everything from the GUI.

 

Read through these and and it will probably answer most of your questions. 

http://lime-technology.com/getting-started/

http://lime-technology.com/videos/

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/UnRAID_Manual_6

[SSD]

Card readers typically don't work. UnRaid requires a unique GUID and most (all?) card readers don't have this. Without a unique GUID, you cannot establish a valid license. USB sticks are the ticket!

 

It is possible to mount NTFS disks in your server. I know this was done frequently with 5.0 (32 bit unRaid) but not sure I've seen anyone posting about doing it with 6.0 (64 bit). NTFS disks cannot be part of an array but can be mounted to transfer data off of them, and then they can be precleared and added to the array. This can be done one at a time.

 

Running the apps you list in Docker containers should work - it does not require high end hardware or tons of memory. An SSD would give the best performance if running these types of apps on the server.

[itimpi]

Regarding the NTFS disks then if you want to mount them in your server then there is a plugin called "Unassigned Devices" that allows you to do this via the GUI.  The reason you might want to this is because data transfers within the server do tend to be faster than copying files over the network assuming the disk is connected via data or usb3.  If only connected via usb2 and you have a gigabit networks then the speed difference is not that noticeable.

 

What there is not (at the moment anyway) is a standard GUI based way of copying data internally within the server so for that the Linux command line has to be used.    Many people use the Midnight Commander tool (started by using 'mc' from the command line) to give a character based UI for doing this without having to know Linux commands.

 

If in doubt use the suggested way of mounting the disk on a Windows machine and copying data over the network.  That way you never have to do anything at the Linux command line level.  However the Linux knowledge required for the alternative is not very demanding.  There is nothing to stop you trying both and see which suits you both.

 

I have also seen mention of Docker based solutions to give a GUI way of doing internal transfers within the unRAID server but have not seen any feedback on how well these work at the moment.  Might be worth investigating this further as it would be ideal for your scenario.

[DavidIrwin]

Thank you all for the helpful answers, I appreciate the comprehensive responses and now need to look at when to start playing.

 

The server hardware I have is an HP MicroServer Gen8 with (currently) Celeron 1610 processor which is coping with the same application setup running Windows Server 2012 R2 so I expect with unRAID will also cope.

 

The reason for looking at the NTFS disks internally is to simplify the install process (not hvaing to use second machine, etc.) but also to speeed up the transfers so good to know that will be possible, I just need to do some learning 

 

For the final setup I am intending to have 32Gb USB as the boot device, 120Gb SATA SSD for apps/docker and 4x 4Tb SATA disks for file data storage. The hardware of the server prevents me from booting from the SSD as I have it connected to the Optical Drive SATA port (silly HP design for SATA controllers).

 

As a final question, I currently only have 2Gb RAM in the server which I intend to upgrade to 16Gb but that is waiting on some additional funds becoming available. Should I wait until after that upgrade before starting with unRAID or would it be OK with 2Gb?

 

I also intent to upgrade the CPU to a Xeon E3-1230v2 but again waiting on having the money avaialable. Will unRAID cope with me upgrading this later or will a reinstall be needed?

[Kode]

32GB USB is overkill as after boot the system runs from RAM anyway.

 

Unraid will work fine on 2GB but you might need to be careful about adding the applications.

 

No reinstall will be needed after replacing RAM or CPU as licensing is based on the USB sticks GUID and the system isn't that fussy about hardware changes.

[dgaschk]

 

This SDcard reader works with unRAID.

 

 

http://www.rakuten.com/prod/lexar-high-performance-16-gb-microsd-high-capacity-microsdhc-class-10/249372125.html?sku=249372125

[BRiT]

http://slickdeals.net/f/6018544-rakuten-buy-com-customers-getting-fraudulent-credit-card-charges

 

WARNING: do not shop at Rakuten. They have over 2 years of severe credit card fraud going on and have been unable to solve the problem. Read the thread linked above to see the truth of the matter. The scary part is there are far more cases of fraud from there than what is reported in that thread.

[JonathanM]

Amazon link for same item.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Lexar-High-Performance-microSDHC-Mobile-LSDMI16GBSBNA600R/dp/B00BQ5UWXI

[DavidIrwin]

Apologies for picking up an old topic, but makes most sense for me as I've already explained the background to where I am with unRAID (soon to be new user).

 

I have finally got my server upgraded to be ready for my migration from Windows Server 2012 R2 to unRAID but I have realised there is one more part of the configuration which I am unclear on. I currently have 3x 4TB drives with data on which will eventually become data drives used by unRAID, however I will only be able to add them progressively to the system so my plan is:

 

[*]Initialise system with unRAID from USB drive, 16Gb RAM, Xeon E3-1220v2 processor (yes, I've upgraded a bit) and one new (blank) HDD. This is likely to be a 6Tb drive as best value (cost per Tb).

[*]Connect existing 4Tb drive to Windows 10 client PC and copy data across the network onto unRAID share.

[*]Install freed up HDD into unRAID system and add to storage pool.

[*]Connect next existing 4Tb drive to Windows 10 client PC, copy data

[*]Install free up HDD into unRAID system

 

This leads to one issue (which I have identified from the documentation) and one which I have not managed to get my head around. The first is that my first installed HDD will be the largest hard disk I have in the server. The documentation says that the parity disk should be the largest in the system, however as this will be the first disk I add into the server I am unsure how I will get to the right configuration for this?

 

As I will be starting with a single data disk and then progressively adding more I assume that there will be no protection of the data until I have managed to free up and install more disks. Am I able to allocate all hard disks as disks without allocating any to Parity until I have installed all disks, and then select the 6Tb hard disk to be for parity and let unRAID do it's magic and sort out what is where?

 

Edit:

I forgot to add that I intend to add an SSD as a cache drive, however this will be the last disk to become available and be installed into the system. Will this be a problem? Do I need to configure anything when I do the initial setup in preparation for this to work correctly?

 

Thank you in advance.

[Squid]

Parity doesn't have to be the largest.  It has to be the same size or larger. 

 

And yes you can set the parity drive to be active at any point but until you do your files will be unprotected

[trurl]

And even after your data is protected by parity, it sounds as though you may not have a backup of any of this data. unRAID parity protection is not a substitute for backups.

[DavidIrwin]

And even after your data is protected by parity, it sounds as though you may not have a backup of any of this data. unRAID parity protection is not a substitute for backups.

 

You are absolutely correct in both parts. I have not yet worked out how to back up the full 10Tb (and growing) collection of data, but for the most part it is Films and TV shows which I have on DVD/BluRay so not irretrievable. The critical data I do have copied/backed up/synchronised to various locations including OneDrive, offline USB drives, etc.