PhiPhi Posted November 7, 2015 Posted November 7, 2015 Hi my 1st post here and I wanted to introduce myself and give feedback 24 hours experience with unRAID. My background is purely MS systems hardware, software and consultancy from the early days of MS DOS 2.x/IBM-XT onward so Linux based systems are a complete mystery to me. Initially I was looking for an OTS (off the shelf) NAS unit from either Synology or QNAP but was deterred by the cost of anything they were offering with more than 2 drive bays so enter the idea of a home build and unRAID. I bought and built a small Intel Skylake based ITX system capable of handling 6 x 3.5 hdd's and 16GB ram. The initial setup was simplicity itself however doing almost anything else was a steep learning curve and I found the documentation to be dry and stuffed with terms which I had no reference for, my MS imprinted brain was of some use where I could work out the parallels other than that I was in total noob territory, I was beginning to see why the retail NAS boxes carried such a premium. I carried on and was able to install some Docker apps to make life easier, Plex, Syncthing and Dolphin and I have to say a big thank you to the community who make and actively support these plugins My next goal was to get a Windows VM up and running but once again the documentation was dry and somewhat obtuse then I found this post here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=43507.0, this video was perfect in terms of understanding the overall concept and steps required to get a VM up and running (let alone 2 simultaneously running gaming VM's). Anyway I've got to the stage where I've got my unRAID box working and usable, syncing from my seed box, media and storage server for my condo but in all honesty I'll probably have to tear it all down and start again applying lessons and limitations learnt (so far). Okay let me come on to my pros and cons of unRAID based on just 24 hours of use. Cons: Not easy for a non Linux experienced user Documentation is dry and full of unfamiliar nomenclature for the average person User generated Youtube tutorials are mostly as the point above dry and expecting you to know the lingo(exception Linus vid linked) Demo limitations are not helpful because ideally you want some sort of parity and a cache drive limiting the demo to 3 HDD/SSD means you can't setup a proper usable test system. Surely you want to have minimum 2 data drives so you can pull one for test? Also would be nice to have assigned drives (NTFS,FAT32) in the box for data transfer. No support for wireless No out the box support for 2nd NIC or teaming No USB boot drive mirroring No native support for VPN's or NTFS out the box. Default security for both LAN and WAN connections is non-existent (this is probably outside the scope of what unRAID offers but considering what unRAID is capable of it is worth thinking about Can't find AD support anywhere even though claimed to support A personal one.. Can't buy licence key with bitcoin! Many apps lack of basic functionality description in Docker Pros: Simple, easy initial install Easy to use NAS functionality Great community support for plugins, docker apps Great virtualization Inexpensive Engaged development team NAS uses any size HDD/SSD with parity and without waste Huge game changing potential In summary I would say unRAID has got me excited insomuch as it has the potential to be a viable consumer and enterprise environment which puts control back into the users hands. Secure access everywhere via browser, mobile app needs to be part of the package sooner rather than later and if possible a tickbox config screen for default basics such as VPN, torrents, file explorer, media server, sync, backup, etc. Any comments are welcome as is advice on mitigation of my cons list. PhiPhi
sgibbers17 Posted November 7, 2015 Posted November 7, 2015 I'm pretty sure 2 nic teaming is supported. Also AD is supported but I believe you need a AD server but I am unsure since I don't use AD. I tried using AD years ago but couldn't because I didn't have a windows server.
smdion Posted November 8, 2015 Posted November 8, 2015 I'm pretty sure 2 nic teaming is supported. Also AD is supported but I believe you need a AD server but I am unsure since I don't use AD. I tried using AD years ago but couldn't because I didn't have a windows server. Here is how I setup AD on unRAID. https://www.linuxserver.io/index.php/2015/07/20/how-to-active-directory-on-unraid-6/ Check out our Dockers as well. We think the documentation is pretty good. - http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=42092.0. Most of us idle in IRC as well at the unraid channel or the linuxserver.io channel (see sig)
PhiPhi Posted November 8, 2015 Author Posted November 8, 2015 @smdion Thank you so much for the link, nice clear and concise step by step instructions. I'm being lazy now but is there anything to prevent a Win2012R2 AD server being hosted on an unRAID VM? No need to go into details just need to know if it's doable before diving in.
CHBMB Posted November 8, 2015 Posted November 8, 2015 @smdion Thank you so much for the link, nice clear and concise step by step instructions. I'm being lazy now but is there anything to prevent a Win2012R2 AD server being hosted on an unRAID VM? No need to go into details just need to know if it's doable before diving in. I can't speak for Win2012, but I've installed Windows 7, 8.1, 10 and WHS 2011 so don't see any reason why not. EDIT: I don't use AD nor really understand it, but just make sure that it's ok for your Win2012 to boot after Unraid, because using Unraid as host by definition you can't boot into Win2012 VM until the host is up.
smdion Posted November 8, 2015 Posted November 8, 2015 @smdion Thank you so much for the link, nice clear and concise step by step instructions. I'm being lazy now but is there anything to prevent a Win2012R2 AD server being hosted on an unRAID VM? No need to go into details just need to know if it's doable before diving in. Only problem is what CHBMB elluded too. The VM won't start until unRAID is all the way booted and since unRAID runs in RAM its needs to rejoin the domain on startup, so you would have to manually join the domain each time unRAID powers on. I run unRAID and AD on ESXi.
PhiPhi Posted November 9, 2015 Author Posted November 9, 2015 Well I think I'll leave the AD integration for a long weekend, plenty of other stuff to explore in the meantime.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.