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would you do it?

keymaster

By keymaster
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keymaster Rookie

keymaster

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Posted

Hi Guys

Been lurking for sometime and thought I would combine an intro along with a request for feedback if possible.

Intro

I am 51 and tech is just a hobby for me, I work in a completely different field. I like to buy/use what forums recommend so have quite well rated kit, good router, high spec PC, Tvs etc.

In fact almost everything I have is was overkill for what I need. I live in the UK and my most recent interest is Plex and media server stuff. I have a gen.8 HP microserver with 8gig ram and stock G1610T cpu and 4x WD red 3TB - although searching for Xeon 1220l ver 2, currently running Xpenology O/S couch potato, Sonarr, Sabnzbd, headphones and of course Plex (lifetime pass).

Opinions please

I have been looking with interest at UNRAID6 and wondered if anybody else has made the move, what if anything, do you miss, any regrets, what are the advantages?

I have several TB of media, will I need to move it all manually and format each drive - currently using JBOD.

many thanks

K

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CHBMB Veteran

CHBMB

Posted
Posted


Hi Guys
Been lurking for sometime and thought I would combine an intro along with a request for feedback if possible.
Intro
I am 51 and tech is just a hobby for me, I work in a completely different field. I like to buy/use what forums recommend so have quite well rated kit, good router, high spec PC, Tvs etc.
In fact almost everything I have is was overkill for what I need. I live in the UK and my most recent interest is Plex and media server stuff. I have a gen.8 HP microserver with 8gig ram and stock G1610T cpu and 4x WD red 3TB - although searching for Xeon 1220l ver 2, currently running Xpenology O/S couch potato, Sonarr, Sabnzbd, headphones and of course Plex (lifetime pass).
Opinions please
I have been looking with interest at UNRAID6 and wondered if anybody else has made the move, what if anything, do you miss, any regrets, what are the advantages?
I have several TB of media, will I need to move it all manually and format each drive - currently using JBOD.
many thanks
K
 
I've been an Unraid user since 2011, also from the UK btw.  Unraid 5 was cool, but Unraid 6 is amazing. 
 
Sonarr, SABnzbd, headphones and Plex can all be run as docker services.  Takes a little effort to get your head around docker but once you do it's easy.  Linuxserver.io do versions of all of the above. (Conflict Of Interest: I'm a member of linuxserver.io)
 
I actually migrated away from Unraid 5 to WHS 2011 for about 12 months but came back when Unraid 6 was in the earlyish beta stage and I do not regret for one minute coming back.
 
Development has been amazing between 5 & 6 and with the advent of Unraid running as a host for KVM and virtual machines the sky really is the limit and I don't personally think we've fully realised the potentials of this setup.
 
Consider this, at present on my Unraid server I do the following
  • Mass storage of media
  • Plex Server
  • Kodi Headless with centralised MariaDB
  • Apache Web Server: - Wordpress, Owncloud, E-book Library (COPS) etc
  • Centralised DVB PVR with TVHeadEnd & Mediabuild of Unraid
  • OSX 10.11 Virtual Machine
  • Logitech Media Server for centralised music server, with several RaspPi clients around the house
  • Dynamic DNS updater
  • Backup of Several laptops locally and my parents PC remotely (Crashplan & Sync)
  • Centralised IRC Client with remote access

 

I truly believe right now there is no better solution, not even close, to media serving in the home and whatever I set out to do with my Unraid server is generally achievable.  I have no regrets at all about coming back to Unraid other than leaving in the first place.

 

And probably top of all, a fantastic, friendly community that is always willing to help anyone of any ability, from those just starting out to those that are very advanced users.

 

Try it, you won't regret it.

 

Want to ask any questions, then post here or feel free to drop me a PM or catch me in the IRC chatroom, either #unraid or #linuxserver.io both on freenode.

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keymaster Rookie

keymaster

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Posted

Wow,

Thank you for a very comprehensive and interesting answer. My old server was also WHS 2011, which I found easy as I am used to windows. When I bought new server and WHS was no longer available my geekier friends all suggested I use Xpenology as it does everything I want well. I do like it but am uncomfortable using a hacked O/S for the following reasons.

1) security from people behind hack

2) security from Synology time bomb

3) security from not been able to do updates until until they are sorted out (sometimes months)

But the GUIis nice and it does do everything I need currently.

I am now looking to upgrade cpu in my server, which will enable virtualisation and am eager to try this, for this reason and above reasons I am looking at other options.

  I guess a comparison between Xpenology and Unraid6 or the experience of somebody else who has used both, maybe I am the only one that wants to make this change- and if so it begs the question - why?

Thank you again for your in depth and helpful reply.

Best wishes

K

 

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CHBMB Veteran

CHBMB

Posted
Posted

Wow,

Thank you for a very comprehensive and interesting answer. My old server was also WHS 2011, which I found easy as I am used to windows. When I bought new server and WHS was no longer available my geekier friends all suggested I use Xpenology as it does everything I want well. I do like it but am uncomfortable using a hacked O/S for the following reasons.

1) security from people behind hack

2) security from Synology time bomb

3) security from not been able to do updates until until they are sorted out (sometimes months)

But the GUIis nice and it does do everything I need currently.

I am now looking to upgrade cpu in my server, which will enable virtualisation and am eager to try this, for this reason and above reasons I am looking at other options.

  I guess a comparison between Xpenology and Unraid6 or the experience of somebody else who has used both, maybe I am the only one that wants to make this change- and if so it begs the question - why?

 

Oh and I'm currently using a Macintosh El-Capitan Virtual Machine to reply running on my Unraid server.  But I just as easily could have used my Windows 10 VM or my Linux Mint VM....  ;D

 

Thank you again for your in depth and helpful reply.

Best wishes

K

 

I've never used Xpenology and indeed only found out about it recently when an Xpenology user sent me  a PM here to ask for some help trying to install drivers in Xpenology as he'd seen that I'd managed to do so in Unraid....

 

I went and took a look just to see, incidentally his issue was installing DVB drivers, which isn't the easiest thing in Unraid but looks damn impossible in Xpenology.

 

Quite frankly, I don't really see that Xpenology offers anything Unraid doesn't,  now with docker containers and virtual machines, pretty much any application can be handled on Unraid in some way shape or form, dockers are platform agnostic, so don't need to be "written" for Unraid, another big plus of Unraid is that if you suffer from a hardware failure, be it motherboard, CPU, memory SATA/RAID card etc, the whole OS is contained on a USB and the malfunctioning part can just be replaced and the OS loaded like nothing has happened.  Something that WHS2011 would have struggled with.

 

Judging by the Xpenology support forum it's a much smaller project with less user base, so therefore less community support.  I would consider that a negative, on the plus side it's free but made by volunteers, so I'd always be wary that the project will fall by the wayside.

 

I know what I'd pick.....  ;)

 

PS.  If you want to take a look at some of the apps/docker containers available look at this thread, from one group formed on this forum...

 

I'm also a little older (38) and technology is just a hobby for me too and I also work in a field completely unrelated, so all that I've managed to get my server to do is from an amateur enthusiast starting point, not a sysadmin with decades of experience.

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Squid Grand Master

Squid

Posted
Posted

Wow,

Thank you for a very comprehensive and interesting answer. My old server was also WHS 2011, which I found easy as I am used to windows. When I bought new server and WHS was no longer available my geekier friends all suggested I use Xpenology as it does everything I want well. I do like it but am uncomfortable using a hacked O/S for the following reasons.

1) security from people behind hack

2) security from Synology time bomb

3) security from not been able to do updates until until they are sorted out (sometimes months)

But the GUIis nice and it does do everything I need currently.

I am now looking to upgrade cpu in my server, which will enable virtualisation and am eager to try this, for this reason and above reasons I am looking at other options.

  I guess a comparison between Xpenology and Unraid6 or the experience of somebody else who has used both, maybe I am the only one that wants to make this change- and if so it begs the question - why?

 

Oh and I'm currently using a Macintosh El-Capitan Virtual Machine to reply running on my Unraid server.  But I just as easily could have used my Windows 10 VM or my Linux Mint VM....  ;D

 

Thank you again for your in depth and helpful reply.

Best wishes

K

 

I've never used Xpenology and indeed only found out about it recently when an Xpenology user sent me  a PM here to ask for some help trying to install drivers in Xpenology as he'd seen that I'd managed to do so in Unraid....

 

I went and took a look just to see, incidentally his issue was installing DVB drivers, which isn't the easiest thing in Unraid but looks damn impossible in Xpenology.

 

Quite frankly, I don't really see that Xpenology offers anything Unraid doesn't,  now with docker containers and virtual machines, pretty much any application can be handled on Unraid in some way shape or form, dockers are platform agnostic, so don't need to be "written" for Unraid, another big plus of Unraid is that if you suffer from a hardware failure, be it motherboard, CPU, memory SATA/RAID card etc, the whole OS is contained on a USB and the malfunctioning part can just be replaced and the OS loaded like nothing has happened.  Something that WHS2011 would have struggled with.

 

Judging by the Xpenology support forum it's a much smaller project with less user base, so therefore less community support.  I would consider that a negative, on the plus side it's free but made by volunteers, so I'd always be wary that the project will fall by the wayside.

 

I know what I'd pick.....  ;)

 

PS.  If you want to take a look at some of the apps/docker containers available look at this thread, from one group formed on this forum...

 

I'm also a little older (38) and technology is just a hobby for me too and I also work in a field completely unrelated, so all that I've managed to get my server to do is from an amateur enthusiast starting point, not a sysadmin with decades of experience.

Lol. Almost thought you were someone else with that blatant self promotion.  [emoji12]

 

You can get the complete list of templates for docker containers here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=37958.0

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CHBMB Veteran

CHBMB

Posted
Posted

Wow,

Thank you for a very comprehensive and interesting answer. My old server was also WHS 2011, which I found easy as I am used to windows. When I bought new server and WHS was no longer available my geekier friends all suggested I use Xpenology as it does everything I want well. I do like it but am uncomfortable using a hacked O/S for the following reasons.

1) security from people behind hack

2) security from Synology time bomb

3) security from not been able to do updates until until they are sorted out (sometimes months)

But the GUIis nice and it does do everything I need currently.

I am now looking to upgrade cpu in my server, which will enable virtualisation and am eager to try this, for this reason and above reasons I am looking at other options.

  I guess a comparison between Xpenology and Unraid6 or the experience of somebody else who has used both, maybe I am the only one that wants to make this change- and if so it begs the question - why?

 

Oh and I'm currently using a Macintosh El-Capitan Virtual Machine to reply running on my Unraid server.  But I just as easily could have used my Windows 10 VM or my Linux Mint VM....  ;D

 

Thank you again for your in depth and helpful reply.

Best wishes

K

 

I've never used Xpenology and indeed only found out about it recently when an Xpenology user sent me  a PM here to ask for some help trying to install drivers in Xpenology as he'd seen that I'd managed to do so in Unraid....

 

I went and took a look just to see, incidentally his issue was installing DVB drivers, which isn't the easiest thing in Unraid but looks damn impossible in Xpenology.

 

Quite frankly, I don't really see that Xpenology offers anything Unraid doesn't,  now with docker containers and virtual machines, pretty much any application can be handled on Unraid in some way shape or form, dockers are platform agnostic, so don't need to be "written" for Unraid, another big plus of Unraid is that if you suffer from a hardware failure, be it motherboard, CPU, memory SATA/RAID card etc, the whole OS is contained on a USB and the malfunctioning part can just be replaced and the OS loaded like nothing has happened.  Something that WHS2011 would have struggled with.

 

Judging by the Xpenology support forum it's a much smaller project with less user base, so therefore less community support.  I would consider that a negative, on the plus side it's free but made by volunteers, so I'd always be wary that the project will fall by the wayside.

 

I know what I'd pick.....  ;)

 

PS.  If you want to take a look at some of the apps/docker containers available look at this thread, from one group formed on this forum...

 

I'm also a little older (38) and technology is just a hobby for me too and I also work in a field completely unrelated, so all that I've managed to get my server to do is from an amateur enthusiast starting point, not a sysadmin with decades of experience.

Lol. Almost thought you were someone else with that blatant self promotion.  [emoji12]

 

You can get the complete list of templates for docker containers here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=37958.0

 

Sparklyballs is rubbing off on me....  ;) 

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