So I have been thinking about an Unraid build for a long time and getting ready to take the plunge.

 

The intial specifications would be the following.

 

Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/ac

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170

PSU: SILVERSTONE ST45SF-G 450W

Memory: G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Case: LIAN LI PC-Q25B

Hard Drives: 3 x Western Digital Red 3TB (1 Parity, 2 Data)

 

Primary purpose for Unraid would be:

 

1) Backup of files (Photos, Movies, etc)

2) Access to files remotely

3) Stream Media to networked Devices

 

Now to the questions

 

1) Does the H97M support Vt-D?  I have seen some places say yes, others say no.  Anyone using this board can confirm?

    (I understand the I3-4170 does not, but keeping my options open for th future)

2) For remote access I have seen two things.  Teamview running on a VM, or setting up OpenVPN.  Does OpenVPN cost anything?  Do you have to create an account with OpenVPN?  If yes to either, is there a third way to get remote access?  I have a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 router, if that gives me any more options.

3) When installing/using dockers I sometimes see different reposertories having the same docker app (like plex).  Is there a way to know which repository to use for which docker?

4) What are some basic control and diagnositics plugin/dockers that every Unraid system should have installed?  I have looked at the pre-clear plugin but I am sure there are others for backup, etc I am missing.

5) Is there a guide for the best intial setup of unraid?  Such as best practices for what shares to create, creating users, allowing users to only certain shares, etc?  I am just afraid I will make poorly designed file structure that will hamper me in the future.

6) Any other general recommendations or gotcha's to look out for?

 

 

Thanks in advance for any help answering my questions.

 

2) For remote access I have seen two things.  Teamview running on a VM, or setting up OpenVPN.  Does OpenVPN cost anything?  Do you have to create an account with OpenVPN?  If yes to either, is there a third way to get remote access?  I have a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 router, if that gives me any more options.

 

Thanks in advance for any help answering my questions.

 

This is the only question that I can really answer.

 

OpenVPN is opensource software and does not cost anything. You do not have to make an account with anyone, because you will be running the VPN server yourself (which is why this is different from VPNs that other people run that you pay to access for privacy... and other reasons.)

 

That said a looked up the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and it should have OpenVPN built in... all you have to do is enable it and then get OpenVPN clients (should also be free) on other devices you want to use to remotely manage your server. 

Hey thanks for the reponse.

 

Ya I was not looking for one individual to answer everything.  Thought maybe a group effort to help me out.

 

But I have been playing with the trial version on an old laptop and come up with another question.

 

Can you have Unraid utilize the Wireless Ethernet connection on a computer instead of being hardwired through the RJ-45 jack?