Potential unRAID convert

[JackOfAllTech]

I'm SOOOO close to switching to unRAID. Currently I have my "compute" layer, which is an ESXi 6.0 server (Xeon-D 1540 - 32GB ECC RAM and a 500GB SSD) and my "storage" layer - Synology DS1512+ with 12TB. I'm looking to combine those two with unRAID. Some items give me pause however.

 

1. Are there plans to implement a GUI level rsync/backup feature? (yes I know I can do this all via CLI, but I'm just thinking from a simplicity standpoint) Isn't the goal the market this more towards the users that are buying the NAS boxes?

 

2. App/Docker catalog. It's pretty simple to point unRAID to a URL and install a docker app. Was very impressed with the testing I did. Are there plans to make a catalog of either community or "Lime-Technology" approved applications/docker? Something browse-able with a brief description of the app and one click in install (coming from a synology so this is just what I'm used to)

 

3. with Docker apps, are they limited on resources? (IE like ESXi I assume so many cores and so much ram to a VM) not a huge deal as I don't think Plex would run away with resources or anything.

 

4. Snapshot capability - I believe this is possible with BTRFs

 

5. Task scheduler - (for snapshot / backup jobs mentioned above)

 

6. OSX Time machine backup targets? Is this possible? Looked like it was a workaround via CLI that might require tinkering. I just don't want something that will "break" every subsequent unRAID upgrade and require tinkering to get it working again.

 

Again, obviously I know that there are workarounds for some of these items. I'm comfortable doing some CLI stuff, again, I'm also asking thinking of family members and setting up these devices vs a NAS box but I NEED to keep it simple.

 

unRAID so far seems like a great product and am impressed with the amount of features it offers after a relatively short amount of development time. I look forward to seeing it's growth in the future!

 

Appreciate anybody's input and thoughts.

[BRiT]

Wait until unraid 6.2 is released.

[trurl]

1. Dockers for Crashplan, BTSync, probably others. Depends on your exact definition of backup.

2. Community Applications plugin is a catalog of dockers and plugins and it has many features including descriptions, links to support, one-click install to let you fill in parameters and add dockers and plugins.

3. You can control resources per docker but is seldom needed.

4. Some of the btrfs capabilities are yet to be explored by most of the user community.

5. A method exists to easily add entries to cron but there is no GUI for this yet.

6. I know there has been some discussion by Time Machine users on the forum but I have no experience.

 

[wgstarks]

I've been using my unRaid for TM backups of 4 different Macs for about a year without any issues. I just created a user share and set a size limit. Very easy.

[gundamguy]

I've been using my unRaid for TM backups of 4 different Macs for about a year without any issues. I just created a user share and set a size limit. Very easy.

 

Does TM work with SMB, or does it have to be AFP?

[wgstarks]

I've been using my unRaid for TM backups of 4 different Macs for about a year without any issues. I just created a user share and set a size limit. Very easy.

 

Does TM work with SMB, or does it have to be AFP?

I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that TM is AFP only. Apple has really been pushing the new SMB standards and has said that they won't be doing any development for AFP so my guess is that this may change at some point.

[ashman70]

I had it working with SMB just fine.

[wgstarks]

Well, I was wrong once before. This makes twice.

[JackOfAllTech]

Appreciate the feedback all. I agree, I think I'll see what 6.3 holds, but am so close. Impressive stuff for sure. Keep up the good work Limetech!

 

Sorry I should have clarified for "backup" I simply meant a way to replicate one unraid server to an offsite location via rsync or something like that. Currently I have two synology devices, and device 1 replicates to device 2 offsite. I did the initial backup onsite, and then took the second unit offsite so only the deltas has to sync over the WAN.

 

I'll have to test using OSX TM backups.

[Kode]

When Aesir is finished it will have something similar using rsnapshot: