Hi All,

 

I hope I am posting this in the right spot, if not i do appologize.

 

I am planning my first unraid build.  I currently have a 2TB storage setup that I have been using for the last 6 years with zero issues.  When i originally set this up i had almost no knowledge of RAID, as a consequence i set it up as Raid0.  I have come to understand RAID a lot more and now know that this is a big no no.  I am lucky nothing failed or I would need to re-rip my DVD/Blue-ray collection again.

 

Anywho, I am slowly gathering some hardware for this build.  Currently i have 4 - Heitachi 4TB 7200RPM NAS drives in hand.  What i plan to do is get rid of cable in my home, so i will have a media server, TVHeadend VM for PVR functionality and probably a a win10 VM for media organization / ripping.  I am not familiar with cache and do not have a ton of money to build.  I am thinking of purchasing 1 more of the drives I have above and set it all up as RAID 5.  If i am right, that gives me a total of 16TB of strorage and 1 drive for parity.  Way more than enough space to last me a while, but would like to also expand later if i need to.  i wanted to implement cache, but unsure how much SSD drive space I will need or how to even plan for this?  Could some one point me in the right direction for this?  I would really really appreciate it.  I would like to also have any VM's run from the SSD's, if possible.

 

Thanks!!

First thing to read is: unRAID is NOT RAID.

The moment you mention "RAID 5" says you haven't read enough about unRAID to progress (apologies for the frankness).

You will have 16TB of storage, yes but it's not a RAID 5 - there is no stripe-ing involved so not a RAID 5.

 

I suggest having a look through the unRAID 6 manual (just google it, you will get there) and see how the storage configurations can be done - it does give a lot of clues about why things are done a certain way.

 

The cache is (1) where docker image + data and VM vdisks are saved for best performance and (2) where new files are written to. That is to improve writing speed because the (only) drawback of unRAID is that it is slower than a textbook RAID 5. Write speed is generally estimated to be around 50% read speed (without Turbo Write turned on).

Here is the link to the unRAID manual:

 

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

 

I would suggest that you read section 1 and look at the videos here:

 

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

First thing to read is: unRAID is NOT RAID.

The moment you mention "RAID 5" says you haven't read enough about unRAID to progress (apologies for the frankness).

You will have 16TB of storage, yes but it's not a RAID 5 - there is no stripe-ing involved so not a RAID 5.

 

I suggest having a look through the unRAID 6 manual (just google it, you will get there) and see how the storage configurations can be done - it does give a lot of clues about why things are done a certain way.

 

The cache is (1) where docker image + data and VM vdisks are saved for best performance and (2) where new files are written to. That is to improve writing speed because the (only) drawback of unRAID is that it is slower than a textbook RAID 5. Write speed is generally estimated to be around 50% read speed (without Turbo Write turned on).

 

Thank you for the info.  Don't apologize for being frank, clearly I have a bit more reading to do

 

While I have you both, my plan was to use my old gaming machine that has a intel Core i7 920 CPU with 12GB of ram.  Should this be enough horsepower to run unraid with a couple of VMs?

 

@Frank1940, thank you for the links!

 

 

The i7-920 does not have vt-d support (I believe it was part of the chipsets/motherboard in this era). What motherboard do you have? Either way, might be work it to get a new CPU.

I also suggest you do some reading about using dockers in unRAID. You will be surprised at how much you can do without VMs.

 

Scroll through the first page of this thread for a good idea of what's possible.

 

All unRAID Application Template Repositories / Support Threads

 

 

The i7-920 does not have vt-d support (I believe it was part of the chipsets/motherboard in this era). What motherboard do you have? Either way, might be work it to get a new CPU.

 

What would you recommend for a CPU with out a huge price tag?

A bit of clarification, that i7 has the horsepower to run a couple of vm's.  However, as mr-hexen indicated, without the right hardware that are some restrictions as to what you  can do in setting up vm's.  A lot of folks are wanting to use their vm's as a standard PC and even use them as a 'Gaming' platform.  That requirement carries a lot of hardware requirements that must be met first.  So you might want to indicate what you want to do with your vm's. 

I also suggest you do some reading about using dockers in unRAID. You will be surprised at how much you can do without VMs.

 

Scroll through the first page of this thread for a good idea of what's possible.

 

All unRAID Application Template Repositories / Support Threads

353 apps and counting

A bit of clarification, that i7 has the horsepower to run a couple of vm's.  However, as mr-hexen indicated, without the right hardware that are some restrictions as to what you  can do in setting up vm's.  A lot of folks are wanting to use their vm's as a standard PC and even use them as a 'Gaming' platform.  That requirement carries a lot of hardware requirements that must be met first.  So you might want to indicate what you want to do with your vm's.

 

Well I wont be doing any gaming with this.  Below is a list of VM's i will be setting up.

 

TVHeadend - Ubuntu 14.04

Media management - Windows 10

ZoneMinder - Ubuntu 15

SickBeard and CouchPotato - Windows or Linux

 

Thats it for VM's....maybe adding 1 or 2 in the future, but no other need for others any time soon.

I also suggest you do some reading about using dockers in unRAID. You will be surprised at how much you can do without VMs.

 

Scroll through the first page of this thread for a good idea of what's possible.

 

All unRAID Application Template Repositories / Support Threads

353 apps and counting

 

Wow!  Just took a look at the list, everything i want to run is in there.....maybe i dont even need VM's at all!?!

Indeed. My UnRaid box is a Media server/downloader/organiser, eBook server, Torrent Client, Minecraft Server, Teamspeak Server, Crashplan Client and a Gaming/Work PC all in one

Indeed. My UnRaid box is a Media server/downloader/organiser, eBook server, Torrent Client, Minecraft Server, Teamspeak Server, Crashplan Client and a Gaming/Work PC all in one

 

You have a hell of a Rig too.  I am almost wondering now if I should postpone my new build, get some decent hardware and just use the rig for gaming as well.  I was planning on building a new gaming box anyways this year....maybe just change it up a bit....hhhhmmmm

Yep, treated myself earlier this year, cost around £3.5k in total. The Xeon E5-2670 chips are going for peanuts (relatively) on Ebay these days so I felt compelled to "Wire in"

Yep, treated myself earlier this year, cost around £3.5k in total. The Xeon E5-2670 chips are going for peanuts (relatively) on Ebay these days so I felt compelled to "Wire in"

 

Did you get the 8, 10 or 12 core model?  Just curious.  8-core model seems to be priced fairly.  The 12 jumps up a bit.  Not sure how i would feel about buying used CPU's from ebay.  Were yours new or used?  If used, I assume you have had no issues so far?

It was these I got...

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matching-Pair-2-x-Intel-Xeon-E5-2670-SR0KX-2-6ghz-20M-Cache-CPU-Processor-/201555915148?

 

8 Core, 16 threads each.

 

They've been faultless so far. Ex Facebook server chips so the rumour goes.

Yep, treated myself earlier this year, cost around £3.5k in total. The Xeon E5-2670 chips are going for peanuts (relatively) on Ebay these days so I felt compelled to "Wire in"

 

Did you get the 8, 10 or 12 core model?  Just curious.  8-core model seems to be priced fairly.  The 12 jumps up a bit.  Not sure how i would feel about buying used CPU's from ebay.  Were yours new or used?  If used, I assume you have had no issues so far?

 

I think the one that many people have been buying is this offer:

 

    https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=46077.0

 

The thread should have info if anyone has been screwed-over. 

Wow guys! Thank you so much for all the information today.

 

After all the reading today I have a much better understanding of unraid, and the type of build I need to do to make this all work the way I want. 

 

Thanks again!

Sickbeard, couch & tvheadend can definitely be done using docker containers.

 

Zoneminder as well I think.

 

 

I am trying to figure out if the Natex deal that has the Intel S2600CP Motherboard w/Dual E5-2670 SR0KX can handle a video card if i choose to put one in, in the future, also if the onboard SATA ports can be used with unraid.  Sorry for the noobish questions, just trying not to waste my money lol.

 

Thanks!

I have a question regarding storage.  So I have the 4 - 4TB drives i mentioned above, and I now have 2-480GB SSD drives for my cache pool.  I ended up purchasing the ASROCK EP2C602-4L/D16 SSI EEB Motherboard.  It has 8xSATA2 ports and 2xSATA3 ports built in to the board.  My question is this, do I NEED to purchase a SAS expander card or can i utilize the on-board ports with out any issues then install a SAS expander card in the future if i needed to add drives?  I will have my 2 SSD's on the 2 SATA3 connectors.

 

Thanks!

Using the motherboard's sata2 ports is a good plan, regular HDs typically cannot saturate sata2, let alone sata3.

Using the motherboard's sata2 ports is a good plan, regular HDs typically cannot saturate sata2, let alone sata3.

 

If I decided go add more SSD drives, would I run into any issues if my current ones are on sata3 and the others are on sata2?

Generally speaking you want SSDs on sata3 ports.  It's not the end of the world if they aren't, but it is possible for an SSD to saturate sata2 under sustained, heavy I/O.  Since you are going to be maxing out you motherboard sata ports anyway, more SSDs would mean an expander card - so try to go sata3 with that.

And as you have experienced, one HUGE factor of unRAID is the great community here.