Firstly forgive me if these questions have been asked already, I know how forums hate n00bs asking the same questions over and over again but since I have a few in one batch I thought it deserved to be asked.

 

I currently have a HP Microserver N36L running Windows 10 with a Simple (no parity) Storage Space largely because I had a mixture of drives before and Storage Spaces makes that very simple to work with.

 

In there was a 1TB SATA, 1TB USB, 2x500GB USB, 1x320GB SATA, 2 x 250GB SATA (of which one is the OS drive).

 

So I recently bought a 4TB SATA drive because I suspect the 320GB is dying a slow death and I needed the space anyway.

 

But now since I'm at this juncture I thought why not make the switch while I'm going to spend some hours on the thing.

 

So my questions follow.

 

Obviously the 4TB should be the parity drive but if I do 4TB+1TB+1TB I will get <2TB of redundant storage.

 

1. Can I run UnRAID on JUST the 4TB connected as parity and forego the redundancy for now...but get it later if I added another 4TB WITHOUT having to format/reinstall?

 

2. If I setup the 4TB as parity and then added the 2x1TB drive and limit myself to <2TB of redundant storage is the rest of the 4TB drive (3TB free) available for storage and sharing?

 

3. Could I simply share the 1TB drives as individual shares without adding them to the array if the above isn't possible?

 

 

I hope that all made sense, but I can clarify if required.

 

Basically I just need to know how to plan this for the future.

... Obviously the 4TB should be the parity drive but if I do 4TB+1TB+1TB I will get <2TB of redundant storage.

 

Not correct => You wouldn't get "< 2TB" of storage ... you'd get exactly 2TB of storage.

 

 

...

1. Can I run UnRAID on JUST the 4TB connected as parity and forego the redundancy for now...but get it later if I added another 4TB WITHOUT having to format/reinstall?

 

You wouldn't assign the 4TB as parity -- but yes, you could run UnRAID with the 4TB assigned as a data drive and no parity drive.    You could later add another 4TB drive and assign it as parity and there wouldn't be any changes to your array.  [i.e. no data loss; shares wouldn't change; etc. -- it would simply add fault-tolerance]

 

 

...

2. If I setup the 4TB as parity and then added the 2x1TB drive and limit myself to <2TB of redundant storage is the rest of the 4TB drive (3TB free) available for storage and sharing?

 

No, the parity drive is never used for anything except parity.

 

 

...

3. Could I simply share the 1TB drives as individual shares without adding them to the array if the above isn't possible?

 

You can access drives "outside" of the array (no fault-tolerance) using the "Unassigned Devices" plugin - but for what you're indicating you want to do I see no reason to do this.

 

By the way, are you planning on building a new server box for UnRAID, or do you want to use your existing HP?

 

If the latter, are you going to set up a Windows 10 VM, or do you have another PC you plan on using for your Windows client?

 

... Obviously the 4TB should be the parity drive but if I do 4TB+1TB+1TB I will get <2TB of redundant storage.

 

Not correct => You wouldn't get "< 2TB" of storage ... you'd get exactly 2TB of storage.

 

He he, I was trying not to get involved in a byte conversion argument there.

 

 

...

1. Can I run UnRAID on JUST the 4TB connected as parity and forego the redundancy for now...but get it later if I added another 4TB WITHOUT having to format/reinstall?

 

You wouldn't assign the 4TB as parity -- but yes, you could run UnRAID with the 4TB assigned as a data drive and no parity drive.    You could later add another 4TB drive and assign it as parity and there wouldn't be any changes to your array.  [i.e. no data loss; shares wouldn't change; etc. -- it would simply add fault-tolerance]

 

Okay that would do the job then.

 

...

3. Could I simply share the 1TB drives as individual shares without adding them to the array if the above isn't possible?

 

You can access drives "outside" of the array (no fault-tolerance) using the "Unassigned Devices" plugin - but for what you're indicating you want to do I see no reason to do this.

 

Yeah I'm was just thinking that if I don't want to compromise on the storage total by adding the two small drives to the array I can just forego the redundancy and run them individually for a 6TB total storage.

By the way, are you planning on building a new server box for UnRAID, or do you want to use your existing HP?

 

If the latter, are you going to set up a Windows 10 VM, or do you have another PC you plan on using for your Windows client?

 

Nah I plan to get rid on Windows 10 completely I only used it because I had a free license but part of the point of going "bare metal" is to get a bit more resources available from the HP which Windows steals at present.

 

It's primarily a Plex Media Server.

 

Worst case I would run a very very slow Win10 VM if I needed to do something with my Garmin or iTunes but my laptop will probably start doing that.

...

3. Could I simply share the 1TB drives as individual shares without adding them to the array if the above isn't possible?

 

You can access drives "outside" of the array (no fault-tolerance) using the "Unassigned Devices" plugin - but for what you're indicating you want to do I see no reason to do this.

 

Yeah I'm was just thinking that if I don't want to compromise on the storage total by adding the two small drives to the array I can just forego the redundancy and run them individually for a 6TB total storage.

 

=>  You're already talking about foregoing redundancy by adding just a 4TB drive as storage without parity.  You can include the 1TB drives in the same array and get 6TB of unprotected storage now; and then add a 4TB drive as parity at any point in the future to provide fault-tolerance for the entire array.

 

 

Awesome I was hoping that would be the case as it will be no different than my current setup redundancy wise but gives me the option to change that in future.

 

With Windows Storage Space I need to create the entire pool.

 

Thanks for your help!

I just wanted to add my $.02 to warn you that any data currently on the drives you assign to unraid will be formatted and erased. If you wish to keep the data that is currently on the smaller drives you should be able to assign your new empty 4TB as a single data drive, and mount the current drives using the 3rd party Unassigned Devices plugin. That would allow you to read and copy your current small drives to the 4TB, and keep them as backups.

 

If you already have a proper backup plan in place and are planning on restoring your data to the freshly formatted drives assigned to unraid, then ignore me.

Ha ha, I'm not that much of  a n00b but thanks for the concern.

 

I've just gotten it setup and running with the 4TB and mounted the other drives manually and busy RSyncing all the data across to the 4TB.

 

 

I'm a little confused as to the Plugins vs Docker Repository options though as I want to install SABNZBD, Sonarr, CouchPotato in the least painless fashion possible.

 

The built-in Plex Docker is working perfectly so far.

I'm a little confused as to the Plugins vs Docker Repository options though as I want to install SABNZBD, Sonarr, CouchPotato in the least painless fashion possible.

Three words. Community Applications Plugin.

I'm a little confused as to the Plugins vs Docker Repository options though as I want to install SABNZBD, Sonarr, CouchPotato in the least painless fashion possible.

Three words. Community Applications Plugin.

 

He he, found it shortly after my post.

 

The confusing part was that you install a Plugin...to get to Dockers. The two seem like they should be separate entities.

 

 

 

But another question if you don't mind. Is there a way to upload files via the WebGUI at all? Specifically in this case to drop an ISO for a VM installation.

Completely unrelated I just discovered Midnight Commander through a forum post which is making my life so much easier to move my data than doing it by hand using RSync.

 

So far I can't say I've found a single reason to dislike UnRAID.