I've been happily using Unraid for 2.5 years but I'm running into an issue I need to solve, faster backups.  More precisely I cannot exceed 125MB/s over the LAN.  I have over 20Tb of data and this takes FOREVER to backup over a gigabit LAN.  Sorry, I should clarify my backup is a separate server running unraid as well.  So simple solution was add a 10Gb NIC.  Well that doesn't solve the problem because a single disk cannot read any faster that 130-150MB/s give or take.  So I've been looking at several other software solutions but nothing really solves the issue that doesn't use traditional md-raid.  ZFS and freenas are promising but having to add new VDEV's in sets of 3 or 4 disks at a time isn't friendly to the wallet.  My system works best when I can add a single disk at a time.  So for me the question is simple...

 

How can I continue to use Unraid and stripe my data across all disks to greatly increase read/write performance.  IE: similar to traditional RAID 5/6.  I really, really LOVE the dockers and docker support community @ Unraid.

 

Now I already know a lot of answers I'm going to receive but let me answer why I don't like them...

 

1. Cache pool.  This really only improves data that is written into unraid.  If I want to read 20TB of data from unraid to backup server it's done file by file from a single disk.  Yes, multi-thread the backup, that's an option.  Any tool/utility recommendations?  I've been using BTsync. NOTE: doesn't solve 125MB/s 4k LAN issue below.

2. Yeah I know the name says UNraid, but that doesn't mean read performance should suffer.

3. Separate issue that has come to the foreground, I need a solution to bit-rot.  IE: ZFS and btrfs.  NOTE: I'm not afraid to use btrfs

4. Future proof.  TRUE 4k (not the Netflix BS we see today) @ 4:4:4 60FPS will greatly exceed the 125MB/s max of a LAN, so I need a solution that can grow.

 

Can I create a btrfs pool/volume that stripes the data across all disks and writes parity to the 1 or 2 parity disks?  I know there are some native issues with btrfs RAID 5/6 but most of those issues have been addressed since kernel 3.19, assuming you have a good UPS and don't have dirty shutdowns.  I would love to continue to ride the unraid train, but not striping the data just sucks.

 

Here's another question...  The Linustechtips 48TB NAS with SMB over 1GB/s, how was this done?  I just don't see how it was/is possible when a single file is written to 1 and only 1 physical disk.  They talk about "tweaks" with the unraid team but don't share what they were.

 

My setup....

 

7 disks ranging from 3-5Tb.

120Gb * 2 disks btrfs cache pool

16Gb RAM

8 core AMD

User shares defined as...

  - Movies, music, pictures, home-videos etc...  (NOTE: I did not create a single share and sub-dirs.  not really sure why I did it this way)

 

How can I improve performance?  Thanks

Here's another question...  The Linustechtips 48TB NAS with SMB over 1GB/s, how was this done?  I just don't see how it was/is possible when a single file is written to 1 and only 1 physical disk.  They talk about "tweaks" with the unraid team but don't share what they were.

 

Linus used a unRAID RAID10 cache pool as destination, source was not unRAID, I assume it was a RAID 5/6 server.

 

Don't see any way to achieve what you want with unRAID and normal spinners, I get those speeds on on of my servers using an all SSD array, still need to use a NVMe cache device as even with SSDs writes are not that fast due to parity and lack of trim support, so I get 400/500MB/s read speed and 700/800MB/s write speed, obviously that won't work for you if you need to to large transfers  bigger than the cache device capacity.

Hi,

 

I do not have the answers you are craving but I wanted to put in my two cents:

 

I also use a second unraid server as my backup destination.

 

My main server has 42TB of space with 32TB in use.

 

My backup server 32TB of space (1,5 TB free at the moment).

 

I backup using crashplan dockers on both systems,

 

Daily backup costs something like 10 to 15 minutes.. On both systems I have two gigabit connections bonded.

 

Ofcourse the initial backup had cost me a few weeks to complete, but after that it really is easy sailing...

Don't see any way to achieve what you want with unRAID and normal spinners

 

Well there's a way you could do it, assign all disks on both unRAID servers as cache pool members using BTFRS RAID10 (or RAID 5/6 if you don't mind its experimental status), with 24 HDDs you should easily get 1GB/s read/write, obviously would lose most of unRAID advantages over traditional RAID, you can't have everything.

Good feedback @johnnie.black.  I never thought about the all cache pool option.  Now do I trust RAID 5 on btrfs?  @Helmonder I have setup crashplan before but I guess I liked the simplicity of just a raw copy of the data and no other software or layers between recovering my data.  Your solution is 100% accurate and does ultimately solve the root problem.  Although this still doesn't solve the "true" 4k streaming issue.  IE: streaming greater than 125MB/s.  But to be fair when and or if that will ever be realised is anyone's guess.  Not to mention it will mean the Plex client will either need large caches  and a delayed start of the movie, to stream anything greater than 125MB/s or the client hardware will need 10G.  I don't see the Nvidia Shield getting a 10G NIC.  10G USB3? I guess that problem is wayyyy off in the future if ever.

 

Is my reasearch correct that the btrfs RAID 5/6 issues as of Kernel 3.19 are only relevant on a dirty shutdown?https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/RAID56

 

Thanks guys!

 

BTRFS RAID5/6 works but it's still considered experimental:

 

https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Status

It will only go as fast as the slowest component. First it was your 1gb link, now you've upped that to 10gb so its the actual drive itself.

 

You'd need a rig capable of reading just as fast as writing to get 300-500mb/s.

It will only go as fast as the slowest component. First it was your 1gb link, now you've upped that to 10gb so its the actual drive itself.

 

You'd need a rig capable of reading just as fast as writing to get 300-500mb/s.

 

Yea, I solved this by putting a 1TB 850 EVO in each of my unRAID servers as a cache drive, as well as a 1TB 850 EVO in my main computer to achieve 500MB/s transfers (10G network). If your worried about stuff not being protected immediately, just move cache daily. It's a much easier setup than attempting to raid and you do not need faster read speeds even for future 4K content.

 

I'm surprised no one pointed this out yet but... a movie that needs 125MB/s reads would be 900GB for 2 hours of footage. You are confusing MB and Mb and trying to make a system based on content we won't have for over a decade.. Also, 4K@60hz won't ever be a norm, 4K blu-ray is still 24hz and they use no where close to 125MB/s. 125Mb/s, sure but that's not the same thing and read speeds from a single modern HDD can handle about a dozen 4K blu-rays at the same time. There's nothing to worry about.

 

4K blu-ray is likely as demanding as it will get for the foreseeable future, it will likely be the last physical disc format and until gigabit internet becomes the norm, streaming in 4K with low bitrates will be the next thing. There's just not enough demand anymore for physical formats, and 99% of people don't care about lossless audio and blu-ray quality video (which I use almost exclusively, so I feel your pain about poor streaming quality).

 

 

You are correct, I did mix up MBps and Mbps when comparing LAN/disk and movie bitrate.  Bluray today is 40Mbps max.  I swear I read somewhere h.265 will max out ~200Mbps but the only thing I could find real quick is a max of 50Mbps for UHD bluray.  sorry for the confusion everyone.

 

Physical media is dying, yes but there are just simply too many homes that don't have or may never have speeds fast enough to watch HD let alone 4k.  So for that reason physical media will not die anytime soon.  that is my opinion.

 

True 4k.  Let's explain what that is.  That is 60fps with a 4:4:4 bit depth.  I believe we will see 60fps,  4:4:4 I have my doubt.  I have no idea what the size of a 2 hour movie will be at those specs but  would guess we're approaching 100GB and maybe more.

 

thanks everyone.

... I liked the simplicity of just a raw copy of the data and no other software or layers between recovering my data...

Sounds like you think that in order to get a raw copy with no other software to recover your data that you have to copy all the files each time you backup. I rsync between my unRAID servers and after the initial copy each backup only takes minutes to backup the new/updated files. The resulting backup is just files that I can access directly. Why do you think you need to copy so much data each time?