Setting up unraid without parity drive (and adding one later).

[cnrd]

Hi

 

I'm currently in the process of planning my unRAID server.

 

I currently have 1x 8 TB WD RED and 2x 4 TB WD Green, which are currenly all just running as USB drives connected to a laptop, which I'm planning to switch out to a Skylake based system.

 

Two questions:

 

First:

I currently have a little under 8 TB of data distributed across the drives (I would be able to contain all data I need to keep on the 8 TB drive).

 

When setting up unRAID would the following be possible:

 

1. Copy all important data to 8 TB drive.

2. Add the two 4 TB drives to the unRAID "array" (giving me about 8 TB of storage space).

3. Copy all data from the 8 TB drive to the "array" using USB.

4. Add the 8 TB drive as a parity drive for the "array"

 

Doing it this way, I would be able to avoid having to purchase yet another 8 TB drive just for contaning the data temporary.

 

Second:

How much power would my PSU need for each drive? I'm planning on a 550W 80+ Gold (EVGA SuperNOVA, never had problems with those).

 

Thanks

[trurl]

Yes, that plan to transfer data would work, but it makes me wonder. Do you have backups? You must have multiple copies of any files you don't want to lose. unRAID parity is not a substitute for backups.

[cnrd]

Yes I do have online backups, but downloading 8 TB of data would take way more time than just copying them over a USB 3.0 connection.

 

Just to be sure, having one parity drive would "save" me from downloading all of my data back in case just a single drive goes bad (And two in case I had 2 parity drives), right? (i.e. faster recovery time).

 

Thanks for confirming :-)

[trurl]

Yes I do have online backups, but downloading 8 TB of data would take way more time than just copying them over a USB 3.0 connection.

 

Just to be sure, having one parity drive would "save" me from downloading all of my data back in case just a single drive goes bad (And two in case I had 2 parity drives), right? (i.e. faster recovery time).

 

Thanks for confirming :-)

A single parity will allow you to rebuild a single data drive, but there are other ways to lose files besides just drive failure.

[cnrd]

Yeah I know, most of the data contained on the drives are "just" media, that would take me a lot of time to rerip and name.

 

All important data (Pictures, documents and so on) are all backed up to multiple different off site solutions.

 

Really I just want the parity to (in some cases) be able to restore data faster than ripping, converting and naming files. (Also way less manual labor).

[trurl]

Sounds like you are good on backups then. Just wanted to make sure. Some people come on here thinking parity is going to mean they don't need backups.

 

There are several ways to accomplish Step 3 in your plan above. Let us know if you need help with it or anything else.

[cnrd]

The drives are currently formatted as NTFS so if unRAID supports mounting NTFS in read mode (I'm guessing it does), then I'm just planning on using rsync to copy all of the files over to the array or is there an easier / better way to do it?

[trurl]

The drives are currently formatted as NTFS so if unRAID supports mounting NTFS in read mode (I'm guessing it does), then I'm just planning on using rsync to copy all of the files over to the array or is there an easier / better way to do it?

I usually use Unassigned Devices plugin to mount and mc (Midnight Commander) to manage files, but if you are comfortable with rsync that will work too. I know unRAID used to support NTFS read-only but not sure it is still builtin since most people probably use Unassigned Devices to work with disks like this, and it supports read/write of several filesystems including NTFS.

[cnrd]

I finally got the system up and running, and I'm ready to copy the files over.

 

Now I have another question, is there a path somewhere in the file system that will show the array as just a pool of space?

 

As I'm trying to copy about 7TB onto an array of 2 x 4TB drives, I just wanted to point the copy destination somewhere and let it do the copy.

[JonathanM]

Now I have another question, is there a path somewhere in the file system that will show the array as just a pool of space?

Slightly dated but still mostly relevant

https://lime-technology.com/setting-up-your-file-structure-and-user-shares-on-unraid/

[cnrd]

Thanks, I'm pretty sure that's what I'm doing:

 

1. Mounted the USB 3.0 drive (Currently contaning all data).

 

2. Created a share called Share which includes all drives.

 

3. rsync -avh /mnt/disks/[NAMEOFUSB30]/ /mnt/user/Share/

[trurl]

Thanks, I'm pretty sure that's what I'm doing:

 

1. Mounted the USB 3.0 drive (Currently contaning all data).

 

2. Created a share called Share which includes all drives.

 

3. rsync -avh /mnt/disks/[NAMEOFUSB30]/ /mnt/user/Share/

That should be all you need to do, though most people wind up creating multiple user shares for multiple purposes. If you have any more questions about this see if they aren't already answered at that link where it discusses user share settings for allocation method, split level, and min free.

[cnrd]

I just want to be sure that a set the split levels correct:

 

My movies are organized as:

 

Movies (share)/genre/moviename/moviefiles.*

 

I'm setting it to split level 2: Does that mean that all files in the folder "moviename" are on the same drive?

 

And that movies of the same genre does not necessarily reside on the same drive? (Which as I understand it would be level 1?)

[JorgeB]

Yes, split level 2 is correct for what you want.