OK, no problem.  You mentioned permissions and I was going to ask this later but I will ask now.  I plan on using this to store movies, photos and music mainly.  Can I set it up so only I can delete files and my wife will only have read access?  I will by using XBMC or Plex along with iTunes.  I'm not to worried about it if I can't but it would be a nice option.

 

Yes, you can do this.

 

You can set 'user level security' options (available only in unRAID Plus or Pro) which give you the ability to assign certain users with read-only access and other users with read-write access (meaning they can rename, delete, and overwrite files).  What I did was create a passworded 'admin' account with full read-write privileges that I use only from my desktop or laptop when I want to write, delete, or organize files on my unRAID server.  By default, everyone else (meaning my roommate, any friend who come over, and my XBMC Live! HTPC) login to the server as 'guest', which is a read-only account without a password.  In your case, you can set your XBMC/Plex/iTunes computer to automatically log in as 'guest', and your personal computer to automatically log in as 'admin'.  Or if you need to do both with one computer, you can set up different user accounts on that computer (one for you, one for your wife), each of which save the login information for the appropriate unRAID user account.

 

The basic process is:

1) Turn on user level security and create your usernames and passwords (on the 'Users' page...also, leave the default 'root' user as is, adding a password to that account will make you type in a password anytime you access unRAID's web management page)

2) On the 'Shares' page, set each individual share to export read-only via the drop down menu.

3) On the same page, type in your username into the exceptions field for each individual share.

 

Translated into plain English, you are telling unRAID 'export all shares as read-only for everybody except for this one particular user'.

If you plan to just use the free edition of unraid or decide to pay for a licence, you will have no limitation regardless on upgrading to any latest version which gets released in future, whether you have a free or a paid version. The benefit of a paid version obviously is to unrestrict the disk limit that you can use on your server (Plus version has a 6 data disk limit and Pro version has a 20 data disk including a cache drive option to improve the performance of unraid). Good Luck and enjoy unraid.

 

oh, all new versions of unRAID free?

just curious, what case is on the main page, the picture says Blue Server.

So it looks like I will be ordering everything in about a week.  I currently have 2 500gig seagate drives and looking to buy 2 1.5tb drives.  What do you guys recommend?  Also the one 1.5tb drive would be a parity drive correct?  Can you have more than one parity drive?

Insert Quote

just curious, what case is on the main page, the picture says Blue Server.

 

My guess is that it is a RB-1200 with a blue light shining on it. Those drive bays are icydock drive bays which are alluminium and dark grey/black plastic but look good under blue light. Uses 4 dock bays whereas MD-1500 uses 5 dock bays.

 

 

that case doesnt look very lian li, and they look like 3x 3in2's and 1x 4in3's

So it looks like I will be ordering everything in about a week.  I currently have 2 500gig seagate drives and looking to buy 2 1.5tb drives.  What do you guys recommend?  Also the one 1.5tb drive would be a parity drive correct?  Can you have more than one parity drive?

 

There are posts discussing HDDs by size already, but personally, unless it's somehow mission critical, I just buy a drive. All manufacturers have failures and while some of them perform better than others, you'll have to be really working the heck out of your system to notice. If suffering even a slight drop in potential performance drives you up the wall, then it's likely worth your time to peruse those posts.

 

Yes, one of the 1.5TB drives would have to be parity. And while there was talk about a nifty second parity drive, currently you can only have one.

I agree with markguy, but I will always opt for Green or LP (low power) drives.  They are cooler, quieter, and use less power.  Just check the 'Good Deals' forum the day you decide to buy a new drive, and go from there.

 

Also, I only consider drives from either WD, Samsung, and Seagate (in that order of preference).  I avoid Hitachi, Maxtor, and Fujitsu based on personal experience (though I'm considering giving Hitachi a second chance based on all the good reviews on these forums - if only Hitachi made low power drives).

thers approx 2W difference between low power and normal 7.2k drives under usage. 40w or so in a packed unraid box, and if your drives are all spinning at once, i dont think you care about power usage anyway. 'watts' is missleading, as it is dependant on voltage. most of the eco drives use loads of 12v but hardly any 5v whereas older 7200rpm drives use more 5v than 12v

 

so if 2 drives both 9 watts under load, but one uses more 5v, then that would be the more eco one

 

i think thats right... my brains a bit slow today.

thers approx 2W difference between low power and normal 7.2k drives under usage. 40w or so in a packed unraid box, and if your drives are all spinning at once, i dont think you care about power usage anyway. 'watts' is missleading, as it is dependant on voltage. most of the eco drives use loads of 12v but hardly any 5v whereas older 7200rpm drives use more 5v than 12v

 

so if 2 drives both 9 watts under load, but one uses more 5v, then that would be the more eco one

you are joking, right?

 

He's probably thinking AC watts vs. DC watts. 

 

Yes, I AM kidding.  (But a Hi-Fi salesman tried using that line on me once... I laughed in his face)

 

Basic power formula  Watts = Amperes * Voltage.

8 Watts < 9 Watts, regardless of voltage

9 Watts > 8 Watts, regardless of voltage

 

 

22W hdd peak (this is typical of start up load rounded up for simplicity)

 

HDD1 uses 3A, HDD2 uses 3.7A, which one is using more power they both use 22 'psu watts'?

 

this is what im trying to get at here. simply lookig at a hdds specced total watt usage doesnt tell you how many amps it uses.

hmmmm, how do i say this... ignore house power billing, i mean the psu itself.

hmmmm, how do i say this... ignore house power billing, i mean the psu itself.

 

Umm...so you are talking about making sure the PSU can handle the wattage/voltage?  I believe it is given that you must make sure your PSU can handle all the HDDs you throw at it - Green drives make this easier because they use less power.

 

In terms of saving money, the 'house power billing' matters quite a bit.  You have to balance that out with the premium you pay for low power hardware, of course.

HDD1 uses 3A, HDD2 uses 3.7A, which one is using more power they both use 22 'psu watts'?

Since power is measured in Watts, if the two disks use the identical "psu watts" (whatever that is, as it is not a technical term) then they use the exact same power.

this is what im trying to get at here. simply lookig at a hdds specced total watt usage doesnt tell you how many amps it uses.

You are correct, but the amount of "amps" used will entirely depend on the voltage.

 

5 Amperes * 12 Volts = 60 Watts

12 Amperes * 5 Volts = 60 Watts

 

60 Watts = 60 Watts.

 

Every hard disk uses a combination of 5 volts at some amperage, and 12 volts at some amperage. 

 

To determine the power (in Watts) used by a disk drive at any given time you must compute:

 

5 volts * amperage drawn on 5 volt line

plus

12 volts * amperage drawn on 12 volt line

 

Joe L.

I just ordered my case, NORCO 4220 and I got a free 1TB Hitachi drive and free shipping from newegg.  Not a big fan of Hitachi but this was a better deal than the 3216 I was looking at.  Hope to order all the other parts in about two weeks.

Assuming this is accurate, below is a link to a unraid calculator:

 

http://unraid.category5.tv/

 

It will calculate the watts that your disks will consume when powered on and in sleep mode. Worth a look.

 

how do i say this... ignore house power billing

amount of electricity consumed (by a drive, or by anyhitng else) is mesured in [watts*hours].

you can subsitute (ampers*volts=watts) if you like, and play with [ampers*volts*hours], but the result is the same.

 

Assuming this is accurate, below is a link to a unraid calculator:

 

http://unraid.category5.tv/

 

It will calculate the watts that your disks will consume when powered on and in sleep mode. Worth a look.

 

how do i say this... ignore house power billing

amount of electricity consumed (by a drive, or by anyhitng else) is mesured in [watts*hours].

you can subsitute (ampers*volts=watts) if you like, and play with [ampers*volts*hours], but the result is the same.

 

 

30W spin up draw is a bit too much, gotta take 33% ooff that

Can the BIOSTAR A760G M2+ support 20 drives?

Yes, but you would need to use the PCI bus:

 

Onboard: 6

Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 (PCIe x16): 8

Generic PCIe x1 card: 2

Promise TX4 (PCI): 4

 

Total: 20 drives

 

This would likely work, but the parity checks would be quite slow, probably 24 hrs or more, depending on the size of the drives you have.  I wouldn't recommend this.  If you need 20 drives, spring for a SuperMicro board with multiple PCIe x16 and PCI-X slots.

I have a Norco 4220 case, I don't need or have 20 drives right now but who knows what  I will need down the road.  How many drives would you say the Biostar can handle to run best?  I will be using 2tb parity drive, and 3- 500gig to start out but plan on adding a couple 1.5 tb in the near future.

I would only trust it with about 16 drives

 

Onboard: 6

Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 (PCIe x16): 8

Generic PCIe x1 card: 2

 

Total: 16 drives

 

By completely avoiding the PCI bus (and sacrificing those last 4 drives), you should see fast parity check speeds (again, depending on the size and speed of disks you are using as well).

 

Any 8 port PCIe x16 card should be usable in the PCIe x16 slot, but the above one seems to be the best currently available.  Keep in mind that I personally have not tested any SATA controller cards in the PCIe x16 slot of this board.  Some motherboards only allow graphics cards in that slot.  I haven't heard anyone make that complaint about this board, but the potential for a problem is there.  You could call Biostar tech support and ask that specific question if you want to be sure.  From what I can tell, this seems to be primarily an issue with older Gigabyte boards.

 

thanks, I just emailed them.  16 drives should last me for some time. 

 

 

they said it will work

Excellent, please let me know when you get it working.  I'm considering adding an AOC-SASLP-MV8 to my server as well, though I would probably stop at that (so 14 drives instead of 16).

Just to be a purist, the correct formula for watts is volts*Amps*cosine(Theta),  where Theta is the power factor or degrees lag between voltage  and current.

 

In a DC system there is no phase difference between current and voltage so theta is 0 and the cosine of theta is 1 and the formula reduces to the DC case where watts is volts * amps.

 

In AC systems, house power, "watts", that what you are charged for, depends on the overall power factor in your house. Resistive loads do not alter power factor, only inductive or capactive loads do. Capacitive loads are fairly rare, inductive loads are not.  All AC motors are basically inductive loads.  The electric utility companies do not like homes where the power factor is significantly less that 1 for obvious reasons.  Note that when you buy a UPS it's rating is generally stated both in VoltAmps and watts. 

 

See, I did not sleep during my Electrical Engineering power courses, although I probably should have.