Hi,

 

I used unRAID up until about 2 years ago and really liked it. Now I again see the need to have a better storage area for my files.

 

What I have:

• I do have the old license and USB-drive I use to run on before.
• I also have the computer, except the hard drives. It's an AMD Sempron 145 with some 2-4 GB RAM on it.

 

What I want:

• I would want to have, maybe to start with, 4TB disk space available to use.
• I also want to be able to run this box as a torrent machine and that traffic is suppose to go over VPN (I have an OpenVPN account available).
• It will run as a plex server, streaming to my AppleTV gen4. Only ONE stream at any given time.
• Preferable run as a backup solution for my apple devices
• Also be used as a shared storage area for documents

 

What do I need?

• First question would be, do my hardware support this? As I can see the Sempron 145 supports AMD-V, but it's a single core CPU with about 2Ghz.
  So, do I need new hardware?
• If I remember correctly I would use one parity drive (the largest one) and the rest would be run as data drives?
• Would I best go with WD Red 4TB or HGST Deskstar NAS v2 4TB? As I tend to go with rather (in my books) large disks I can easily expand to more free space.
• If I were to start out with 2x 4TB, I would put one as parity and one as data drive. How many data drives could I add before I would need another parity, or is one parity sufficient?
• If I recall correctly, unRAID runs a propriety RAID version, so I don't have to choose which one to run at installation!?
• With unRAID 6.* it introduces Docker support. I understand that the easiest and has the least impact on the hardware is to run Plex and OpenVPN + torrent in a docker container!? Can anyone point me in the right direction here?
• Using it as a Time Machine for my apple devices should be as easy as enabling AFP?
• For documents, just create folders for the users, either using SMB or SFP?
• Also, should I start new with the old USB-drive I have or should I just do a fresh install with the latest version of unRAID instead of doing an upgrade?
   

Is there any other pitfalls I should look out for? 

Anything else I should know? 

I've send Lime-Technology a question regarding my license, so I know how many drives I can use and whether or not the one I bought is valid for unRAID 6.* as well. I guess it is, but doesn't hurt to ask.

 

Thanks in advance. 

Edited September 5, 20178 yr by zyke

Hi and welcome back -

 

The license you have will still work with unRAID 6.  The AMD Sempron 145, not so much...  You really want a minimum of a dual core CPU, and I'd suggest one with 4,000 or more Passmarks to run unRAID, a couple a Dockers, and a single transcoded 1080p Plex stream.  A CPU upgrade may be possible depending on your motherboard.  I'd really suggest at least 4GB of RAM, while unRAID would work with 2GB the Dockers would be pushing it.  Note that Dockers are typically run off the cache drive, which has become the de facto "application" drive.  Install the Community Applications plugin once you get up and running to find Dockers.

 

WD Red and HGST are good drives for unRAID.  You can add as many drives as your license allows without adding another parity drive - dual parity is available but not required.  unRAID won't ask you about RAID levels, it is a proprietary software RAID implementation.

 

It sounds like you are basically starting from scratch, so the only thing you need from the old USB stick is the license .key file.  The .key file is tied to the GUID of the USB stick, so it's easiest to try using it to build your new unRAID setup.  You can transfer the license to a new stick if the old one doesn't work.

Starting from a Sempron 145, I would suggest that you look at a new MB/CPU combination.   Almost any recent one (costing about $260-300US)  will provide you with the horsepower to do all that you specified in your post.  In fact the only thing you wouold really need would be your original key file.   Getting a replacement license is so quick and easy these days.  See here:

 

   https://lime-technology.com/replace-key/

 

IF your flash drive is a few years old, it might well be on its last legs and during it early may prevent issues later on.

 

EDIT:  When looking to buy hard drives for the array, determine the size by comparing cost/TB.  Speaking from experience, I would go with an ssd rather than a spinner for the cache drive if I had it to so over again!

Edited September 5, 20178 yr by Frank1940

Thank you very much @tdallen.

 

Excellent, at least that's a comfort. I am probably only going to run 2 docker instances at the same time. Plex and torrent + VPN. I am not sure whether or not the steam will be transcoded, so I can't say much about that part. Unfortunately it's not possible to upgrade the CPU since the socket on the motherboard only support AM1. At top I could get a CPU that gives me about 2700 Passmark score.

I believe I do have 2 or 4 gb ram, I will have to double check this when I get to the server.

But I could buy the following: CPU and this Motherboard with these RAM That would be a total of under $200.

The only problem I found was that the motherboard only support 4 SATA 6gb/s. Do I need to buy a raid card or should I rather get one with 6 SATA ports?

 

Excellent tip about the community edition there. Thanks a lot.

 

Great, and just as @Frank1940 mentioned, I will go with best price per gb version. I checked and the 4TB one are the best one for me.

 

Thanks for the advice on the SSD, I will absolutely use an SSD for cache, IF I will introduce cache in the equation. I am not sure yet.

 

Great, a new installation will be made instead of upgrading then. Thanks

2 minutes ago, zyke said:

IF I will introduce cache in the equation

As mentioned, cache is now the preferred drive for applications. So it is more than just for caching user share writes.

 

If you make your applications use an array drive, they will likely keep it and parity spinning. You would get better performance putting applications on cache, even if it isn't SSD.

An Athlon X4 845 and 8GB would be a good update, though personally I'd go Intel (or wait for things with Ryzen to stabilize).  If you only expect to need 6 SATA ports I'd get a motherboard with the 6 ports.  If you expect to need 8 or more SATA ports I'd plan on a SATA controller.

@trurl Ahhh yeah, didn't thought of that. Good point. I will use an SSD as cache. Is there a preferred size of the cache drive?

 

@tdallen Yeah, me too. But the price of an intel is about twice the price of a low end AMD.

I do however have an Intel i5-3570 that have 16gb RAM. I am thinking of selling it, I could just use it for unRAID and use my other i7 system with 64GB as a gaming computer.

I play BF1. Is is possible to run that from unRAID? Then maybe I could take the i7 system with the 1060 GFX to run it from unRAID? =)

Great, I will likely not go for more than 4 drives anyway.

In case you are interested:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117739

 

The i5 would make a fine unRAID system.  You could also potentially run a Windows VM and consolidate onto the i7, but it depends on the model of the CPU and motherboard, and whether they support IOMMU/VT-d.

1 hour ago, zyke said:

I will use an SSD as cache. Is there a preferred size of the cache drive

Depends entirely on your specific use. I don't cache user share writes. I do have a few shares that are only on cache for performance, but I have a cache pool for redundancy.

 

If you are only using cache for applications then you might get by with only 64GB. That small probably isn't the best capacity per dollar these days though.

 

Do you expect to cache user share writes? Write speed isn't important to me because most writes to my server are unattended; backups, downloads, etc.

I personally would size it for caching user shares.  For my reasoning , read this thread:

       

Depending on what value you place on your data (and whether your data is mostly static) and the potential that someone *might* turn loose a ransomware attack, you might want to employ a scheme like this to protect your data from a direct attack at some point in the future.  Having a large-enough cache drive to do this would make implementation a simple one.  A 250GB drive should be able to handle reasonable data transfers on a daily basis and dtill provide more than enough space for Dockers and VM's. 

An alternative I've got on one of my servers is small SSD for apps/vms and a spinner mounted to a user share directory name on that SSD cache drive.  Then when I write to the array with that share as "use cache:yes" it writes to the spinner (4TB drive).  This lets me use a cheaper SSD and still use the cache drive for write caching.  I only have this on a single server and it is usually not mounted because I usually batch move large amounts of data to the array every few months so I don't need it often.

@tdallen Unfortunately I have to order from other sources.. Which sucks..

But I am starting to think that using my (currently unused, used it as a hackintosh back at my old company) i7-6700 (or if it's a 7700, can't remember) will be the new unRAID instead and then I will use it for gaming as well. The motherboard that is currently in use for the build is this: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5, if it supports IOMMU or not, I am not sure.

 

My main concern is that it won't be able to pass through the gfx well enough for me to play BF1.

 

@trurl Looking at my change in approach now I am certain I would need a larger SSD for cache. Generally the unRAID was intended for movies and tv-shows with one stream. But looking at it now where I want to replace my game computer and run it from unRAID I will need a cache or two to store the games as well as the apps.

 

@Frank1940Not high at all tbh, at least not the movies and tv-shows. Documents will be backed up to a remote location at regular intervals. Looking at it from a security perspective, which I really should do as I am security consultant that's a really good idea. I've never been targeted with a ransom ware, but it's not a matter of if, but when. I think I have a 512GB cache available for this, I will use it for this case while using a 256 for apps and VMs.

 

@BobPhoenixNot a terrible idea, good use of money there. I have some SSD laying around so won't be needing to put a small SSD in it. Thanks for the suggestion though =)

 

 

So I guess that comes down to a whole other dimension now.

What's currently holding me back is that I don't know what license I have on my unRAID, thus I don't know how many disks I will be able to use.

 

But can we all agree on that if the motherboard can handle IOMMU and VT-d, it would be a way better idea to use my i7-6700(or 7700) along with 64GB DDR4 for the unRAID and put the GTX 1060 3G in the unRAID and run games in VMs rather than use the i5 for storage only?

In this way I don't need to buy anything other than new disks and if the pass through of the GFX works fine I can discontinue my i5 computer, perhaps build myself something else with that one.

You might consider starting with 8TB drives. BB sells as external unit called the EasyStore that sells at about $170 (price bounces around) that contains an 8T RED. That is the sweet spot in terms of $/TB. Bigger disks mean fewer sata ports are needed. Seagate has a similar unit at a similar price. It's just harder to open and near impossible to put back together if the drive dies and you want a warranty replacement. Look in the good deals sub-forum for threads on each with shucking instructions.

@bjp999Unfortunately I am based in Sweden so I won't be able to shop for the good American prices. Even if it was possible, the shipping cost would made expensive

What I can get a hold on are the following: LaCie Porsche Design P'9233 8TB           or Seagate Backup Plus Hub 8TB Both for around $250 each. A bit cheaper than buying a 8TB. However then I know what drive I actually get.

2 hours ago, zyke said:

What's currently holding me back is that I don't know what license I have on my unRAID, thus I don't know how many disks I will be able to use.

If you boot up your current USB stick it should tell you at the top of the GUI.  

 

My guess is that as long as you have a paid license (rather than the free one with a low device limit available with v5) it is unlikely to matter as even the Plus license (v5 had no Basic license option) supports more drives than you currently want to support.  Even if not then you can always upgrade the license,

 

Edited September 6, 20178 yr by itimpi

@itimpi True true, though the server is not up and running, so I can not check it. But yeah, I do have a paid license, I think I have the basic one, if I recall correctly, I have the plus license from v5.

 

Then the biggest question will be whether or not my motherboard supports IOMMU or not. I know it supports VT-d.

Any advice on finding out, except checking in BIOS or google. I have done the latter

Download the manual and read it....

@Frank1940Obviously I've already scanned through the manual Sorry for not making that clear in the previous post =)

if vt-d is supported, then vt-x must be supported. And the combination is basically IOMMU. I'd say you're all set from that perspective. 

 

AMD had different names for these features.

 

IOMMU is a generic acronym that applies to both. Doubt you'd find it referenced in a motherboard manual.

@bjp999ahh, excellent. Then I will go home and start working on the project. Exciting times =D

Thanks all.

 

My machine is now up and running.

 

Got some licensing issues though, but I will solve them with Lime-tech. see if someone in the forum have any idea of what to do, but a separate thread.

 

CPU: Intel i7-6700

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5

RAM: 64GB DDR4

GPU: GeForce GTX 1060 3GB + GeForce 950

 

The drives will be purchased as soon as can get the license part going.