New to unRAID...a few questions...


stevep94

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16 hours ago, DavidIrwin said:

I run Plex and a few other dockers to run my media life on the server and everything is quite stable and simple.

 

This is basically want I'm after - maybe after I get more comfortable I can look into the more complicated uses but for now I just want a stable NAS, Plex server and a torrent program!

 

Anyway my new HDD has arrived today so the plan is to slot it in and start the array (I assume the unRAID system will format it for me?) and then I need to figure out how to mount and access my Synology NAS to copy over my data! (I assume I can do this without a parity disk initially and then once it's done and I add the other 2 drives I simply set one of those as the parity drive and it will provide me with the redundancy?)

 

Can anyone give me some pointers on how to mount the Synology and how best to access it to start the copying? (I assume through Krusader?)

 

I know there are different shares but I was planning on just sharing a "master folder" and leaving all of my data in their existing structure (movies, photos, programs etc) - is there any reason to not do it this way?

 

Thanks for any further help!

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How you set up your shares is generally personal preference tbh. I have separate shares for each family member to keep their files in (Makes it easy for permissions). I also have my Media and Downloads as separate shares because my Download share I have set to use only the Cache drive. This means my downloads go to the cache and then my media management programs move them to the Media share on the array.

 

As for the Synology, you can mount this as a network share using the "Unassigned Devices" plugin and then use Krusader to copy stuff over (Although I prefer using Midnight Commander, "mc" in the SSH console)

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To be honest I don't really need to restrict who has access to what as I'm the only one in the house that will be using it!

 

In terms of the copying of files, I wouldn't know where to start with command line instructions which is why I was drawn to the GUI for Krusader!

 

Is there an "idiots guide" to mounting my Synology NAS? I assume I need to select NFS but even then I'm not sure what paths to use??

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3 hours ago, stevep94 said:

Anyway my new HDD has arrived today so the plan is to slot it in and start the array (I assume the unRAID system will format it for me?) and then I need to figure out how to mount and access my Synology NAS to copy over my data! (I assume I can do this without a parity disk initially and then once it's done and I add the other 2 drives I simply set one of those as the parity drive and it will provide me with the redundancy?)

 

Can anyone give me some pointers on how to mount the Synology and how best to access it to start the copying? (I assume through Krusader?)

 

I know there are different shares but I was planning on just sharing a "master folder" and leaving all of my data in their existing structure (movies, photos, programs etc) - is there any reason to not do it this way?

 

Yes unRAID will format a blank disk (or at least give you the option to).

 

For setting up the easiest option is to use the WebUI to create one or more shares (I have several shares such as "Media", "Personal", "Software" and "Backup" but up to you what to create. If your existing NAS is working the easiest way to copy files is simply to connect to the shares using another client and drag them from one to another. Not necessarily the most efficient but certainly simple.

 

Yes you can create your initial array with as few disks as you like (min is 1) and you can do that without any parity drive. Ensure you plan for your largest drive to be available to become the parity drive.

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OK, now we are getting somewhere! :)

 

I've managed to get my Synology NAS mounted in unRAID and can even access it via Krusader to copy data! (Yay! :D) - albeit still with my 160GB "test" drive in as opposed to my new 2TB WD Red!

 

Now before I slot in the new drive (and take the test drive out) here are a few questions:

  1. If I start a "New Config" after I've put the new drive in, will the system retain any existing shares? (I'd prefer not so I can set up the fresh folder structure for the new drive!)
  2. Will the SSD cache drive be affected by the new config? (it's got some test folders on there - I assume when I clicked "Yes" to use cache drive, it set up the share on there in addition to the actual destination disk - I presume data just sits there until the "mover" action in the middle of the night?)
  3. Am I better off NOT using the cache drive for the initial data copy to the new drive - there is about 1.5TB of data and the SSD is only 256GB! (unsure how this works!)
  4. My network is set up with my modem/router downstairs, which has the Synology NAS connected via a switch by ethernet, but the unRAID server is currently in my top room and is connected via homeplugs/powerline adapters - my question is, to take the homeplugs out of the equation (speed-wise for copying the data across!), I assume the NAS and the server should ideally be physically connected to the same router/switch? (in fact it would be easier to bring the Synology upstairs than taking the server downstairs, but even if they were both wired into the same switch, would the data have to "travel down" to the router and back again anyway?)

I hope these questions make sense (apologies if I've not explained very well!)

 

Thanks...

 

*edit*

 

In addition to the above I've just watched a video about PreClear - am I right in saying I need to run PreClear on not only my eventual 2 x 2TB drives coming out of my Synology but also the brand new drive???

Edited by stevep94
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1. I haven't done "New Config" often enough (thankfully!) to know the answer, but I figured I'd put something here for completeness.


2. unRAID will create directory structures on the fly on the cache drive - if you were to go look at it right now with Krusader, assuming no data written to the server, you would see your cache is empty. When you write to a cache enabled share, unRAID will write to the cache first, creating directory structures as necessary, then transfer from there to the array share(s) in the wee hours as applicable. This is most helpful later in your server's life when there are multiple drives because they will all be spun up & read to calculate parity. On your initial data build, and without parity, it doesn't buy you much.

 

3. There's no need to set up the cache drive for the initial bulk copy of data to the server. unRAID will start writing directly to the user share when the cache drive fills up, but you know you'll be massively overflowing your cache, so just leave it out of the equation at the start.

 

4. I'm not a networking guru, but I believe you would get your maximum throughput if both machines were attached to the same switch. However, you can do some testing with your current physical setup to see if your speed is acceptable.

 

You don't have to run pre-clear - unRAID will automatically clear every new disk when you add it to the array. (The pre-clear writes the appropriate signatures to the disk so that the OS knows the disk has been cleared so it doesn't do it again.) However, many people (myself included) like to run a pre-clear pass or two or three to help weed out infant mortality in a new drive before entrusting data to it. There's some discussion as to how many passes are enough - I think general consensus is that one is probably sufficient, two might give you an extra bit of warm-fuzzy, but at the expense of some extra wear and tear on the drive, while three is plenty for all but the most paranoid.

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Preclear is really only required to test drives now.  unRAID will clear drives without taking the array offline.  So if you trust the drives or have used another utility to test the drives (like one from the manufacturer) you can just add them to the array and let unRAID clear it for use.  I use preclear to test all of my drives even those not going in the array.  I used it because you can use it on unRAID.

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Right, I've installed my new 2TB drive (I didn't bother with Preclear because I couldn't get unRAID to recognise the make/model etc and the advice in the Prelear thread was a bit over my head!)

 

Anyway, drive in and formatted and so I've set up a user share as follows:

 

59cc106852c11_ShareSettings.thumb.jpg.1f291c13f42e38b3ed83a9dc348acf0e.jpg

 

My understanding is that "high water" means the system will fill each disk to a similar level (once I put other drives in that is!) - however, how does this work if I put around 1.5TB of data on this drive before adding another - I presume once the 2nd drive has been added it will just fill up with data until it's as full as the first and then distribute alternately?

 

Wasn't sure about minimum free space so just put 500MB??

 

Split level stumped me a bit but am I right in saying that by selecting to "automatically split only the top 2 directory levels as required" means that my main share (that I've called "NAS") and then the subsequent sub-directory can be allocated to any drive and then all subsequent directories are kept together?

 

So NAS>Movies could be on either drive (again, once there is a 2nd drive in there) but then any sub-directories within "Movies" will be allocated together??

 

Finally I've not used the cache disk for the initial data transfer but I assume I can change it back to "Yes" once I've got everything set up as I want?

 

Hope this all makes sense!

 

Thanks...

Edited by stevep94
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9 minutes ago, stevep94 said:

Right, I've installed my new 2TB drive (I didn't bother with Preclear because I couldn't get unRAID to recognise the make/model etc and the advice in the Prelear thread was a bit over my head!)

 

Anyway, drive in and formatted and so I've set up a user share as follows:

 

59cc106852c11_ShareSettings.thumb.jpg.1f291c13f42e38b3ed83a9dc348acf0e.jpg

 

My understanding is that "high water" means the system will fill each disk to a similar level (once I put other drives in that is!) - however, how does this work if I put around 1.5TB of data on this drive before adding another - I presume once the 2nd drive has been added it will just fill up with data until it's as full as the first and then distribute alternately?

 

Wasn't sure about minimum free space so just put 500MB??

 

Split level stumped me a bit but am I right in saying that by selecting to "automatically split only the top 2 directory levels as required" means that my main share (that I've called "NAS") and then the subsequent sub-directory can be allocated to any drive and then all subsequent directories are kept together?

 

So NAS>Movies could be on either drive (again, once there is a 2nd drive in there) but then any sub-directories within "Movies" will be allocated together??

 

Finally I've not used the cache disk for the initial data transfer but I assume I can change it back to "Yes" once I've got everything set up as I want?

 

Hope this all makes sense!

 

Thanks...

Each page in the webUI has help. There is a help button, it is a toggle, and if you turn it on you will get help for each page until you turn it off. User share settings are explained there in the help.

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OK, I've just about copied over the data from my Synology so this weekend is looking like the point of no return - slotting the 2 x 2TB drives from the Synology into the unRAID server to serve as an additional 2TB worth of storage and a 2TB parity drive! (there goes my safety net of having the Synology as a backup! :S)

 

Anyway, before I do could someone give me a bit of a pointer on share security? (and thanks to @trurl for the tip on the help button but it doesn't really answer my query) - When I created my "NAS" user share I put both SMB and NFS as "Public" meaning that I could click on Network>UNRAID>NAS on my Windows PC and it just displayed the folder structure in Windows Explorer.

 

However, since then I've tried setting it to Secure (which my understanding is that it still doesn't require a login but restricts to read-only?) and then further to that I put it as "Private" - the thing is I'm not sure what details I need to input in the Windows Credentials part to gain access via a Windows 10 PC??

 

I've obviously got the server login itself set up as "root" and the password I chose at the time - however, this doesn't let me log in (in fact nothing seems to let me in via Windows anymore - even though I've since changed the security back to "Public"!?!?!)

 

Do these sorts of changes require reboots to the server before they are made active??

 

Thanks as always for any help!

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You will need to set up users in UnRaid and then for each share you can set R/W permissions on a per user basis. I think there is issues with Windows saving credentials when accessing network shares but I generally just use the same username and password for both my UnRaid user and Windows Login, seems to work for me. I only use the root account for logging in to the GUI or SSH.

Edited by NeoDude
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6 hours ago, stevep94 said:

there goes my safety net of having the Synology as a backup!

Speaking of that, unRAID is great but its data protection isn't a substitute for a backup strategy.  If you don't have a strategy where those files are on another device, preferably at another location (cloud, for instance), you really should.  I find that an 8TB disk in a USB enclosure stored offsite takes care of all my files that can't easily be replaced.

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Thanks for the replies!

 

I don't have a password to login to Windows so I'm unable to use the same credentials - I did try setting up a user with R/W access but couldn't seem to use that login to access the shares via explorer!?!?

 

Also, I do have another backup drive for critical stuff (family photos etc) so hopefully I'll be OK with the "security" of a parity drive!

 

**HOWEVER**

 

This all might be redundant because last night I did my first overnight test of leaving the server on - came up to it this morning and all was well, until I noticed that the LCD display on the Dell was showing an error "E122E Onboard Regulator Failed - Contact Support" - and then within 5-10 seconds of me walking in the room (and literally with no other interaction from me!), the server shut itself down and displayed another error - "E1000 Failsafe Voltage Error"!?!?!?

 

I unplugged it, Googled the errors with varying results but when I tried to boot the server back up it's worked fine (although the unRAID system is telling me to run a memtes from the boot menu!) - anyone got any suggestions (and is it possible that the 13A fuse in the plug might possibly be a contributing factor??)

 

Any suggestions??

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Sounds like your PSU is failing. I seem to recall you mentioning that it has 2 of them. Are they both plugged into the wall?

 

If so (and with zero research), it may be that the E122E error is the regulator that runs between the two of them to monitor and switch as necessary. (Again - zero research, just a guess.)

 

Running Memtest for 24+ hours would give the PSU(s) a good workout and might be an option to see if being on that long is causing them to fail without having the OS running and leaving the potential for disk corruption. You may want to wait for someone more knowledgeable to pipe up and not run off of my guesses, though. :)

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I've swapped PSU's to the other one in the other slot - I've only ever run with one plugged in - maybe that's the problem? The only reason I've only ever had one running was because the guy I bought the server from said he'd always just had one plugged in in the past??

 

That and the fact that I assumed the power consumption would just about double if I had both plugged in?

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Quick update on this - I've had unRAID up and running for 2 days and 11 hours, seemingly without any problems! (and have also installed Plex and got that working!)

 

Couple of questions before I go ahead and slot the other two drives in:

 

  1. Is it relatively easy to configure unRAID/Plex so that I can connect directly to stream my media while I'm away from the home? (I've got Plex working remotely but it says "Indirect" which I take to mean that the content is routed through Plex's "relays"??)
  2. Within Krusader, is there a way to combine a bunch of RAR files into a video format that Plex can see and read? (previously I've used Kodi and that doesn't seem to need the video file to be a single file, it just combines the dozens of RAR files automatically somehow - technical explanation I know! :D)
  3. What is the best torrent program within unRAID?
  4. Can I configure the server to utilise my VPN? (Private Internet Access)

Thanks...

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Thanks, I'll take a look regards the VPN stuff!

 

Anyone else on the other queries in my post??

 

Also, I've got the main "NAS" folder set as "Public" which I thought meant that all users had read and write access - but when I've come to save a document to the drive via Windows Explorer, it's telling me that I don't have the appropriate permissions!

I can write to the root "NAS" directory but not to any of the sub-folders - is there a setting I've missed that allows you to do this??

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23 hours ago, stevep94 said:

Is it relatively easy to configure unRAID/Plex so that I can connect directly to stream my media while I'm away from the home? (I've got Plex working remotely but it says "Indirect" which I take to mean that the content is routed through Plex's "relays"??)

You need to #1 make sure that you're not double NAT'ed (ie: Modem with a router going to another router - Set your modem to be bridge mode if this is the case), and then forward port 32400 to your server in the modem / router.

 

On 10/3/2017 at 2:24 PM, stevep94 said:

Within Krusader, is there a way to combine a bunch of RAR files into a video format that Plex can see and read? (previously I've used Kodi and that doesn't seem to need the video file to be a single file, it just combines the dozens of RAR files automatically somehow - technical explanation I know! :D)

Why not simply extract the file?  Movie compression being what it is, the file won't compress much anyways if at all.

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52 minutes ago, Squid said:

You need to #1 make sure that you're not double NAT'ed (ie: Modem with a router going to another router - Set your modem to be bridge mode if this is the case), and then forward port 32400 to your server in the modem / router.

 

Why not simply extract the file?  Movie compression being what it is, the file won't compress much anyways if at all.

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

How do I go about extracting the file from within Krusader though? In Windows I'd usually just double click the first file, it would just sort of combine them all into a single video file and I'd choose where it would extract to! (again, very technical explanation there - sorry!)

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1 minute ago, stevep94 said:

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

How do I go about extracting the file from within Krusader though? In Windows I'd usually just double click the first file, it would just sort of combine them all into a single video file and I'd choose where it would extract to! (again, very technical explanation there - sorry!)

IDK.  I always use winRar.  While Krusader (if it can do it) would be faster due to no network being involved, I just can't be bothered to learn everything that it can do.  

 

That, and CouchPotato / Radarr / Sonarr will all automatically extract the file(s) from the archive if its present anyways.

Edited by Squid
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Well it looks like I have managed to sort my ppermissions issue - I ran the "New Permissions" script and I can now write to sub folders within my main NAS folder!

 

Still a bit unsure about extracting files into a single video file from within Krusader bit at least with the write access sorted I can do it via Windows I guess! (No idea how to use Radarr or Sonarr etc - or even what they are to be honest!)

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1 hour ago, stevep94 said:

I ran the "New Permissions" script

 

1 hour ago, stevep94 said:

Krusader

 

Future reference:  Don't run the "New Permissions" tool if you also use docker applications and don't explicitly exclude your appdata share.  You have the potential to impact the ability of your apps to properly run.

 

Instead if you ever have a need to run New Permissions (with properly configured apps though you should never really have to run it), install the Fix Common Problems plugin and then run Docker Safe New Permissions instead.

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OK, my unRAID server has been up and running now for 5 days and 9 hours - not an exhaustive test for a server I know but I'm thinking I'm OK to slot my other 2 drives in this weekend to take me up to 4TB of storage with a 2TB parity drive!

 

Now before I do I thought I'd run the "Fix Common Problems" plugin and it's found an issue with a mounted volume not using a "slave option" as follows:

 

59d7b375792c3_ErrorsFound.thumb.jpg.22e9e79620b5ba8de92f3840da1ae491.jpg

 

If I click on the "Fix it here: Docker" button I get the following but I'm not sure where to go from here?

 

Docker.thumb.jpg.e943730d89bca6912ec893a1b994e907.jpg

 

The volume mappings are all simply as per one of the tutorial's I watched on Youtube - but I can honestly say I don't understand them!?!?

 

Is this a crucial error that needs fixing? I'm also thinking that it relates in some way to the Synology NAS that I've got mounted - which when I pull the drives is actually not going to be needed - so does it need fixing if this is the case??

 

Thanks....

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