Hi there!

 

The past weeks I've read a lot about unRAID and the possibilities concerning setups. Just to provide you with some context, I am looking for a solution that brings me more storage space, expandability and options. At first I wanted to buy a Synology NAS, but I think it's too expensive for the hardware you get, and if it breaks down because of e.g. power failure, all has been for nothing. So, that's why I'm here .

 

What is your budget?  Even if you don't have a strict budget set out, at least give us an idea if you are pinching pennies or splurging on your build.

I hope I can get something for around €400. I would be willing to go up to €500.

 

How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need?

I'd like to start with 2 drivers of 4TB each. The purpose of the server is to store backups of 2 people (including laptops, computers, phones and tablets), host a Plex Media Server, with around 2TB content, and use some storage as a cloud space. 

 

Is expandability important to you? If so, what's your long term goal?

Yes it is! This is going to be my first server, so if it turns out 8TB isn't enough, I want to be able to increase that to at least 16TB, although that's definitely long term.

 

Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons (see here)? If so, which ones? Be specific.

Yes I am!

• Plex Media Server
• Couchpotato
• SABnzbd
• Sonarr (NZBdrone) (not sure if this works, but I have it running at the moment and prefer it over SickBeard)
• Plex.py (optional)

 

Do you want to run green/low power drives or faster 7200 rpm drives? If you don't have a specific need for 7200 rpm drives, then choose green drives.

The greener the better, of course taking performance into consideration.

 

Do you have any spare parts laying around that you would like to apply towards your build? This includes drives.

Unfortunately not. I currently have an old laptop hooked up with Ubuntu LTS 16.04, but it's not the best. 

 

If you already have parts in mind, please oh pretty please post links to them so that we don't have to look them up.

I like the performance of the i3-7100 3,9GHz, although the passmark is more than what I would need I guess, and it's also slightly expensive. 

Besides, I also really like small cases, since I want to hide the server away somewhere. That's where the Cooler Master Elite 110 came to mind. Although, don't stick to this since it limits on expandability, air flow etc.

 

I hope you guys can point me in some direction, because after digging deeper into the world of home servers, I got slightly lost in it.

 

 

Hello and welcome.

 

The Core i3-7100 would be a very nice starting point for an unRAID server.  You could go with a Pentium G4620 if you want to spend less.  The main thing to consider is the applications you want to run - basic NAS doesn't require much CPU.  Either of these chips could run basic NAS plus the Dockers you mention above, with one caveat.  Plex doesn't need much CPU if you just serve up media to smart players, bu if you plan to have Plex transcode media for phones, tablets, Roku's, etc then it requires a lot of CPU - typically 2,000 Passmarks per 1080p stream (and of course unRAID needs some CPU for itself, ~2,000 Passmarks).

 

Other notes - 8GB of RAM would be fine, though I'd put 16GB in a new build if you can find a good deal on the memory.  You should plan on a cache drive - it's a smaller HD or SSD used to run applications from (and cache writes to the array if you want, that's optional).  You can run applications from the array but it's quite slow - not really recommended.  Also, the typical unRAID setup involves designating a Parity drive - this provides data protection in case of the failure of a drive.  So for instance, to get 8TB of storage it would be typical to use 3 4TB drives - 2 data, 1 parity.

 

Given the need for parity and cache I think you'd find the Cooler Master Elite 110 to be too small.  I also enjoy small form factor cases (like the Lian Li PC-Q25b) but if you go that route you should consider 6 or 8TB drives, since you can only fit so many in the small case.

Thanks for your reply!

 

Concerning transcoding, I think I won't even use it at all, since all devices are indeed smart (e.g. PS4). Would an i3 be overkill in this case?

 

On your note about the drives, if I understand it correctly, the parity disk is the same size as the maximum size of the other disks? For example, what happens if I decide to expand to 16TB, is the 4TB parity drive still on track?

Also, do you have budget recommendations for the cache drive? And how big should it be?

25 minutes ago, Fietswiel said:

On your note about the drives, if I understand it correctly, the parity disk is the same size as the maximum size of the other disks? For example, what happens if I decide to expand to 16TB, is the 4TB parity drive still on track?

The parity drive only has to be as large or larger than the largest disk in the array.  If you continue to expand with 4TB drives, a 4TB parity is fine.

 

I have the Lian-Li PC-Q25 case for my main server.  It has 5 hot-swap 3.5" drive bays as well as room on the bottom tray for an additional two 3.5" drives and a 2.5" SSD (or two SSDs and an HDD); so, up to 8 drives.  I think that will allow you sufficient expansion room. 

 

If I were you, I would go with the i3 (at least) even if you think it is overkill.  Once you discover everything unRAID can do, your "needs" will expand.  Trust me, it has happened to all of us. 

 

Another good small form factor case is the Fractal Node 304.  It has room for up to six 3.5/2.5" drives (some have put as many as 8 in it by attaching an SSD to the outside of the disk brackets.

 

If you think you may go to larger than 4TB drives in the future, perhaps you want a larger parity drive so you can swap to larger data drives without changing the parity drive.  Personally, I prefer fewer larger drives over more smaller drives.

Edited December 30, 20178 yr by Hoopster

26 minutes ago, Fietswiel said:

Also, do you have budget recommendations for the cache drive? And how big should it be?

 

If you are using the cache drive purely as an application drive to host dockers and maybe a single VM, a good 240/256 GB SSD is plenty.  If you really want to use it as a cache drive as well to cache writes to the array you may want to get a bigger SSD depending on how much data you typically write to the array in a single write operation. A 240/256GB SSD may still be plenty even as an app/cache drive if your cached writes are not large or frequent.

 

SSDs based on MLC or SLC NAND chips are higher endurance, but, almost all "budget" SSDs, use TLC chips which do not last as long.  However, these may still be sufficient for your needs.  My cache drive in my main server is an older technology Samsung 830 256GB which has lasted six years and is still going strong.

 

You have not indicated you want to run any VMs, but, if you do want to do so in the future (not recommended with an i3 - you would probably want an i7/Xeon E3 or E5 or Ryzen 7 chip for that) heavy-duty VMs will perform better on a dedicated SSD.  This is likely beyond the scope of what you want to do; just some thoughts to keep in mind.

Edited December 30, 20178 yr by Hoopster

Great! Thanks for your advice. I compared a few NAS setups vs. my homeserver idea, and it's already cheaper.

 

So far the only thing I'm not sure about, is my harddrive setup. Mainly because I have no experience with the whole backup situation before.

One of the biggest reasons I want a proper backup station (homeserver vs. NAS), is because I want to be safe in case something goes wrong (e.g. losing data).

Losing data can be caused by many things of course, and I guess it depends on how far you take it (e.g. would you protect yourself in case of losing everything in a fire).

 

In other words, I am not sure whether I actually need a RAID5 setup, or if just a NAS would be sufficient as well. My options are:

• The homeserver: It will cost me around €700, setup RAID5 with 8TB of usable storage (4TB parity, 8TB storage, 256GB cache).
• A NAS: Which costs around €750 (4-bay), also setup in RAID5 with 8TB of usable storage (4TB parity, 8TB storage).

In other words, wouldn't a 2-bay dual core NAS be sufficient with around 8TB storage (non-raid). How safe would such a solution be? I could connect it to a UPS, that automatically turns off the NAS safe in case of power failure. And then I can spend the rest of the money for external storage, which usually costs money per month. 

 

I hope you understand my issue here. I'm limited on budget, but not sure which direction to go to.

Hmm. Just read that making backups to an external cloud is quite pricy. In the case of 8TB, it would be around €500 a year.

Some clarifications, unRAID, as its name suggests does not support array disks in a RAID configuration, it's unRAID.  The protection against failed disk(s) is with one or two parity drives.  RAID arrays are also not backup solutions.  They protect against disk failure, but, not data loss. 

 

I and many other unRAID users are using Crashplan Pro ($10 per month per machine - not sure of UK pricing) which allows for unlimited file backup.  There are other solutions as well suck as Backblaze B2, Duplicati, iDrive, CloudBerry and many others.  Check them all carefully.  Some support Linux, some do not, some provide unlimited backup other charge per GB.  There are dockers for unRAID for many of these.  Some are only the backup client and require a connection to a cloud backup services such as Amazon S3, B2, Google Drive/OneDrive/Dropbox, etc

 

You can also do your own backups to an external USB hard drive through the Unassiged Devices plugin or to another unRAID backup server either on or off-site.  Of course a backup server is a more expensive solution initially, but, this is what I do since I had the hardware.

 

a UPS is highly recommended.

 

Hope this helps.

2 hours ago, Fietswiel said:

One of the biggest reasons I want a proper backup station (homeserver vs. NAS), is because I want to be safe in case something goes wrong (e.g. losing data)

Well first, to clarify - unRAID is a NAS.  It's a DIY NAS rather than a commerical NAS - but fundamentally it is network attached storage.  And it's a basic NAS capability to have some level of redundancy - the ability to recover from a failed disk.  unRAID is also a home server that allows you run applications, so it's more than just a NAS.

 

If you implement unRAID parity, will you make use of that ability?  Almost certainly.  Here's a way to think about this.  If unRAID only held backup data for your laptops, PCs, etc. and a drive failed, then you wouldn't need parity.  If a server drive failed you'd buy a new disk, run a new backup from your laptop, and you're all set.  But what about media that you're playing through Plex or other data that lives only on your server?  When (not if) a drive fails and you don't have the data on your laptops, you're going to want two things - one, the ability to recover server data quickly via parity, and two the peace of mind of an offsite backup.  In addition to cloud, a great option there is an 8TB drive in a USB enclosure, like the WD Easystore.  Bring it home, run a backup, and take it back to the office (or vice versa).

 

 

Hey man,

 

Check out my latest build this seems to fit just about within your budget and I think will satisfy your needs!

 

 

1 hour ago, witalit said:

Hey man,

 

Check out my latest build this seems to fit just about within your budget and I think will satisfy your needs!

 

 

 

Looks great! I will definitely check out the prices of the components for the Netherlands.

I still haven't made a decision actually. Really taking every option into consideration.