Installation Questions - Hardware, WAN IP Exposure, Etc

[JPrez]

Hey All -

 

Three questions I'd like to get feedback/comments on please:

 

1)  I'm in the process of potentially moving to UnRaid from FreeNAS and have been exploring UnRaid for a few weeks.   I noticed in the blog that release 6.4.0 contains SSL support and encryption and it got me thinking....with my FreeNAS box, it's also secured via SSL (the web front end that I pay for yearly) and is exposed to the Internet via a static public IP.   Is UnRaid hardened with regards to public IP exposure or is the best practice to keep the server on the LAN segment only?   I ask these questions as I currently have a plex server running in a freenas jail and some other items that require a public IP and allows for administration just about anywhere.

 

2)  I plan to use a SuperMicro X10SL7 board with a Xeon E3 1276 v3 CPU, 32 GB of RAM and 8 (4TB each) WD Red drives connected to the built in Intel SATA controller on the motherboard.   Any recommendations with regards to hardware or drive configuration?   Not sure I am fully up to speed on the parity drive and cache drive yet but I am still reading about it.

 

3) The encryption options in UnRaid appear to be significantly larger than FreeNAS, what is the best practice/recommendation on filesystem type since it will be next to impossible for me to change once I format and move all my data over.  I was leaning to XFS since it appears to be more common from what I've read.

 

Thanks!

 

Edited February 3, 2018 by JPrez
edited topic

[JonathanM]

7 minutes ago, JPrez said:

 Is UnRaid hardened with regards to public IP exposure or is the best practice to keep the server on the LAN segment only?

There is progress being made, but for now the official stance is LAN or VPN only for the GUI.

 

Feel free to open ports to specific services provided by dockers, like Plex or the LetsEncrypt NGINX docker.

 

XFS is the current favorite, BTRFS is gaining ground as it becomes more stable, but it still seems like a work in progress for some things.

[JPrez]

Thanks - 

 

One last question that comes to mind....as part of the UnRaid install process....will it evaluate each drive for health during the format (or shortly thereafter)?   I don't suspect any drive problems but would prefer the fresh OS to evaluate the drives (or is there a process I can manually kickoff) before I start moving data over?    

 

Thanks

[bonienl]

Enable notifications, and upon first start you will be notified about critical SMART values of each disk present in the system. Use these to determine the health of your disks. Or when in doubt ask here in the forum.