Considering switching to unRaid - Convince me?


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Hi Everyone,

 

So currently I am considering the switch to unRAID I am currently running a HP MicroServer Gen8, Running Windows Server and DrivePool on 2x 4TB WD RED Drives (Just Pooled No Mirroring or Parity Drive, YES I KNOW...)  and running all my applications like Sonarr, Plex & Usenet etc on Windows which has worked well so far... my drives are starting to fill so far and I am not so worried about loosing data at the moment because anything I loose I would just redownload... but eventually its going to get to a point where I would rather just have a Parity drive so I can rebuild with a new drive, hence considering the switch to UnRaid, but before I do I would like to know a few things if possible which I will list below.

 

My Drives are getting full at the moment can unraid do what DrivePool does and just Pool drives together? without parity? but then also allow for adding parity drive later on once I get more drives? 

If unRAID can pool drives together, are drives removable like DrivePool, I.e I have to drives pooled together remove one drive and then read data on another computer say inside windows?

 

Can I add drives to UnRaid without formatting them so I can keep all my data...

 

Does UnRAID support running Applications such as, Plex, UTorrent, Sonarr, Radarr, SABnzbd, Jacket, PlexPY, NextCloud?

 

Does UnRaid Support online back up solutions like Blackblaze? - If not blackblaze any other online back up solution?

 

Many Thanks

-Jonathan

Edited by jonathan.gorbutt
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1 hour ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

If unRAID can pool drives together, are drives removable like DrivePool, I.e I have to drives pooled together remove one drive and then read data on another computer say inside windows?

 

Yes, but Windows would need to read a disk in either XFS or BTRFS file systems

 

1 hour ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

Can I add drives to UnRaid without formatting them so I can keep all my data...

 

No, but you can mount existing data disks outside the array and copy the data across to your array.

 

1 hour ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

Does UnRAID support running Applications such as, Plex, UTorrent, Sonarr, Radarr, SABnzbd, Jacket, PlexPY, NextCloud?

 

Yes via Docker containers

 

1 hour ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

Does UnRaid Support online back up solutions like Blackblaze? - If not blackblaze any other online back up solution?

 

Not natively, but there are ways of doing so using Duplicati (Docker container) or Rclone (plugin) or Crashplan (Docker Container)

 

1 hour ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

My Drives are getting full at the moment can unraid do what DrivePool does and just Pool drives together? without parity? but then also allow for adding parity drive later on once I get more drives? 

 

Yes, you can run it without parity.  Not recommended but it's possible.

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@CHBMB Thanks for answering some of my question just got a few follow ups.

 

In Drivepool if I remove a Drive from the pool, DrivePool will move the data to another drive if enough space is available... does unRaid do the same thing?

 

Can unraid Pool be mounted like a Network Drive in windows?

 

Does windows support XFS disks or would it need some 3rd party driver / software?

 

When using Docker Containers (never used before only read about) can Docker Containers access the Drive Pool? I.e if I ran a NextCloud In Docker can it save data directly to the Pool.

 

Again with the last question i stated I can use without parity, but will I be able to add a parity drive later on?

 

Many Thanks

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Just now, jonathan.gorbutt said:

In Drivepool if I remove a Drive from the pool, DrivePool will move the data to another drive if enough space is available... does unRaid do the same thing?

 

No

 

1 minute ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

Can unraid Pool be mounted like a Network Drive in windows?

I believe so

 

1 minute ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

Does windows support XFS disks or would it need some 3rd party driver / software?

Not natively.  I don't know any more about that, I use Linux as a desktop OS

 

1 minute ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

When using Docker Containers (never used before only read about) can Docker Containers access the Drive Pool? I.e if I ran a NextCloud In Docker can it save data directly to the Pool.

Yes

2 minutes ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

Again with the last question i stated I can use without parity, but will I be able to add a parity drive later on?

Yes

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The unRAID equivalent to pools as you are thinking of them is called User Shares. User Shares are how unRAID allows for spanning of disks. You can have multiple User Shares each with their own settings for security and other things. An unRAID User Share can be a Windows network drive just like any other shared network folder in a Windows network, or you can just browse them on the Network in Windows Explorer or access them with the UNC path.

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Thanks for answering all my questions everyone been really helpful hoping to switch everything over to unRAID this weekend if I make the jump,

 

Just got another question, does unRAID do balancing? i.e I have 4TB drive and then add another will unraid spread then data already on the first drive to the new drive? so the data is split across both?

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40 minutes ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

Thanks for answering all my questions everyone been really helpful hoping to switch everything over to unRAID this weekend if I make the jump,

 

Just got another question, does unRAID do balancing? i.e I have 4TB drive and then add another will unraid spread then data already on the first drive to the new drive? so the data is split across both?

No.  UnRAID never moves data to another array drive without manual intervention.

 

there is a plugin called unBalance that can help move data as required according to the criteria you select.   This can be run to either clear files off a drive or to redistribute a drives contents across other drives.

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I've used Windows Home Server v1 and Windows Home Server 2011 and for me, Unraid is the better product.

One word of warning though, be prepared to learn new things and find different ways of doing things, allow plenty of time to get things sorted, one big source of frustration I see in new users is thinking they can accomplish their perfect setup in three hours, when they've never used Unraid before.

The forums are absolutely top notch in terms of support and the community is thriving, friendly and helpful as well as having some extremely knowledgeable members.

Read all the stickies, the time invested will pay dividends and gridrunner (SpaceInvaderOne on YouTube) has some wonderful videos,

Community Applications should be the first plugin you install, it's indispensable.

Unassigned Devices plugin the second as that will enable you to mount your windows drives to copy data across.

If in doubt, do nothing, never ignore a check box or confirmation until you really know what they mean, easier to do that than post asking how to recover data.

For docker containers, linuxserver (of which I'm a member) or I'll grudgingly admit@binhex, our arch nemesis do some good ones :)

As a user of Unraid, not an employee of LimeTech, this is a wonderfully powerful operating system and I think you'll enjoy it.

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2 minutes ago, CHBMB said:

I'll grudgingly admit@binhex, our arch nemesis do some good ones

 

And i will likewise grudgingly admit LSIO does create a couple of reasonable(ish) docker images ?so you wont go wrong either way.

 

Seriously though, do take your time as @CHBMB suggests, get your head around the core NAS functionality, especially split levels which are tricky to understand at first, once this is good then move onto VM's and then Docker containers. Most of the old timers here have had the beauty of being drip fed these capabilities and thus it hasn't been possible to rush things, but newbies here have so much to play with day 1 that i think it can blow their brains sometimes, oh and subscribe to spaceinvader one (aka gridrunner) youtube video's they are just brilliant for newbies (and advanced users too):- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZDfnUn74N0WeAPvMqTOrtA

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4 hours ago, CHBMB said:

See even arch rivals are friendly(ish) on here...

lol

 

Haha :) Thanks for all your help... Going do the switch over Friday night / Saturday morning already had a quick look around the UI all new to me but I want something to tinker with so this is going be my new hobby, I already started watching Space Invaders videos today about Plugins and how unRAID works compared to other solutions...

 

I hopefully plan in the future to build another NAS as I am using a HP Microserver Gen8 currently which only has 4 bays 2 of which are only SATA2... I thought about building a Ryzen system but I have read on Reddit and I believe here that Ryzen is a bit buggy and not as good on the performance compared to Intel? though these comments I found where from 1-2 year ago? is this still the case?

 

Again Thanks for answering all my questions and this community does seem amazing quick fast responses and helping newbies great to see :) 

 

Defiantly will be using some of the Docker containers you guys made too :) 

 

Also is it recommended to use the cache drive for Docker Images such as Plex, Sonarr, Sabnzbd and such?

Edited by jonathan.gorbutt
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Do yourself a favor and subscribe to the wonderful videos of @gridrunner over on YouTube as Spaceinvader One:

Spaceinvader One - YouTube Channel

 

I found the visual demonstrations very useful in making the switch over to Unraid from Windows - not sure I would have managed without these guides!

 

I have not regretted my move to Unraid in the least little bit - it actually has me more interested in my equipment then I have been for years.

 

Good Luck

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34 minutes ago, dstanley said:

I have not regretted my move to Unraid in the least little bit - it actually has me more interested in my equipment then I have been for years.

 

I agree, sometimes I wonder if I get more enjoyment from the functionality of my server or the admin of it.

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1 hour ago, Squid said:
2 hours ago, CHBMB said:
 
I agree, sometimes I wonder if I get more enjoyment from the functionality of my server or the admin of it.

Definitely admin. I've vowed however that one day I might actually sit down and IDK watch a movie or something

 

Yeah, I tend to put some TV or a movie on whilst I'm doing the admin stuff.  Couldn't tell you what the plot was....... :D

 

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10 hours ago, jonathan.gorbutt said:

Ryzen system but I have read on Reddit and I believe here that Ryzen is a bit buggy and not as good on the performance compared to Intel? though these comments I found where from 1-2 year ago? is this still the case?

Ryzen Threadripper has gotten pretty solid at this point, in terms of stability and virtualization, I personally have been having great luck with my Threadripper setup. As for regular Ryzen's I think things are getting better, haven't been following too closely, but one of the main community threads on the subject is this one: 

Thirty-four pages, a year's worth of documentation, there. 

 

 

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