Hi everyone,

 

I am waiting on parts for my first ever Unraid server build, and had a few questions before i get started.

 

This will be a file server + dockers (Plex, Radarr, etc) + one (for now) Windows 10 VM for editing and gaming.

 

My setup will be: 

CPU: AMD 1950x w/ Noctua Air cooler

GPU: Geforce 1080ti + GT1030

PSU: EVGA 1000W G3

RAM: 32GB DDR4

Motherboard: Asrock Fatal1ty X399

SSD drives: 2x 1TB NVME

3.5 drives: 6x10TB + 9x8TB WD

Case: Fractal Define R5 w/ extra drive cages

HBA: LSI 9201-16i + SFF8087 splitters

 

Here's what I'd like to know:

 

1. What is the state of VM with GPU passthrough with an AMD CPU? I read that the biggest issues are resolved with the latest Unraid builds. Is there anything else to worry about when setting up the VM?

 

2. My CPU is a 16-core/32 thread CPU. How many cores should I dedicate to the VM and how many to unraid and the dockers?

 

3. Same question about RAM. How much RAM should go to the VM and how much to Unraid?

 

4. How would I find out if the LSI HBA needs to be flashed to IT mode? Where do I check?

 

5. I'm still a little confused about how to best set up the two NVME SSD drives that I will be using. Should I set up 1 for cache and 1 for the VM? Or is there a better setup?

 

6. Since this will be mainly a media server, should I have the drives spin down or not? Not sure what people do usually...

 

Thanks in advance for any tips!

12 hours ago, txenakis said:

4. How would I find out if the LSI HBA needs to be flashed to IT mode? Where do I check?

 

https://lime-technology.com/forums/topic/69018-sata-controller-replacement-question-and-advice/?tab=comments#comment-630097

 

The -16i should have the same software as the -8i. 

 

25 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

 

https://lime-technology.com/forums/topic/69018-sata-controller-replacement-question-and-advice/?tab=comments#comment-630097

 

The -16i should have the same software as the -8i. 

 

Thanks. So i guess no flashing then. One other thing I was wondering is how do i physically identify each drive that I put in the case? Will unraid let me know which drive is where? Or do I have to add them one by one so I can keep track?

25 minutes ago, txenakis said:

One other thing I was wondering is how do i physically identify each drive that I put in the case? Will unraid let me know which drive is where?

Unraid tracks drives by serial number, so if you can read the serial number on the drive without disturbing things, great, otherwise it's a good idea to put a label on the drive where you can read it with the drive installed.

 

Hot swap cages are almost a requirement when you start dealing with more than a couple drives, because it's too easy to accidentally disturb the SATA cables on drives you aren't actually intending to work on when it's time to replace a drive. Without hot swap bays, you need to physically secure ALL the drive connections whenever you are inside the case for any reason, SATA cables suck at maintaining a good connection when bumped.

Thanks thats something I hadnt considered. Will see if i can get cages.

 

Any other tips for the other questions?

As far as allocation of cores to VM and Dockers. This is more of an art than hard and fast rules based on your specific needs.

 

My big users of processing horsepower are plex and my Windows VM. But it is very uncommon for both to need a lot of horsepower at the same time.  So I have reserved core0 (both threads) for unraid and all dockers except plex. And I have assigned all the other cores (except core0) to both my VM and Plex. When either need a lot of horsepower they can access 11 cores (22 threads) from my 7920x. As I said, it's rare they are both doing CPU intensive activities in parallel, and so far I have never seen any slowdowns.  One of gridrunner's server tuning videos does a good job of describing other ways to parcel out the cores.

 

If I split the cores between the VM and Plex, I'd be artificially limiting the max horsepower each could access. Based on my usage pattern, that isn't good for me.

 

I had done a similar thing with my old 4 core server, allowing Plex and three VMs to share 3 cores (6 threads).  I noticed while doing heavy transcodes, Plex would suck all the processing power,  and that the VM would become starved and almost completely nonresponsive.  So I changed the configuration. The VM could access 2 cores (1 and 2), and the plex docker head 2 cores (2 and 3). So they each had one dedicated core, and one shared between them. So even if plex maxed out 2 cores, VM still had an unused core and that prevented the VM from lagging.

 

If I ever saw a similar pattern emerge with my 12 core, I'd likely assign one dedicated core to the VM, And one to Plex. And allow them to share the other 9. Each would then have a potential of accessing 10 cores instead of 11. And neither would get starved.

 

Hope this helps. 

 

That is very helpful thank you. Should I also manually allocate RAM, or will Unraid do that automatically for me?

45 minutes ago, txenakis said:

That is very helpful thank you. Should I also manually allocate RAM, or will Unraid do that automatically for me?

You definitely have to set RAM for a VM. But for a docker, the apps are run in the address space of the host (unraid). There may be a way to limit the ram use but I don't remember seeing it.