Looking to switch from Freenas to Unraid

[member]

Hello Unraid Community,

I am currently running Freenas 11.2 on my NAS. I am thinking of switching to Unraid due to updates causing many more problems with my plugins, settings, etc.. 

I am thinking of using Unraid like my Freenas box I am using for backing up my files (Windows and Mac), Plex, Nextcloud (self-hosted cloud), and FTP server in the future. 

 

My current hardware:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLL-F-O

i3 4130

16GB ECC 

4x4TB WD Red (running RAIDZ2, two drives for parity so ~8TB usable)

 

Is Unraid going suit my needs for NAS, Plex, Nextcloud, etc. and redundency?

Is hardware fully compatible?

What methods of moving files from Freenas to Unraid?

And which version/package of Unraid should I buy? (have 4 drives)

 

Thank you,

Member

 

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by member

[JorgeB]

8 hours ago, member said:

Is Unraid going suit my needs for NAS, Plex, Nextcloud, etc. and redundency?

It should.

 

8 hours ago, member said:

Is hardware fully compatible?

Yes.

 

8 hours ago, member said:

What methods of moving files from Freenas to Unraid?

If you don't have a full backup you'll need to move all the data from the ZFS pool to an external device(s), let Unraid format all the disks and move the data back, no way do directly convert.

 

You could also degrade your RAIDZ2 VDEV to just 2 devices, use those 2 as data disks for Unraid and copy the data, then add the other 2, but both pools would be unprotected during the copy, so some risks involved if you don't have backups.

 

8 hours ago, member said:

And which version/package of Unraid should I buy? (have 4 drives)

Basic version is good for up to 6 devices, so if you don't plan on getting more than 6 total in the near future it's enough, and you can also upgrade later if needed.

 

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by johnnie.black

[testdasi]

Just want to add, any storage device is counted (excluding only the unRAID usb stick).

My multi-card reader is counted as 5 devices. 😂 On Pro license so not complaining but for sure may caught some off guard.

[JonathanM]

31 minutes ago, testdasi said:

Just want to add, any storage device is counted (excluding only the unRAID usb stick).

My multi-card reader is counted as 5 devices. 😂 On Pro license so not complaining but for sure may caught some off guard.

Once the dust settles from 6.6.x, you should probably contact limetech with current diagnostics and see if they can get that corrected. Theoretically card readers without media currently inserted should NOT count towards licensing, only valid block devices should. They have made some corrections in the past to deal with that, but maybe your reader sets itself up differently.

 

Like you said, it doesn't effect you, but it still should fixed, or be properly documented if it can't be fixed so others don't have issues.

[Barafu]

To migrate from 4 drive ZFS to Unraid on the same machine do this. If FreeNAS can not write to btrfs partition, use latest Ubuntu Server instead, it can surely do both.

1. Boot FreeNas. Remove 1 parity drive from ZFS. Format it as btrfs. Copy data to it until it is full, starting with the most important. 
2. Disconnect your second parity drive, format it as btrfs, copy the remainder of data to it.
3. Power off, and unplug the remaining ZFS drives from power and SATA.
4. Boot Unraid, add your btrfs disks as data disks, no parity. Start the array and do all the checks you want.
5. Now that you are sure unraid works and all your data is in place, power it off, connect back one remaining ZFS drive.
6. Boot Unraid, assign new drive as parity and build parity.
7. Switch off one last time, plug in the last drive, *preclear it* and add to unraid.

 

This way, only half of your data stays unprotected during move, and only for the duration of copying it to another drive. (part 2) Or obtain 1 more drive to be protected whole time and avoid all the juggling.

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by Barafu

[JorgeB]

This won't work, Unraid needs to format the disks, it can be done by using the ZFS plugin with Unraid, degrade the ZFS pool to 2 disks and usem them as Unraid data disks, but like mentioned before it's a little risky.