More information about unraid


Danuel

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Hi,

 

i have a system that is working on windows 10 setup for plex, with a Ryzon 5 2400G CPU(APU) with ASUS Prime A320M-K, no dedicated video card 16 GB DDR4, x2 3 TB HDD that i use for store my media x1  500 GB HDD for Downloads and x1 150 GB NVME for windows, the 2 HDD for my media are not in raid (i prefer to sync the content ). I installed openmediavault some time ago but i got some problems with plex and network, with plex i was not able to play any transcoding media and regarding the network for some reason after i let my server overnight was like i had no internet access over night.

 

So i was thinking to give a try to unraid, but i was not able to find some information

like will unraid run with my CPU ?

and can i adopt same method on unraid ? meaning i would like that 2 HDD that i use for media to be able to sync (reason for not wanting to have a mirrow rais is in case of a HDD coruption)

and can i use my 500 GB just for downloads and the 150 NVME for applications ?

 

thank you in advance for any replay

 

Edited by Danuel
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17 minutes ago, Danuel said:

like will unraid run with my CPU ?

Unraid will run on any 64bit CPU that supports linux, so I would assume so.

 

18 minutes ago, Danuel said:

can i adopt same method on unraid ? meaning i would like that 2 HDD that i use for media to be able to sync (reason for not wanting to have a mirrow rais is in case of a HDD coruption)

Unraid is not RAID. Each data disk is independent, with an optional (recommended), independent parity disk.

 

19 minutes ago, Danuel said:

can i use my 500 GB just for downloads and the 150 NVME for applications ?

Yes.

 

For those disks, the usual method would be to put a 3TB as parity, and the other 3TB and 500GB as data disks in the parity array, with the NVME in a cache slot for your applications to use. Probably not enough capacity for that NVME to be useful for caching user shares, but should be fine for just apps.

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2 hours ago, Danuel said:

do i need a video card for unraid in order for plex to work  ?

If you are talking about Plex as a docker in unRAID (and not running on a Windows VM), Plex cannot even use a discrete video card for transcoding.

 

If you have an Intel CPU in your unRAID server with an iGPU and support for Quick Sync Video, the Plex docker can use that for hardware transcoding (reduces the load on the CPU).

 

If your CPU does not have an iGPU which supports QSV, the Plex docker will transcode in software.  For 1080p transcodes, this requires a CPU with about 2000 passmarks per simultaneous Plex stream.  Software transcoding is much more CPU intensive than hardware transcoding but results in better quality at lower bitrates.

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@trurl

 

Can you please explain how this is working 

 

Parity

i will add x1 3TB HDD  

In Array

and then X1 3TB                              (this will be used for my media only)

              x1 500 GB                         (this will be used only for my Downloads and installing unraid apps)

 

my question is where will my Media be  backed up ? in the parity  HDD?

is my Downloads will be backed up as well ? (because i have no intention on that to be backed up )

 

and do i have to PreClear the cache drive ?

Edited by Danuel
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37 minutes ago, Danuel said:

@trurl

 

Can you please explain how this is working 

 

Parity

i will add x1 3TB HDD  

In Array

and then X1 3TB                              (this will be used for my media only)

              x1 500 GB                         (this will be used only for my Downloads and installing unraid apps)

 

my question is where will my Media be  backed up ? in the parity  HDD?

is my Downloads will be backed up as well ? (because i have no intention on that to be backed up )

 

and do i have to PreClear the cache drive ?

This is a little unclear. Do you intend to use the NVME disk as cache like I suggested? Or do you mean the 500GB would be cache as you originally stated. If you want to save the NVME separate from cache and strictly for a VM that can be done with the Unassigned Devices plugin.

 

You can configure a media share and make it use whichever disks you want. Same for a downloads share. You can have shares use multiple disks if you want. This is how Unraid allows shares to span disks. The folders for the share can be on more than one disk, but any particular file is contained completely on one disk.

 

Parity is not a backup and has none of your files. Parity PLUS ALL other disks in the array allow the data for a missing disk to be calculated. This is similar in some respects to how RAID systems use parity, but in Unraid there is no striping and the disks are independent, so parity is completely on one disk, but the other disks supply the rest of the bits for the parity calculation.

 

And parity is not a substitute for backups. You must have another copy of anything important and irreplaceable, preferably on another system. There are plenty of ways to lose data that parity cannot help with, including simple user error.

 

Have you browsed the Product pages on the website? It might give you a better idea how things work.

 

Also the Overview in the Wiki:

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/UnRAID_6/Overview

 

Studying some of these will help you ask better questions.

 

 

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55 minutes ago, Danuel said:

my question is where will my Media be  backed up ? in the parity  HDD?

No. Parity is NOT a backup. It can only be used to replace a failed drive.

 

Backup implies the ability to recover from things like file corruption and deleted files. Parity does neither of those, in fact there are no files (or filesystem) on the parity drive.

 

You need to back up anything you don't wish to lose to a different location.

 

 

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28 minutes ago, trurl said:

This is a little unclear. Do you intend to use the NVME disk as cache like I suggested? Or do you mean the 500GB would be cache as you originally stated. If you want to save the NVME separate from cache and strictly for a VM that can be done with the Unassigned Devices plugin.

 

 

 

 

yes i still intend to use that NVME drive as a cache (since i will only use few applications), because i will not use any VM (virtual machine i think you refer)

 

the main focus here is to have a fully automated working plex media server (sonarr, radarr, deluge jackett, and PMS)

 

Now i understand more how the system works that if one of those HDD fail (500 GB and 3 TB) i can replace the fault one and data will rebuild

 

 

 

and i still did not find any information about the cache drive that i want to use (NVME drive), do i have to PreClear if i want to use as a cache drive or a simple format will be enough ?

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2 hours ago, Danuel said:

and i still did not find any information about the cache drive that i want to use (NVME drive), do i have to PreClear if i want to use as a cache drive or a simple format will be enough ?

No need to preclear. You must let Unraid format it after you assign it to cache.

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Also, here is a more lengthy explanation of clearing in general I recently wrote. A lot is said about preclearing in relation to Unraid, but it is really only for testing disks these days.

On 1/14/2019 at 12:16 PM, trurl said:

The only scenario in which Unraid requires a clear disk is when ADDing it to a NEW data slot in an array that already has valid parity. This is so parity will remain valid since a clear disk (all zeros) has no impact on existing parity.

 

When Unraid does require a clear disk (only that one scenario), it will clear the disk when you add it to the array if it isn't already clear. Older versions of Unraid would take the array offline to clear a disk, and so preclear was born.

 

Since Unraid now will clear a disk without taking the array offline when it requires a clear disk (only that one scenario) the only purpose of preclear is to test a disk. People sometimes even do multiple preclears on a new disk in order to "burn it in" to try to get it past the stage of "infant mortality". Like many electronics, if it doesn't fail early it might last until obsolete.

 

So, if these weren't new disks and they are in good health according to their SMART attributes, then I would say there is no good reason to preclear them. Not even for that one scenario where Unraid requires a clear disk since it will do it anyway.

If you want to test any disks you can use other methods, including the diagnostic available from the manufacturer.

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