Introduction and Thank you!


CraigGivant

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Hello Everyone… I just wanted to take some time to introduce myself and thank Lime Tech for this resource as well as their software. I would also like to give a shout out to SpaceInvadeOne for his videos as they have proven very valuable. I can get pretty wordy so we can leave it with this or you can continue with the TL;DR portion below.

 

Tech is a hobby for me and I consider myself a weekend warrior. While I owned my first computer at the age of 16 (I’m now 54) and at one time contemplated tech as a career, I took a different path and became a Land Surveyor. I have operated my own Land Surveying firm for almost 15 years and have been in that industry for over 30. I have been the go-to guy for some of the companies I have worked for to “fix” IT woes simply because I had more knowledge than anybody else. Most of the time this meant turning to the internet to seek out advice from others that “really” knew what they were doing. I am passionate about tinkering and finding solutions to problems when they crop up and enjoy passing any knowledge acquired along the way down to others as payback for the help I have received through the years.

 

The land surveying industry can be fairly data intensive although more so in quantity of files and not so much in size. I also can be categorized as a “data hoarder” and have ISO’s and floppy.img files going all the way back to DOS. What can I say, I keep stuff.

 

My UnRaid journey began as a way to consolidate hardware. We had everything stored on a QNAP TS-870 that I upgraded myself (processor and ram) to the Pro model. I was fine with this box but was running out of space and didn’t want to play the swapping game to upgrade the 4TB hard drives. And while that box also ran VM’s, the performance was not so great. VM’s are important as the plan is to downsize and eventually live in an RV. So I was also looking for a longer term solution with a smaller footprint.

 

I initially looked at the QNAP TS-1685 but maxed out (the only way to do things, lol) it was close to 6 grand. I really liked the case with 16 bays and multiple M.2 slots but couldn’t swallow the price and the lack of upgrade paths. While I’d like to think that the maxed out model would do what I need and take me to the end of my years, I wasn’t willing to give up the ability to change hardware and replace components as needed.

 

I began researching SFF cases, hardware, etc and spent several days doing so. Unfortunately I never really found anything I liked and almost pulled the trigger on the QNAP. Then it dawned on me …. my workstation was built last year with a Threadripper 1950x, 32GB Ram and two 1080TI’s. I also fully water cooled it with hardline tubing and it is in a Fractal Design R6 case. I’m am not a big gamer but do use AutoCAD and sold it to the wife as the “last computer I would ever need”. It was all setup just the way I like it but I figured what the hell, lets try UnRaid and convert the windows side to a VM. I was off and running.

 

Due to the water cooling I only had room for two 3.5” drives so I opted for a SanDigital 12G 8-bay SAS/Sata enclosure and an LSI 9300 controller. I bought five 10TB WD Externals and “shucked” them. I know I am not getting 12G SAS speed but again I like to future proof things whenever I can.

 

Installation and setup was a breeze and I got Linux, OSX and Windows machines setup as VM’s. The windows machine was my original daily driver which I converted to a VM and setup pass-through for a USB 3 controller and one of the 1080TI’s. I also setup Dockers for Plex, Deluge, Sonarr, Kusader and SAB along with various plugins. Everything is working top notch and I am really impressed by the capabilities of UnRaid.

 

While the footprint I have ended up with is larger than the 1685, I also have a PfSense router that will eventually get incorporated along with some 10GB net cards. Baby steps for the time being but I feel as if I have made the right choice and will be purchasing my Pro license in the next few days.

 

I look forward to getting to know everyone and hopefully being able to contribute to the community. 

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