I just got my server built. There are 2 questions I have.

 

1) Is there any way to view all attached HDDs, even if I cant use them with a trial license? Just want to verify my onboard SAS and SAS expander are working as expected. Its a really heavy server and i have it in my workshop right now, so i'd rather not be forced to work on it in the living room where it will eventually sit.

 

2) Is there a plex frontend for Unraid? My idea is to use the GPU I added for HDMI output and plug the server directly into my home theater system, and play stuff directly from that. Ideally, it would be awesome if it was an always-on thing. Normally I use it for web browser (youtube, prime video, casual browsing), netflix (windows store app) and Plex (plex media player). I'm assuming the only way to do this is to run a VM and have that autostart, which seems to be a waste of computing resources. I dont have any issues simply removing the GPU from the build entirely if theres a better way to get high quality playback though.

 

BTW, if number 2 is a stupid question and I shouldnt be doing it that way, totally fine. But i'd appreciate the logic behind that rather than just telling me not to bother. I prefer high quality bitstreaming audio and untouched video, which is why I normally connect the "server" (used to be a desktop that just got out of hand) directly to the AVR.

 

I have a couple windows laptops and a tab S4 (which supposedly does multichannel output via hdmi) so its not a crazy huge deal. I'd just rather remove the GPU now on my workbench before moving the whole server to its final location.

Edited April 4, 20197 yr by shrimants
topic = solved

30 minutes ago, shrimants said:

Is there any way to view all attached HDDs, even if I cant use them with a trial license?

The trial has no drive limits, only time limit enforced by authentication with limetech servers. If your hard drives aren't showing on the trial install, they won't show with a full version either. Post diagnostics if you want help figuring out why they aren't showing up.

 

I suspect there may be issues with your controller, are you trying to use a RAID controller by any chance? Unraid needs a plain HBA with no hardware RAID to get in the way of drive management.

As for Plex front end your basically going to have to install a VM of windows or any other flavor that supports a Plex client. 

 

Im sure it can be done and I’ve never personally tinkered with it, but your going to be digging in trying to make sure everything will pass thru your VM properly to get that perfect sound/video play back quality you want. 

Question 1 was self-answered, somewhat. only 5 drives (plus 2 SSDs) were showing up because the other 7 had the 3.3v sata issue. I've fixed that, also purchsed unraid, and all disks show up as expected.

 

Question 2 was answered more or less with what I was expecting. Might be something to play with. Probably way easier to spend 100 or so rewards points on amazon and get a "free" nvidia shield, or maybe wait for gen2 at this point (though gen1 has INSANELY sufficient hardware even for 2019).