2 unraid server


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I have a peculiar idea I'm trying to accomplish. I'm trying to downsize my servers and would like to setup 2 unraid machines together.

For simplicity they will be unraid 1 and unraid 2

Unraid 1 will be low power and have a supermicro x10slm motherboard with a intel celeron g3220 dual core with 8gb of ecc ram. Inside a 24 bay supermicro chassis. This system will have a 10gb nic feeding via fibre to unraid 2 as well as my lsi card for the backplane.

Unraid 2 will have a e3 1230v3 with a dual port 10gb nic with 6 10k rpm drives in raid 0 cache as well as a pcie nvme optane drive. This will house my plex docker as well as a windows vm and a few other small dockers. It will also eventually have a quadro card. 

My main use is just for plex and a small website I host for my buisness. This system as unraid 2 will eventually become unraid 1 in the supermicro  chassis and I will replace unraid 2 with a newer AMD system that will server as main unraid with plex docker etc as well as a windows vm for video editing and gaming. 

 

In theory this should work however I need to know what limitations unraid has as far as sharing media from one array to a docker container on another unraid system. 10gb fiber between them should be good enough for that link. As well the limitations of having a windows vm on the unraid 2 system write directly to the array on the unraid 1 system. Or any other thoughts on how this should be done. The idea is so I can replace a loud cisco ucs c240m3 server that doesnt support 3.5 inch drives as well as a loud 10gb switch. I'm trying to eliminate my 42u rack all together for a smaller rack for my switches and core router and array box.

 

This is a I NEED HELP moment.

 

Thanks in advance for any comments and advice.

Cheers

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I assume you haven't try 10GNIC in Unraid, because I feel you expect it always perform well. With dual port NIC in Unraid 2 to connect Unraid 1 and other port to main switch. I also assume this switch not 10G, otherwise won't plan in this way.

 

In Unraid 2, it need perform bridge function, but will it performa well, does 2 array need expose in main network.

 

Why not simple design the 24bay as a disk ensolsure and connect to an external Unraid, rather then plan use 10G link to link them hand by hand be so complicated.

Edited by Benson
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I currently utilize 10gb to all my servers and directly to my 2 main computers. I have a quanta l6bm 48 port 10gb switch. Problem is I want to eliminate this as I really only need 1gb to most of my stuff except 3 interconnects. Currently i have my intel x540 configured to connect to my main pc for file transfers. I do see around 2000mbps between my nvme drives. The reasoning for 2 unraid server is one will not be touched other than basically redundant nas, with a small website. The second server is for my main function and the 2 port nic is for iommu passthrough so my vm is on a seperate vlan in my network as well home assistant rather than bridge through unraid primary nic. System 2 will have 3 1gb nic ports and 2 10gb nic ports all fibre. 

I need 3 systems talking on 10gb the rest will be 1gb to my cisco 48 port  switch such as cameras, smart tvs, aps etc.

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So you want to eliminate Quanta LB6M and c240m3 server. Finally no 10G switch anymore ?

 

4 hours ago, Fuoman said:

except 3 interconnects

A question, suppose internet access was throught 1G network, then you need connect to individual or only one. Anyway, this increase network complexity.

 

Unraid <-10G-> Unraid <-10G-> PC

 

How about buying a fanless 10G+1G switch ?

 

I have US-16-XG ( 12+4 ), due to I don't want waste extra 40w and noise always, I power it off usually. I buy a 24+2 fanless switch, it just ~19w.

Then one 10G connect to a PC which host 2 Unraid+VM, only one 10G NIC use and share, then another 10G port connect to a PC, so all done, high speed transfer and all in a simple network.

 

 

Edited by Benson
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Yes I have a 200mbps wan connection handled by my router vm on another server that is super quiet, this goes to my 1gbps switch. This side of the network is good. It handles all my non essential stuff as mentioned before. Then I had 6 connected to the 10gbps switch which all have 1gbps failover anyway. They really have no need for the 10gbps. The nics were free from work as well as the twinax cables so that's why I did that. The 10gbps switch it basically not essential and pulls 93 watts from the wall at idle. So I want to remove that. Then the cisco is just overkill and power hungry compared to modern hardware. Yes it's good quality and made for what it does but it pulls 300 watts roughly from the wall. 

So setup will be 1gb switch <> unraid1 <10g> unraid <10g> pc. This will all be on a second subnet seperate from the 1gb stuff. However both servers will have 1gb connections for web gui and dockers apps functionality outside of vm. Vm will have their own 1gb connection. Only need 2 vm hence the 2port 1gb nic all 1gb will be handled by primary router on primary dhcp. 

 

All the 10gb is for is for faster file transfers and if possible handle the data stream for media being on one server and docker being on the other. This is why I though it would be theoretically possible. 

 

I need to reduce noise and power consumption. I dont want to purchase more networking gear as it's not required YET. Not until they make affordable 10gbps wireless Aps.

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