New tutorial in the wiki

[Spectrum]

Being a newbie UnRAID user and somewhat inspired by jwcolby's posts in this thread I decided to start a tutorial that would help a new user get from the "OK I have a working flash drive, now what" stage to a usable array.

 

I agree with jwc that there is (was ) a gap in the documentation and there was no 'one stop shop' of the information required to get from that working flash drive state to a working array, so that is the slant I took in the wiki article.  It's not meant to be the end-all be-all but a step by step tutorial on getting things set up that doesn't require hunting down different wiki posts, forum threads, google code sites, etc.  There are links to all of those places, but my goal is to minimize new user's having to search for the right ones and give them details on what they are looking for.

 

I made it in the first boot section of the getting started with UnRAID as that seemed most appropriate.  Agree/disagree?

 

Direct link to the article is http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Configuration_Tutorial

I've gotten through to the preclearing stage and thought I would go ahead and commit the changes and ask you guys what you think and to take a look and fix my mistakes 

[ohlwiler]

Excellent job, just a few quick comments.

 

Installation of UnMENU and preclar_disk.sh are optional, but highly recommended. Likewise screen is not needed to preclear disks if done from the console. By identifying what steps are optional you give the impatient (me!) users a chance to get it up and running quickly.

 

"Verifying Hard Drives are Detected" section strikes me as a troubleshooting step. Once you obtain the server address, looking at the web management tool will tell you if all the disks have been identified. On a similar vein, if we are going to invoke the web management with //tower (tower alone works for me), then querying the console for the IP address is also a troubleshooting step.

 

You talk about configuration, but neglect to tell the user that they should navigate to the "Settings" tab on the UnRaid web management page.

 

I highly recommend a static IP address. DNS Server Address should be set to your gateway address (in my case 192.168.0.1 -- as per Joe L.)

 

 

[Spectrum]

Good points all!  I am going from my (pathetic) notes that I kept with this in mind as I was setting up my server over the past few days.  If you feel like making changes before I get to it, it is a wiki so go for it!  But I will address these when I jump back on it in the next day or so if no one else does.

 

Setting your DNS server to your gateway should work with most modern routers, but I have had some in the past that would refuse to pass dns traffic they received on port 53.  They assumed it was destined for them since the packet had their address as dst but they had no daemon running on port 53 so requests would just time out.  Most modern routers will just forward requests on port 53 to whatever DNS servers they have in their list and change the dst address in the packet then rewrite the response packet and send it back to the system inside the network that requested it.  I wouldn't count on that working in all configs, but most modern routers should take care of it

[CornerSage]

Great work.  No doubt this will be immensely helpful for new users.  Perhaps we could also provide links to other helpful resources for more details on specific steps and tools (like unmenu and preclear) - uh, like you already did.   

[GBH2]

Nice Job! But you could have done this a day sooner and saved me a lot of time! J/K

 

A lot of good points - Not having UnMENU and preclear_disk.sh already on my flash drive was a hassle.

 

I am only at the pre-clearing disks stage now.  When you get to it you may want to explain about installing the mail package through unmenu, i had to install the C compiler package to get it to install and also explain that people need to have their mail server login info handy.

 

What you are doing is great - there is so much outdated info out there(using "search" can be more confusing) and so much is "obvious" to the experts that unRaid really needs an up to date walkthrough written by someone setting up a server for the first time.

 

Keep up the good work, if I get a chance i will have to find out how to edit the Wiki, and "give back" a little to the community myself.

[Spectrum]

Nice Job! But you could have done this a day sooner and saved me a lot of time! J/K

 

A lot of good points - Not having UnMENU and preclear_disk.sh already on my flash drive was a hassle.

Did my instructions for how to get the files and copy them over make sense?  I thought about walking through using wget from the console but decided most people prefer the comfort of a gui and want a little to do with command line as possible.

 

I am only at the pre-clearing disks stage now.  When you get to it you may want to explain about installing the mail package through unmenu, i had to install the C compiler package to get it to install and also explain that people need to have their mail server login info handy.

Hmm didn't use the mail stuff myself.  I'm at my system enough it was no problem for me to telnet in and check the screen session to see if it was done.  If someone doesn't feel up to editing the wiki but doesn't mind writing it up, I'll be glad to format it and include it on the page.

[Rajahal]

Great job!  This is definitely a much-needed tutorial.

[talmania]

Excellent work--thank you!  Helped me figure out what some of the appropriate commands should be.

[GBH2]

Nice Job! But you could have done this a day sooner and saved me a lot of time! J/K

 

A lot of good points - Not having UnMENU and preclear_disk.sh already on my flash drive was a hassle.

Did my instructions for how to get the files and copy them over make sense?  I thought about walking through using wget from the console but decided most people prefer the comfort of a gui and want a little to do with command line as possible.

It looked good but I will do a quick read through again tonight and let you know.

 

I am only at the pre-clearing disks stage now.  When you get to it you may want to explain about installing the mail package through unmenu, i had to install the C compiler package to get it to install and also explain that people need to have their mail server login info handy.

Hmm didn't use the mail stuff myself.  I'm at my system enough it was no problem for me to telnet in and check the screen session to see if it was done.  If someone doesn't feel up to editing the wiki but doesn't mind writing it up, I'll be glad to format it and include it on the page.

I actually had not set up telnet and screen until after I started my pre-clear, I did not even know about "screen" until you mentioned it - and I spent weeks reading before I bought parts and started to set up unraid. It is for things like these that it is so great that you are taking the time do do this.

 

I can write something up later tonight about setting up email and I will get it to you and let you integrate it into your Tutorial. It will be good to have it there for anyone who is interested in that functionality.

[Spectrum]

I "finished" the tutorial tonight    There are still a few things that need to be done though.

 

Thanks GBH2 for the info on the mail setup.  That has been assimilated and posted!

 

Joe L. if you are paying attention, where would you draw the line on the max number of preclears to run at once?  I realize this is hardware dependent, but what would be a good number for an "average" system?

 

I cheated on the User Shares section and pretty much just listed the options and linked to the un-official manual.  I want to think about the verbiage before I write out info on allocation and split leveling, but if someone wants to beat me to it and make it purty go right ahead!

 

"Verifying Hard Drives are Detected" section strikes me as a troubleshooting step. Once you obtain the server address, looking at the web management tool will tell you if all the disks have been identified. On a similar vein, if we are going to invoke the web management with //tower (tower alone works for me), then querying the console for the IP address is also a troubleshooting step.

 

After thinking about this, I decided to leave those sections in.  Yes they are kind of like troubleshooting steps, but they don't take long and I had rather have a noob type ifconfig and see that there is no ip address rather than try to troubleshoot name resolution if their Windows boxen won't find //tower on the network.  Also grepping out that section of dmesg forces them to take a look at their hard drive speeds and potentially fix jumpers if they have a SATAII drive locked in SATAI mode, etc.

 

Of course maybe I am off base and am over geeking here?  It's been known to happen

 

Now what we need is a complete neophyte that has no knowledge of Linux or Windows networking to step through this un-aided and point out all the errors!

[Rajahal]

I haven't had time to read all of it yet, but the bit I skimmed was spot on.  Great work!

 

I don't use screen, so I can't comment there (though I'll probably follow your guide to set it up!), however I know that when running preclears on the console or via telnet, the limit is 6.  This isn't a hardware limitation, but a limitation of how many open console sessions you can have at one time.  You only get 6 - Alt-F1 through Alt-F6.

[SSD]

Outstanding! 

[Userpaul]

Could you mention in the section where you run through installation of unmenu that your server has to be connected to the internet? I was downloading to my pc and then transferring to the usb over my network.

Other than that I wish i had that to follow a few weeks ago...great bit of work.

[Spectrum]

@Raj

Joe L. has edited the wiki and he put in only run 4 at once.  I initially put 6 in with a comment that I needed the actual# from Joe and he took care of it

 

@Userpaul

It's been there as long as that section has lived

Install UnMENU

 

UnMENU is an enhanced Web management page for unRAID that provides a number of user-requested features, and is relatively easy to extend. Installing it now gives you access to screen and email notifications, both of which are useful for preclearing hard drives.

 

You should have already copied the required files to your flash drive earlier. For this step your server must have access to the internet to download some files. It is NOT recommended that you connect your UnRAID server directly to the internet (especially at this stage) as it is not secure.

 

But I've made it a bit more noticeable now.

[Rajahal]

Huh, I wonder why Joe says 4...

[Joe L.]

Huh, I wonder why Joe says 4...

Just being conservative for those with limited RAM.

[Rajahal]

Ah, OK, that was my guess.  What's the rule of thumb?  Half a gig per preclear, something like that?  Or maybe that won't work since 512 mb of RAM isn't enough to preclear a 2 TB drive, right?

[Brandnewfatboy]

Spectrum - superb job.

Has inspired me to have a go at this screen thing

[Spectrum]

Spectrum - superb job.

Has inspired me to have a go at this screen thing

 

Glad to confuse, I mean help you

 

If you see anything that is unclear or needs improvement, let me know.  That was a pretty massive data dump and I know there are mistakes in there somewhere!

[MikeD]

Thank you sooo much for the tutorial. You have saved me countless hours. I had built the server and gotten past that easily as an engineer, but the linux commands had me going.  I had it all correct but didn't know root or the id and how to get the IP and log on. great accounting for it all in one and linls to more detail when needed.

 

Thanks

MikeD

[Spectrum]

I have been meaning to give the tutorial some sprucing up and add a little bit of info and I finally got around to it tonight.  I've added the following and would appreciate any thoughts, corrections, etc.

 

Introduction:

I added a section of assumptions.  I don't want it to come across condescending, but some basic knowledge is of course required.  Can anyone think of assumptions made that aren't listed that should be?

 

First Boot:

I added a section to address setting a static IP when there is no DHCP server available on the network.  Thoughts on this procedure?

 

Security:

Added a new section about security.  Thoughts?

 

Here is a link to the diff in case anyone had rather see things that way, but you get all the little minor edits in there as well, and I'm more worried about the content, not the formatting but if someone wants to check that as well.....

[Joe L.]

I have been meaning to give the tutorial some sprucing up and add a little bit of info and I finally got around to it tonight.  I've added the following and would appreciate any thoughts, corrections, etc.

I made a few tiny updates.  Vi is not the only editor. "mcedit" is much easier for most beginners.

 

Joe L.

[Spectrum]

Good deal, I didn't realize mcedit was there.  We'll probably get this thing just right in time for Tom to release V5 and make it all useless historical

[Bags]

Thanks to your first write up I was able to get things going. For the record I have no knowledge of Linux, building my own PC, or programing. I can follow directions and your write up was pretty much spot on. The only difficulty I have is figuring out the best way to manage my server (user shares) but that is of no fault of yours. Great write up and now that the new user can download the unraid software right to the flash disk this will make it even easier.

[Spectrum]

Thanks to your first write up I was able to get things going. For the record I have no knowledge of Linux, building my own PC, or programing. I can follow directions and your write up was pretty much spot on. The only difficulty I have is figuring out the best way to manage my server (user shares) but that is of no fault of yours. Great write up and now that the new user can download the unraid software right to the flash disk this will make it even easier.

 

Glad it helped!  There really is no best way to set up user shares.  What works for me might be anathema to you or vice versa   You can always re-org data later, but it's a royal PITA to shuffle TBs around....