New to unraid and want a bit more detail about it before deciding if it is for me.

[Robert Shaver]

I just heard about unraid from Youtube channel Spaceinvader One. I'm a retired EE with abot 50 years starting with hardware/software embedded controller design. I've used Windows, OSX and various versions of Unix but have never really had to dig into an OS. (Embedded controllers were simple in my day. Programmed in assembly and C, with the OS consisting of a polling loop and maybe interrupts.)

 

I've been shooting video for many hears and have about 12TB of footage, photos and other assets scattered over many hard drives stored in my closet. What I want to do (when I get back to my home in Austin, TX next June) is to put together some improved comprehensive storage and archive system for most of that old stuff, but mostly for my new footage to come. I've looked at buying a NAS but somehow I find myself wanting to build my own. I don't want to think about off-site storage right now but I do want:

1) Some kind of protection against hardware failure causing data loss.

2) Some kind of automated backup that will be immured to ransomware attack.

 

I read a lot of stuff on the Unraid web site and understand what it does from the 30K view. What I don't know is and haven't found anything definitive is,

1) Why would I want this over FreeNAS?

2) What technology does Unraid use to prevent data loss in case of hardware failure?

3) Does Unraid have any kind of rollback in case of operator error? (The most likely data loss is if I make a mistake in deleting files. ("rm *")

 

Please feel free to point me to the documentation or any video tutorials that would help me understand Unraid at an intermediate level.

 

Best regards,

 

Rob:-]

[ashman70]

I have never used Freenas so I can't speak to that.

unRAID uses parity protection, so if you lose a drive, you can reconstruct the data from the missing drive.
There is a recycle bin plugin that would allow you to restore the accidentally deleted file, however it would depend on the setting of the plugin, whether you empty it manually or on a schedule. Other than that I am not aware of a rollback feature.

The safest way to protect your data is to follow the 3-2-1 backup rule. unRAID is great, but I would not want it to contain the only copy of my data. 

[Hoopster]

1 hour ago, Robert Shaver said:

I read a lot of stuff on the Unraid web site and understand what it does from the 30K view. What I don't know is and haven't found anything definitive is,

1) Why would I want this over FreeNAS?

2) What technology does Unraid use to prevent data loss in case of hardware failure?

3) Does Unraid have any kind of rollback in case of operator error? (The most likely data loss is if I make a mistake in deleting files. ("rm *")

unRAID was originally envisioned as a media storage OS and really shines at that.  I have over 100,000  photos stored on my server as well as tens of thousands of videos (mostly shot by my wife), thousands of movies, etc.

 

As to your specific questions:

 

1) I have never personally used FreeNAS.  There are many users in these forums who came to unRAID from FreeNAS (there are probably some who went the other way as well).  The opinion from these users seems to be that unRAID has lower hardware requirements than FreeNAS (unRAID runs on just about any hardware), unRAID handles Docker and docker containers/apps better, unRAID is better for VMs and unRAID is easier to mange through its GUI.  Again, I am restating what I believe to be the opinion of others based on posts in these forums.  Perhaps someone who has used FreeNAS can provide more insights and confirm or refute what I have stated.

2) unRAID supports single or dual-parity.  This provides a safeguard against the simultaneous failure of one or two array disks.  A failed drive can be rebuilt from the data on the remaining drives and parity disk(s).  Parity is not a backup and does nothing to guard against data loss; just drive failure.  Since unRAID does not stripe data across drives and each data drive has its own file system, the worst case scenario is that only data on failed drives (If you have no parity protection or a rebuild is not possible for some reason) is lost.  Data on all other drives remains intact and accessible.

3) There is a recycle bin plugin.  There is also a ransomware plugin which is designed to recognize ransomware attacks and put a halt to them.  The best "rollback" strategy is to have good backups.  I have online offsite backup, weekly data backup to an on-site backup server and removable USB storage on-demand backup through the Unassigned Devices plugin.

 

There are some discussions in these forums regarding BTRFS (an unRAID supported file system) snapshot capabilities as well which could allow for some data rollback.  I do not use BTRFS (my data drives are XFS formatted) so I am no expert in its capabilities.

 

I think you will find unRAID suits your needs well, but, the more you know about it, the better you can make that determination.  Space Invader One has a ton of unRAID videos many of which are overviews of how unRAID operates and its capabilities.  That is a good starting point.

 

If you want more information on VMs, docker containers or plugins available for unRAID, browse the sub forums dedicated to them. Space Invader One can again help you there as he has many videos covering these topics as well

 

unRAID offers a free 30-day trial.  It runs on just about any hardware.  Start a trial and look in the Apps tab for more information on all the docker or plugin 'apps' available for unRAID and their capabilities.

 

EDIT:  Perhaps the best thing about unRAID is this community.  You will find friendly, helpful advice here.  For the most part, the community is very well behaved (someone may be 'grumpy' every now and then) and very knowledgeable.  Other options you may consider (not naming any names) do not have the same community reputation or level of involvement.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Hoopster

[Robert Shaver]

Hey Ashman70 & Hoopster,

 

Thanks for the quick and very comprehensive response. This must be a great community, as Hoopster noted. 

 

I am fascinated with the idea of using virtualization. You mentioned that unRAID doesn't need heavy duty power to perform well. When I get home I intend to build (or buy, don't know) a powerful machine for video and graphics work. I just dropped my Adobe CC subscription and am intending to switch to DaVinci Resolve for the video work. Since Resolve runs on Linux and I'm using mostly open software like GIMP and Inkscape, maybe I could leave Windows behind and just run Linux. (Maybe I could have a Windows virtual installation too, if the withdrawal is too much.:)

 

This would put all my bits in one basket. What is your opnion on this bold (or foolish) move?

 

Thanks for helping.

[Hoopster]

13 minutes ago, Robert Shaver said:

maybe I could leave Windows behind and just run Linux. (Maybe I could have a Windows virtual installation too, if the withdrawal is too much.:)

Been done by many in these forums.  They consolidate many machines into one powerful server with VMs.  It's really popular with gamers because of the excellent hardware passthrough and virtualization capabilities unRAID offers.  Others are simply looking to reduce the number of power-sucking desktop machines or consolidate functionality, eliminate OSes, etc.  I run a full-Linux distro VM as well as a Windows 10 VM from my Xeon based main server.  Granted, these are not full production VMs, rather they are for experimentation and learning.  I never have them both active at the same time and they are not always running.

 

With the right hardware, you can do exactly what you explained in your prior post.  Of course, 'the right hardware' is this case is certainly something much more powerful than what would be needed to run unRAID as a simple NAS.  😀

[ibixat]

3 hours ago, Hoopster said:

Been done by many in these forums.  They consolidate many machines into one powerful server with VMs.  It's really popular with gamers because of the excellent hardware passthrough and virtualization capabilities unRAID offers.  Others are simply looking to reduce the number of power-sucking desktop machines or consolidate functionality, eliminate OSes, etc.  I run a full-Linux distro VM as well as a Windows 10 VM from my Xeon based main server.  Granted, these are not full production VMs, rather they are for experimentation and learning.  I never have them both active at the same time and they are not always running.

 

With the right hardware, you can do exactly what you explained in your prior post.  Of course, 'the right hardware' is this case is certainly something much more powerful than what would be needed to run unRAID as a simple NAS.  😀

I believe that's called versatility 😃 It can do a lot with a little bit of hardware, it can do a whole hell of a lot with some power backing it up.