Unraid setup questions

[Poore]

I am trying to decide if Unraid is for me. I do like many of the features I have been reading about and the reviews are great. I’m am currently using PlexGuide (PGBlitz) https://pgblitz.com/landing/ which is really just an automated solution to run a media server utilizing dockers and rclone to move storage to gcloud. Been working great for over a year but the support is lacking lately and I need to expand my server. I hate to move forward with PlexGuide and have support disappear. I have found documentation on how to set all this up on Unraid. I have also been checking out CloudBox but I like the idea of Unraif more.

 

Network is not an issue. I have fiber 1000mb up and down.

My main goal is to run a Plex production VM as well as a Plex testing VM so I can try out new tools and mess with settings and not affecting production. Both Plex VMs would run Ubuntu 18.10. Media storage is all cloud based using rclone to gcloud. Local storage will be for backups, dockers, files, etc… On second thought, run Plex production locally and then have a Plex test VM may be easier then both being a VM?

 

Suggestions are appreciated. I have not downloaded a trial yet to test all this just looking for any feedback and advice. Been reading a lot of forum posts and the wiki.

 

 

Motherboard: GA-7PESH4 https://www.gigabyte.com/Server-Motherboard/GA-7PESH4-rev-10#ov

RAM: 256GB (16 x 16GB) PC3-12800R DDR3 1600MHz ECC

CPU: 2 E5-2670 v2 – 10 Core 2.5 GHz

GPU: GTX 1060 6Gb (transcoding)

Hard Drives:

240GB SSD (PfSense)

500GB SSD (Cache for plex, appdata, etc)

4 SAS 3TB - VMs, backups to configs, pictures, dockers, etc

1 SAS 6TB – Parity device

PCIe SAS Controller Card: Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8e

[trurl]

You can probably do most of what you want with dockers instead of bothering with VMs.

[testdasi]

2 hours ago, Poore said:

My main goal is to run a Plex production VM as well as a Plex testing VM so I can try out new tools and mess with settings and not affecting production. Both Plex VMs would run Ubuntu 18.10. Media storage is all cloud based using rclone to gcloud. Local storage will be for backups, dockers, files, etc… On second thought, run Plex production locally and then have a Plex test VM may be easier then both being a VM?

There is no need to complicate it with a VM - remember Unraid is based on Linux to begin with.

 

Also with regards to using rclone with Unraid, follow this topic:

 

 

[JustOverride]

Hey! I just started using unraid myself as of 3 days ago. I can tell you everything has been working great with no hassle. The guides/youtube videos you may find (as I did) are a bit outdated and setting up unraid is way easier. The best thing I can say is just go ahead and set it up to try it. I just installed Plex as of this morning and everything was very easy and straight forward. I'm still on my trial but I'm 99% sure I'll be purchasing this. I hope this information helped. 

[Poore]

Thanks all I appreciate the input. I'm looking into using multiple dockers instead of VMs. I didn't think of that before. That would be easier to manage. I've always used VMs for stuff like this in the past but willing to try new things.

 

The post about mounting cloud drives I already had bookmarked. At least I know it works now. Thanks for that.

 

I've been doing a lot of reading and started watching Spaceinvader one's Unraid videos. Very helpful and answering many of my questions.  I now have all my hardware and getting ready to set everything up. Then I'll get a demo of Unraid and start playing around with it. Support seems pretty quick and good so I am more comfortable asking questions and not getting ignored

 

Thanks all!