I have a four bay Microserver. I'd like one drive (non-RAID) to be dedicated to CCTV storage (running Shinobi in Docker) and the remaining three drive bays (RAID) to be used for NAS.

 

Is this configuration possibly with unraid?

 

The CCTV will be running 24/7 but only recording motion and the NAS will be low use (SOHO).

Unraid IS NOT RAID. It has some similarities to some RAID configurations, but each disk in Unraid is an independent filesystem, no striping. Parity gives some redundancy for those disks.

 

So you can do whatever you want with the disks, dedicate one to CCTV or whatever. You can even have disks outside the parity array with the Unassigned Devices plugin if you don't want to get parity involved.

 

And there is also the cache pool which can be various btrfs raid configurations.

 

Take a look at the Product pages (link at the top of this page) and the Wiki Overview page:

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/UnRAID_6/Overview

 

Many thanks for your swift reply - I guess my question would be better phrased as 'Can I use a non-parrity protected drive in the same unraid system as 3 drive parity protected group?'.

 

From your answer it looks like the Unassigned Devices plugin will enable what I need but it's not possible with vanilla unraid? I'm slightly wary of relying on a third party plugin (that is recommended to be sourced from a 134 page forum post!).

 

From here: https://wiki.unraid.net/index.php/UnRAID_Plugins_for_V6

to the two forum posts below:

 

 

6 minutes ago, Greycells said:

not possible with vanilla unraid?

It is if you issue the appropriate commands manually (or if you simply use the drive dedicated for CCTV as the cache drive)

6 minutes ago, Greycells said:

wary of relying on a third party plugin

UD and CA (another 3rd party app) are used so commonly that for all intents and purposes they are part of the base OS.

Edited November 17, 20196 yr by Squid

7 minutes ago, Greycells said:

From here: https://wiki.unraid.net/index.php/UnRAID_Plugins_for_V6

Oh, and BTW  the wiki sucks here and isn't particularly updated anymore.

If any plugin in UnRAID is deemed to be suspicious you will quickly hear about it    The Unassigned Devices plugin definitely falls into the category of being a trusted plugin - so much so that there is talk about its functionality being included into the core release at some point.

In UnRAID there is another plugin (Community Applications) that adds the equivalent to an App Store to `unRAID (and adds an Apps tab to the GUI).   That only allows plugins that have had at least a cursory check made on them to be installed.

 

there is also the fact that as far as I am aware all UnRAID plugins are made available on an Open Source basis so can be checked by any party interested in investing the time to check this.   One of the strengths of `unRAID is that there is a significant community who add tweaks around the edges allowing limetech to concentrate on core functionality.

32 minutes ago, Squid said:

It is if you issue the appropriate commands manually (or if you simply use the drive dedicated for CCTV as the cache drive)

UD and CA (another 3rd party app) are used so commonly that for all intents and purposes they are part of the base OS.

As you said (later), the wiki is a little challenging - would you mind pointing me to the appropriate commands documentation?

4 minutes ago, Greycells said:

commands documentation?

https://linux.die.net/man/8/mount

37 minutes ago, itimpi said:

cursory check

32 minutes ago, itimpi said:

If any plugin in UnRAID is deemed to be suspicious you will quickly hear about it    The Unassigned Devices plugin definitely falls into the category of being a trusted plugin - so much so that there is talk about its functionality being included into the core release at some point.

In UnRAID there is another plugin (Community Applications) that adds the equivalent to an App Store to `unRAID (and adds an Apps tab to the GUI).   That only allows plugins that have had at least a cursory check made on them to be installed.

 

there is also the fact that as far as I am aware all UnRAID plugins are made available on an Open Source basis so can be checked by any party interested in investing the time to check this.   One of the strengths of `unRAID is that there is a significant community who add tweaks around the edges allowing limetech to concentrate on core functionality.

I'm less concerned about 'suspicious' (have been using OS since... far too long ago) than about incompatibility with the unraid core updates. This is a box that I want to build & forget (except for updates).

2 minutes ago, Squid said:

https://linux.die.net/man/8/mount

Ahh, beg your pardon, I thought you meant unraid CLI commands.

1 minute ago, Greycells said:

Ahh, beg your pardon, I thought you meant unraid CLI commands.

Unraid is linux at the cli.

1 minute ago, Greycells said:

incompatibility with the unraid core updates

I wouldn't worry about that with UD.  But, assuming you have CA installed, the only apps you are able to install are ones that are actually compatible.  And if you additionally install Fix Common Problems, then if in the future some app becomes incompatible / deprecated etc then it'll tell you about it.

5 minutes ago, Greycells said:

This is a box that I want to build & forget (except for updates)

Then be sure to setup Notifications to alert you immediately by email or other agent when a problem is detected.

 

As for updates, plugins are also updated so they keep current with the Unraid core.

 

This user community is really one of the best features of Unraid so don't hesitate to take advantage of it.

1 hour ago, Squid said:

I wouldn't worry about that with UD.  But, assuming you have CA installed, the only apps you are able to install are ones that are actually compatible.  And if you additionally install Fix Common Problems, then if in the future some app becomes incompatible / deprecated etc then it'll tell you about it.

Thank you - good to know which plugins to start with.

1 hour ago, trurl said:

This user community is really one of the best features of Unraid so don't hesitate to take advantage of it.

You may regret saying this! 🙂

5 hours ago, Greycells said:

You may regret saying this! 🙂

We are constantly trying to improve the new user experience, so if there is something unclear, speak up! If it's something we can make better for the next person we'd love to hear about it.

 

Once you are up and running, the help function in the unraid GUI has lots of helpful tips and explanations. It's a toggle in the upper right, a question mark, and turns the blue background help texts on and off.