I am new to this, about to set up unraid but before I do I wanted to ask a few questions. 

 

I am updating my media server. Old win7 server had 2   8 Tb drives, no raid.

 

 I bought 5  12 tb drives that I intend to set up my initial unraid on.

 

I want to transfer my media from the 2 8 tb drives and then add  those drives to the  unraid.

 

Is it possible  to add the 8tb drives and have the data on them automatically added into the unraid? or do I need to first set up the unraid, transfer the data from the 8tb drives, then reformat those drives and then add them to the array?

 

Really hoping there is a way to just add them with data intact and not have to first transfer alllll of that date to the array.

 

Also.. for unplanned shut downs... how bad of a problem is  that?   Kind of scared of that. I know it will happen eventually. 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

16 minutes ago, Renew said:

I need to first set up the unraid, transfer the data from the 8tb drives, then reformat those drives and then add them to the array

This. Unraid uses XFS or BTRFS format for array drives, and it needs to format them to make sure they are set up correctly. You can use the Unassigned Devices plugin to read your windows NTFS formatted drives and transfer the data to the array drives.

 

I'd also recommend not setting up all your drives in the array initially, add them as you need the space. To start with I'd just use 3 of the 12TB drives, transfer your current data, and shelve the rest of the 12TB and the 8TB for when you need them, either to add space or replace a failed drive.

 

23 minutes ago, Renew said:

Also.. for unplanned shut downs... how bad of a problem is  that?

If you are talking about power glitches, you really need a UPS that can communicate with Unraid and trigger a controlled shutdown when the power goes out. If Unraid can't be shut down properly you will have to endure a lengthy parity check at the very least, and could lose data in a worst case scenario.

Thank you very much for your input. 

 

 You mention a UPS that communicates with Unraid, is there a list of UPS's that work with Unraid?

 

Thanks again!

6 hours ago, Renew said:

is there a list of UPS's that work with Unraid?

Not directly. Out of the box Unraid ships with apcupsd http://www.apcupsd.org/  which is compatible with most consumer APC units, Cyberpower, and a few others that use the same protocol.

 

There is a replacement plugin that uses https://networkupstools.org/   and that software talks to a bunch of models. The compatibility list is on their site.

 

Because tech moves so quickly, it's difficult to say for sure what will and won't work unless you find someone actually running the specific model you are looking at. Feel free to ask if a search for the model doesn't yield any help.

Personally I can't recommend APC enough. I've had really good experience with them. 

Plugin in the provided USB cable and unRAID sees it and your good to go.