Hello

 

I will soon be assembling a server, with the idea of having it as a NAS primarly but also I want to try to setup some more fancy stuff over 3 weeks as a challenge for myself. I've got most of it figured out but I still have some tinkering left I'd want a second opinion on. I'm not really looking for in depth tutorial at this point, more a validation of concept but pointers are still appreciated. I'll be coming back when I hit a wall on a particular thing or report.

 

The breakdown of the weeks are
-Week 1, build, set up the storage, setup media streaming
-Week 2, setup a gaming VM
-Week 3, setup a streaming solution, 
-Bonus challenge, setup streaming from the VM

 

Week 1 I'm good, I'm seen plenty of videos on YT and the system seems easy enough to figure out. 1 thing I'm not sure is what would be an open source alternative to Plex? I understand Plex went more corporate and than it's replacement basicly did the same thing eventually, I just want something that I can setup and not have to worry feature get put behind a paywall or whatnot. The whole point is I'm the one in charge of my library.

 

Week 2 is where it becomes fancy, I want to setup a VM that I could use to play games I can't get to work on Linux such as Kingdom Under Fire II because Easy Anti Cheat or Skyrim because modding much easier. I've been told I might as well set that up on my gaming rig itself but I'd rather have it on the server.

 

Week 3 is the challenge week, I want to try setting up the Unraid server to be able to encode a stream to push to say Twitch but also record the footage to the array at the same time.

 

The server's relevant spec are an AMD 3800x on a Gigabyte Aorus pro x570 with 32GB of RAM, 4*4HDD and a GTX 570 which might get replaced with a 1660Ti depending of this year's release.

 

So to recap

-Open sourced alternative to Plex for video streaming?
-Other than error 37/43 is there anything I should be aware that might not work at all or require more work/hardware?
-Would I require two SSD for Caching/VM or can I get away with one or do none of the application above require SSD caching?

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Edit: CPU now a 3800x over 3700x because guess Amazon can't deliver but Newegg had a good deal this is now stupid powerful.

Edited February 26, 20206 yr by Eddyall

43 minutes ago, Eddyall said:

-Open sourced alternative to Plex for video streaming?

-Would I require two SSD for Caching/VM or can I get away with one or do none of the application above require SSD caching?

 

 

Open sourced alternative to Plex: Jellyfin

 

SSD Cache: Yes

19 hours ago, jpowell8672 said:

SSD Cache: Yes

Sorry, yes to how much drive? 2, 1 or 0? Or you meant the more the better

2 hours ago, Eddyall said:

Sorry, yes to how much drive? 2, 1 or 0? Or you meant the more the better

1 for cache

1 for vm

would be good

 🚀 I recommend you take advantage of Spaceinvader One's excellent unRaid video tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZDfnUn74N0WeAPvMqTOrtA/videos

 

 

Edited February 25, 20206 yr by peterg23

Something I'd like to confirm before ordering anything
Mixing SATA and NVME SSD in a cache pool isn't worth it, but SATA SSD can be used to only contain a VM and/or put in an array and only have a VM share?
same idea if I got a PCIe 3.0 and a PCIe 4.0 NVME SSD.

Also yes, hail Spaceinvader one.

11 hours ago, Eddyall said:

Something I'd like to confirm before ordering anything
Mixing SATA and NVME SSD in a cache pool isn't worth it, but SATA SSD can be used to only contain a VM and/or put in an array and only have a VM share?
same idea if I got a PCIe 3.0 and a PCIe 4.0 NVME SSD.

Also yes, hail Spaceinvader one.

You need at least 1 SSD, regardless of type in the cache pool.

That is where critical stuff like docker img, docker appdata, libvirt img (critical for VM), vbios etc. will be saved.

 

Now for your VM, there are 2 ways to do storage, either vdisk or PCIe-pass-through.

1. If using vdisk then you can use the same cache SSD above. Just need a larger SSD to cover for the vdisk size. In this scenario, NVMe would not be a bad choice but SATA has been proven to be entirely sufficient (i.e. it comes down to how much you are willing to pay).
2. If doing PCIe pass-through then you need a 2nd SSD, which must be NVMe (remember, NVMe SSD is a PCIe device). That is how you get maximum performance.

There is a 3rd method which is ata-id pass-through (and a rarer 4th method which is scsi bus pass-through) but it isn't much better than using vdisk so I would rather simplify things to (1) or (2).

 

PCIe 4.0 NVMe, other than bragging rights, does not offer any real life benefits over PCIe 3.0 outside of incredibly niche workloads. If everything exactly the same, obviously you would prefer PCIe 4.0 but otherwise, don't factor that into your consideration.

However, you must consider these 3 things when it comes to SSD.

• Avoid DRAM-less SSD like the plague.
• Avoid QLC NVMe (e.g. Intel 660p). You want 3D TLC or V-NAND or 3D-NAND or something to that effect.
• If you intend to pass through an NVMe SSD as a PCIe device then make sure you research the device controller before buying. Some require special workarounds (with limitations) and some just refuse to be passed through. Ideally, you want to see what existing Unraid forumers are using (hint: check the signatures).

 

You can put SSD in the array and it would work but (a) there's no TRIM and (b) it's not officially supported e.g. parity may have errors.

As to save some space on the cache, if I went with number 1, VM can use the array so say for Skyrim I could store mod in the array and not have too big an impact on the cache right?

VMs on the parity array will be impacted by the slower parity writes, and they may keep parity and array disks spinning.

 

Another approach would be to use Unassigned Devices for an SSD outside the array or cache pool.

Ah even better, thanks both.

Now just curious on that stream from a remote VM.