Is Unraid a good replacement for my server OS?

[Kaisaron78]

Good morning,

I'll do my best to be concise in this topic, but I am Italian so don't flame on me if I write something odd :P

I have a 1U rackmounted server based upon a Supermicro SYS-6017R chassis, X9DRD-iF motherboard equipped with 2xIntel Xeon E5-2620 and 64GB of ECC DDR3 ram, an NVidia Quadro P400 completes the "silicon part" of it. The storage of my server (4 bays 3.5in +1 2.5in SSD attached with velcro strips inside the chassis) is arranged like this: 1 seagate ironwolf 10TB for media, 1 WD Green 5TB for the "anime archive" (it's almost empty), 2 seagate barracuda 2TB in raid 1 for important documents managed by intel RAID. The grand total of available space is somewhere close to 16TB but I am using only 4.5TB to date.

The server OS is Windows Server 2019 installed on the 120GB SSD, however, due to problems with antivirus software licensing, I'd like to move to a different solution. I had also some troubles in setting up Plex Transcoding using windows server (I got it working at the end but it was quite a long journey). 
By the end of april I will receive my "definitive" backup solution, a rackmount NAS from QNAP, so I don't need extra data security features on the server since I have multiple backups of my media files. 

To state the current situation, I turn this server on only when needed, mainly during the weekend when our local cost / KW is lower, I don't plan on keeping it on 24/7.

I'd like to know:

1 ) can I replicate the same hard disk configuration in Unraid setting up the shares on my disks as they are now without using parity disks ?

2) is it a good idea to move away from windows server and install a VM in unraid running windows 10 passing through the quadro card just to run plex and a few other apps?

3) is it still possible to run unraid the same way I do with windows server, turning on and off my server as soon as I need it? 

 

Thank you all in advance for your patience and kind help!
Have a nice day 

K.

[Dennip]

Not an unraid expert but i think your current HDD configuration could be replicated

1. Using the 'Unassigned Devices' plugin you can expose the 10TB  and the 5TB on their own and then put the two 2TB in the main array with one as parity (2TB accessible)

The SSD can be used as  cache drive for your Win10 VM should you install one (unraid runs from a memory stick)

2. You can install Plex server directly on Unraid as a docker container. I think this container can make use of the GPU for transcoding but i'm not 100% sure

3. I dont see why not as long as you shut down cleanly and safely.
 

[Chess]

4 hours ago, Kaisaron78 said:

1 ) can I replicate the same hard disk configuration in Unraid setting up the shares on my disks as they are now without using parity disks ?

2) is it a good idea to move away from windows server and install a VM in unraid running windows 10 passing through the quadro card just to run plex and a few other apps?

3) is it still possible to run unraid the same way I do with windows server, turning on and off my server as soon as I need it? 

 

1) You can, but why don't you want to use parity? unRaid will show the array as unprotected, and nag you every chance it gets but yes you can run unraid without parity disks. I think I'd still run parity even with backups, but I guess if you are fine with the recovery time should you lose a drive you can do that.

 

2) I had a very similar setup to you, dual Xeon E5-2665 and what you are asking about you can do that. Pass through of video cards are pretty well documented on the forums here, but take a look at the youtube videos from Spaceinvaders and follow his instructions and you should be just fine. Having two video cards help, onboard if your server board has that works fine, but it can even be done if you only have 1 card. 

 

3) Sure, I guess. I'd think 99.99% of unraid users leave the server on 24/7, but I don't see why you can't do it that way. You could even do wake on lan I think. Not that I've tried. 

Edited February 25, 2020 by Chess
spelling

[Kaisaron78]

First of all thank you everybody for answering me.

As for the parity thing, I have read that unraid uses the biggest disk in the array as a parity drive. (errata corrige : the two disks in raid are actually 3TB instead of 2). In this case, my final array would be made up by 5+3+3 and my 10TB capacity would be wasted to parity. Right now I have almost 18TB of space at my disposal, (considering only 1 of those 3TB raid 1 disks of course) 4.5TB used and all the disk bays full. After moving to unraid my total capacity would drop to 11TB, 4.5 of wich used. I don't consider it a "benefit". The only thing I was considering is replacing 3 of 4 disks with 8TB drives and start fresh from there moving my 10TB to the backup station (in late april)...

[Chess]

4 minutes ago, Kaisaron78 said:

As for the parity thing, I have read that unraid uses the biggest disk in the array as a parity drive.

 

This is true. You can't add a disk to the array that is bigger than the parity disk.

 

You can always add parity in the future as you grow your array.  

[SpencerJ]

8 hours ago, Kaisaron78 said:

I'll do my best to be concise in this topic, but I am Italian so don't flame on me if I write something odd

Welcome! No flaming here, no worries.