Hi everyone, this is my first unraid build but I would like to keep most of the parts from my existing windows 10 HTPC. Will be mainly used to maintain a media library, setup Nextcloud and windows 10 VM.

- Case: Silverstone DS380B (still to purchase - will replace Silverstone RVZ02)
- Mainbord: Asus ROG Strix X470i
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 2400G
- CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9a low profile

- RAM: Corsair 8GB (2x4) DDR4-3000
- PSU: Corsair SF450W

- Cache: 1 x 250GB 850 EVO 2.5" (current OS)

- Storage: 1 x 10TB WD Red Pro (existing data)

- Storage: 1 x 14TB WD Enterprise (existing data)

- Storage: 2 x 16TB Toshiba Enterprise OR 3 x 14TB shucked WD externals (still to purchase)

- HBA: LSI SAS 9207-8i (still to purchase)

 

Few questions if anyone could kindly help please:

- Is the 250GB SSD enough for cache?

- Also is the HBA used in combination with the motherboard SATA ports or best on it's own? And are SFF-8087 cables used instead of the regular male to male SATA cables?

 

And please feel free to make any other suggestions.

Thank you in advance.

 

 

Edited March 28, 20206 yr by unraid20

6 hours ago, unraid20 said:

Is the 250GB SSD enough for cache?

Probably more than enough if you're careful how you use it. Many people seem to not give any thought to how they use cache, and just try to cache everything all the time.

 

Don't cache the initial data load since cache won't have the capacity to hold it all, and it is impossible to move from cache to the slower array as fast as you can write to cache. Mover is intended for idle time.

 

Your appdata, domains, and system shares belong on cache and should stay there (and will unless you change their settings or fill cache up). This is so your dockers and VMs won't have their performance impacted by the slower parity writes, and so they won't keep array disks spinning.

 

I have a similar capacity in my cache pool. I cache very little. My dockers as noted, and my plex DVR since there is some benefit to SSD speed when trying to record and playback at the same time.

 

Most of my other writes are scheduled backups and queued downloads, so I don't care if they take a little longer to write since I am not waiting on them. They go directly to the array where they are already protected by parity.

 

Other people will have other use cases, but the main point is, think about it instead of caching everything all the time.

On 3/27/2020 at 7:35 PM, trurl said:

Probably more than enough if you're careful how you use it. Many people seem to not give any thought to how they use cache, and just try to cache everything all the time.

 

Don't cache the initial data load since cache won't have the capacity to hold it all, and it is impossible to move from cache to the slower array as fast as you can write to cache. Mover is intended for idle time.

 

Your appdata, domains, and system shares belong on cache and should stay there (and will unless you change their settings or fill cache up). This is so your dockers and VMs won't have their performance impacted by the slower parity writes, and so they won't keep array disks spinning.

 

I have a similar capacity in my cache pool. I cache very little. My dockers as noted, and my plex DVR since there is some benefit to SSD speed when trying to record and playback at the same time.

 

Most of my other writes are scheduled backups and queued downloads, so I don't care if they take a little longer to write since I am not waiting on them. They go directly to the array where they are already protected by parity.

 

Other people will have other use cases, but the main point is, think about it instead of caching everything all the time.

Thank you for the advice. Are there any benefits to using a separate unassigned cache drive (NVME) for VM?

Edited March 28, 20206 yr by unraid20