Hello everyone,
So I have been lingering around the forums and Reddit page and am wondering if I should consider switching to UnRAID. Let me explain my current setup I got. So right now, I have a custom-built PC running Windows Server. It has an Intel Core i5-7400 on an ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard with 16GB of ram. For storage, I got a Samsung EVO 250GB SSD for the OS and run 2 8TB Drives mirrored and 2 4TB Mirrored in Storage Spaces. This server is mainly used to store photos and files, multiple backups of other computers, and has a Plex server on with a few movies and TV shows I have. The server is then backed up to Crash Plan for in the event if something happens, I have a cloud backup of it. 

 

Now I do have plans to do some upgrades to the server, and if you guys think UnRAID will work well for my situation, I will switch to it when I go do the upgrades. I want this server to be able to run more VM's. I have plans to put a Ryzen 9 in it. For the MB I am thinking of getting an ASRock X570 PRO4 AM4 AMD X570 SATA 6Gb/s ATX AMD Motherboard.

 

If I do switch to UnRAID, I will get 2 1TB M.2 SSD's and use those as cache drives. I will get 2 WD Gold 8TB and use them for parity drives. 

Now, where I get stuck on is how I will go about backing up this server. Right now, I got Crash Plan backing up the network shares on Windows. I do see there is a Crash Plan Docker. Will I be able to replace/restore with Crash Plan on the UnRAID, or will I need to re-upload all the files again. I have around 8TB of data around 5TB of import info being backed up. So what good solution do you guys have for me keeping this backup solution going? 

Next comes how I got my file structure setup on the server. I have a Storage Spaces pool set up with all the files in the main directory and shares. I have a folder for each user who can access the server, and they can only access their folder.  Some shares, too, can only be viewed by users. I see UnRAID is not as flexible with permission in subfolders, so I am wondering how can I go about this if possible.

 

Also I use Arq Backup to backup other computers to the NAS. Will I be able to get a Minio server running so those backups can work?

 

Would you say UnRAID will be faster at transferring files compared to Storage Spaces, or will there not really be much change in that?

 

As for the VM's, I see you can do a GPU pass through. I am wondering if I can do a cloud gaming VM?

 

Also, I hear it is best to get a UPS for when there is a power outage UnRAID can properly shut off so there won't have to be the long parity-check that it does. What UPS do you guys use? I would want something that will last a while and, if possible, fit in the Rack that I have.

 

Also, in the event of a hard drive failure with my Storage Spaces setup and if I went to UnRAID and did that setup, which will be more reliable in recovering the data? 

 

I have also thought of some possible solutions to some of my problems I am concerned about and wondering what you guys may think of them.

 

I create one share with UnRAID and install Windows Server on a VM. I will then put this share on the windows server and have windows server run crash plan along with everything else as it will be the closest I can get with what I had before. The Windows Server VM will also manage the users, shares, and permissions. What do you think of this strategy?

 

Also, I was thinking as a second cloud backup, or if I build a server to go offsite, have Arq backup run in the windows VM too and backup the one share to another PC. 

 

Thanks 

 

Edited August 26, 20205 yr by winter4w
Typos

Wow.. lots here.  I'll comment where I can. 

 

I don't use any backup dockers so I can't offer much wisdom there, but for transferring your files from your current server to the new server it would probably be quicker and easier to set up Unraid and then transfer everything over the network through SMB/FTP/whatever, versus relying on your cloud backup to download everything to Unraid.  However, that might make crash plan think it's all new stuff and you'd end up having to create (upload) a new set of backup data.. so that would suck too.  So I guess you could test the crash plan download before committing one way or the other and see if it works for you.

 

As far as backing up any other computers, any computer that can read/write to Unraid through SMB can use it as a destination for backup files or source for recovery. 

 

For a UPS, any APC/CyberPower UPS would work fine.  If you aren't in the US there are some other brands that are more commonly available in Europe that are fine too.   I have a OR1500LCDRM1U 1U rackmount running my Unraid server and my PC, along with network stuff, etc. It gives me roughly 20-28 minutes of runtime on batteries with my current systems.

 

As for user access, yes it would seem that Unraid is not as flexible.  You can have shares with R/W access only to a specific user, however any other user will still have read-only access, they won't be denied access.  I don't know if there is any solution to this.  The best you might be able to do is to not have the shares Exported so that they are not viewable through SMB, only by direct share name, to try and keep prying eyes out.  You may be able to control access better to the SMB shares through Windows user accounts on each computer being used, and would have to be configured on each computer used, but it's not a native solution on Unraid.  You may be able to modify the access to each share in the Unraid console, by changing the share folder permissions (chmod), but I don't know what effect that would have.

 

9 hours ago, winter4w said:

I create one share with UnRAID and install Windows Server on a VM. I will then put this share on the windows server and have windows server run crash plan along with everything else as it will be the closest I can get with what I had before. The Windows Server VM will also manage the users, shares, and permissions. What do you think of this strategy?

 

Ummm... hmmm..... no, I think you are confused.  Not sure, but you confused me for sure.

 

You can't put Unraid anywhere other than on Unraid.  It runs the entire computer, using the entire computer.  You don't run it independently or separately to anything.

 

So you can run a VM with Windows Server in Unraid, and you could probably get it to run Crash plan to back up your shares, but it would still be the same directory configuration as running a native crash plan docker on Unraid because in the VM it would still be SMB shares and paths.  So for example, let's say on your computer you are backing C:\Users\winter4w\Downloads, well that doesn't exist on Unraid.  If you had a winter4w share for your downloads, your Unraid path is /mnt/user/winter4w/Downloads, and the SMB path would be \\unraid\winter4w\Downloads, so even if you mapped that path as an SMB drive you'd still be, let's call it, D:\Downloads.  I'm not sure how you'd make sense of that in any way to keep existing backups compatible.

 

Similarly, using the VM to try and manage permissions I have a feeling would only apply the permissions within the VM itself and would have no effect on any other computer since those other computers would be accessing the shares directly on Unraid, and not through the Windows Server VM.

 

I think this is why another person has suggested/requested native Unraid LDAP support for better user permission options.

13 hours ago, Energen said:

Wow.. lots here.  I'll comment where I can. 

 

I don't use any backup dockers so I can't offer much wisdom there, but for transferring your files from your current server to the new server it would probably be quicker and easier to set up Unraid and then transfer everything over the network through SMB/FTP/whatever, versus relying on your cloud backup to download everything to Unraid.  However, that might make crash plan think it's all new stuff and you'd end up having to create (upload) a new set of backup data.. so that would suck too.  So I guess you could test the crash plan download before committing one way or the other and see if it works for you.

 

As far as backing up any other computers, any computer that can read/write to Unraid through SMB can use it as a destination for backup files or source for recovery. 

 

For a UPS, any APC/CyberPower UPS would work fine.  If you aren't in the US there are some other brands that are more commonly available in Europe that are fine too.   I have a OR1500LCDRM1U 1U rackmount running my Unraid server and my PC, along with network stuff, etc. It gives me roughly 20-28 minutes of runtime on batteries with my current systems.

 

As for user access, yes it would seem that Unraid is not as flexible.  You can have shares with R/W access only to a specific user, however any other user will still have read-only access, they won't be denied access.  I don't know if there is any solution to this.  The best you might be able to do is to not have the shares Exported so that they are not viewable through SMB, only by direct share name, to try and keep prying eyes out.  You may be able to control access better to the SMB shares through Windows user accounts on each computer being used, and would have to be configured on each computer used, but it's not a native solution on Unraid.  You may be able to modify the access to each share in the Unraid console, by changing the share folder permissions (chmod), but I don't know what effect that would have.

 

 

Ummm... hmmm..... no, I think you are confused.  Not sure, but you confused me for sure.

 

You can't put Unraid anywhere other than on Unraid.  It runs the entire computer, using the entire computer.  You don't run it independently or separately to anything.

 

So you can run a VM with Windows Server in Unraid, and you could probably get it to run Crash plan to back up your shares, but it would still be the same directory configuration as running a native crash plan docker on Unraid because in the VM it would still be SMB shares and paths.  So for example, let's say on your computer you are backing C:\Users\winter4w\Downloads, well that doesn't exist on Unraid.  If you had a winter4w share for your downloads, your Unraid path is /mnt/user/winter4w/Downloads, and the SMB path would be \\unraid\winter4w\Downloads, so even if you mapped that path as an SMB drive you'd still be, let's call it, D:\Downloads.  I'm not sure how you'd make sense of that in any way to keep existing backups compatible.

 

Similarly, using the VM to try and manage permissions I have a feeling would only apply the permissions within the VM itself and would have no effect on any other computer since those other computers would be accessing the shares directly on Unraid, and not through the Windows Server VM.

 

I think this is why another person has suggested/requested native Unraid LDAP support for better user permission options.

Thanks ha ha as you can see I thought about this for a bit

 

To answer the confusion about the Windows VM I was not talking about the profiles. For my PC backups I have a minio server running and all the backups are done with Arq from the Computer to the Server. Thats why I wanted to know if I can run Minio with UnRAID

 

 As for what I was talking about for sharing folders I was talking about the Windows VM managing the shares. So I create one share and one User on UnRAID and connect the Windows Server VM to it. Then I create the shares within the Windows VM itself and users will login through the VM's accounts and shares not UnRAID.  The UnRAID share will only be for the Windows Server to connect so I can store and create shares with the Windows VM if that makes more sense? 

 

Thank You

 

 

Edited August 27, 20205 yr by winter4w