Switching from Windows to unRAID

I know a lot of users here must've done this, what has your experience been like?

 

I've always been a Windows guy, I know it well, I'm used to and like Explorer, NTFS etc. I've used Linux before but am not comfortable with it, esp with things like scripting.

 

I have about 25TB of data so its going to take days if not weeks to transfer everything over to unRAID. What are some of the nice surprises you found, and also what gotchas? e.g. when I use some Linux os's like my Chromebook, I hate how file copying doesn't overwrite files of the same name.

 

 

My worries are about troubleshooting and fixing problems when they happen, in Windows I know how to do this, the tools etc, with Linux its all strange, config files and arcane cmd lines everywhere 

 

(Ironically this is one reason why I'm considering unRAID since it seems to make Docker so much easier (well there's no compose I can find yet) vs doing everything manually by installing a Linux VM etc.)

Although Unraid runs on Linux I wouldn't stress it too much as there's no real need to get down and dirty with the terminal.

 

One thing I would recommend though is to remember that Linux is case sensitive in respect to file and folder names so I would name all your shares in lowercase, makes it easier should you need to run anything via terminal.

 

I was a Windows guy too, but have now wiped my Windows install and running Ubuntu instead, MS wiped my dual boot Win/Ubuntu efi config when it upgraded to the Anniversary edition so I decided to ditch Windows for good.

 

It changes my work flow for a lit of things but I can't say it's any worse, just different.  Takes a little while to figure out new apps and strategies but so far my experience has been very positive fwiw.

 

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Helped a friend who had never seen a command line in dos/windows or unix before. There is a learning curve, but it is very doable. The install info, wiki and the forum are good sources of info. Once you install unraid, and have it set up, install unmenu, and chances are you may not have to deal with command shell very often, or at all if you keep a basic setup.

 

I think the biggest gotcha moment for my friend was learning that there is no confirmation for some commands, like when you delete or are moving files. In windows, there are a lot of times when prompts similar to 'are you sure you want to delete this file' or warning prompting you not to do things, with linux not so much. So be sure of the commands you are typing!

 

 

 

Helped a friend who had never seen a command line in dos/windows or unix before. There is a learning curve, but it is very doable. The install info, wiki and the forum are good sources of info. Once you install unraid, and have it set up, install unmenu, and chances are you may not have to deal with command shell very often, or at all if you keep a basic setup.

 

I think the biggest gotcha moment for my friend was learning that there is no confirmation for some commands, like when you delete or are moving files. In windows, there are a lot of times when prompts similar to 'are you sure you want to delete this file' or warning prompting you not to do things, with linux not so much. So be sure of the commands you are typing!

 

That's a good example. In Windows you almost never have to use cmd line for file operations, there are tons of excellent file managers, Explorer is the one copied by everyone and there are many others.

 

In Linux, I don't want to be doing 'ls -l' and 'rm -rf' to manage files. If I'm logged in as root (default) I belive you can blow away your entire Linux OS by the wrong command, whereas in Windows you'd get a UAC warning and even then I think its protected by the hidden admin account.

 

I think without this community I'd never consider something like this. Lots of info here but most people are experts.

 

Helped a friend who had never seen a command line in dos/windows or unix before. There is a learning curve, but it is very doable. The install info, wiki and the forum are good sources of info. Once you install unraid, and have it set up, install unmenu, and chances are you may not have to deal with command shell very often, or at all if you keep a basic setup.

I would not suggest installing unMenu on the latest v6.2 as the standard GUI plus common plugins provide similar facilities in a much friendlier manner.  Also, unMenu is no longer being maintained so will not work out-of-the-box on the 6.2 release of unRAID.  The only thing I would definitely recommend installing is the Community Applications plugin (CA) as that provides a standardised way of installing any other plugins and/or dockers you might want to enhance unRAID built-in functionality.

Agreed I haven't used unmenu since the days of v5.

 

 

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Have you had to read a disk from unRAID in a Windows pc? I found this topic - https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=39709.0 and the conclusion is you have to use a VM. This will be needed if my server dies or is unresponsive.

 

Also I read about needing to do fsck or xfs repair in Linux, I've never had to do anything like this in NTFS in over 10 years, and had times when the pc crashed, power was yanked etc.

 

I get worried about this stuff, I need to know my data is accessible no matter what.

Have you had to read a disk from unRAID in a Windows pc? I found this topic - https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=39709.0 and the conclusion is you have to use a VM. This will be needed if my server dies or is unresponsive.

 

Also I read about needing to do fsck or xfs repair in Linux, I've never had to do anything like this in NTFS in over 10 years, and had times when the pc crashed, power was yanked etc.

 

I get worried about this stuff, I need to know my data is accessible no matter what.

Personally, I have never had to run xfs_check (or reiserfsck for that matter) on unRaid regardless of how unRaid powered down (pulled plug, etc)

 

And I have had Windows automatically detect corruption on an NTFS drive due to unclean shutdowns and run the file consistency checks at startup. 

 

NTFS is just like XFS.  Both are damn near impossible to outright crash (unlike FAT), but corruption is possible under both filesystems depending upon what was going on at the time of the power being cut.

If I needed to read an array disk outside the array then I would mount it in Unraid using Unassigned Devices or you could boot a Linux Live USB and use that, but we're really talking a fringe use case now.  There may be ways of reading XFS on Windows though, I haven't checked....

 

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Agreed I haven't used unmenu since the days of v5.

 

 

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Didn't realize people didn't use it any longer. I'm still using v5, I'll update it someday.

Agreed I haven't used unmenu since the days of v5.

 

Didn't realize people didn't use it any longer. I'm still using v5, I'll update it someday.

 

Concerning v5, https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=41003.msg416698#msg416698