Building first unRAID coming from WHS 2003

Hello all,

 

I've been quietly reading and learning about unRAID. I've never run a Linux based machine. Here are my current setup, plan, needs and proposed new build.

 

I currently have a WHS 2003 running FlexRAID with 1 x 1TB WD Black WD1001FALS (system drive), 1 x 2TB Samung HD203WI Parity, 8 x 2TB Samsung HD203WI and 5 x 2TB WD WD20EFRX Red's. Total: 24.56TB with 3.41TB Free. Everything is fine with this machine and drives except for the fact that it was built in 2010, is running WHS 2003 and just makes me nervous.

 

Other specs: Antec 1200 case | MB GIGABYTE GA-MA785GT-UD3H REV 2.0 | PSU CORSAIR|CMPSU-650TX 650W | CPU AMD|ATH II X2 240 AM3 2.8G | MEM 2X1GB|G.SK F3-12800CL9D-2GBNQ | Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Ports SAS RAID Controller - PCI Express x4 - 300MBps .

This server is mainly used to store large 1080p (some 720p)  movies, 720p TV Shows, and family pictures. It also uses the built-in WHS Windows backup to backup 3 machines. 

 

Plan:

To build a new separate unRAID server with all new hardware. Transfer all data off of the old WHS build onto the new unRAID server. After the new setup has been in use for a week or so, install unRAID on the old server and use it has a backup to the new unRAID server.

 

Needs:

NAS

 

Plex:

I just discovered Plex so I definitely want to run Plex Server. Before everything was streamed directly to my HTPC (2010, too) running Kodi. Plugging a Roku into my TVs will save space and energy (just discovered these, too! Obviously, my setup has been working fine for me that I hadn't been researching new technology). Plex will be streaming original quality to 2-3 local users, and transcoding files for 2-3 remote users. The max viewers at the same time would be 2 local and 2 remote users, but highly unlikely, more like 1 local and 1 remote.

 

Backup:

I'd like the new unRAID server or old backup server to backup my local machines HDD's to the either server. Not too worried about local machines data, but nice to have.

 

Filesharing:

I saw you can install ownCLOUD or Dropbox. This would be nice to have.

 

Torrents:

I mainly download things from torrents and seed everything back 18 hours a day (active seeding torrents capped at 10). The torrent client is on my PC not the WHS.

 

I'm sure I'll find other uses once I see what plugins and Dockers are available but those are my main concerns. No need for VM's or gaming.

 

Proposed new build:

 

Case: Fractal R5 Backout

 

PSU: SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold (SS-650KM Active PFC F3)

 

MB: SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SSM-F-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C236 (Saw this on other threads)

 

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 v5 SkyLake 3.5 GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1151 80W BX80662E31240V5 Server Processor

 

RAM: 2 x Kingston ValueRAM 8GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Server Memory Model KVR21E15D8/8

 

HDD'S:

Cache:  Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E250B/AM) or the 500GB, haven't decided. I definitely don't download 500GB a day but I like to future proof a little if my needs change.

 

Storage: 5 x Seagate Archive HDD 8TB SATA 6GBps 128MB Cache SATA Hard Drive (ST8000AS0002) - 1 Parity, 4 Storage

 

Questions:

I mainly need advice on the MB, CPU, RAM and HDDs. I like that PSU because it has 10 SATA power connectors.

 

All my movies and tv shows just sit there. Occasionally a better quality version of a movie or show will be released and I'll delete the old version off of the server and download the newest one. Files range from 3GB-30GBish

 

I chose the Seagate 8TB Archives drives based on price, my use and the extensive testing that's been done by user danioj and others. Do people still think these are the best bang for the buck + reliability? I plan on only running 8TB drives in the new server to keep it running at it's fastest. Any thoughts on drive choice and size?

 

Is that enough CPU? Could I get away with less? Suggest more?

 

16GB of RAM I'd think is sufficient, yes?

 

If I get to adding 11 drives total (MB has 8 SATA ports, Case holds 10 storage drives+SSD)... would this card work with unRAID: IO Crest 4 Port SATA III PCI-e 2.0 x1 Controller Card Marvell Non-Raid with Low Profile Bracket SI-PEX40064 ? Just to add 4 more SATA ports to the whole setup.

 

Is it possible to have a single HDD outside the array with the one parity? Say a 2TB HDD by itself to just have my daily desktop back ups copied to? Or do ll drives need  to be added to the array to be accessed over the network as a share?

 

I think that's it.....

 

Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Chadskie -

 

I'm running a similar setup and it works quite well.

 

MB: have a Look at the Supermicro X11SSL-CF This comes with 6 SATA and 2 SAS (Breakout to 8 SATA) Ports. Resulting In an total of 14 ports. Other specs are very similar to your selection

 

CPU: I've picked the  Xeon E3-1260L v5 @ 2.90GHz as it runs at a very low Wattage (45W) with an impressive passmark of 10k. The whole system is consuming approx. 40W with all drives spun down but fully responsive due to the SSD Cache and folder caching plugin. Max Power consumption was 105W with Plex doing the enumeration of the whole library during an parity scan...

 

Cache: Running 2 Samsung Evo 750 500GB in RAID1 mode. Decided to not use it for the Plex mediathek share and only use it for the dockers & VMs. Plex will delay the playback by 3-5 seconds If the drive needs to spin up. Acceptable for me..

 

RAM: I ran with 16GB and it was enough. I've updated to 32GB only for VM usage. Plex is running fine off the SSD Cache and 16GB RAM  But definitely go with 2 modules in the beginning...

 

My system Summary:

Case: Antec 1900 (offers 14 HDD/SSD Slots plus 4 additional via the 5.25 Bays)

PSU: be quiet! Pro10 650W Nice SATA Power connectors available...

MB: Supermicro X11SSL-CF (comes with 14 SATA ports --> Matching the 14 Bays of the case

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1260L v5 @ 2.90GHz comes with 10k Passmarks to run 5 parallel transcoding streams in Plex @ 45W!

CPU Heatsink: be Quiet Pure Rock as the smallest is already more than covering the CPU Wattage...

RAM: 4x 8GB CL15 PC4-17000 DDR4 UDIMM-Module from Crucial

 

The drives are mostly from my old setup, extended by matching drives (1x SSD, 1x Parity, 2x WD Red)

HDD: 1x WD Black 4TB for Parity, 2x WD Green 3TB, 4x WD Red 4TB

SSD: 2x Samsung EVO 750 500GB

 

A drive outside of the array Is possible (via the unassigned drives plugin) but it will not be covered by parity! You can define a new share and only allow a certain drive to be utilized. This would save all data to the dedicated drive and keeps it save with parity.

I chose the Seagate 8TB Archives drives based on price, my use and the extensive testing that's been done by user danioj and others. Do people still think these are the best bang for the buck + reliability? I plan on only running 8TB drives in the new server to keep it running at it's fastest. Any thoughts on drive choice and size?

Hi -

 

Personally I'd use a WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf for parity, though I know folks have used the Archive drives as parity.

Hi Chadskie -

 

I'm running a similar setup and it works quite well.

 

MB: have a Look at the Supermicro X11SSL-CF This comes with 6 SATA and 2 SAS (Breakout to 8 SATA) Ports. Resulting In an total of 14 ports. Other specs are very similar to your selection

 

CPU: I've picked the  Xeon E3-1260L v5 @ 2.90GHz as it runs at a very low Wattage (45W) with an impressive passmark of 10k. The whole system is consuming approx. 40W with all drives spun down but fully responsive due to the SSD Cache and folder caching plugin. Max Power consumption was 105W with Plex doing the enumeration of the whole library during an parity scan...

 

Cache: Running 2 Samsung Evo 750 500GB in RAID1 mode. Decided to not use it for the Plex mediathek share and only use it for the dockers & VMs. Plex will delay the playback by 3-5 seconds If the drive needs to spin up. Acceptable for me..

 

RAM: I ran with 16GB and it was enough. I've updated to 32GB only for VM usage. Plex is running fine off the SSD Cache and 16GB RAM  But definitely go with 2 modules in the beginning...

 

My system Summary:

Case: Antec 1900 (offers 14 HDD/SSD Slots plus 4 additional via the 5.25 Bays)

PSU: be quiet! Pro10 650W Nice SATA Power connectors available...

MB: Supermicro X11SSL-CF (comes with 14 SATA ports --> Matching the 14 Bays of the case

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1260L v5 @ 2.90GHz comes with 10k Passmarks to run 5 parallel transcoding streams in Plex @ 45W!

CPU Heatsink: be Quiet Pure Rock as the smallest is already more than covering the CPU Wattage...

RAM: 4x 8GB CL15 PC4-17000 DDR4 UDIMM-Module from Crucial

 

The drives are mostly from my old setup, extended by matching drives (1x SSD, 1x Parity, 2x WD Red)

HDD: 1x WD Black 4TB for Parity, 2x WD Green 3TB, 4x WD Red 4TB

SSD: 2x Samsung EVO 750 500GB

 

A drive outside of the array Is possible (via the unassigned drives plugin) but it will not be covered by parity! You can define a new share and only allow a certain drive to be utilized. This would save all data to the dedicated drive and keeps it save with parity.

 

Thanks for the informative reply! I think your MB is way more than I need. I'd rather spend that price different on HDD's .

 

I've decided to get SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SSM-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C236 instead to save $10. The only difference I see is Integrated IPMI 2.0 and KVM with Dedicated LAN which reading up on that I have no use for...or do I?

 

And for CPU, drop down a level to save money because it will be just fine for my use: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 SkyLake 3.4 GHz LGA 1151 80W BX80662E31230V5 Server Processor

 

Thanks for the insight on adding a drive outside of the array. I might do that if adding a smaller drive than the 8 TB's slows things down. It's just to basically mirror/backup system drives and extra drives on my laptops and desktops. I'm concerned the small files and constant writes and changing data is not ideal for those archive drives.

 

Thanks again for the help!

 

 

I chose the Seagate 8TB Archives drives based on price, my use and the extensive testing that's been done by user danioj and others. Do people still think these are the best bang for the buck + reliability? I plan on only running 8TB drives in the new server to keep it running at it's fastest. Any thoughts on drive choice and size?

Hi -

 

Personally I'd use a WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf for parity, though I know folks have used the Archive drives as parity.

 

I was already thinking that. Good idea to have a very reliable drive as a parity. WD Red's have treated me well, never had a failure. That price though :\. I'd love to go all Red's but seeing how quickly prices change, it's hard to justify it. Maybe if an Archive drive fails and the WD Red prices have dropped I'll buy one then . Cheers!

The only difference I see is Integrated IPMI 2.0 and KVM with Dedicated LAN which reading up on that I have no use for...or do I?

Do you plan on having a keyboard and monitor handy or plugged in to the server? If not, IPMI is awesome. It is so cool to be able to view and interact with the server's local console, even fiddling around in the BIOS, from any LAN connected machine. If you have an incoming VPN set up on your router or another box, you can even manage it from your hotel room wifi across the planet.

 

Once you use an IPMI connected server and can open a local console window without getting out of your recliner, you'll never go back to the old way of schlepping a monitor and keyboard to wherever the server is sitting and try to work standing or kneeling or contorted into a closet.

The only difference I see is Integrated IPMI 2.0 and KVM with Dedicated LAN which reading up on that I have no use for...or do I?

Do you plan on having a keyboard and monitor handy or plugged in to the server? If not, IPMI is awesome. It is so cool to be able to view and interact with the server's local console, even fiddling around in the BIOS, from any LAN connected machine. If you have an incoming VPN set up on your router or another box, you can even manage it from your hotel room wifi across the planet.

 

Once you use an IPMI connected server and can open a local console window without getting out of your recliner, you'll never go back to the old way of schlepping a monitor and keyboard to wherever the server is sitting and try to work standing or kneeling or contorted into a closet.

 

Okay, that actually sounds handy. Do you have to have two separate network cables plugged in for it to work or does it all work through one?

The only difference I see is Integrated IPMI 2.0 and KVM with Dedicated LAN which reading up on that I have no use for...or do I?

Do you plan on having a keyboard and monitor handy or plugged in to the server? If not, IPMI is awesome. It is so cool to be able to view and interact with the server's local console, even fiddling around in the BIOS, from any LAN connected machine. If you have an incoming VPN set up on your router or another box, you can even manage it from your hotel room wifi across the planet.

 

Once you use an IPMI connected server and can open a local console window without getting out of your recliner, you'll never go back to the old way of schlepping a monitor and keyboard to wherever the server is sitting and try to work standing or kneeling or contorted into a closet.

 

Okay, that actually sounds handy. Do you have to have two separate network cables plugged in for it to work or does it all work through one?

Depends on the motherboard implementation. Most have two separate cables, I assume to allow easier splitting of security. You really don't want your IPMI port exposed to the internet at all, and many server OS's (not unraid) are fine with an internet IP assigned locally.

 

If you had a whole rack to manage, I assume all the IPMI ports would probably be on their own network.

Ordered everything!

 

Ended up get the 250GB SSD for a cache drive (500GB was overkill for my usage). The original motherboard I listed to utilize IPMI (thx jonathanm). Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 SkyLake for CPU, the E3-1240 wasn't needed. And I went with an 8TB WD Red drive for parity and 3 x Archive drives to start, I should be able to fit all my data on three drives, I'll buy more if I see deals or when prices eventually drop.

 

Now I wait!

As a bit of advice, it'll take a bit of getting used to coming from a Windows Server.  Take things slowly and get one thing working at a time, ensure it's stable before moving onto the next.  I used WHSv1 (?2003) then Unraid v5, then I had a brief affair with WHS2011 with transparent Flexraid, before coming back to Unraid v6 early beta phase. 

 

Linux took some getting used to being a Windows man through and through.  Although the last few months I've gone Linux full time on my desktop.  But it'll be worth it in the end.  For my needs, Unraid beats WHSv1 or 2011 by a country mile.

As a bit of advice, it'll take a bit of getting used to coming from a Windows Server.  Take things slowly and get one thing working at a time, ensure it's stable before moving onto the next.  I used WHSv1 (?2003) then Unraid v5, then I had a brief affair with WHS2011 with transparent Flexraid, before coming back to Unraid v6 early beta phase. 

 

Linux took some getting used to being a Windows man through and through.  Although the last few months I've gone Linux full time on my desktop.  But it'll be worth it in the end.  For my needs, Unraid beats WHSv1 or 2011 by a country mile.

 

Just the advice I needed, thank you! I have zero experience with Linux, too, as I'm also a Windows guy. I did my research and determined unRAID fit my needs perfectly. I really like how WHSv1 and FlexRAID work together and I wanted something similar. I love the drive pooling and the fact that you can choose to have shares write to specific drives. I'm a fast learner and am excited to get this thing put together and running unRAID!