Server Build - Plex, NAS, the odd bit of tinkering...

Westovski · 7 Jan 2018 at 23:41

Hi all,

It seems I only really post on here when I need help with a build, but i'm a bit of a part time enthusiast and there's always the best advice on here, in fact, to find my various builds over the years, you probably only need to look at my post history

Anyway, now the polite pre-amble is over, I think I have a pretty unique problem I would appreciate your help with.

I currently have server sat in my loft, within that machine are fairly dated hardware components and 11 * 2TB hard drives. It currently runs WHS 2011 and was my first foray into 'server building'.

Each of the hard drives are mirrored and 6 are plugged into the mobo, whilst 4 are on a PCI sata expansion card, the final is just connected via USB.

Due to funds it's a bit of a ramshackle build, although it's all housed in one of these for the old school amongst us:

I use to house my DVD rips, music and pictures. It doesn't do anything clever at the moment, just offers them up as shared drives, where I have a couple of Raspberry Pis and an old ACER E-Machine running KODI around the house.

Just recently the server has stopped booting - and i'm about due a newer solution and can't be bothered to fix it, so here goes.

I'd like to rebuild, but don't really want to fork out for new hard drives, so ideally i'd like to build something similar in it's place.

I've bought a couple of Google Chromecasts to replace the Pis I have dotted round the house, and I intend to use Plex server to push content to them. Thus I think I need a punchyish processor if I want to send 1080p.

Also, whilst it looks like I'm essentially after a NAS, I do the odd bit of tinkering with other stuff, VMs etc, so I'd like it to be a little bit cleverer than a generic NAS build.

I was thinking of using Windows 10, as i'm more familiar with windows and I have a 3 month old so don't have the capacity to learn much new stuff, but i'm open to other suggestions.

Anywho, hopefully enough info there, any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

nox_uk · 8 Jan 2018 at 11:41

unraid

Very easy plex & VPN solution.

Unless you really need the full windows UI experience, and even then you could install win 10 at a later date under a vm.

BigT · 8 Jan 2018 at 16:23

Another vote for Unraid. A month ago I built an 18Tb server using it and it's really good. It has a very easy way to run docker containers which are more resource efficient than VMs and it all just works and is fairly easy to understand conceptually. There seems to be a docker for everything I want: Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Deluge, SAB, VPN server, Unifi Controller, Emby etc.

Nikumba · 9 Jan 2018 at 10:04

I have unraid and run plex and sickbeard on it

neodude · 9 Jan 2018 at 15:03

Another vote for UnRaid. It just works.

memyselfandi · 10 Jan 2018 at 05:15

Just run generic Ubuntu ... whilst everyone says it is easy to run Docker containers on Unraid it is actually trivial to do it on generic Ubuntu as well.

Don't use Unraid, or any other OS, unless you understand how to get at your data if there is an issue with the system which renders it non-functional.

neodude · 10 Jan 2018 at 14:50

memyselfandi said:
Don't use Unraid, or any other OS, unless you understand how to get at your data if there is an issue with the system which renders it non-functional.

If there are ever any issues with UnRaid it's as simple as just mounting the drives in any other Linux install. They are formatted as XFS.

Westovski · 10 Jan 2018 at 23:07

Wow, seems there's a consensus here alright, i'll definitely give unraid a whirl then!

Does anyone have any suggestions for the hardware? I'm cognisent of the fact that I need a certain processor for it to decode 1080p to stream to a chromecast - although I don't know what that processor is. I'm also aware i'd need a mobo with at least 6 Sata ports, but outside of that I'm a bit blind.

Thanks for your help thus far

BigT · 11 Jan 2018 at 06:49

You don’t necessarily need a motherboard with 6 SATA Ports - you could add an expansion card if that worked out cheaper to give you another 4 typically.

Transcoding 1080p is easy for most modern processors but think about how many simultaneuos streams you want. This guide might help:

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201774043-What-kind-of-CPU-do-I-need-for-my-Server-

Westovski · 11 Jan 2018 at 08:30

Thanks - I have an expansion card already with 4 as I have 10 drives so it seemed to be the most logical approach, but i'll take a look into it.

Thanks for the link too, hadn't seen it!

lude1962 · 11 Jan 2018 at 08:42

so does chrome casts only accept/push 1080?

Westovski · 11 Jan 2018 at 09:13

No, they will take 720p, but my understanding is that if you want to push 1080p you need a decent processor to decode and send.

The chromecasts themselves are not powerful enough to decode the content, so it's server-side rather than client-side.

I think

BigT · 11 Jan 2018 at 09:30

If you're going to be running 10 hard drives on Unraid you're stretching into the realms of perhaps going for dual parity drives. That adds a reasonable amount of complexity to the parity calculations and makes more demands on your CPU. Have a read around the Unraid forums to inform your decision on how many parity drives you want to run: https://lime-technology.com/forums/topic/50358-when-is-moving-to-dual-parity-preferred/

Also consider how many VMs and dockers you might be running and what they are doing as that will also impact your CPU requirements.

As a reference point, I have a Lenovo TS150 server which runs a Pentium G4400 processor and 8Gb of RAM. The CPU has a passmark of about 3,500 I think. I run single parity, 6 x 3TB drives (four in an external chassis connected to an eSata port on an expansion card) and 1 256Gb SSD for cache. I have dockers for Plex, SAB, Sonarr, Radarr, Deluge, Syncthing and a Ubiquiti controller. I have one VM for a PiHole install. My VPN is at a network level so the server doesn't have that overhead to deal with. A casual observation of my CPU load on the Unraid dashboard rarely sees it going over 50%, but I only ever stream to one device at a time. Things streamed from Plex include up to 1080p (no 4K for me) and to a range of devices with Plex clients including iPads, Fire Sticks and Kodi installs on PCs. Once going I've never had any buffering or issues. The only 'issue' per se is if I choose to stream something that happens to be physically residing on a disk that has been spun down in the array then there's a couple of seconds lag while it spins up. However I'm prepared to live with that for the reduced energy consumption.

If you really want to get into Unraid then it is well worth spending a few hours on youtube watching the videos of a guy called SpaceInvader One. You'll see the interface and the guy explains what he does and why rather than rushing things. I found it very helpful ahead of making my decision to use Unraid.

Westovski · 11 Jan 2018 at 12:12

Thanks so much, I'll go away and do some research rather than being lazy.

I only really have the 10 drives because i'm used to having them all mirrored, so half the storage, but if i'm using a parity drive that will negate the need, so I may invest in a couple of larger WD Reds or something like that and scrap a chunk of the others.

Just so I roughly understand, in your case BigT, you have 18TB of useable space, but only 6 drives, plus a parity drive (is parity == cache?) and something with the OS itself on.

Where as in my case, I currently have 20TB of HDDs, but as they are all mirrored, I only have 10TB of useable space...

BigT · 11 Jan 2018 at 14:27

So I have 1 x 4TB parity drive and 6 x 3TB data drives which gives 18TB usable space. 7 HDDs in total. Parity is not cache. The parity drive (which holds no 'real' data as such) allows you to have one failure in any drive at a time and let you swap it out and rebuild the array without data loss or down time as it rebuilds. It needs to be the same size or bigger than the largest of your data drives (you can mix and match data drives as you like).

You can think of parity really simplistically as this. If I have three data drives and a parity drive then conceptually for any given bit on the data disks one might have:

1 : 0 : 1 and the equivalent bit on the parity drive can be calculated as follows (remember binary so can only be 1 or 0). 1 + 0 = 1 then 1 + 1 = 10 has to be represented as a 0. So across your data drives and parity drive the bits look like 1 : 0: 1 :: 0 Then if you lose your parity disk it can rebuild the bit by repeating the calculation for parity. If instead you lose the first data drive (the first 1), parity says, "I'm 0 and the the two good drives add up 0 + 1 = 1. If the first data drive had been a 0 then I, parity, would be 1 but I'm not. I'm 0 so the first data drive must have logically been a 1. I'll consider and write it as such and put a 1 there on that fresh data drive." And so the array is rebuilt and working perfectly. Technically this is a really inaccurate and a poor/simplistic description because it's not an addition calculation at all but an XOR function I think, but hopefully it sort of explains the parity disk's job - there are much, much better explanations on the Unraid forums.

This way of doing things is also why you can mix and match disk sizes and why you only need one parity disk and why your parity disk must be at least as big as your biggest data drive.

To quickly calculate your usable space, from the 20TB deduct the size of your largest individual disk. What's left is your usable space if you're only using one parity drive.

The cache drive is where data gets written to ahead of being moved to a data disk (generally over night). It might do more as well but for sure it does not form part of your usable place, it is temporary. It is also transparent from a usage point of view. Your dockers, VMs and your clients on the network will be writing to a share and Unraid hides that really it is going to a cache disk first. Also it is optional unlike a parity drive which is mandatory.

neodude · 11 Jan 2018 at 18:54

Westovski said:
Wow, seems there's a consensus here alright, i'll definitely give unraid a whirl then!

Does anyone have any suggestions for the hardware? I'm cognisent of the fact that I need a certain processor for it to decode 1080p to stream to a chromecast - although I don't know what that processor is. I'm also aware i'd need a mobo with at least 6 Sata ports, but outside of that I'm a bit blind.

Thanks for your help thus far

The spec in my sig is perfect for running a load of dockers & VMs as well as a gaming VM. Cost me around 4 grand though

Westovski · 19 Jan 2018 at 13:08

Haha, I think i'll steer clear of that!

Thanks for everyone's help, particularly BigT for the in-depth overview of how the technology works.

I'll be off to go and spec a build then!

AyeAyeAhoy! · 20 Jan 2018 at 21:47

for what it's worth, another happy UnRAID user here

AyeAyeAhoy! · 20 Jan 2018 at 21:47

(On a Dell T20, btw)

jellybeard999 · 22 Jan 2018 at 19:18

Don't know if it's for you, but something to research if nothing else. I've been running stablebit drivepool on windows for a few years and would recommend it if it meets your needs.