Setting up Home media server again, suggestions?

[2013]

Hi I'm about to setup my media server again and I thought it would be a good time to take a fresh look.
taking a look online and a lot of things have changed since I originally set it up.

Im going to be using my HP Microserver gen8

I wanted to get get your thoughts and suggestion.

First of all the OS -
Should I still use Windows ? I was thinking of using windows + docker.

I've always used windows due to the simple everyday use, I've rarely used Linux and I never used the terminals because I've never needed to (maybe controversial on here).
I know a lot of tutorials and setups suggest using Linux, but I would prefer to use something simple which I can understand, instead of learning something I would rarely use, other than the one off and will likely forget between uses.

What is the best raid option for me ?
Don't know much about raid so hopefully someone can help.
In the past I used raid1 which mirrored both drive, it did secure the data but it also gave me the least space and cost the most.
if I upload a movie I don't want the data split between 2 drive, so I need to have both drive installed to read the full data for the movie.
From what I can remember the server did give me a warning before the drive started failing,
Should I still use Raid 1 ? what do you use ?

Media service - Plex/Emby/Jellyfin
Is Plex still the best ?
I used plex for my media server before, it was simple and I could find a app for most things including my Samsung TV.

Im thinking of installing other apps like Pi-Hole

Do you have any other suggestions ?

 

[Conan257]

I use unraid, which im very happy with, although I think there's a move towards freenas and other options for many who would use that type of OS. Windows is a good option if you are happy with it, but there's general overheads using it as a server for something as simple as Plex etc.

I'm also a Plex user, and it does everything I want from it without an issue. But again, there's plenty who are not happy and as such use Emby or Jellyfin and I'm sure they both have their uses.

 

[Armageus]

Media service - Plex/Emby/Jellyfin
Is Plex still the best ?
I used plex for my media server before, it was simple and I could find a app for most things including my Samsung TV.

I'm an Emby user, and honestly I wouldn't bother with it - the Developers are basically incompetent at this point. Even the most basic requested features take years before they appear. There is about one stable release per year, if you want any of the "new" features you have to run a beta release, and then endure 3 or 4 hotfixes that are always caused by regressions (because they refuse to do a proper testing procedure with unit and regression testing).

Jellyfin looked to be viable for a while, but looking on github the project seems fairly stagnant with only minor hotfixes being made, no real new features etc added.

I don't agree with a lot of Plex' business models and the like (actually bundling things like Tidal and live TV channels, and stuff like Arcade that was offered previously), but honestly they are probably the least worst option nowadays.

 

[2013]

Thanks, Ill check out unraid but my issue is using Linux but ill check it out,
Ill also stick with Plex for now then,

also

What is the best raid option for me ?
Don't know much about raid so hopefully someone can help.
In the past I used raid1 which mirrored both drive, it did secure the data but it also gave me the least space and cost the most.
if I upload a movie I don't want the data split between 2 drive, so I need to have both drive installed to read the full data for the movie.
From what I can remember the server did give me a warning before the drive started failing,
Should I still use Raid 1 ? what do you use ?

 

[Armageus]

Raid 1 as you mentioned mirrors a whole drive to another, essentially using 1 drive to protect another ("wasting" half of your space).

Raid 5 spreads the data across multiple drives, and also stripes some redundant parity information across the drives, so in the event of a single drive failure, the missing drive's data can be calculated from what remains + the parity data. In terms of space - this means you only "waste" 1 drive's worth of space to provide recovery information for all your drives.
The disadvantages are that it's complicated, and if a drive fails, then although the drive can be replaced and rebuilt, because of the complexity of this (it takes a while), and the extra reading/writing can often cause one of the remaining disks to fail.

Unraid is similar to Raid 5 in that it uses parity to protect data. The difference being that the parity data isn't striped - it's just stored on the single largest drive in your system. All the other drives are essentially independent (e.g. they can be lifted and read in another machine independently). Again Unraid is only "wasting" one drive of space for recovery information for all your drives.
Compared to RAID5, Rebuilds are slightly less risky, as even if an other drive fails during a Rebuild, you only lose data on that drive, whereas on Raid5 because the data is striped, the whole array is lost.
The only limitation with Unraid is that because each drive is independent, you are only ever reading/writing to a single drive and so are limited to the speed of that drive (unlike Raid5 which will read a stipe across 3 or more drives, potentially trebling read speed) - this can however be offset with an SSD cache if needed (but for things like media storage it's a none issue)
Unraid also allows you to mix drive sizes to maximise space (as long as the parity drive is larger than all other drives), something no other RAID mode can do

What is Unraid? | Unraid Docs

Unraid® is an embedded operating system that is designed to provide you

docs.unraid.net

 

[2013]

Raid 1 as you mentioned mirrors a whole drive to another, essentially using 1 drive to protect another ("wasting" half of your space).

Raid 5 spreads the data across multiple drives, and also stripes some redundant parity information across the drives, so in the event of a single drive failure, the missing drive's data can be calculated from what remains + the parity data. In terms of space - this means you only "waste" 1 drive's worth of space to provide recovery information for all your drives.
The disadvantages are that it's complicated, and if a drive fails, then although the drive can be replaced and rebuilt, because of the complexity of this (it takes a while), and the extra reading/writing can often cause one of the remaining disks to fail.

Unraid is similar to Raid 5 in that it uses parity to protect data. The difference being that the parity data isn't striped - it's just stored on the single largest drive in your system. All the other drives are essentially independent (e.g. they can be lifted and read in another machine independently). Again Unraid is only "wasting" one drive of space for recovery information for all your drives.
Compared to RAID5, Rebuilds are slightly less risky, as even if an other drive fails during a Rebuild, you only lose data on that drive, whereas on Raid5 because the data is striped, the whole array is lost.
The only limitation with Unraid is that because each drive is independent, you are only ever reading/writing to a single drive and so are limited to the speed of that drive (unlike Raid5 which will read a stipe across 3 or more drives, potentially trebling read speed) - this can however be offset with an SSD cache if needed (but for things like media storage it's a none issue)
Unraid also allows you to mix drive sizes to maximise space (as long as the parity drive is larger than all other drives), something no other RAID mode can do

What is Unraid? | Unraid Docs

Unraid® is an embedded operating system that is designed to provide you

docs.unraid.net

Thanks, I've Only had 2 large drive in the past and still 2 drive at the moment and the SSD, so I'm not sure which option would be best, I may add more drives.
I'm assuming the Microserver will allow Unraid,
What about Raid 6 and Raid 10 ?

 

[Armageus]

I'm assuming the Microserver will allow Unraid,

Unraid is an OS (as well as being the name of the data protection), so you'd use it instead of Windows. It is paid-for software ($53.10 for up to 6 drives at the minute)

What about Raid 6 and Raid 10 ?

Raid10 is like Raid1, but the data is striped across each mirrored pair. You need at least 4 drives, and you still waste half the capacity. Like RAID1 it's advantages are that it's simple (quick) to rebuild if a drive fails as it's just a case of reading and mirroring a single drive. (Raid10 can tolerate multiple drive failures - as long as they aren't in the same mirrored pair)

Raid 6 is like Raid 5, but uses an additional parity stripe, so can tolerate up to any 2 drives failing without data loss. Because you lose 2 drives worth of space, it needs at least 5 drives to make any real sense (as at 4 drives you get the same space with RAID10 and it's faster/less complicated)

 

[2013]

Unraid is an OS (as well as being the name of the data protection), so you'd use it instead of Windows. It is paid-for software ($53.10 for up to 6 drives at the minute)


Raid10 is like Raid1, but the data is striped across each mirrored pair. You need at least 4 drives, and you still waste half the capacity. Like RAID1 it's advantages are that it's simple (quick) to rebuild if a drive fails as it's just a case of reading and mirroring a single drive. (Raid10 can tolerate multiple drive failures - as long as they aren't in the same mirrored pair)

Raid 6 is like Raid 5, but uses an additional parity stripe, so can tolerate up to any 2 drives failing without data loss. Because you lose 2 drives worth of space, it needs at least 5 drives to make any real sense (as at 4 drives you get the same space with RAID10 and it's faster/less complicated)

No great options, Could I run the drive without raid like I do on the desktop but still get early notification ?

 

[jaybee]

Unraid and Plex life pass user here. Pretty satisfied for many, many years. With unraid you don't have to use Linux much at all. I rarely have to do anything in fact. Unraid has a web UI you access in any browser, and you do the vast majority of configuration/setup/administration through that.

With unraid, it simplifies things like raid as it manages it as part of the array you build inside it. There are too many benefits to list really. Might be worth having a read up on it. I run Plex as a docker inside unraid and find that the best solution for reliability.

 

[Armageus]

No great options, Could I run the drive without raid like I do on the desktop but still get early notification ?

Yep you can still run it without parity.

It is not mandatory for an Unraid system to have a parity disk, but it is normal to provide redundancy. A parity disk can be added at any time, Each parity disk provides redundancy against one data drive failing.

Storage Management | Unraid Docs

To assign devices to

docs.unraid.net

 

[2013]

Yep you can still run it without parity.

Storage Management | Unraid Docs

To assign devices to

docs.unraid.net

i'm not sure on which option. Any suggestion on what could be best for me ? to start I will have 2-3 HDD drive and a SSD

also any other options other than Unraid ? I dont think I want to pay for something I dont know I will use

 

[jaybee]

Well with that hardware you aren't really limited on OS choice. It depends what your priorities are. If it is to run Plex with the least hassle possible, then yeah probably Windows 10 or Windows Server then install plex on top. You can use hardware RAID as you speak of if it's built in with that HP box, if not buy a cheap RAID card for it. If you use something like Unraid or FreeNAS, then it performs software redundancy options for you built in using ZFS/parity. Windows can do software RAID too.
But then if you are just going to run windows with 2/3 Hard disk drives, you could just as easily run Plex on your main PC (if you own one) as a service without having to run a whole separate server. Depends on your needs, usage requirements and setup.

 

[BigT]

As a long term Windows user, recent Mac user and complete Linux luddite, I found Unraid really quite straightforward to get into. Everything is done in the GUI pretty much and there's tutorials and videos on everything available online. Its app store for docker images and addons is dead easy to use and it just works. It's very fit for purpose as a media server. One of its biggest weaknesses, slow write performance to the array, can be mitigated with a cache drive to an extent but in a media server it's much less of an issue. It's implantation of VMs is easy to work with and there's a docker container in the app store for most things including your choice of Plex, Emby and Jellyfin.

If you've three HDDs you'd set the largest as parity and the other two as data drives. You only lose the capacity of the largest drive in total usable space and have some protection from any one disk failure. An explanation as to how parity works is available here: https://docs.unraid.net/legacy/FAQ/Parity/ It isn't the same as RAID (hence the product name). It's also not a replacement for a good backup regime but then neither is RAID.

I'm biased of course because I use it but I did try Windows as a "server" , OMV and something else I forget and this is just really easy yet you can dive deep and do more funky stuff if you want (I once had my unlimited Google storage as a backend treated just like local storage). Now with one 136TB server and one 48TB backup server I guess I am really invested in it but I have no regrets despite still being much more comfortable running Windows and MacOS on my desktop daily drivers.

 

[2013]

Well with that hardware you aren't really limited on OS choice. It depends what your priorities are. If it is to run Plex with the least hassle possible, then yeah probably Windows 10 or Windows Server then install plex on top. You can use hardware RAID as you speak of if it's built in with that HP box, if not buy a cheap RAID card for it. If you use something like Unraid or FreeNAS, then it performs software redundancy options for you built in using ZFS/parity. Windows can do software RAID too.
But then if you are just going to run windows with 2/3 Hard disk drives, you could just as easily run Plex on your main PC (if you own one) as a service without having to run a whole separate server. Depends on your needs, usage requirements and setup.

Sorry for the delay, yes, its a HP Gen8 Microserver, so it already has basics built in, Ive never really used anything long term other than windows, ive used linux but only for basic stuff.

I have a main pc but I thought since I have the hp micros server i could just use that and use it around the house instead of turning the PC on each time I want to use it, I have 3x 3TB SATA drive, I was originally just going to use 2 and mirror them like I did time but it seam like a waste of money and space, so I was looking for some suggest, what does everyone else do ?

I do have a drive in my pc which I backed up all the files to when my server drives started failing last time but I was just wondering what the best option would be.

To start with i was thinking of just setting up Plex so I can watch movies on other devices, but I started think if im setting it up I could run docker and have other option like Pi-hole and other things runing.

As a long term Windows user, recent Mac user and complete Linux luddite, I found Unraid really quite straightforward to get into. Everything is done in the GUI pretty much and there's tutorials and videos on everything available online. Its app store for docker images and addons is dead easy to use and it just works. It's very fit for purpose as a media server. One of its biggest weaknesses, slow write performance to the array, can be mitigated with a cache drive to an extent but in a media server it's much less of an issue. It's implantation of VMs is easy to work with and there's a docker container in the app store for most things including your choice of Plex, Emby and Jellyfin.

If you've three HDDs you'd set the largest as parity and the other two as data drives. You only lose the capacity of the largest drive in total usable space and have some protection from any one disk failure. An explanation as to how parity works is available here: https://docs.unraid.net/legacy/FAQ/Parity/ It isn't the same as RAID (hence the product name). It's also not a replacement for a good backup regime but then neither is RAID.

I'm biased of course because I use it but I did try Windows as a "server" , OMV and something else I forget and this is just really easy yet you can dive deep and do more funky stuff if you want (I once had my unlimited Google storage as a backend treated just like local storage). Now with one 136TB server and one 48TB backup server I guess I am really invested in it but I have no regrets despite still being much more comfortable running Windows and MacOS on my desktop daily drivers.

Has anyone tried things like casaos ?

I have 3x 3TB SATA drive, I was originally just going to use 2 and mirror them.
You say

If you've three HDDs you'd set the largest as parity and the other two as data drives.

but would that not be the same as mirroring.

I still thinking to keep things simple just run windows and docker or windows and plex

 

[BigT]

but would that not be the same as mirroring.

It would not. Did you read the link I put in the post explaining parity? nothing is mirrored. Your array drives hold data in a pretty ordinary way (you can even take the disks out and put them in another machine) and the parity disk basically holds the results of logical bit level calculations to be able to emulate any disk if it goes bad in the array. Lose an array drive and it’ll emulate until you replace. Lose the parity disk and you’ve not lost any data and just replace it. You can cover a single disk failure with a single parity drive no matter how many disks in your data array.

With 3x3TB drives you’d have 6TB of usable space.

 

[2013]

It would not. Did you read the link I put in the post explaining parity? nothing is mirrored. Your array drives hold data in a pretty ordinary way (you can even take the disks out and put them in another machine) and the parity disk basically holds the results of logical bit level calculations to be able to emulate any disk if it goes bad in the array. Lose an array drive and it’ll emulate until you replace. Lose the parity disk and you’ve not lost any data and just replace it. You can cover a single disk failure with a single parity drive no matter how many disks in your data array.

With 3x3TB drives you’d have 6TB of usable space.

Sorry I must have missed the link, Ill check it out.
Can I do the same even if I have 4x 3tb drive ?
Is it possible to do this in windows or via raid in the hp ?

 

[BigT]

4x3TB drives with single parity would give you 9TB usable space. You can’t do this in Windows that I know of. And this is definitely not something you do with a RAID card - the clue is in the name of the operating system “UnRaid”

 

[Deleted member 266365]

4x3TB drives with single parity would give you 9TB usable space. And this is definitely not something you do with a RAID card

RAID 5 - 4x3TB drives would give you 9TB usable space

 

[2013]

4x3TB drives with single parity would give you 9TB usable space. You can’t do this in Windows that I know of. And this is definitely not something you do with a RAID card - the clue is in the name of the operating system “UnRaid”

Thanks, I should have paid attention to the name

the clue is in the name of the operating system “UnRaid”

RAID 5 - 4x3TB drives would give you 9TB usable space

Thanks, but Im still not sure how raids work, could you explain please ?
I'm assuming in RAID 5 if one drive fails or it I remove one all the data would be a mess ? and All drive would need to be the same ?

Like @Armageus said

Raid 1 as you mentioned mirrors a whole drive to another, essentially using 1 drive to protect another ("wasting" half of your space).

Raid 5 spreads the data across multiple drives, and also stripes some redundant parity information across the drives, so in the event of a single drive failure, the missing drive's data can be calculated from what remains + the parity data. In terms of space - this means you only "waste" 1 drive's worth of space to provide recovery information for all your drives.
The disadvantages are that it's complicated, and if a drive fails, then although the drive can be replaced and rebuilt, because of the complexity of this (it takes a while), and the extra reading/writing can often cause one of the remaining disks to fail.

At the moment RAID is not making real sense.

 

[Deleted member 266365]

RAID 5 needs a minimum of 3 disks to work. You lose the capacity of one disk (in the same way that unraid does) for the privilege of using RAID 5. Both unraid and RAID 5 allows for one disk to completely fail, be replaced, and you do not lose anything. So either unraid or a RAID card will give you the same cover.

HOWEVER, neither unraid nor RAID is a backup system, it is a method of redundancy. You can have RAID 5 working wonderfully but if your house burns down with the PC inside then you have lost everything. RAID and BACKUP are different things.

RAID explained: https://www.booleanworld.com/raid-levels-explained/