Setting up Home media server again, suggestions?

[2013]

After a lot of messing about and learning a few new thing. I figuring a few things out and last night I finally installed OMV, updated it, also installed Docker, Portainer without issues, but I had to keep my fingers crossed each time. dreading something may break and that not something I want to worry about each time I use the home server, which was the reason I stuck to hardware raid and Windows originally.

I do have few questions if some knows the answers.

1. Does the free trail give you the full feature like storage drive so on or is it limited ?
2. Do I really not need to do any of the traditional Linux, Is it more like windows, GUI click ?
3. Can I use all the available docker apps on Unraid. ?
4. Can I switch the licence over if I change the hardware at some point. ?
5. Does the Up to 6 attached storage devices, inc the OS SSD drive or is that just the storage drives ?
6. Does Unraid run off the USB or SSD (Assuming ssd) ?
7. Will it run on systems without UEFI ?

You do know that OMV is Linux based too? So long as it works for you then fair enough but I agree with other posters that Unraid is a better bet. No SSHimg nor command pro,pts required either

Yes, as far as I know they are all linux based, The only reason I did not go for Unraid because I did not want to spend money on it, assuming they are all the same, the issue is ive never used linux beyond the basic ubuntu Which is why im having to learn things as I go. and thinking if I need to learn it anyway I should get the free option if its not much different to the paid option.

From the information everyone is providing it seam I was wrong, If UnRAID is a lot easier I will need to try it and buy it it.

Another Unraid user here.

For your use case, I’d hight recommend it. I don’t ‘Linux’ or do any command line stuff, I’m not interested. I literally banged it on a USB stick, slapped in what ever hard drives I had laying around, pressed a few buttons in the GUI and off it went.

For a novice/home user, it’s the best option if you want some protection against drive failure, particularly where you have a limited budget.

Raid 5 wants you to have all the disks to be the same, if you need to upgrade or replace one, you may be replacing them all. With unraid you can just use what you have as long as your biggest disk is the parity drive. In mine I’ve for 2 4tb drives, 1 3tb drive and 2 2tb drives and a 150gb SSD cache. My disks are also from 3 different vendors, unraid doesn’t care.

I’m pretty sure with raid 5 you really need identical disks. If one dies you may struggle to find an identical replacement.

I’ve just purchased 2 more 4tb drives to swap out my 2tb drives with because they are ancient. Despite being from the same range and vendor as my existing 4tb drives, they are very different. The new drives clearly have less platters than the old ones. It could have the potential to cause issues with raid 5.

Is it really that easy to use? If its that easy compared to the rest, Ill need to take a look and switch over.
Maybe I should have took up the trail at the start, I just thought it was the same as the others.

This sums up my usage of Unraid/experience of Linux/CLI too in all honesty. Unraid for me, just works with little in the way of hassle or system overheads.

From the advice everyone is providing UnRAID maybe the best and most simple option.

 

[2013]

It’s reasonably easy to set up, watch a couple of YouTube videos to get an idea.

It supports both docker and has a hyper visor built in so it will also run VM’s.

I don’t think the trial is limited but it’s been awhile.

Unraid uses a web interface so it’s not a full blown GUI like windows but it’s pretty simple to use. It can be a really powerful tool but the basics are very easy.

Unraid runs off a USB stick and it doesn’t count towards your licence limits.

Not sure about the UEFI question, I’d assume so, it’s pretty flexible hardware wise

Thank you.

Does it not support SSD?
Any idea of how much storage would be needed ?
Do the apps get installed on the USB or would it be on a drive ?

 

[2013]

It supports SSDs but not for the OS.

32Gb USB stick and no more is recommended. I think it’s less than 16Gb though.

Apps are installed elsewhere. Typically you’d set up an SSD as a cache drive and install the apps there. In UnRaid parlance you’ll see reference to your docker image and appdata folder. The two combined constitute where your apps are installed. Both should be on an SSD. VM images should also go on the SSD.

So install to A usb and go no need for SSh, copy and past code, like OMV or anything like that.

It not important but why just a USB.
I May have A 32gb USB, would I have issues with anything larger ?

 

[2013]

You don’t need to ssh into anything to set it up. Download UnRaid image onto your windows machine, use the installer to copy to your USB drive, stick it in your server and fire it up. You need to work out what IP address your router has given your server intitially, tap it into a browser and away you go.

Just USB because it’s a nice easy way to tie your license to something while being able to reuse the stick in any combination of hardware and reuse your license easily. Plus once loaded into memory it doesn’t ever access it so why waste a “real” drive. UnRaid only cares about two things - your usb stick (for the license) and the serial numbers of your hard drives (so that it can fire up your array without issue even if you change mobo , cpu, hba card or anything else really)

shouldnt be issues with larger but people recommend smaller I think because smaller sticks are less dense with chips and so maybe more reliable.

Thanks, I have a 64gb one but I'm going to try and see if I can find a smaller one, or buy one.

How quick is it to setup, it took me a while with OMV.