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[tunetyme]

6 years ago there was an ongoing thread about different server software and hardware that was available at that time.  I promised that I would provide an update on my experience with unRaid by LimeTech (lime-technology.com/). 

Here it is, after 6 years of testing. I have been using unRaid release 4.7 for 6 years 24/7 without a single hiccup.  I have moved from about 4 TB of media files to over 12 TB during this time and I have continued to upgrade MC (MC 22 master license).
 
I am in the process of upgrading my server hardware and software to have access to all the improvements in unRaid version 6. Everything has worked so well I don't think I have been in either forum for the last 6 years other than to read about new MC releases since everything works. My drives are getting up there in age and I need to upgrade so I can access larger drives. Both unRaid and Windows based MC have worked incredibly well together.

If there is interest in discussing NAS systems, I would be interested in learning about other systems and I am wonder if anyone has attached an MC Id to an unRaid server.

[blgentry]

Other people have reported dramatically different experiences with software based RAID.  I would never trust it with my data.  I'm glad it's worked well for you though.

Brian.

[tunetyme]

This is not a Raid server. I looked at raid systems years ago and they had too many problems.  unRaid is their way of saying that this is not a raid system...

I use a JBOD disc configuration.

[apgood]

Unraid is JBOD with single or dual parity.  Personally I've found it to be much more robust than software or hardware raid solutions. 

Even if you lose the hardware that the drivers sit on (or have a multiple drive failure beyond what is covered by parity) you can pull the good data drives out of the server and connect them to a computer to read the data.

I even run a Windows VM with a video card passed through to it as my HTPC with MC installed on it. Works without any issues.

[fitbrit]

Version 6 is very very good indeed, with all the virtualisation support as well. When I finally have the time, I will upgrade my unraid server from a Core2Duo CPU to a modern i7 based system. I'll then run Windows 10 in a VM for MC on it, as well as my home automation software. With unraid running too, it will mean that I only need to leave one server PC running 24/7.
I am really happy with unraid - been using it exactly as long as I have been using MC - over 9 years.

[apgood]

Version 6 is very very good indeed, with all the virtualisation support as well. When I finally have the time, I will upgrade my unraid server from a Core2Duo CPU to a modern i7 based system. I'll then run Windows 10 in a VM for MC on it, as well as my home automation software. With unraid running too, it will mean that I only need to leave one server PC running 24/7.
I am really happy with unraid - been using it exactly as long as I have been using MC - over 9 years.

There are a few home automation dockers, so depending which home automation product you use you might me able to use a docker instead of need to use a VM.

[rudyrednose]

I have used Snapraid on a Linux file server (Samba) for several years now to hold my movie collection.
Snapraid is JBOD with (in my case) 2 parity drives, somewhat equivalent to RAID-6.  It is available on all major OS.

Snapraid is an offline parity system, well suited to media storage (write seldom, read mostly).
You choose when to sync the array following media addition/changes.

You also choose when to scrub the array to check for potential bit rot.

Snapraid allows for N-Drive parity, according to your fancy.  2-drives parity is good enough for me.  Parity drives have to be as large as the biggest data drive.

Suits me...

[fitbrit]

There are a few home automation dockers, so depending which home automation product you use you might me able to use a docker instead of need to use a VM.

Thanks! I'll look into that. Currently need X10 Commander. Soon transitioning to Z-Wave though.

[apgood]

Thanks! I'll look into that. Currently need X10 Commander. Soon transitioning to Z-Wave though.

There is a docker for openhab and there is a docker with X10 in its name but not sure of exact name. There are at least 1 or two others like zoneminder I think.

[tunetyme]

When I finally have the time, I will upgrade my unraid server from a Core2Duo CPU to a modern i7 based system. I'll then run Windows 10 in a VM for MC on it, as well as my home automation software.

I am in the process of upgrading my unRaid system. I haven't adequately studied the new capabilities that version 6 offers. I am very curious how you would build your system?

[stevemac]

I'm about 5 months into using FreeNAS with MediaCenter22 on a debian virtual machine

It is working OK.  No data loss, however drives are relatively new and am yet to need to replace one.  Some points

• Using FreeNAS 9.10.  24TB raw storage (4 x 6TB drive) arranged in 2 mirrored vdevs
• All media + other files are on the NAS & available to other machines via CIFS shares
  
• VMs were running in VirtualBox.  FreeNAS stopped support for VirtualBox in a minor release, resulting in a recreation of the VMs in the iohyve / bhyve hypervisor & a day or so outage
• Current version doesn't allow the VMs to have direct access to the host's storage.  Media files are made available via NFS / CIFS shares
• Getting FreeNAS working was relatively easy.  All hardware aside from the hard drives was purchased 2nd hand
• Getting the VMs setup as I desired was much more time consuming (mainly due to my lack of knowledge).  Needed assistance from this forum
• Installing JRiver was easy.  I just followed the setup guides on this forum from mwilliams and awesome donkey.
• FreeNAS 10 is coming soon.  Unsure how painful / painless the upgrade will be.  It is supposed to bring improvements to virtualisation management as well as docker.

Happy to provide further information on the hardware if you want it.  I have documented the VM and jriver installation steps & will share on interact in the near future

regards,

Steve

[fitbrit]

stevemac - that would be great. I need to start doing the VM thing.

tunetyme - sorry I missed your question to me, but my build is rather old now, so stevemac's guide would probably be more useful.

[stevemac]

fitbrit - I have started the doco.  see https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,109431.0.html

Unless you are in a hurry / are already using FreeNAS, I'd wait until FreeNAS 10 is released for the following reasons

• Believe improved VM management - think it gets a GUI
• think VMs will be able to access the Host's storage without needing to create a NFS or SMB share
• I have no idea what the upgrade process will be

optionally you might be able to install FreeNAS10 inside a virtual environment and test it.

regards,

Steve

[fitbrit]

Thanks very much. However, I misread your previous post and thought you were talking about unraid. Glad to see things are working well with FreeNas too though.