Coming from FreeNAS to unRAID, is unRAID right for my needs?

[Cursewords]

Hola! people at unRAID. I'd like to make this as short and sweet as possible. Basically I am unhappy with FreeNAS at the moment and I'm not liking the fact that I seem to be told constantly that what I want to do on FreeNAS is not possible, or at least is not possible without a lot of messing about for mediocre success.

 

I popped onto /r/homelab and a lot of people pointed me straight in the direction of unRAID. Great! After checking some Youtube vids everything looks like a whole metric ton easier to set up than FreeNAS and there's a huuuge amount of plugins that look really useful. The only one I couldn't see was for setting up a PiHole, but someone on the forums seems to have forked the project to unRAID and people say that it works: PiHole on unRAID

 

So here I am with a list of things that I absolutely need to have on my machine, and a couple of questions about whether or not this is possible with unRAID.

____________________________________________________

 

First of all my server:

 

HP MicroServer Gen8

• Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1265L v2 @ 2.50GHz Quad-Core
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 ECC RAM
• 2x 4TB WD Red Drives

 

Currently I have no SSD available for cache. So I'd be interested in whether or not I can still get sequential copy speeds of about 100MB/s, as I currently can get that with a wired connection to FreeNAS from my PC. Do I absolutely need a cache SSD to saturate my gigabit line? If so, how big?

 

Here's the list of things I absolutely need to do with my server:

 

• A common Windows/Samba NAS accessible from my other computers
• A framework that isn't too hard to automatically backup
• Nextcloud storage set up for syncing from my phones
• Transmission / Deluge or rTorrent client
• An auto-download daemon to use with the above torrent client (like irssi-autodl or something better if such a thing exists)
• A PiHole to block ads across the entire network on all devices

 

Additionally it would be nice to be able to set up in the future:

 

• Plex
• Plexpy
• something else, dunno what

 

Can unRAID accomplish all of this, either via the base OS or through community plugins? All of the first list conditions are mandatory for me, inc. the auto-download daemon, PiHole etc.

 

I hate to say but please give me a realistic answer here, if something simply won't work or isn't a good idea on unRAID. I'd really like to know.

Secondarily I can't at this time set anything up on another machine and honestly with the specs I have in this server, I shouldn't even have to consider that option.

 

Small bonus if you can tell me the advantages of unRAID over Open Media Vault.

 

Finally, if I need some extra hardware or something else, like a good USB stick for the OS, cache drive or some kind of PCIe card etc. please let me know.

 

Thanks guys, hopefully someone can help me out.

[SSD]

Quick answers to your questions. You can definitely configure unRaid to saturate your gigabit lan. Either with a cache disk, or using turbo write.

 

Most of the functions you want are available in Dockers, which are very easy to install and use. @Squid's excellent community applications plugin should be one of the first things installed. 

 

Can't speak to comparisons with other products. Do your homework and make your choices. Most people here are pretty happy with unRaid, and we do have a friendly community. @Lev's split personality response above is not altogether typical 

 

But unRaid isn't always push a button and its done. It is largely dependent on other products and their feature sets for things like backups. And your ingenuity in getting them configured and integrated. OOTB function is easy, but your know-how, trial and error, write-ups/videos from other users, and pointers from the community will very likely get you to workable solutions.

 

If you decide to move to unRaid, I'd initially focus on establishing the parity protected array, and getting your existing features replicated in unRaid. Optimally you would set up a second / temporary server to experiment and get things working, and then plan a conversion from FreeNas. It doesn't have to be very powerful. But all unRaid needs is a USB stick to boot, so you could probably boot unRaid on your current server and experiment, and then boot back into Freenss, until the transformation is complete. Just make sure not to reuse assets, like your current drives, for unRaid!

 

Good luck! 

[tdallen]

16 hours ago, Cursewords said:

Secondarily I can't at this time set anything up on another machine and honestly with the specs I have in this server, I shouldn't even have to consider that option.

Just to be realistic, that's almost impossibly limiting.  Two reasons - one, you really ought to play around with unRAID before you make the commitment to move over.  Two, assuming you want to retain your existing data you'll need a transition strategy.  unRAID won't allow you simply plug your ZFS formatted drive pool into the unRAID storage array, you need to plan a migration.

 

With regard to almost everything else, unRAID sounds like it will meet your needs but I would recommend getting hands on with it before you start dismantling your FreeNAS server.

[tr0910]

@Cursewords Lev is only a volunteer trying to help, like we all are.  We are mostly a drama free area.  This post is not normal either from you or from @Lev

 

But you might have to dig a little deeper to find the gold here....

 

All the best...

[SSD]

@Cursewords This is a community forum. None of us work for Limetech, except 3 people, and they are clearly identified. Not even the moderators like me work for the company nor are compensated. @Lev is just a member. I waa surprised by @Lev's post and one first read thought it was tongue in cheek, but maybe it is not. It is not a normal type of response. And he is a relatively new face here.

 

I have deleted your second extremely inflammatory post. You can be upset with Lev but we won't allow wars to occur within the forums. We are a friendly and helpful forum, and such drama is not going to be tolerated.

I will discuss with the other moderators and additional deletes or edits may occur.  

 

We typically do not intervene in minor tit for tat,, as there are so few cases of bad manners here. But clearly this is going well beyond.

 

@Lev - please edit your post to remove offensive aspects. You start on a high note, complimentary of the post, and providing useful info, but it degrades. Whether tongue in cheek or not, it has offended another member. Thank you.

 

Migrating from one NAS to another on the same server is risky, as myself and @tdallen tried to explain. But your approach of backing everything up for migration would work. You just might have some downtime. Often people have older computers they can leverage in such a migration. But just backing up your Freenas and bringing up unRaid would not be my first suggestion. And it had nothing to do with the power of your server.

 

Your decision to migrate is your own. I would not let one post from one person affect your decision. It would be like going to Target, meeting an.offensive customer, and then never shopping there again. If you've monitored the forums for any time at all you realize that this is not the norm. please take the time to re-read and respond to the constructive posts, and let's continue the conversation. You'll be the bigger man.

[limetech]

Let's use our manners please.  Offending posts moved to the Bilge.

[Lev]

Apologies @Cursewords, I was trying to be funny and went overboard. Realize it now having read my post again. No hard feelings I hope.

[RonUSMC]

P2P you ask? Oh my friend, welcome to the download zone...