Unraid has been a game changer for me in terms of managing and storing my data. Prior to discovering Unraid, I had used NAS devices from brands like Qnap and Synology with some success, but I often ran into issues or felt limited by the lack of community support.

My last NAS was a QNAP device, and towards the end of my time with it, the entire QNAP operating system was plagued with security vulnerabilities and ransomware attacks. While I fortunately never experienced any attacks myself, these events were enough for me to start searching for a better solution.

After months of research, I stumbled upon Unraid and have not looked back since. Unraid has a strong community of users who are always willing to help and offer support, and the operating system is highly customizable and flexible, allowing me to tailor it to my specific needs.

In this post, I will share how I use my Unraid device, what I have learned along the way, and the equipment that I use. I hope that this information will be helpful to others who are considering using Unraid or are just starting out with the platform.

Contents

What is Unraid

Unraid is a powerful and flexible operating system that allows users to easily set up and manage a network attached storage (NAS) device. It offers a wide range of features and benefits, including the ability to store and access data from multiple devices, the ability to run multiple virtual machines, and a strong community of users who are willing to help troubleshoot and offer advice.

One of the main benefits of Unraid is its ability to handle multiple types of storage devices, including hard drives, solid state drives, and even USB drives. This means that you can mix and match different types of storage to find the best balance of performance and capacity for your needs. Additionally, Unraid allows you to easily expand your storage capacity by simply adding more drives to your system.

Another key feature of Unraid is its virtualization capabilities. With Unraid, you can easily set up and run multiple virtual machines on a single physical device, allowing you to consolidate your hardware and run multiple operating systems on the same NAS. This can be especially useful for those who need to run multiple applications or services on their NAS, as it allows you to keep everything in one place without having to manage multiple physical devices.

One of the things that sets Unraid apart from other NAS operating systems is its strong community of users. There are numerous forums and online resources available where you can find help and advice from other Unraid users, as well as a wealth of documentation and tutorials to help you get started. This support can be especially valuable if you are new to NAS devices or if you encounter any issues with your setup.

Shares

  • Multimedia – Cache – Yes
    • Plex Data
  • Appdata – Cache: Yes
  • Archive – Cache: No
  • Domains – Cache: Prefer
  • Downloads – Cache: No
  • Isos – Cache: Prefer
  • Scanner – Cache: Yes

Drive Configuration

I’ve configured my system to include dual parity drives, which allows for the failure of one drive and two array failures at any given time. This helps prevent data loss and downtime in the event of a hardware failure. Additionally, I’ve included dual cache drives for added reliability and peace of mind. This ensures that the drive that stores all my application configurations and virtual machines does not have a single point of failure, protecting against data loss and potential disruption to my operations.

  • Emby / Plex – I was a big Plex fan. Still, I have started evaluating Emby as Plex is beginning to evolve away from playback of your multimedia and the playback engine has some bugs that need to be patched.
  •  CloudCommander – Once up and running, this provides a quick web-based file explorer to view, edit, move and delete files in your shares.
  •  TailScale – A great alternative to VPNs.
  •  NxFilter – DNS server and filter I use to filter traffic on my networks. It allows you to have different policies for different subnets, for example, different filters for my kids.
  •  CyberChef – CyberChef is a web-based tool that can perform various cyber tasks, including data analysis, encoding and decoding, and data manipulation.
  •  Yopass – A great way to share secrets with other users.
  •  NgnixProxyManager – A easy proxy and manager to set up access to all the apps you set up on your Unraid.
  •  SearXNG – Searx is an open-source metasearch engine that aggregates results from multiple search engines and provides a customizable interface that allows users to specify their privacy preferences and search for specific types of content.
  •  Docker-WebUI – A automatic home page of all the docker applications running; others require you to add each app manually. I change apps too often.

What would I do differently?

  • Deployed a motherboard with IPM (remote console); this is on my list to replace the existing board with an ASRock Rack board with IPM. This helps troubleshoot issues without breaking a console to the server in a closet, which you can imagine does not have much room to work at. The next upgrade for me will be ASRock Rack X570D4U.
  • Gone bigger on the Parity drives, GO BIG; I have already switched the parity drives twice now. They gain you no space and are a decent investment, but they give you peace of mind when you lose an array drive. The array drives can vary in different size and do not need to be the same size. However, they can never be bigger than the parity drives. I should have installed 14 or 16 TB drives when I initially built the server to give me plenty of headroom.
  • Added a network drop or two to my office so I could have had a larger case format. An mATX works, but I’m most likely going to come to a point where I will need a JBOD enclosure to add further drives. You might ask, why not drop a line now… well I have a brick home, and it is impossible to add a line from upstairs to downstairs without a decent amount of pain.

Equipment

36TB of Usable Space

ComponentDetails (cost per)Cost Subtotal
MotherboardASRock X570M Pro4 (~ $99)$99
CPUAMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core @ 3600 MHz (~ $121)$121
MemoryG.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (~ $87)$87
Cache Drives2x Intel 660p Series M.2 2280 1TB PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 3D2 (~ $79)$158
Parity Drives2x Western Digital Red Plus 10TB (~ $212)$424
Array Drives2x Western Digital Red Plus 10TB (~ $212)
2x Western Digital Red Plus 8TB (~ $163)		$424
$326
GPUNVIDIA Quadro P2000 (~ $290)$290
Network CardIntel Corporation I350 (~ $172)$172
CaseFractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (~ $156)$156
Power SupplyCorsair RMX Series (2018), RM650x, 650 Watt (~ $160)$160
Fans6x Noctua NF-S12A PWM, Premium Quiet Fan, 4-Pin (120mm, Brown) (~ $22)$132
Total Cost$2,549