If you’ve already installed Unraid and are wondering how to navigate the system, this post will guide you through some important aspects of the platform. Unraid operates quite differently from traditional operating systems, so understanding its structure is key to making the most out of your home server setup.
1. Unraid Starts from the USB Thumb Drive
Unlike other operating systems you may be familiar with, Unraid boots directly from the USB thumb drive where it’s installed. The OS is loaded into your computer’s RAM after booting, which speeds up performance and reduces wear on the flash drive. This is why it’s crucial to use a reliable USB flash drive, though it doesn’t have to be the fastest. Your Unraid settings are saved to this drive, so make sure to back it up regularly. In a future post, we’ll cover specific apps to help with backing up your flash drive.
2. Trouble Loading Unraid?
Now that you’ve installed Unraid on a USB thumb drive, are you facing issues with the OS not loading or not receiving an IP address? First, ensure that your system is connected to a wired internet connection, as Unraid does not support wireless internet. If your Unraid computer is not connected via an ethernet cable, this could be the cause of the problem. If your router is nearby, simply use a network cable to connect your computer to it. If not, I suggest using a Wi-Fi extender that has a LAN port (marked as LAN) to bridge the connection. The extender will fetch the internet from your main router and deliver it through a wired connection. For a more reliable setup, consider using a mesh network, which I’ll cover in a separate post.
3. Arrays and Parity Drives
Unraid allows you to set up an array of drives and designate one as a parity drive. But what does this mean?
Parity Drive: This drive serves as the key to preventing data loss. If one of your array drives fails, the parity drive, along with the other drives, can reconstruct the missing data. The parity drive must be the same size or larger than the largest data drive in the array.
Array Drives: The other drives in the array form one large storage. They can be of different sizes, and any one of them can fail without you losing data, thanks to the parity drive. Unraid manages this process automatically.
Example: If you have drives with capacities of 5TB, 4TB, 6TB, 3TB, and 1TB, you would select the 6TB drive as the parity. The rest would provide a combined storage of 13TB (4+5+3+1), with redundancy for one failed drive.
Important Note: NVMe drives should not be used in the array or as parity drives. This will be explained further below.
4. Pools: Grouping Drives Together
Unraid also offers the option to set up pools of drives. Pools can work in conjunction with the main array, and they are often the best place for your NVMe drives. Pools can be configured with or without redundancy, and they require drives of the exact same size.
Example: Suppose you have three 1TB NVMe drives and four 2TB NVMe drives. Since NVMe drives aren’t recommended for arrays with parity, you would put them into pools. You would create two separate pools: one for the 1TB drives and another for the 2TB drives. If you enable redundancy for each pool, the 1TB pool would provide 2TB of storage (with 1TB used for redundancy), and the 2TB pool would provide 6TB.
5. Moving Forward: Apps, Plugins, and Shares
Once you’ve set up your array and pools, you’re ready to explore the full potential of Unraid. You can now install apps for media management or productivity, plugins, and configure shares to tailor your server to your specific needs. The Unraid community is rich with resources, and we’ll be covering some must-have plugins and apps in future posts to enhance your experience even further.
Summary
Unraid is a flexible and powerful home server solution, but its structure may be unfamiliar at first. From running the OS on a USB thumb drive to setting up arrays and pools, these steps help protect your data and maximize your storage efficiency. In the next posts, we will dive deeper into advanced setups and how to expand your Unraid system.
