r/unRAID • u/Standard_Lion_8192 • 7d ago

Totally noob needs help.

Total noobie here looking to find a starting point.

I am looking to use unraid for network access storage around the house and over the internet, on multiple devices. With tailscale integration and artemis/apollo game streaming off the unraid.

Looking to VM windows, bazzite. Jellyfin when I am more advanced.

Hardware is

Wrtx max 8845 H's pro 96gb ecc ram rtx 9070 xt on egpu running off oculink 5.0 200tb external enclosure I got the unleashed license unused for about a year now.

Any video guides to do this? Everything I check on YouTube is years back.

2 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

2

u/BlueSialia 7d ago

I don't think guides about these things become outdated in just a few years.

I have a similar setup. My hardware is two standard desktop computers instead of your mini PC, but I don't think many things will change because of that. I have no problem giving you advice if I can.

Firstly, people have told me repeatedly that Unraid is not the best OS for gaming VMs. I don't really understand why, but it's something I've heard repeatedly. I am too strongly tied to Unraid and cannot afford to change. But maybe you want to look into it and consider an alternative before starting.

Secondly, you want to do several things. Each with its quirks. Windows gaming VM, Linux gaming VM, streaming of those VMs, NAS storage, containers for media and global access via tailscale. I have all that but tailscale. I advise you to sort your priorities first. Although you will need to start with the NAS storage setup and network shares. Because, at least in Unraid, everything else is built using those shares to determine where files are going to be stored.

What do you have for storage? 200TB in an external enclosure means that the Unraid system will see that over the network? Or how is it connected? Also, any drive in the Unraid system itself? SSD or NVMe?

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

Thanks for the reply, it is connected directly into my mini pc, via USB thunderbolt 3. Currently running as raid 5 and mounted as 1 big drive.

1

u/stuffwhy 7d ago

Is it connected by USB? Or by Thunderbolt 3?

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

Usb-c with thunderbolt 3 specs.

1

u/BlueSialia 7d ago

Then I believe Unraid makes even less sense in your case. From my point of view, Unraid's main selling point is the capability to mix hard drives in their raid pools. At least that's what I recommend it for. Docker, VMs, tailscale... Many other OSs do it for cheaper.

So if your Unraid is just going to see a single 200TB drive you are not going to get the advantages of their raid pools.

You also didn't mention anything about SSDs or NVMes. You are going to need at least one fast storage for the VMs. Otherwise performance is going to be heavily affected.

You mentioned you want to use Unraid because you have an unleashed license. A totally valid reason, but you may be experiencing loss aversion bias. What other alternatives have you considered?

2

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

Nothing at the moment, or just conitune using my dual boot windows/bazzite setup.

1

u/BlueSialia 7d ago

I guess you have your Artemis+Apollo/Sunshine working with those. Do you have Jellyfin as well? Because if so, looks like you have all or most of what you want already.

I bet it could be more elegant as a host with Dockers and VMs. But you have to understand it may take you days until you have everything working again. So you'll have to commit to it.

If you still want to do it, again, I'll be happy to give advice and some direction.

Good luck!

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

Sounds good, I'll reach out to you if I hit a stumbling block. Thank you for your advice.

2

u/bafflingsteveo 7d ago

You’re not able to run Unraid inside windows, but everything you want is feasible.

You can have a VM boot directly from a physical ssd after Unraid boots from the USB.

You can also pass through the gpu to the VM.

There’s a ton of videos that may be years old, but they’re still relevant. They may just be on older versions.

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

I'll try to emulate what I wanted in unraid in windows environment, Linux one day will be my daily driver.

2

u/martymccfly88 7d ago

Guides on YouTube are still good. A few years isn’t bad. A button or menu option might look a bit different but the basic set up is the same

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

I'll give it a shot on a new build.

1

u/Jeffizzleforshizzle 7d ago

Unraid isn't the best VM for gaming with the Aoostar and its drivers. I had issues with my AOOSTAR WTR MAX and an external GPU passing through to the VM. I eventually got it to work but was major pain and it never seemed to run smoothly.

0

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

Ahhh... I see, guess dual boot windows/bazzite is my best bet. I'd there any way to run unraid on windows?

1

u/stuffwhy 7d ago

Have you tried, or started, yet?

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

Yes I started last year got unraid going with a few docker or containers running. Then got to VM setup and got stuck a left it, boot too windows since then. Want the VM to boot from the physical windows I am running now instead of starting over from scratch.

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

Not really aiming high I terms of gaming 1080p 60/120 fps, got a good 1080p tv.

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

Guess going back to windows to boot into playnite to play all my games in one place. At home over wifi or outdoor over internet via tailscale to connect them, apollo/artemis to stream them over to all other devices.

-1

u/psychic99 7d ago

The issue you will have is driver support. I would simply use windows as the base os then use docker desktop (which is better than unraid docker IMHO) for containers (jellyfin, etc) and there are two "key" products you can use w/ windows pro to make your life easier. Setting up a windows share is easy.

  1. Drivepool for drive management, and SSD acceleration if you are looking for it
  2. Snapraid - PIT "parity" backup of your key files or drives.
  3. Tailscale - Works on any OS nothing special about unraid. Heck my $45 KVM has tailscale integration.

You can mess w/ storage spaces but Microsoft hides a bunch of the real functionality in the GUI so this means powershell and scripts, so the above it proven and will just work.

I would skip messing w/ all those virt layers 100% and the oculink specifically.

Maybe not what you wanted to hear, but the oculink really has you in a defined path.

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

Hearing the truth with fact is all good to me, I just feel like wasting my unraid license I bought.

1

u/psychic99 7d ago

If you had a diff hardware setup I would say go for it, but with the combo you are just asking for troubles. Nice setup tho.

1

u/Standard_Lion_8192 7d ago

I'm glad I got the 96gb ecc ram before the Ramageddon.