#9 Musings
November 5, 2020•301 words
I run an Unraid server for file storage and media streaming. I made the move from Windows server to Unraid a few years ago and since have been blown away by the sheer stability.
As you can see I am currently sitting at over 94 days uptime. The major reason is because it has integrated Docker and VM capabilities. That means that each individual program or app is can be independently powered on, rebooted and of course installed. This means that the overall OS can continue to run smoothly even if individual dockers or VMs are having issues. I very rarely have to reboot the server and really only in the event of a power failure, me having to move the server physically or an update does it get rebooted.
I run about 20 dockers concurrently and a few vms when required. Namely testing out new Linux OSs.
I also use Unraid to store all of my data and so currently have 26TBs worth of storage space in my array, with about 10TBs used. The data is not backed up but Unraid does have features that help withstand data loss due to HDD failure.
If you are looking for a low overhead bare metal OS then Unraid is a very good option. It supports VMs, dockers and extensions to suit any home server set up. It does have a cost attached with a licence requiring a one-time payment depending on how many HDDs you are going to have attached. See this link for details. There is a free 30 day trial where you can test out whether you hardware can support it.
If you have any questions on Unraid or home server setups please don't hesitate to hit me up. Email or Twitter.
Catch you in the next one,
B