Turning Unraid on and off

[shinegull]

Is it alright if I shut down a computer only running Unraid off when I don't need it, and only turning it back when I do need it?

 

To be more specific, if I just turn it on and off like a regular laptop/desktop, will there be any harm in doing so on a daily/weekly basis?

Will it cause problems in another computer connecting to the server in this case (while server is on, of course) and if I was to turn on the server, how quickly can another computer access it again?

Do I need to shut anything else down before doing so?

 

I would like to just turn it on when I need it, then once I'm done, just turn it off while a something like a Silverstone ES02

[Windows7ge]

It shouldn't harm it any more than it would harm any desktop (this may be disputed dependant on exact hardware). My major question would be why do you want a UnRAID box if you plan to treat it like a normal computer? Power consumption? Heat? If these are issues it sounds like you don't want a server.

[jake9000]

As long as you do a graceful shutdown it shouldnt cause issues. Improper shutdowns will make it verify the whole array and that can take hours. 

[Salv8 (sam)]

18 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

If these are issues it sounds like you don't want a server.

i have a friend who runs a minecraft server only during the day, he shuts down his server when it isn't running the server since it doesn't do much else

it's a modded spigot server so you can't really run it using a minecraft server hosting provider.

it's how he runs it and he's ok with it.

plus it's a good idea to turn off your equipment when you aren't using it, servers included. i turn off mine when i'm on holiday since i'm not using it while i'm away.

and it's survived so far so... yea...

[Windows7ge]

4 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

i have a friend who runs a minecraft server only during the day, he shuts down his server when it isn't running the server since it doesn't do much else

it's a modded spigot server so you can't really run it using a minecraft server hosting provider.

it's how he runs it and he's ok with it.

plus it's a good idea to turn off your equipment when you aren't using it, servers included. i turn off mine when i'm on holiday since i'm not using it while i'm away.

and it's survived so far so... yea...

This is incredibly subjective and dependent on the use case. Yes the hardware will most likely be fine turning it on/off daily but for things like File Servers & Virtualization Servers (two of UnRAIDs largest features) then you're kind of going overboard if you don't intend on having a use for it where you need to leave it on most of the time.

 

There's cheaper options if you just want to run a server periodically when you need it and shut it down when you don't. Used hardware, free distros of Linux, etc.

 

OP hasn't given us all the details so it's hard to make a real judgement call.

[Salv8 (sam)]

6 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

-snip-

so what if he wants to shut down his server, maybe the dude just wants lower electricity bills servers are expensive to run and many can't afford running them 24/7.

if they need a server for something and can't run it all the time so what?

let them do what they want.

[Windows7ge]

4 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

so what if he wants to shut down his server, maybe the dude just wants lower electricity bills servers are expensive to run and many can't afford running them 24/7.

if they need a server for something and can't run it all the time so what?

let them do what they want.

So I'm trying to make offers on how to save him money (if his use case allows it) and here you are telling me not to.

You're kind of defeating your own argument here.

 

1) I am not saying he has to run it 24/7

2) I am saying he can explore potentially cheaper options (options other than UnRAID) if he doesn't want it to run 24/7

 

But hey, you're right, he's free to do whatever he wants I'm just offering my two cents because he asked. There's no reason you have to get offended.

[Salv8 (sam)]

29 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

There's no reason you have to get offended.

i'm not offended, sometimes what i say gets misinterpreted because i phrased it wrong. thats normal for me.

[Windows7ge]

2 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

i'm not offended, sometimes what i say gets misinterpreted because i phrased it wrong. thats normal for me.

Well now I feel bad because I thought you were. My bad.  People like to argue with me on a fairly consistent basis so I immediately chucked you in with the rest of them.

 

But, yes. You're right, at the end of the day OP can do what he wants. Perhaps if he ever gets back to us he can shed some light on what exactly his setup here is and why he's done it the way he did. If he has a reason that sounds good to me I'll back down.

[shinegull]

I'd like to have this server as quiet as possible. it cant get much quiet than in sleep or when its off. and if its off it also uses less energy than when its in sleep. Not only that, It going to be beside another computer or 2 thats my main, and it tends to create a lot of heat due to long use and gaming. I turn it off at night since i find its easier for me to sleep if there's as little distraction as possible, i.e. sound, and excessive light. and I also dont really like the wake on lan thing (I know its possible to turn that off, but why bother when I have a remote for the computer?)

I will be mainly using this as a file server, (i.e. back up files and extra files, that I wont need in the short term.)

 

I've been throwing this server idea around my head for a while, and i could get away with not having one for a while, but I'm starting to run into terabytes of files, that I don't want to lose, like videos and pictures. and my sister also has a lot of files on more than a dozen drives, ranging from usb to drives, and some of those are duplicate files as well. I'd like to be able to centralize everything, so every so often, we can throw a ton of files onto the server adn then shut it off until we need it again.

 

jake9000 mention proper and improper shutdown? could someone explain that a little for in simple terms?

 

windows7ge also mentioned alternatives. I don't actually know that much about servers or their software in general. I thought I would go with something seeming relatively simple like unraid as its said that you can add drives easily as you need. 1 or 2 at a time. ill start off with about 2 ssd and 6 hdd with most of them varying in size

 

In terms of hardware, I have the majority of everything i need, except a cpu and motherboard. technically i will have a 7600k cpu and motherboard but I'm going to be using that for a different build later on. not only that i think it uses about 95w according pcpartpicker, so if anyone has recommendations, that would be nice. im looking at stuff at 65 watts or less on average. I think I saw a ryzen 1000 or 2000 series at 45 watts according to their site?

[Akuno]

Because no one bothered to answer you in days I will take the whele from here, I hope this is okay for you guys.

1. If you just want to backup your data, I think a server is a little overkill. For backups a simple nas will probably be cheaper an suit you more. It is also less complicatet, unraid isn't so easy to start with an there aren't many guides for it. (it hase an awsome community tho) Get yourself a bearbone Synology with as many drives/capacity as you need for all your date. (plan about your future data too and don't underestimate it, it builds up quickly) https://www.synology.com/de-de/products/series/home

2. If you still want a proper server you need to give more information what exectly you want to use it for. I also would recomand to ask this question in the unraid forums. There are people who know much more than I do.

3. For quietnes I built my PC in an Fractal Define R5, with 3x beQuiet! Silentwings 3 PWM (Fans set to silent mode in Bios) and WD Reds. The whole thing is near quiet, only the disk spinning makes a little noise. I put the Server between my couche and wall, in a side fliped shelf.

4. proper shutdown = Shuting down windows (or unraid) normaly over the proper comand. In windows that would be via the the windows menu -> Shutdown / Reboot
    improper shutdown = Shuting down your PC/Server by disconecting the power cable or some kind of forced shut down. This will not destroy anithing but data can get lost, especially for unraid oder any kind of server. + unraid will check all your date. this can take hours or even days. Its recomendet to have an UPS for your server.

[shinegull]

5 hours ago, Phamxu said:

Because no one bothered to answer you in days I will take the whele from here, I hope this is okay for you guys.

1. If you just want to backup your data, I think a server is a little overkill. For backups a simple nas will probably be cheaper an suit you more. It is also less complicatet, unraid isn't so easy to start with an there aren't many guides for it. (it hase an awsome community tho) Get yourself a bearbone Synology with as many drives/capacity as you need for all your date. (plan about your future data too and don't underestimate it, it builds up quickly) https://www.synology.com/de-de/products/series/home

2. If you still want a proper server you need to give more information what exectly you want to use it for. I also would recomand to ask this question in the unraid forums. There are people who know much more than I do.

3. For quietnes I built my PC in an Fractal Define R5, with 3x beQuiet! Silentwings 3 PWM (Fans set to silent mode in Bios) and WD Reds. The whole thing is near quiet, only the disk spinning makes a little noise. I put the Server between my couche and wall, in a side fliped shelf.

4. proper shutdown = Shuting down windows (or unraid) normaly over the proper comand. In windows that would be via the the windows menu -> Shutdown / Reboot
    improper shutdown = Shuting down your PC/Server by disconecting the power cable or some kind of forced shut down. This will not destroy anithing but data can get lost, especially for unraid oder any kind of server. + unraid will check all your date. this can take hours or even days. Its recomendet to have an UPS for your server.

Thank you for the response. It answers my questions a lot more. Im using a ryzen 1200 with a b450m mortar inside a node 804. Maining because im getting these ar a good deal. Ill be using either new/like new drives at large capacities 4tb+ and a couple smaller ones 3tb and a couble 1tb  and 500 gb deoves just to use them until they die. Ill start by using a 960 and 860 in raid 1 for caching. Ill replace the caching drives with 500-1tb nvme when those fail. Basically i liked unraid for the simple add as you need in any size you get kind of thing. Since ill probably just get more deives in 1 or 2 at a time in the biggest size available at the time.

 

From what i understand, shutdown is pasically telling the pc to shutdown instead of flipping a switch right? Thats the proper way? If so, how long does it take to turn it back on? Is it just like a normal computer in which a minute is enough?

[Akuno]

14 hours ago, shinegull said:

From what i understand, shutdown is pasically telling the pc to shutdown instead of flipping a switch right? Thats the proper way? If so, how long does it take to turn it back on? Is it just like a normal computer in which a minute is enough?

If you shutdown via the unraid 6 menue, he will always perform a gracefull shutdown.
This takes about the same time as a normal PC will take to shutdown and boot up again. (1-2 min)
You can also use scripts to let unraid perform shutdowns or reboots on a shedule.

[Salacious B Crum]

My only concern would be the quality of your usb drive as it loads at boot into memory and runs from there with little other activity, shutting down gracefully or not still would put stress on your usb drive and that is assigned by the uid number for your unRAID license if I'm not mistaken they do allow 1 replacement per year and there may be another option I forget at the moment

[shinegull]

Do you have to run unraid from the boot drive? Can i not have a small little ssd run unraid os?

[Salacious B Crum]

On 9/11/2019 at 2:38 PM, shinegull said:

Do you have to run unraid from the boot drive? Can i not have a small little ssd run unraid os?

Yes at this time a usb drive must be used and more accurately a usb 2 is recommended unRAID boots from the usb and puts it into memory where it operates until reboot only rarely reading/writing to the drive during that time so shutting down although not a problem running wise you will be constantly rebooting from the usb