Connecting to UNRAID

[AngryPig]

I am building an UNRAID NAS in a regular PC case. I was wondering if I can connect my main PC to the NAS directly via ethernet (not through router) for high speed access and then at the same time connect the NAS to my router via the routers USB port to provide access to the rest of the house or for port forwarding?

[Jarsky]

I dont see why you would want to do this? Do you have a 2.5gbE+ nic on each machine but no 2.5gbE+ switch? 

Practically all machines since ~2005 have gigabit, and routers since about 2007-2008. 

 

I'm not sure if UnRAID has support (drivers) for ethernet to usb adapters, you may want to look at getting a network card if it has a spare PCIe slot. 

You'll want to make sure it has Linux support. Something like these:

https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Ethernet-Thunderbolt-Converter-Chromebook/dp/B082K62S48

https://www.amazon.com/uni-Ethernet-Internet-Compatible-Notebook/dp/B087QFQW6F

 

Keep in mind you'll have 2 network paths you need to configure, the one to your machine will have to be configured with a static network configuration. Depending on how old the machines are you might need a crossover network cable as well, as opposed to a straight through network cable.

(Newer networks are auto switching and dont require crossover. Generally most gigabit and newer)

[Needfuldoer]

30 minutes ago, AngryPig said:

I was wondering if I can connect my main PC to the NAS directly via ethernet (not through router) for high speed access

Yes, you can. Assign your PC and a network port on the NAS static IP addresses that aren't in your home router's IP range. (If all the devices on your router are 192.168.1.xxx, use 192.168.2.xxx for this private link.) Connect them together with a patch cable.

 

32 minutes ago, AngryPig said:

and then at the same time connect the NAS to my router via the routers USB port to provide access to the rest of the house or for port forwarding?

No. I doubt Unraid can make your PC present itself as a USB mass storage device.

 

Get a second network card for your NAS instead. (Preferably PCIe, but at least USB 3 if it has to be external.)

[AngryPig]

7 hours ago, Jarsky said:

I dont see why you would want to do this? Do you have a 2.5gbE+ nic on each machine but no 2.5gbE+ switch? 

Practically all machines since ~2005 have gigabit, and routers since about 2007-2008. 

My router has 4 ethernet ports which are all gigabit and are all used by desktops throughout the house. My desktop has a 1gb and 2.5gb port. So I wanted the 1gb for internet and 2.5gb for the NAS. Then to have some sort of access to NAS for the rest of the machines.

7 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Get a second network card for your NAS instead. (Preferably PCIe, but at least USB 3 if it has to be external.)

What would be the benefit of having a second network card (given my above clarification of my network setup). Given I do not care about speed, just access to the rest of the house, would it be better to just connect the NAS to my WiFi with a wireless card and have the crossover cable to my PC?

[Jarsky]

14 minutes ago, AngryPig said:

What would be the benefit of having a second network card (given my above clarification of my network setup). Given I do not care about speed, just access to the rest of the house, would it be better to just connect the NAS to my WiFi with a wireless card and have the crossover cable to my PC?

 

I was thinking more better performance, also it takes load off the CPU since USB requires CPU and it scales with it. 

If youre ok with lower throughput to the network or more CPU usage then not a concern. 

[Kilrah]

Get a $15 gigabit switch.

[Needfuldoer]

22 minutes ago, AngryPig said:

What would be the benefit of having a second network card (given my above clarification of my network setup). Given I do not care about speed, just access to the rest of the house, would it be better to just connect the NAS to my WiFi with a wireless card and have the crossover cable to my PC?

A wireless card would be a second network card.

 

If you want to connect your NAS to two networks (the private one between it and your PC, and the rest of your home network via the router), you need two network interfaces.

[AngryPig]

6 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

A wireless card would be a second network card.

 

If you want to connect your NAS to two networks (the private one between it and your PC, and the rest of your home network via the router), you need two network interfaces.

Apparently UNRAID does not support WiFi so would I have to get an ethernet card and then make one into a wireless network with a router?

 

7 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Get a $15 gigabit switch.

Whilst that is an option it is not ideal given the location of things so I wanted to invest other options and the subsequent costs first

[Needfuldoer]

2 minutes ago, AngryPig said:

Apparently UNRAID does not support WiFi so would I have to get an ethernet card and then make one into a wireless network with a router?

The second NIC would have to connect back to your existing router. Connecting the server to WiFi is less than ideal, even if you're using a WiFi-to-Ethernet bridge, and you don't want to have to deal with two routers.

 

Or, forget the "high speed link" to your PC and put the NAS near the router so you can plug it straight in. The speed difference won't be huge, and if you're going to be the only one using it with it upstairs you might as well just add drives to your own PC.

[LIGISTX]

8 hours ago, AngryPig said:

Whilst that is an option it is not ideal given the location of things so I wanted to invest other options and the subsequent costs first

Can you not put the NAS where your router is? Or where your computer is?

 

Where are you planning it put the NAS? To get access to the network, it needs network access….

 

What is the use case, what hardware will be in the NAS? What OS will it use? While 2.5 gigabit would be nice (I’m currently contemplating 10), it’s certainly not required as *most* things will be fine over gigabit, and just plugging it into the network via standard gigabit is much, much easier. I would get it connected via gigabit for now, then as you go down rabbit holes in this hobby, start thinking about faster networking and how that would work for your setup. 

[voyager_]

While you could configure a connection directly between the two you won't see any real gain for the complexity you would be adding. I can max my connection speed to my servers while transfering files through a switch. The usb to router will not work unfortunately and would likely be slower than a lan connection. Most routers have multiple lan ports, if you don't have any available you can get a gigabit switch for almost nothing these days. 

[CerealExperimentsLain]

On 8/9/2022 at 7:32 PM, AngryPig said:

I am building an UNRAID NAS in a regular PC case. I was wondering if I can connect my main PC to the NAS directly via ethernet (not through router) for high speed access and then at the same time connect the NAS to my router via the routers USB port to provide access to the rest of the house or for port forwarding?

I have this exact setup for my main UnRAID machine and my desktop PC.  It has a normal 1gbps network that goes through the 1 gig switchs and gives the UnRAID machine, desktop PC, and every other PC local and internet access.  The UnRAID machine and desktop then also have 10 gig NICs and a direct ethernet connection between the two for fast access.  I can dump files into the server at about 500MB/s (The limit of the SATA SSD it uses for the cache drive).  Then both machines we're setup with their own static IPs.

 

I did have to modify the HOST file on the desktop however, otherwise it was 50/50 which IP address would be resolved, the 1 or 10 gig one.  So you went to //HOSTNAME/ and half the time it resolved to 192.168.10.50 (The 10 gig) the other half to 192.168.1.50. (The 1gig one).  Just altered the hosts file so that //HOSTNAME/ always resolved to 192.168.10.50 .