Hi
I have read the following link:
The question arises, which of the PLEX Pass users has the best experiences with which NAS?
I run everything on a Unraid NAS. Been using it for years with minimal trouble. Plex and all support apps run in Docker containers on the NAS server. Unraid is not a pre-built solution, it seams many pre-built NAS systems have issues running plex or getting it running stable.
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I say Why a NAS? If it’s just to serve Plex than what a waist!
Modern day NAS servers can do a whole lot more then just server files. Most provide redundancy for your files so you don’t lose data if a drive fails especially with large libraries. I have had several drive failures over the years and have never lost any data. My NAS also supports docker containers and is an easy way to run support applications as well as VMs. So no it is not a waste.
Oh, Hum. so easily done much cheaper. as I said no need for this!, and docker who doesn’t support it?
Rather than just commenting on how much a waste it is and how it can be done cheaper, how about giving your solution instead and letting users decide on which way to go.
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Fair enough,
Let’s look at what a NAS has to offer, they very a lot. The cheapest have two bays and a low powered processor that can really only act as a file server with a mirrored drive allowing for one disk to fail, or worse, stripped at raid 0, one disk fails both are useless. Although most NAS’s use hardware raids a software raid works very well for this type of raid, a more robust option would be a desktop PC with a motherboard that supports a software raid as many do, some even offer hardware) (you can run Windows or Linux). There are many motherboards that will support more raid levels and 3 or more HD’s, if you are looking for the redundancy that the various raids support. Keep in mind that raids only protect from HD failures (really not that common), the more common way people loss data is from files accidentally deleted, overridden, or corrupted by software or hardware. So any critical files etc. will still need to be backed up.
Next you will need to decided what amount of transcoding your setup will require, this comes down to number and types(4k ,H264,H265,HDR etc.) of concurrent streams it has to serve so your CPU choice will have to reflect this. (there are thread on this form and articles on the net discussing this). You also may need to consider your LAN speed (and internet upload speed if applicable) as WiFI and even 1G Ethernet can be easily saturated. So this is why I think a NAS is overkill for a home Plex (mostly) server.
For me all my devices TV’s/Tablet’s will direct stream so transcoding is not an issue. Also most of my media is not critical so I only keep backups of what I don’t want to lose as S#!t happens. This means I’m running my Plex server on Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) running Debian 11(Bullseye ARM64) on a cheap 240GB Kinston SSD with my data drive being saved to a Toshiba X300 8TB.
Your millage my vary…
Ok, that sounds understandable. Thank you!
I imagined it to be more trivial …
So freely according to the motto … this and the NAS is good, this or that is not suitable … Of course I can understand the requirements, but it doesn’t make it easy for me to see which NAS is suitable for Plex. I am currently using a DS218play and due to various postings from me about “errors”, I wanted a possibly better NAS that can handle Plex perfectly. Maybe also to fix certain errors in connection with Plex, if possible …
You must not know what an Unraid NAS is. It is not a prebuilt server. You build a computer that meets your needs. Unraid is software that run on the computer you built. It is not your typical Raid server in that it uses 1 or 2 parity drives to keep the data in check. You can add up to 28 data drives in various sizes as long as the data drive does not exceed the parity drive size. If you loose a drive you just replace it and it is rebuilt. When you need more space you can swap a smaller drive with a bigger one or just add a new drive.
If a pi works for you, that is great but for people like my self that have over a thousand movies that I have collected over the last 10 years I won’t leave things to chance. I have had multiple drive failures over the years and never have lost any data. I also store my music collection as well all of our photos.
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