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Storage Platform

Platform: Unraid 7.2.4 (replaces TrueNAS SCALE from v2) Rationale: Hybrid ZFS + parity array model fits the data risk tolerance perfectly:
  • ZFS used where data integrity is non-negotiable (photos, backups)
  • Parity array used for recoverable bulk media where mixed drive sizes and expandability matter more than ZFS guarantees
TrueNAS ran as a VM in v2 — a fragile design. v3 gives the NAS dedicated bare-metal hardware with proper HBA and 10GbE connectivity.

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Drive Inventory & Classification

DriveCountTypeClassificationAssignment
WD Red Pro 12TB5CMR NAS✅ Production2x parity + 3x data (parity array)
WD Red Plus 4TB5CMR NAS✅ Production2x ZFS mirror pool + 2x array expansion + 1x spare
Seagate IronWolf 6TB2CMR NAS✅ ProductionHot spares / future expansion
Seagate SkyHawk 6TB4Surveillance CMR⚠️ Non-NASRepurpose in Synology for cold backup only
Seagate Barracuda 4TB1Desktop❌ RetireNot suitable for always-on NAS duty
SkyHawk Drives: Surveillance firmware — not appropriate for NAS parity array. Used only in Synology for cold backup storage.Barracuda Drive: Desktop drive not rated for 24/7 operation. Retired from service.

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Unraid Pool Layout

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Parity Array — Bulk Media & Downloads

Purpose: Recoverable bulk media and active downloads. Mixed drive sizes supported. Configuration:
  • Parity: 2x WD Red Pro 12TB (dual parity)
  • Data: 3x WD Red Pro 12TB (~36TB usable)
  • Filesystem: XFS per-disk (Unraid default — NOT BTRFS for array)
  • Expandable: 2x WD Red Plus 4TB + 2x IronWolf 6TB available as additional data drives when needed
Shares on Parity Array:
  • media — TV shows, movies, anime, books
  • downloads — All download categories (qBittorrent staging)
  • appdata — Docker/app config from NAS perspective
  • isos — Proxmox ISO images
Dual Parity Requirement: With 3+ data drives, dual parity is essential. Single parity means two simultaneous drive failures (one during a rebuild) kills the array. Dual parity tolerates two simultaneous failures.

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ZFS Mirror Pool — Precious Data

Purpose: Irreplaceable data requiring ZFS integrity guarantees. Configuration:
  • Pool: 2x WD Red Plus 4TB in ZFS mirror (~4TB usable)
  • Cold Spare: 1x WD Red Plus 4TB
  • Snapshots: Enabled on both shares
Shares on ZFS Pool:
  • backups — PBS backups, Docker appdata, Plex DB, Proxmox dumps
  • photos — Immich library (irreplaceable — ZFS protected)
ZFS snapshots provide point-in-time recovery. Same data integrity guarantees TrueNAS had for these datasets in v2.

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Cache Pool — Not Installed at Launch

Decision: No NVMe cache pool at initial build. Rationale:
  • Downloads bypass cache entirely (hardlink requirement — see below)
  • Container appdata lives on docker-prod-01 local disk, not NAS NFS
  • Plex transcode temp points at local Unraid directory
  • No real workload justifies cache at launch
Future Addition (if needed):
  • 2x 512GB NVMe
  • BTRFS RAID1 mirrored
  • Would handle only small random-write workloads — never downloads, never container appdata
Cache Drives Must Always Be Mirrored: A single cache SSD failure before the mover runs means data loss. Never run a single cache drive. Always mirror.
Downloads and media shares MUST be on the same Unraid pool/filesystem for hardlinks and atomic moves to work. Why This Matters:
  • qBittorrent downloads to /data/downloads/
  • ARR tools (Sonarr, Radarr) import to /data/media/
  • Import = hardlink or atomic move (instant, zero copy)
  • Original file stays in downloads for seeding
  • Media file appears in Plex library
  • One file, two directory entries, same inode
Downloads Share Configuration: Set “Use cache: No” in Unraid. Downloads write DIRECTLY to parity array. Never route downloads through cache while media lives on array — this breaks hardlinks and causes silent file duplication.
Verify hardlinks are working: 
stat /data/media/movies/Example\ Movie\ (2024)/Example.mkv
stat /data/downloads/movies/Example.mkv
Both files should show:
  • Same inode number
  • Links: 2 (or higher)

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Share & Directory Layout

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Unraid NAS Shares (/mnt/user/)

SharePoolNAS PathContents
mediaParity Array/mnt/user/mediaAll media — movies (1080p+4K), TV, anime, books
downloadsParity Array/mnt/user/downloadsActive download staging for all categories
photosZFS Mirror/mnt/user/photosImmich library (irreplaceable — ZFS protected)
backupsZFS Mirror/mnt/user/backupsPBS backups, Docker appdata, Plex DB, Proxmox dumps
appdataParity Array/mnt/user/appdataDocker/app config from NAS perspective
isosParity Array/mnt/user/isosProxmox ISO images
/mnt/user is Unraid’s internal path and cannot be renamed. This path is never seen by containers — the docker-host VM mounts the NFS export as /data. All compose files reference /data paths only.

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Docker Host — /data Mount Structure

The NAS exports /mnt/user via NFS. The docker-host VM mounts this as /data. Everything below is logical folder organization within that single mount — one filesystem, hardlinks work everywhere. 
/data/
├── media/
│   ├── movies/
│   │   ├── 1080p/          # Radarr (1080p) library
│   │   └── 4k/             # Radarr (4K) library
│   ├── tv/                 # Sonarr (TV) library
│   ├── anime/              # Sonarr (Anime) library
│   └── books/
│       ├── ebooks/         # CWA Calibre library (canonical state)
│       └── audiobooks/     # ABS library — Shelfmark hardlinks here
├── downloads/
│   ├── movies/             # qBit movie download staging
│   ├── tv/                 # qBit TV download staging
│   ├── anime/              # qBit anime download staging
│   └── books/
│       ├── ebooks/
│       │   ├── downloads/  # qBit seeds from here
│       │   └── ingest/     # Shelfmark hardlinks here → CWA ingests
│       └── audiobooks/
│           └── downloads/  # qBit seeds → Shelfmark hardlinks to media/
└── photos/                 # Immich library (ZFS mirror pool)
v2 had a seeding breakage bug: CWA deleted the ingest file after import, killing the qBit torrent. v3 fixes this with hardlinks.
StepActorAction
1qBittorrentDownloads ebook to /data/downloads/books/ebooks/downloads/ — seeds from here permanently
2ShelfmarkHardlinks completed file to /data/downloads/books/ebooks/ingest/
3CWADetects file in ingest/, imports to /data/media/books/ebooks/, deletes the hardlink in ingest/
4qBittorrentOriginal file in downloads/ is untouched — seeding continues uninterrupted
5qBitrrAfter 14 days, qBitrr stops seeding per MAM policy
Result: CWA gets the file, Calibre library is updated, and the torrent continues seeding without intervention.

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UID/GID Strategy

Service UID/GID: 2000:2000 (clean break from v2) Human User (gio): 1000:1000 Container Configuration: All containers interacting with NFS/SMB mounts run as PUID=2000 PGID=2000 NAS Permissions: Share permissions set to allow 2000:2000 read/write on all service shares
Clean separation: No services run as root. No more gio ownership of datasets. Fresh NFS exports, fresh ownership.

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Network Connectivity

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Primary Protocol: NFS

Linux VM/container mounts use NFS v3 for performance. NFS Exports (configured in Unraid):
  • /mnt/user/media → exported as /data/media to docker-prod-01
  • /mnt/user/downloads → exported as /data/downloads to docker-prod-01
  • /mnt/user/photos → exported as /data/photos to immich-prod-01
  • /mnt/user/backups → exported as /data/backups to pbs-prod-01

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Secondary Protocol: SMB

SMB available for Windows or macOS access if needed. Unraid exports both protocols natively — no extra configuration required.

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10GbE Storage Network

Dedicated Link: 2M DAC cable from NAS X710 Port 1 → MS-A2 SFP+ Port 2 Purpose: Keeps NFS storage traffic off the LAN switch. Full 10GbE bandwidth for VM/container NFS mounts. Configuration: Separate subnet, point-to-point link. Not on any VLAN.
Storage traffic intentionally isolated. LAN switch handles VM/LXC control traffic. Storage link handles bulk data movement.

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Plex Deployment

Platform: Unraid native Docker container (NOT on docker-prod-01) Why on Unraid?
  • i5-13400 QuickSync iGPU (Intel UHD 730) for hardware transcoding
  • Eliminates NFS hop — media files are local to the host doing transcoding
  • QuickSync on 12th/13th gen Intel is mature and well-supported
  • Handles 2x simultaneous 1080p transcodes without breaking a sweat
Configuration:
  • Plex container deployed via Unraid Community Apps
  • iGPU passthrough to container for QuickSync
  • Media library paths: /mnt/user/media/movies/, /mnt/user/media/tv/, etc.
  • Transcode temp: /mnt/user/appdata/plex/transcodes/ (local Unraid directory)
Radeon 680M iGPU on MS-A2 is available for future use (ML workloads, additional transcoding) but QuickSync is the better choice for Plex.

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Backup Architecture

See Backup Strategy for full details. Storage-specific summary:

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ZFS Snapshots (Tier 2)

Scope: Unraid ZFS mirror pool only (backups and photos shares) Schedule: Hourly snapshots, 24-hour retention + daily snapshots, 7-day retention Purpose: Point-in-time recovery for precious data

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Synology ABB (Tier 3)

Method: Synology Active Backup for Business pulls from Unraid nightly Credentials: Read-only NFS mounts to Unraid shares Destination: Synology NAS with 4x SkyHawk 6TB drives (cold backup storage) Purpose: Off-box cold copy. Air-gapped from primary NAS.

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Storage Expansion Plan

Current capacity: ~36TB usable on parity array + ~4TB usable on ZFS pool Future Expansion Options:
  1. Add 2x WD Red Plus 4TB to parity array as data drives (+8TB usable)
  2. Add 2x IronWolf 6TB to parity array as data drives (+12TB usable)
  3. Replace 12TB parity drives with larger drives, then convert old parity to data
  4. Add NVMe cache pool (2x 512GB BTRFS RAID1) if workload emerges
Expansion is intentionally deferred. Current capacity handles all media + downloads with headroom. Don’t buy hardware to solve a problem you don’t have.

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Key Storage Decisions

DecisionChoiceRationale
NAS platformUnraid 7.2.4Hybrid ZFS+parity fits risk tolerance; mixed drive sizes; ZFS where it counts
Cache poolNot installed at launchDownloads bypass cache (hardlink rule); no real workload justifies it
Downloads shareParity array direct — no cacheDownloads and media must be on same filesystem. Cache breaks hardlinks.
Dual parityYes (2 parity drives)5+ data drives warrants dual parity; single parity is a risk
Plex deploymentUnraid native DockerQuickSync via i5-13400 iGPU; no NFS hop; simpler than VM passthrough
UID/GID2000:2000 for servicesClean break from v2; fresh NFS exports; no migration of old ownership mess
See Architecture Decisions for full decision log with context.

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