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Status: PlannedCategory: Core Infrastructure

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Objective

Build Unraid from scratch, create all pools, configure shares, validate NFS exports and permissions before any services depend on it.

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Entry Criteria

Phase 1 complete — NAS physically assembled and on Services VLAN

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Unraid Pool Layout

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Parity Array — Bulk Media & Downloads

  • 2x WD Red Pro 12TB as dual parity drives
  • 3x WD Red Pro 12TB as data drives (~36TB usable)
  • Filesystem: XFS per-disk (Unraid default — do not use BTRFS for array)
  • Shares: media (TV, movies, anime, books), downloads (all categories)
  • Expandable: 2x WD Red Plus 4TB and 2x IronWolf 6TB available as additional data drives when needed
Downloads Share — No CacheDownloads share writes DIRECTLY to parity array — no cache involvement. This is mandatory to keep downloads and media on same filesystem so hardlinks and atomic moves work.

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ZFS Mirror Pool — Precious Data

  • 2x WD Red Plus 4TB in ZFS mirror (~4TB usable)
  • Shares: backups, photos (Immich library)
  • ZFS snapshots enabled — same data integrity guarantees as TrueNAS had for these datasets
  • 1x WD Red Plus 4TB kept as cold spare for this pool

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Cache Pool — Not Installed at Launch

No cache pool at initial build. Workload does not justify it.If added later: 2x 512GB NVMe, BTRFS RAID1 mirrored. Would handle only small random-write workloads — never downloads, never container appdata.

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Tasks

1

Install Unraid

  • Install Unraid 7.2.3 (USB flash boot)
  • Configure hostname: nas-prod-01
  • Set static IP: 192.168.10.10 (Management VLAN)
2

Configure Parity Array

  • 2x 12TB WD Red Pro parity drives
  • 3x 12TB WD Red Pro data drives
  • Start parity build (will take 24-48 hours)
3

Configure ZFS Mirror Pool

  • 2x 4TB WD Red Plus in ZFS mirror
  • Enable ZFS snapshots
4

Create Shares

  • media — parity array, no cache
  • downloads — parity array, no cache (critical for hardlinks)
  • photos — ZFS mirror pool
  • backups — ZFS mirror pool
  • appdata — parity array
  • isos — parity array
5

Set Share Permissions

  • UID/GID 2000:2000 read/write on all service shares
  • Configure NFS exports for all shares
6

Verify 10GbE Link

  • Verify 10GbE DAC link to MS-A2 is up and passing traffic
  • Test throughput with iperf3
7

Test NFS Mount

  • Mount NFS from a Linux VM
  • Verify read/write and correct 2000:2000 ownership
8

Enable Plex on Unraid

  • Install Plex Docker container on Unraid
  • Configure QuickSync iGPU passthrough to container (Intel UHD 730)
  • Verify hardware transcoding enabled in Plex settings
9

Configure NUT Server

  • Install NUT server on Unraid via Community Apps
  • Connect UPS USB to nas-prod-01
  • Verify NUT detects UPS and shows battery/status
  • Configure shutdown thresholds (e.g. trigger shutdown at 20% battery or after 5 min on battery)
10

Begin Media Migration

Copy → verify → do not delete until confirmed. Start with small subset to validate.

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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
Hardlink RuleDownloads and media shares must always be on the same Unraid pool/filesystem. Never route downloads through cache while media lives on the array — this breaks hardlinks and causes silent duplication. Downloads share = parity array direct, no exceptions.

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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.
PathPurpose
/data/media/movies/1080p/Radarr (1080p) library
/data/media/movies/4k/Radarr (4K) library
/data/media/tv/Sonarr (TV) library
/data/media/anime/Sonarr (Anime) library
/data/media/books/ebooks/CWA Calibre library (canonical ebook state)
/data/media/books/audiobooks/ABS library — Shelfmark hardlinks here
/data/downloads/movies/qBit movie download staging
/data/downloads/tv/qBit TV download staging
/data/downloads/anime/qBit anime download staging
/data/downloads/books/ebooks/downloads/qBit ebook downloads — seeds from here
/data/downloads/books/ebooks/ingest/Shelfmark hardlinks here → CWA ingests + deletes hardlink
/data/photos/Immich photo library (ZFS mirror pool)

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UID/GID Strategy

  • Service UID/GID: 2000:2000 (clean break from v2 — fresh NFS exports, fresh ownership)
  • Human user (gio): 1000:1000
  • All containers interacting with NFS/SMB mounts must run as PUID=2000 PGID=2000
  • NAS 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

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Exit Criteria

  • Parity array: 2 parity drives + 3 data drives
  • ZFS mirror pool: 2x 4TB in mirror
  • Parity build complete (no errors)
  • ZFS pool healthy (zpool status)
  • Test VM can mount /mnt/user via NFS
  • Read/write verified
  • Ownership shows 2000:2000
  • Media copied from old TrueNAS pool
  • File counts match
  • Spot-check: files play correctly in Plex
  • Snapshot schedule configured (hourly, daily, weekly)
  • First snapshots created successfully

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Next Phase

Phase 3 — Proxmox Rebuild & Core VM Infrastructure

Proxmox cluster setup and core VMs

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