Interesting requirement for AIO Unraid, VM, Docker, WIndows, Ubuntu..

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Alitech

Member
Feb 14, 2020
30
1
8
Hi guys, apologies for the long post, but I want to provide a full picture to get the best possible advice.

In my research phase right now, and unfortunately I have already been trigger happy with a few components which I am regretting.

I currently have a number of PCs running doing a multitude of things. I need to consolidate as I am using 1.2Kwh at least 24/7. This is costing me a bucket load.

Current setup:

pfSense box:
i5-6400T
GIgabyte z270n Wifi with 2 intel nics
8GB Ram
128GB SSD

The pfSense box is fine, nothing to change there.

Main rig:
Asus x570 gaming F
Ryzen 3950x
64GB RAM
2TB Rocket
10GB SFP+
Watercooling

Currently my main rig is running Blue Iris with 8 4K Ip cameras and the Plex server. Plex picks up the content from the Unraid box. Also have backblaze, Google photo sync, Megadrive and Amazon photos running on this rig. I also use this for video editing and my main PC for everything else.

Unraid box:
SuperMicro MBD-X10SDV-TLN4F-O
XEON D 1541
32GB Non-ecc DDR4
1TB NVME
10 HDDS
Node 804 case

The unraid box is just doing Unraid at this time, without any dockers or VMs.

Download box:
i5 something
Cheap mobo
8GB DDR3
128GB SSD

The download box could be migrated to a VM.

---

I want to offload most of the heavy lifting to the main rig to the Unraid box and I am trying to figure out how to that efficiently and ensure there is enough juice in the box to handle everything

I want to move the following:
  1. Blue Iris on a WIndows VM (blue iris is quite hungry and works best with Intel CPUs with h264 and h265 decoding) - here is a nice write up about what Blue Iris needs Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris
  2. Plex server in a docker with about 20TB of content.. needs to transcode about 5 to 6 heavy streams.
  3. Backblaze for the whole system
  4. The download box in a ubuntu VM with a dedicated network port (1GB is fine)

I plan to use the main rig for gaming, editing, emails and office work so it can remain off or sleeping when not in use.

So the main heavy lifter becomes the Unraid server and this is what I want to build properly. The current mobo and CPU isnt going to cut it, as Blue Iris will not run will on it. Plex works best with iGPU so the Xeon D again is not the best choice for this.

AS I have a Node 804 case, I can fit an mATX in there. I will need at least the following on the mobo to make the switch.

1. 2x SFP+
2. Built in SAS/SATA for 10 HDDs
3. 2x NVME (one cache drive and one plex DB drive)
4. 2x PCIE for GPU and one additional for future upgrades
5. Non-ecc RAM would be nice to have because I have lots lying around already.
6. mATX
7. H.264 and H.265 decoding
8. iGPU
9. As power efficient as humanly possible
10. Quite would be nice, its right next to me all the time

I am not an expert with PCIE x4 x8 or x16, that is something I am still learning.

What I am thinking is that I would Run a Windows VM on Unraid for Blue Iris and get the Intel HD graphics handle the h.264/h.265 decoding needs while I run a docker for Plex with a quadro p2000 for all the transcoding. Does this sound feasible?

Please help me configure this system, much appreciated. Which motherboard and CPU combo should I consider? I believe I can reuse the other components.
 
Last edited:

JSchuricht

Active Member
Apr 4, 2011
198
74
28
Getting BI to use an iGPU through a VM will be a challenge. Last person I knew that tried it had many stability issues. It's not the best solution but you could go a bit backwards in the setup. Host could be Win 10 with BI and Hyper-V for Plex and the download VM. That still leaves Plex without iGPU access but I wouldn't want to share that with BI and anything else.
 

virtuguy

New Member
Dec 12, 2019
6
3
3
Most highres cameras supports sub-streams with lower resolution. since 2 weeks BI have a much better integration for these sub-streams:

5.2.7 - May 1, 2020 You may now specify a second “sub” stream for an RTSP camera. The software will pull video from both streams, using the main stream only for audio and direct-to-disc recording (and playback) and the sub-stream for everything else. This really has become a necessity with the popularity of 4K (8MP) cameras (and beyond).


i disabled the gpu already on my BI system, the cpu can handle these 0,3 - 0,5mp substreams with ease.
 
Last edited:

Alitech

Member
Feb 14, 2020
30
1
8
Getting BI to use an iGPU through a VM will be a challenge. Last person I knew that tried it had many stability issues. It's not the best solution but you could go a bit backwards in the setup. Host could be Win 10 with BI and Hyper-V for Plex and the download VM. That still leaves Plex without iGPU access but I wouldn't want to share that with BI and anything else.
Thank you. Unraid is the option to go for me currently. I am wondering if BI will work ok without any IGPU or physical GPU with the new optimisations.
 

Alitech

Member
Feb 14, 2020
30
1
8
Most highres cameras supports sub-streams with lower resolution. since 2 weeks BI have a much better integration for these sub-streams:





i disabled the gpu already on my BI system, the cpu can handle these 0,3 - 0,5mp substreams with ease.
Thank you Virtuguy

Yes, I read about this recently. I do need to do some optimsation on BI including what the new version offers along with motion trigger happening at the camera level with onvif providing the necessary data to kick off recording. I guess I could work on that on the current main rig.

It still leaves me with my original question about offloading most of my stuff on to unraid into VM and dockers.

Do you think the D-1541 will be ok to run BI on a windows VM without IGPU or a GPU if I do all of the BI optimisation?

If that is the case, I may not need to upgrade and I can just continue to use the current set up..

I can of course get the quadro p2000 for the Plex transcoding and call it a day?

Please let me know your thoughts/
 

virtuguy

New Member
Dec 12, 2019
6
3
3
I use a quite old Xeon 1220v3 with Proxmox and 10 Dahua/Reolink 4K cameras. The VM is a simple Windows Box with 2 Cores => 26% avg cpu usage. I have also one box with a slow Celeron 3150N testbox. It can´t handle 2 4k Streams in full resolution, even with gpu support enabled. with substreams it´s no issue at all to handle all my cameras.

So yes, a Xeon 1541 can handle it if your cameras support substreams.