First, I know that Unraid is not FOSS and I’m a month late, just to get that out of the way. But for those that are running Unraid and haven’t updated to >7.3.0, there’s good reason to (other than for security patches): internal boot and TPM licensing.

This update allows you to boot from an internal drive, no more chewing up flash drives. As a long time Unraid user (for over a decade), this was a long time coming. My server ate several flash drives. Setting it up was a breeze, once I updated to 7.3.x, the wizard to configure it came up and I was able to move it to one of my internal SSDs. All I had to do after that was go into the BIOS and set the boot priority correctly.

Internal boot works without a TPM, however you’d still need the flash drive with your license on it plugged in at boot. If you have a TPM on your server, though, you can migrate your license from your flash to your TPM, with another simple wizard. After migration, you no longer need a boot flash drive.

I had to get a Supermicro AOM-TPM-9665V TPM chip for my motherboard, but I’ve got it all set now. It’s a relief to no longer have to rely on flash drives now - my server’s rear exhaust fans were blowing directly on them, causing them to overheat and eventually crash my server.

Unraid posted about this in their blog here: https://unraid.net/blog/unraid-7-3-0

  • comrademiao@piefed.socialEnglish
    5·
    22 hours ago

    As a former unraid user and a certified unraid hater—Finally a problem solved by computers since their inception has been solved by unraid… cannot imagine why one uses unraid outside of having a mixed set of drives and only one device.

    • CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      5·
      22 hours ago

      I mean, it’s all personal preference in this community. Other than this flash drive issue, Unraid has been rock solid for me.

      I originally started using it more than a decade ago to be able to mix drives.

      I also do have multiple Unraid servers as well.

      • comrademiao@piefed.socialEnglish
        3·
        21 hours ago

        Why would you pay for something, now annually, that is essentially a bad Linux webgui , which can be easily achieved for free with any Linux distro? Outside of mixed drives…

        • CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
          5·
          21 hours ago

          I don’t pay annually. I’m locked in with permanent licensing because I’ve used it for over a decade (see: legacy licensing). Unless that changes, and something else can do the mixed drives as well as Unraid, I don’t see that changing for me any time soon.

          For my servers that aren’t mixed JBOD, I use Fedora/CoreOS with Quadlets, so believe me when I say that I know that outside of that specific use case, there are better options.

          But I use Unraid specifically for the ability to mix drive sizes and easily emulate and rebuild failed disks. That’s it. That’s the whole reasoning as to why I still use it.

          Oh, also, while yes, it did become a subscription (which does not apply to me anyway), it’s not necessarily a standard annual subscription, it’s a one time purchase and then you can choose to stop paying until you want to update again. The subsequent payments are less than the first purchase of the license and do last for a year. You still own your license when you stop paying, you just stop getting updates until you pay that lesser amount again. While similar (and I personally wouldn’t buy a license today), it isn’t what an annual subscription normally implies.