I have been wanting to build a NAS for some time now and I've been looking for an OS that allows me to run it nicely and Unraid seems to be a good candidate (although not being open source). According to Unraid official documentation[1], Unraid is "an embedded operating system that is designed to provide you with the ultimate control over your hardware. In addition to performing the duties of a robust NAS (network-attached storage), Unraid is also capable of acting as an application server and virtual machine host." As far as hardware goes, this system will be more than enough to run a node (I'm planning on dedicating 8GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD).
Yeah! From official documentation, UNRAID is designed to provide control over hardware and can function as a robust NAS, application server, and virtual machine host.This is really interesting considering the features of UNRAID and it roles in NAS. Wow!
Since I intend to run this machine 24/7/365, I also want to run a node on it and I was wondering if anyone is already running this setup? If so, did you encounter any problems with it? Unraid has community applications[2] - apps that are developed by users to be installed in Unraid OS - and there are at least two applications whose purpose is to run a bitcoin node[3][4].
Regarding running a Bitcoin node on Unraid, the community applications renders various options. It's worth noting that there are two applications specifically developed for running a Bitcoin node- These community-developed apps can provide valuable insights from the users here who have already explored this setup which I too would look forward to hearing from.
There is, however, another option - Since I can also run VM's on this OS, I can always run one with a Linux Distribution (Fedora - thanks o_e_l_e_o!) and just install Umbrel on it and proceed to run a node on it. Considering Unraid file system, and the fact that I would run the node on an Unassigned device (to avoid writing directly to the array of HDD's), I'm unsure if Umbrel would detect that disk however. Any thoughts on this idea as well?
Also, if you consider running a Linux distribution as a virtual machine on UNRAID, installing Umbrel as a Bitcoin node is a viable option. Another kudos to the versatility of Unraid's OS, running Umbrel on a Linux VM can be a suitable alternative. However, it's important to verify if Umbrel can detect the disk when using an Unassigned device. It might be helpful to seek feedback from the UNRAID community or explore relevant moves to ensure the success of this idea.
Independently of the direction that I take, I plan to update this topic with my developments when I get the server up and running (Soon™) in the hopes of helping users that may also find themselves in this situation.
It's really cool to hear that you plan on sharing your developments with the community. Best of luck! Looking forward to hearing of your progress and When you get your server up and running, your updates can be valuable for users facing similar situations. I'm sure you'd share updates too 😊