Unraid: 20 Must Have Plugins (2021 Edition)

hi guys and welcome back to another apricorp  video thanks for tuning in with us today i'm   hoping i'm going to provide you with some  nice new information you're an advanced user   maybe it's not so new maybe i'll show you  something you haven't thought about before   this is the top 20 plugins for unraid in 2021 you  may or may not have heard of these plugins or you   may have just set up your brand new system and you  have no idea what we're talking about i'm going to   walk you through them and we're going to install  them together the list is in no particular order   they're just different plugins they do completely  different things there's so many plugins that   could only limit it down to 20 and i'm going to  breeze through them so that you can get started   right into your new system with unraid so without  waiting any longer let's just get stuck into it alright guys so the first thing you'll need  to do is make sure you've got the app store   installed on your system if you don't know  how to do that i've already done a quick video   to take you about two minutes  and i will install it for you   after you've installed it head to the app store  type in squid it'll show you squids repository and   there's going to be a whole bunch here first thing  we're going to install is fix common problems they see a fixed comma problems click the install  button click done and then go to the settings once you're in the settings you'll see a  bunch of options here that you can configure   to meet your needs and this will check on  a frequency for any common issues that you   might be having with your system i'm going  to set it to weekly i'll leave it as weekly   send notification which will  show you a small little pop-up   avoid spinning up the discs for tests so if you  don't want the disc spinning up leave it like that   number of allowed invalid logins and  whether you want everything to be logged you can also exclude certain  folders from the checks as well   so make sure you get this plug-in it'll allow  you to look at things that might need correction   after you've corrected them you can rescan or  run an extended scan and that will help you   isolate any sort of issue you  might have back to the app store   next one is probably one of the most important  that is the ca app data backup and restore click install and then click done go to the settings  and i'll show you a bunch of warnings that's fine start filling it out and be very careful that  you picked the right stuff guys this plugin will   allow you to backup your updater folder which is  where your containers store all their data really   useful it saved me about twice now and without it  i would have had to rebuild entire applications   so it's really handy that you set this up first  thing you'll do is fill out the app data share   so the source that lives by default if you go  to user app data that should be where all your   containers live and i can confirm that by looking  underneath it and i can see all of our containers   destination share is preferably a share that  you have set up for backups i created a share   called backups app data backups if you don't know  how to do that go to shares i'll open that here   and just go add share give it a name and then  select the option under cache pool this is   one that throws up beginners quite a bit and  i'll have a quick explanation here for you   by saying yes you're saying that you want  the system to write stuff to the cache   and then once the mover runs it  will move them onto the array only means you only want it to live on the cache  and if the if the cache was to fill up with space   that would be it it wouldn't try to write it  anywhere else refer means it will always try to   write it to the cache but if there's no space on  the cache it's just going to write it to the disks   and then once the mover runs again if there's  space on the cache it will move the stuff back   so me personally i like to leave for that sort  of stuff but for our backup share which is going   to be i actually would rather it be yes because i  want the stuff to eventually just go to the disks   that way it's protected on our array so back  to our app data backups make sure we've got   our share selected scroll down we don't want  to use compression but you can if you like   want to verify your backups you can also exclude  certain folders from the backup previously   you were able to use usb backups as well it  still allows you to do it however it has been   deprecated so they really want you to use the new  unraid.net plugin is available on the app store   and that lets you log in with this here have your  server set up that way if you want notifications   any custom scripts if you want to automatically  update apps on restart which i'll show you with   when we install the auto update plugin time to  wait before killing an app how long you want   it to retain backups for so a good number is five  maybe seven depends on your needs and any schedule   backup frequency so we're going to say daily at  3 am that works fine for us keep in mind all your   docker containers will shut down once this runs so  anything that you need that might be essential is   going to be turned off once this backup is running  then just hit apply that's it it's the same menu   as well to restore backup so if you had taken any  backups you could take a restore here as well if   the backup was running or the restore was running  this is a log that runs so you see where it's up   to go back on the app store and we'll go on to  our third app auto turbo right bone click install   click done so we'll go to the settings here for  auto turbo write mode you can see it's currently   disabled on automatic set that to yes apply and  what it's doing is allowing the turbo right mode   to be automatically switched on and off to help  minimize excessive disk spin up but also utilize   your discs as best as possible increase your  throughput quite a handy plug in there back in   the app store next one is the app data cleanup now  not a lot of people know about this app i feel and   it's one of the most useful ones out there we'll  install it and i'll just explain how it works   click done go to the settings be very careful  using this so you can see all the warnings here   your heads up and what can happen if you do things  wrong but basically when you go to docker i'll   just open that up here and if you were to delete a  docker we'll click remove also remove the image a   lot of people think it's gone and that everything  has been deleted then they go back to the app   store and they install the same app again and  realize that all the data is still there somehow   the reason is the appdata folder is still alive  and still has all the data in it and never gets   deleted so you can either delete it through  your windows explorer or use this plugin so   here you can see ones that i've deleted before  if i just check that and click delete selected   delete that folder's now gone now i can be sure  if i was downloaded again from the app store it   wouldn't reinstall with all the data that we had  before next one ca auto update definitely one   of the most useful and it works hand in hand with  our app data backup as we said before hit install and go to settings in the settings you have  options to automatically update your plugins   and automatically update your dockers so in  here send notifications and update will say yes   you can set a delay whether you want to update  everything or you can pick killer things i'm   going to say yes to everything i wanted to  check every day and i wanted to do it at 12 a.m   hit apply go to the docker settings now and it's  going to be pretty similar if you wanted to update   all of them maybe you only want to automatically  update a couple click yes set your schedule i'm   going to say 12 day and hit apply just a side  note always try to make sure you set this up   outside of the time that your backups  are running so that they don't overlap   head back to the app store for number six ca  user scripts just down here we'll click install click done go to the settings if you are not  an advanced user you may not ever use this   but it's really helpful to have especially if  someone in the community gives you a script   for your server that you might want to run or  if you wanted to try your own this is how you   would do it basically add a script give it a  name it's got here edit it write your script   so just a useful one there next one is the ca  config editor this allows you to edit files   inside of your unread system through the ui itself  so we've just installed that we'll go to settings   you can see here you can select on the  files that are living on your system   notably your flash drive number eight arguably one  of the most important is the mover tuning plug-in   which is just down here also by squid so big  thanks to squid for all his work here these   are basically essential as i think of unraid these  days we'll go to the settings and it's going to   take you to your mover settings now if you don't  have this plugin installed this is the options   you'll see for me right here and the job of the  mover is to take files that are on your cache   and put them on the array or from the array  and onto your page that's the setting that   we set in the share when we're saying whether  we want something to stay on the cache or not   as you can see by default the settings are  pretty rigid here in unraid either hourly   daily weekly or monthly and can set a certain  time frame i can say hourly every three hours but what that's going to do is every three hours  it's going to actually execute over and actually   start moving stuff whether or not there's  anything on there which increases our read   and writes to our disks but with our plugin  it actually gives us these options here now   this means that you can further clarify what  it is you want to do before the mover executes   so one of my favorite features only moves at  this threshold of used cash space let's say 75 this then turns it into more of a check so it  will check every three hours and if the disk isn't   above 75 used it won't do anything and that limits  those extra read writes for no reason if that's   not enough for you you can always adjust it as  well but it just gives you extra option and as you   can see there's heaps more options here that you  could do a separate video on so leave it at that   and click apply and there you go there's your move  the settings done and our next one is wire guard search wire guard you'll see dynamics  wire guard pop-up click install and click done now go to your settings and you'll  see a vpn manager icon wireguard is a vpn manager   and allows you to dial into your server remotely  it also allows you to dial into the network of   the server remotely too that requires an extra  bit of setting up and i'll be covering that in a   separate video but for now have this installed and  ready so that we can get to it when we get there   i'll be showing you how to do it through  cloudflare if you haven't seen my cloudflare   videos be sure to check them out the next plugin  is the pre-cleared disk plugin click install wait for that to load once done go to the settings and you'll  see here there's nothing really running   what the pre-clear does is typically the most  ideal situation is you put a brand new disk in   your new server and you run a pre-clear which will  read and write to every single block on the disk   once it reaches all the way from zero to terabyte  whatever it is will tell you if any of those   blocks failed to read or write and that tells  you the likelihood of that disk failing before   you write your precious data to it so pre-clearing  a disk is essentially a good practice thing to do   and this plug-in allows you to do it so if you  go to main once you add a new disk you'll see   the option to pre-clear it come up here as well  and allows you to read and write to it before you   send it into your actual array up the top the  next set of plugins we'll use are by dynamics   already installed his wire guard plugin and  i will install some other ones to go with it   the next one we'll install is the  dynamics active streams plugin install that click done go to the settings and  you'll see there's nothing running at the moment   but what it allows you to do is quickly see if  there's a file being streamed from your server   great if you're using it as a file server  or as a nas what android really is so it   helps you see where those origins are coming  from who's using it and what they're streaming   so pretty useful next plugin number 12 is our  dynamics system info plugin we just click here allow that to run click done and go to the  settings now you'll see extremely detailed   information of your system and allows you to  dial in on anything you might need so it almost   gives you too much but it's pretty good so just  another one there to give you a little bit more   information on what you're running next one it's  a pretty small change but one that could be useful   is the dynamics date time plugin we go to settings   on the date and time you can click  to show map this allows you to select   where you are living so you can set the time a  lot easier than looking through this huge list i recorded the entire thing  and i didn't press record unfinished small change but it can make your life a  little easier back in the app store we're   looking at number 14 dynamics system buttons  this one i really like so we'll click install and click done now if we reload the page  you'll notice here in the top right corner   we now have a new button that gives us three  options up the array shut down or to restart   saves you having to go back to  the dashboard to do it and just   adds it in a nice convenient spot back in the  app store again number 15 the dynamics ssd trim   plugin if you are running an ssd in  your system this is essential to have   takes two seconds we'll just click  install click done and go to the settings   takes you to your mover settings that we were in  earlier but if you just scroll down right to the   bottom now added this ssd trim option so set that  to the schedule you like and this will perform   ssd trimming which allows you to extend  the life of your solid state drive   so once you're happy with that hit apply the next  one dynamics s3 sleep we'll install that here and it basically allows your system to know the  conditions when the system will go to s3 sleep   mode it also adds an unconditional sleep button  on the array operation page so we'll click the   settings for it real quick and you can see here  the options that you've got if you wanted your   system to go to sleep and how to manage it  it just gives you the extra management of it   back in the app store dynamics system  stats is coming up next click install and click done we go to the settings we  can fine tune what it is we want to see   in our case i'm going to change this to the  tools menu so this changes the placement of it   and you can change everything else to match  what you like once you're ready hit apply   we go to the tools menu now you see  system stats so we'll just click that   and now it gives you a nice overview of all your  systems and what's going on with your computer   number 18 is the dynamics system temperature  plugin so right down the bottom here click install and click done and we search for nerd pack  a notepad you'll come up we'll click install   and click done go to the settings for it and search for perl we're already done on our  system here but yours will have this as off   so just select on and hit apply we'll then  pull down pearl and install it for you once   you've done that go back your temperature settings  click save and now it's loaded the drivers for us   and allows you to pick up any sort of detection  nodes that are in your system for temperature   worth saying guys if you don't have a node  in your system to detect the temperature   nothing will come up if you do feel free to pick  the ones you want to monitor then hit apply you go   back to the dashboard you can see the temperatures  here as well so that's a nice handy one there next   one is the dynamics cache the irs it keeps folder  information in memory to prevent unnecessary disk   spin up so again guys we're trying to limit  those unnecessary spin-ups of our disks   there's plenty of settings here for you to  go through remember that you can click h1 if   you want to have a read through it and  it'll explain exactly what's happening   so if you wanted it on obviously  make sure that you set it to enabled   and make sure you read through it see if it suits  what you want most of the time it's going to be   pretty helpful and last but not least number 20  is the open files plugin we just click install   click done and go to the settings this will  show you any open files that might prevent   a graceful shutdown of your system as you can see  we've got docker d and container d running here   i don't really want to terminate them like this  you would want to shut them down properly first   but if you really had something that was stuck and  didn't want to get out you could kill it through   this way pretty useful plug-in just to have on  the side there when you need it so guys that's my   top 20 plugins for 2021 on unraid 6.9.1 i hope it  was helpful for you let me know what other ones   you would recommend drop them down in the comments  below we're here to try and help beginners as well   as the advanced and if you have any suggestions  let us know remember to like and subscribe   it really helps us out we've got more videos  coming soon so i hope you'll stay tuned with us   thank you for watching see  you on the next record video you

Channel: IBRACORP

Views: 31,932

Keywords: beginners guide to unraid, best plugins, best unraid plugins, configure unraid, essential unraid plugins, ibracorp, ibracorp 6.9.1, install unraid, plex unraid, plugins, reddit, spaceinvader one, the best unraid plugins, unraid, unraid beginners guide, unraid beginners guide 2021 edition, unraid docker, unraid for beginners, unraid guide, unraid install, unraid plex tutorial, unraid plugins, unraid server, unraid setup, unraid tutorial, unraid 6.9, unraid os

Id: cZTWC_z9rKs

Length: 20min 45sec (1245 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/EpsilonBlight]

CA Fix Common Problems

CA Appdata Backup/Restore

CA Auto Turbo Write Mode

CA Appdata Cleanup

CA Auto Update

CA User Scripts

CA Config Editor

Mover Tuning

Dynamix WireGuard

Preclear Disk

Dynamix Active Streams

Dynamix System Info

Dynamix Date Time

Dynamix System Buttons

Dynamix SSD TRIM

Dynamix S3 Sleep

Dynamix System Statistics

Dynamix System Temperature

Dynamix Cache Dirs

Open Files

[u/IAmTaka_VG]

I do appreciate videos like this however this one in particular is basically just "download all CA and Dynamix plugins".

[u/RMy2z7BzsNqCTXEZbrL]

A list of 20 plugins... 😀

In a video 😡

[u/thefoxman88]

Still missing some super important ones like "Unassigned Drives"

[u/sycotix]

Hi all. I thought it would be quicker to just write a response to everyone. I'd like to thank you very much for taking the time to watch or comment.

It seems some people are bothered by the list being in a video. Not sure what to tell you guys, I mean I put the list in the description so you don't have to even watch it because I hate clickbait. Also, I make YouTube videos so making things in video format is kind of what I do? I apologize if I mislead anyone to think otherwise.

For everyone else that suggested additional plugins that I missed thank you very much. I definitely could have made the list better, was a little tired but I'll note them down and do a follow up another time. Always room for improvement :)

Thank you for taking the time watch and share your feedback, I'm by no means perfect and it all helps me improve. Cheers!

[u/ds679]

Some good stuff...thanks! Learned of a few new ones (to me)!

[u/PTRFRLL]

My understanding is Unraid 6.9 introduced the btrfs 'discard=async' mount option which makes the SSD Trim plugin fairly useless (assuming you're using btrfs for you cache drives)

[u/S2kDriver]

Why isn't this a writeup instead of a video?

[u/ledzep83]

Thanks for this! Still fairly new to unraid and have a bunch of docker containers but not many plugins!