Uninstall k3s To uninstall execute the following as root:

/usr/local/bin/k3s-uninstall.sh
rm -rf /var/lib/rancher

Reinstall k3s

Execute:

curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | INSTALL_K3S_EXEC="--flannel-backend=none --disable-network-policy --cluster-cidr=192.168.0.0/16" sh -s - --docker

Copy the k3s yaml file to your home directory to allow remote access. Ensure correct ownership:

mkdir /home/luis/.kube/ #(Only required if you don't have the .kube directory in your home folder yet)
cp  /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml /home/luis/.kube/config
chown -R luis:luis /home/luis/.kube/

Check nodes:

kubectl get node

Get the token of your master node:

cat /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/node-token

Use this token and the IP of your master node in the installation command to be executed in your worker nodes. Execute as root:

curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | K3S_URL=https://serverip:6443 K3S_TOKEN=mytoken sh -s - --docker

Execute this in the worker node as root.

You will get the error:

The connection to the server localhost:8080 was refused – did you specify the right host or port?

This is because flannel was disabled and there is no CNI running.

And if you try to check pods from the master node the status will only be in ContainerCreating:

Install Calico

From here you will need to install calico. To do so execute:

kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/projectcalico/calico/v3.25.0/manifests/tigera-operator.yaml

Then install the required custom resources:

kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/projectcalico/calico/v3.25.0/manifests/custom-resources.yaml

Now check the pods

kubectl get pod -o wide --all-namespaces

You will notice that some traefik containers are in error or CrashLoopBackOff state. I am not sure why but I don’t really need it. To disable Traefik:

kubectl -n kube-system delete helmcharts.helm.cattle.io traefik traefik-crd

Stop k3s services.

sudo systemctl stop k3s
sudo systemctl status k3s

Modify below the k3s service configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/k3s.service

And add the following line:

'--disable=traefik' \

Reload the service and delete the Traefik yaml file:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo rm /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/manifests/traefik.yaml

Start k3s:

sudo systemctl start k3s
sudo systemctl status k3s

Check nodes

kubectl get node -o wide

Check the pods regularly.

You might notice that some calico pods are in crashloopback state. Check again after a few minutes and they should be in running state

K3s with Calico should be running fine now at this point!

In bullet points:

• All disks and shares can be found in /mnt/.
• /mnt/disk1/ is location of disk1.

• /mnt/user0 contains all of the shares but only those of which are in the array and not the cache.
• Shares are spread across the disks.
• All shares on unRAID can be found in /mnt/user. Try to click on any of the share and it will show you the path.
• If you mount an external drive from the Unassigned Devices, the path will be in /mnt/disks/
• If you try to mount a remote share (e.g. a SMB share from another unraid system), the path will be in /mnt/remotes/.
• There are different tools which can be used for data transfer e.g. Krusader, rsync, remote shares, or by using the cli.

How to use Krusader

Install binhex krusader.

Delete /media

We will create three different folders. One to access local shares, one for unassigned disks, and another one for remote shares.

On the bottom part click ‘Add another path, port, variable, label or device.’

Follow as below:

Add another one as below:

And another one as below:

Click Apply and wait for installation to complete.

Go to Docker > Krusader > WebUI

Go through the wizard by clicking on OK.

On both the left and right side panel go to the / directory. And from here add a profile called ‘startup’.

Go to Settings > Configure Krusader > Startup profile > choose startup. Apply.

Now you can navigate to your directories and copy or move files across the panels. One good thing to note is even if you close the browser, the copying or moving of files will continue as long as the docker application is running. For attaching external drives via USB, you will have to mount them on the ‘Main’ tab before it appears in /mnt/disks/ directory.

• Motherboard: Asrock H570M-ITX/AC
• CPU: Intel Core i7-11700
• RAM: Kingston Fury DDR4 3200MT/s 16GB x 2
• Drives: 2x 8 TB WD Red Plus, 2x 1TB Samsung 980 NVMe, 1x 500GB Samsung 860 EVO
• PSU: Fractal Design ION SFX-L 500W 80PLUS Gold
• Case: Jonsbo N1

Below you can find the steps I followed to install unRAID v6.11.5 with the help of SpaceInvaderOne’s video. Of course only follow at your own risk. I would even advise you to go to SpaceInvaderOne’s youtube channel and watch his videos instead.

Preparation

1. Create a bootable USB with the Unraid USB creator and allow UEFI boot since there is no external GPU.
2. Change boot order to have USB as first priority.
3. Enable VD-T and all other virtualization settings in BIOS.
4. Disable built-in RAID function in BIOS.
5. Plug server to router and access using kamata.local (name-of-server.local)
6. Change to a static IP address by going under Settings > Network Settings.

7. Go to plugins tab and install community plugins manager. You can get this from Unraid forum > Plugin support > [Plug-In] Community Applications. Acquire the URL under the INSTALLATION section.

8. Go back to Installed Plugins and click on the icon of Community Applications

9. Go to Plugins > Preclear Disk icon. Preclear only the mechanical disks and not NVMe or SSDs. Below the first one has already been started. You can leave everything else in default or you can just skip pre-read to save on time. My 8TB drives took about 13 hours to complete the zeroing process and another 13 hours to complete post-read.

10. Once preclear is done, you can create the array.

Creating the array

It’s really surprising how easy it is to create the array in just a few clicks.

1. In the Main tab, assign one of the mechanical disks as parity but do note the parity drive should always be equal or bigger than any of the other drives in your array. Assign another drive as disk 1.

2. Start the array and confirm the warning message prompt.

3. You will see that the disks are unmountable. This is because they haven’t been formatted yet. Go to the bottom part and formal all the disks. Ensure those are only disks part of the new array.

4. Once formatting is complete, the parity-sync will start automatically. This will take time depending on the drive capacity. As for my case it took around another 13 hours. Do note that you don’t have to wait for parity to complete before you can start using the array. You can already upload files at this point but you will not have redundancy not unless parity is complete.

5. When parity is completed you will see a green dot on the left side of device name. You can also scroll down and you should see a text showing parity is valid. At this point anything you upload into the disk will have redundancy. Just remember that parity needs to be calculated every time you modify something in the disk.

Creating a cache pool

Now that you have the array running with parity-sync complete, you can start configuration of the cache pool. Here you will see that I still have my NVMe drives under unassigned devices. I plan have them running on RAID1 as well – same as the array.

1. Stop the array so you can add a cache pool. I named it cache_protected to remind me this cache has redundancy (any name will do). Click on Add Pool and assign 2 slots. Select the one drive for each of the slot.

2. You can click on the name of the cache pool to see the settings. I kept mine on default. Start the array. It will show the the disks again are unmountable so you just have to format them the same way it was done for array disks.

3. Cache pool creation will not take so long. When that’s done the second device under Pool Devices will have a text saying that it is part of a pool.

This is the final step to running your array with a cache pool. If you want to move files into any of the shares you can use a docker application called Krusader. I just tried this today but haven’t had more time to explore so I am parking this for now.