An office for your Unraid server
A whole team supports you in running your Unraid server: backups and restore, snapshots, a media cache for Emby, Jellyfin and Plex, the mover, a night watchman and every log in one place.
Meet the team
A fresh office has only the Team Lead. He looks at your server and suggests whom to hire.
Backups that come back
Mr. Backupsy backs up on your schedule: snapshots, database dumps and, encrypted with Kopia, off-site.
Mr. Restori brings back apps, VMs, whole shares or a single file — from the local snapshots, off-site or the partner — and hands you the flash archive to download. He rehearses it regularly on throw-away copies.
A second Unraid server with the office becomes a partner: the two keep each other’s backups, over your own network or the office’s own Tailscale node.
The pool: fast and tidy
Ms. Moverelli adds helmi1987’s Smart Mover to Unraid’s mover. She doesn’t move everything: only when the pool is above your limit does she take the oldest files to the array, until it is below again. Newer files stay in the fast cache.
Jack Streamer puts on the pool what you watch next in Emby, Jellyfin or Plex, with a GB budget per person, and gives what was watched back to the array. The array disks may sleep.
Both in one joint run on your schedule, live to watch: the pool before and after, with snapshots, appdata, Jack Streamer’s budget and every file on its way.
The Night Watchman
A round every five minutes. He only reads and changes nothing.
Only what is different from usual goes into his watch book: a sign-in from a new address, a new plugin, a new device on the LAN — and, if you like, from your router’s log too.
Careful by design
- Behind Unraid’s login. Only whoever is logged in to Unraid gets in; other web pages in your browser can’t trigger anything.
- Looks before it touches. Before anything changes, it shows you what will happen and asks. What is replaced or tidied up is set aside — nothing is deleted at once.
- You’re in control. Copies leave the server only where you send them: to your partner server, or encrypted to a storage of your choice.
- Partners stay independent. A partner server accepts copies, nothing more. If one is taken over, say by ransomware, it can delete or overwrite nothing on the other.
- Only what the desks define. The service on the server can do what root can, but it only offers the actions written in the desks’ code.
- Says what is really there. Protection is shown from what the backups really made, not from the settings; what couldn’t be checked says so.
- Checked. What was looked at, and what it found: HARDENING.md.
Install
In Unraid, go to Plugins → Install Plugin and paste this address. Unraid 7.3.2 or a newer 7.x; snapshots need ZFS or btrfs.
https://github.com/dropnook/UnraidSecretaryOffice/releases/latest/download/unraid-secretary-office.plg
Five languages, Unraid’s themes, search with ⌘K, on the phone too. Plus Ms. Snapshotini, Ms. Dustdevil, Ms. Protocolli and the Consultant. · Full guide on GitHub
Questions
Does a tip unlock anything?
No. Every feature is in the plugin from the start; a tip is welcome and brings a supporter key that only says thank you.
Do I have to hire the whole team?
No. The Team Lead suggests who fits your server, and you hire whom you need.
What do I need for off-site backups?
Kopia in a container — the Consultant installs it with you — or a second Unraid server with the office as a partner (ZFS).
Can a partner server be in another home?
Yes. Both offices can join the USO network — a Tailscale node of the office’s own. Only the partner door is reachable through it; no port forwarding, and nothing of your router or your own Tailscale changes.
Does it wake my sleeping disks?
No, unless you want it to.
Where do I report a problem or a wish?
Right in the office, no GitHub account needed: ⋯ → Report a problem or a wish… — you see every part before it is sent. Or on GitHub.