Unraid is a closed-source, Linux-based home server and NAS operating system. It offers a WebGUI and supports virtualization with Docker and virtual machines, making it very versatile. But what hardware requirements does Unraid have?
Unraid itself is very frugal and runs on any 64-bit processor with 1 GHz or more and 2 GB or more of RAM. In addition, a USB stick with at least 1 GB of memory is required.
The hardware requirements for Unraid are given for three different categories: a pure storage server, an application server, and a VM host server.
Data Storage and Protection
The minimum hardware requirements to install Unraid OS 6 for data storage usage are:
- A 64-bit capable processor, 1.0 GHz or better
- At least 2 GB of RAM
- Linux hardware driver support for storage, Ethernet, and USB controllers
- Two hard disk drives to ensure data protection with a parity disk
Additional requirements apply when adding applications or virtual machines.
Application Server
To run a wide gamut of applications, your system should consist of at least a quad-core CPU (2.4 GHz or faster) and 4-8 GB of RAM. As you load more applications, you’ll need to add additional resources.
Creating Virtual Machines
To run VMs, you must have hardware-assisted virtualization (HVM) support on your processor and motherboard (Intel VT-x / AMD-V). To assign host-based PCI devices, like graphics and sound, to your VMs, your CPU and motherboard must also support IOMMU (Intel VT-d / AMD-Vi).
Each of the three types of VMs you can create using Unraid OS 6 has slightly different requirements for virtualization support.
| VM Type | HVM | IOMMU |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Servers | Required | Not Required |
| Virtual Desktops | Required | Not Required |
| Hybrid VMs | Required | Required |
What hardware requirements do I need for my Unraid server?
Of course, it depends on what you want to do with the Unraid server. Nevertheless, here are some examples.
| Application | CPU (utilization of a Ryzen 5 2600 @ 3400 MHz, in percent) | RAM in GB |
| Minecraft Server | 10% | 4 – 8 GB (8 GB recommended) |
| AdGuard Home | 1% | 0.720 GB |
| Nextcloud | 5% | 0.100 GB |
| OnlyOffice | 2% | 0.400 GB |
| Plex Media Server | 10% | 0.900 GB |
| Duplicati | 5% | 0.300 GB |
| UniFi Controller | 1% | 2 GB |
If you use the Unraid server mostly for file storage and maybe one or two Docker containers like Nextcloud, a 2-core CPU with 8 GB RAM can be sufficient. But I would generally recommend at least 4 cores and 16 GB.