Part 9: DIY UNRAID NAS – Dual 4TB NVMe Cache Upgrade with Live Btrfs RAID1 Rebalance Firmware Flash

In Part 9 of the DIY UNRAID NAS series, I complete the zero-downtime NVMe cache upgrade, replacing a single 512GB NVMe cache device with dual 4TB NVMe drives in a Btrfs RAID1 cache pool — without destroying data, reinstalling UnRAID, or disrupting Docker and virtual machines.

This episode demonstrates a safe, two-stage NVMe replacement method, using live Btrfs rebalancing, while also covering NVMe firmware updates via PCI passthrough, and why UnRAID makes far more sense than vSAN in a homelab when hardware isn’t on the VMware HCL.

🔧 What’s covered in this video

Removing an NVMe device from PCIe passthrough

Safely rebooting and preparing the UnRAID server

Why UnRAID is ideal for homelabs

Why vSAN is not suitable without HCL-certified hardware

Adding a new 4TB NVMe drive to the cache pool

Live Btrfs RAID1 rebalance

Automatic cache pool expansion to 4TB

Achieving full redundancy across all cache shares

Final summary and validation

⏱ Chapters
00:00 - Intro
00:05 - Remove NVMe from PCI Passthrough
00:20 - Reboot UnRAID server
00:36 - Why UnRAID ?
01:16 - vSAN is not on HCL in the homelab
03:38 - Add NVMe to Cache
05:31 - Start Array
06:05 - Pool re-Balance in Progress
06:15 - It's also expanded to 4TB automatically!
06:45 - Rebalance complete
06:55 - Shares are all now redundant
07:42 - The Summary
11:27 - Thanks for Watching

🚀 Why this matters

This is a real-world homelab upgrade, showing how to:

Scale cache storage safely

Avoid destructive rebuilds

Use enterprise-grade concepts (RAID1, live rebalance)

Without enterprise-grade hardware or licensing

If you’re running UnRAID with Docker, VMs, or nested ESXi, this approach is repeatable, safe, and proven.

Thanks for watching, and see you in the next part of the build!

Gear Used:

Kingston Fury 64GB DDR4 RAM - https://amzn.to/4i7RhZs

512GB XPG GAMMIX NVMe SSDs - https://amzn.to/4o3eLAf

Intel NUC 11 Extreme (Beast Canyon) - https://amzn.to/4p8aNHh

WERPOWER M.2 to U.2 (SFF-8639) PCIe NVMe SSD Cable- PCIe NVMe U.2 (SFF-8639) - https://amzn.to/4pbou8m

Samsung 990 EVO Plus, 4TB, PCIe 4.0 x4 / 5.0 x2, NVMe2.0 (up to 7250 MB/s), NVMe M.2 (2280), Internal Solid State Drive (SSD), MZ-V9S4T0BW - https://amzn.to/4o269Ka

Samsung 990 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD, 4 TB, PCIe 4.0 - https://amzn.to/4hZx2Ng

Enjoy the build and stay tuned for Part 2 where we dive deeper into configuring UnRAID and optimizing the NAS! Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more tech tips and builds.
#IntelNUC #UnRAID #NAS #DIY #TechBuild #NVMe #Storage #HancockVMware

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