That’s right…grab it while it’s hot. unRAID Server 4.3 Beta1 is available and, although it is a beta, contains some features that I know I have been anxiously awaiting.

From the unRAID site,

“The first main change in the 4.3 release is an upgrade to the linux 2.6.24.3 kernel. This kernel includes numerous driver updates and bug fixes. Hopefully the Realtec driver issues are behind us now. Another notable feature of this kernel is SATA Port Multipler support. This works with SIL313x host cards talking to SIL-based port multipliers. Finally, unRAID OS now supports up to 4GB main system RAM (though still only single-core).

The next main change in the 4.3 release is an almost total re-write of the User Share pseudo-file system [this is what delayed this release by a few days]. It is now possible to create objects (files & directories) directly on disk shares and have them immediately show up in the corresponding user share. The new user share file system is now much more memory efficient, and it should be possible to use very high ‘split-level’s if that’s what you want to do.

We also added the vsftpd FTP server. In this release, there are no user controls for this yet – it’s just pre-configured to allow any defined user to log in & that user will have full access to all shares, both disk shares and user shares. Configuration controls in the System Management Utility will be added in a subsequent beta release.“

I’m especially excited about the fix for the User Shares as I experience the ‘update’ problem. I’m also thrilled that port multiplier support has been added. I was basing my entire build on support for this since I intend on going with a RocketRAID 2314 when it’s time to expand beyond the four onboard SATA ports. The RocketRAID 2314 has four eSATA ports, each supporting port multipliers. The external drive enclosure I bought also comes in a port multiplier version. I’m all set.

The increase to 4GB of memory also affects me as I future-proofed and went with 2GB (previous maximum was 1GB). The FTP server may come in handy at some point.

I did attempt an upgrade from work to the new 4.3b1 and it seems as though my server has failed to boot. I’m not sure of the cause as of yet though. It’s either waiting for user input, which isn’t going to happen since no one is home, or it really failed to boot – which would suck. I’ll be sure to post about my experiences one way or the other.

You can get the new, or older versions, here.