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At the beginning we chose ReiserFS for these reasons: 1. No need to think about i-node allocation & no possibility of running out of i-nodes & then trying to explain to a user why there might be free space left on a disk but not able to create any more files on it. 2. Very easy expansion of the file system when the partition expands, which is what happens when a user replaces a smaller disk with a larger one. 3. Since journalled, no lengthy 'fsck' upon unclean shutdown. 4. Exceptional small file performance, and very good large file allocation - early on I extensively tested this and found that for larger files such as video, reiserfs tended to keep the blocks almost always contiguous, or at least large sections were contiguous. 5. Comparatively fast 'mkfs' and fast 'mount'. 6. Existence of Windows tools to read off the data if necessary. Other file systems were considered: ext2 - potential problems running out of inodes, slow fsck, no journal. ext3 - also potential problems running out of inodes, not quite mature enough for me (at the time, circa 2005-2006). xfs - no windows tools (still none I think) ntfs - no stable driver at the time If only Hans and his wife could have "just got along" I'm confident Reiser4 would probably be the pre-eminent FS in the linux world today. But because of the stigma, companies are distancing themselves, which I guess I can't blame them.

Good idea. We'll be spending much more time on the documentation and website starting tomorrow. And to all you fathers: Happy Father's Day!

Download. Patch release 4.3.1 is available. This fixes yet another bug with "clearing new disks". unRAID Server 4.3.1 Release Notes ================================= IMPORTANT: this release includes a critical bug fix. If you are running 4.3-beta4 or higher, and have added a New disk to an existing array, parity may be incorrect, and you must run a Parity-Check operation. Note: If Parity-Check detects any parity mismatches, they will be corrected. Upgrade Instructions (Please Read Carefully) ============================================ If you are currently running unRAID Server 4.2-beta1 or higher (including 4.2.x 'final'), please copy the following files from the new release to the root of your Flash device: bzimage bzroot If you are currently running unRAID server 4.0 or 4.1, please copy the following files from the new release to the root of your Flash device: bzimage bzroot syslinux.cfg menu.c32 memtest This can be done either by plugging the Flash into your PC or, by copying the files to the 'flash' share on your running server. The server must then be rebooted. If you are currently running unRAID Server 3.0-beta1 or higher, please follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Referring to the System Management Utility 'Main' page, make a note of each disks's model/serial number; you will need this information later. 2. Shut down your server, remove the Flash and plug it into your PC. 3. Right-click your Flash device listed under My Computer and select Properties. Make sure the volume label is set to "UNRAID" (without the quotes) and click OK. You do NOT need to format the Flash. 4. Copy the files from the new release to the root of your Flash device. 5. Right-click your Flash device listed under My Computer and select Eject. Remove the Flash, install in your server and power-up. 6. After your server has booted up, the System Management Utility 'Main' page will probably show no devices; this is OK, navigate to the 'Devices' page. Using the model/serial number information gathered in step 1, assign each of your hard drives to the correct disk slot. 7. Go back to the 'Main' page and your devices should appear correctly. You may now Start the array. If you are installing this release to a new Flash, please refer to instructions on our website at: http://www.lime-technology.com/wordpress/?page_id=19 Changes from 4.3 to 4.3.1 ------------------------- Big fix: fix yet another "clear new disks" bug. Changes from 4.3-beta6 to 4.3 (final) ------------------------------------- Bug fix: correct bug introduced in 4.3-beta4 which could cause New disks added to an existing array to not be cleared(!). Improvement: added NTP (Network Time Protocol) package. Improvement: fixed possible shutdown/reboot if user refreshes browser after previous shutdown/reboot. Improvement: subtle change in 'split-level' value 0. A value of 0 is now interpreted as "split permissable at all levels". Bug fix: fix problem if user shares enabled before first disk is formatted, user shares would not show up unless stop/start array executed. Bug fix: fix problem where new disks added to an existing array were not sent proper spin-down time delay. Bug fix: retored missing 'ethtool', 'dosfsck', and 'compress/uncompress' commands. Bug fix: fix problem with ftp being unable to 'cd' into directories. Bug fix: fix problem where mover 'mv' error messages were not getting into syslog. Improvement: added the 'dumb' terminal terminfo file. Changes from 4.3-beta5 to 4.3-beta6 ----------------------------------- Improvement: update to latest Intel network driver (7.6.15.4). Bug Fix: Correct problem enabling SMART before reading disk temperatures. Bug Fix: Fix crash that may occur if there is a large number of user shares. Changes from 4.3-beta4 to 4.3-beta5 ----------------------------------- Bug Fix: Fix 'hang' that may occur starting syslogd. Improvement: Add 'sync' as last step in 'mover' script Changes from 4.3-beta3 to 4.3-beta4 ----------------------------------- New feature: cache disk support. Improvement: enable SMART before reading disk temperature. Improvement: upgrade from linux kernel 2.6.24.3 to 2.6.24.4 (refer to http://lwn.net/Articles/274741). Improvement: upgrade from Samba 3.0.28 to Samba 3.0.28a (addresses some Vista issues, refer to http://us1.samba.org/samba/history/samba-3.0.28a.html). Improvement: added back a few more missing libraries needed for certain user customizations. Bug Fix: Support normal expansion of array when Parity is not installed. Changes from 4.3-beta2 to 4.3-beta3 ----------------------------------- Bug fix: Turn off user share filesystem debugging output accidentally left on - doh! Changes from 4.3-beta1 to 4.3-beta2 ----------------------------------- Bug fix: Restore missing 'installpkg' script. Bug fix: Fixed possible user share crash if top-level disk directories contain ordinary files. Bug fix: Fixed warning message generated by 'find' when searching user shares. Bug fix: Fixed problem reporting correct hostname to DHCP server. Changes from 4.2.3 to 4.3-beta1 ------------------------------- Improvement: With user shares enabled, directories/files created directly in a disk share will show up immediately in the correct user share. Improvement: Included 'vsftpd' server. Improvement: Upgrade to linux kernel 2.6.24.3. Improvement: Enable kernel support of up to 4GB of memory.

Download. Finally, 4.3 "final" is ready and is now shipping with all server products. IMPORTANT: this release includes a critical bug fix. If you are running 4.3-beta4, -beta5, or -beta6, and have added a New disk to an existing array, parity may be incorrect, and you must run a Parity-Check operation. Note: If Parity-Check detects any parity mismatches, they will be corrected. As always, a big "thank you" to our beta-testers and individuals on our Community Forum (who make this forum one of the friendliest and helpful on the 'net IMHO). Future direction: May proved to be the biggest month, in terms of sales, ever, which partially explains the long delay in 4.3 release. We are currently working to update the documentation to properly reflect 4.3 features (thank you to NASUser for his great work on the Wiki). Due to critical bug fix in this release, I did not want to delay any longer. We also have a guy working on the website and system usability - we might finally get around to renaming that 'Restore' button In terms of system features, we'll now turn full attention to proper support of alternative protocols (NFS, AFP, etc.). We also plan to provide additional choices for file systems (NTFS and XFS). More later.... unRAID Server 4.3 (final) Release Notes ======================================= IMPORTANT: this release includes a critical bug fix. If you are running 4.3-beta4 or higher, and have added a New disk to an existing array, parity may be incorrect, and you must run a Parity-Check operation. Note: If Parity-Check detects any parity mismatches, they will be corrected. Upgrade Instructions (Please Read Carefully) ============================================ If you are currently running unRAID Server 4.2-beta1 or higher (including 4.2.x 'final'), please copy the following files from the new release to the root of your Flash device: bzimage bzroot If you are currently running unRAID server 4.0 or 4.1, please copy the following files from the new release to the root of your Flash device: bzimage bzroot syslinux.cfg menu.c32 memtest This can be done either by plugging the Flash into your PC or, by copying the files to the 'flash' share on your running server. The server must then be rebooted. If you are currently running unRAID Server 3.0-beta1 or higher, please follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Referring to the System Management Utility 'Main' page, make a note of each disks's model/serial number; you will need this information later. 2. Shut down your server, remove the Flash and plug it into your PC. 3. Right-click your Flash device listed under My Computer and select Properties. Make sure the volume label is set to "UNRAID" (without the quotes) and click OK. You do NOT need to format the Flash. 4. Copy the files from the new release to the root of your Flash device. 5. Right-click your Flash device listed under My Computer and select Eject. Remove the Flash, install in your server and power-up. 6. After your server has booted up, the System Management Utility 'Main' page will probably show no devices; this is OK, navigate to the 'Devices' page. Using the model/serial number information gathered in step 1, assign each of your hard drives to the correct disk slot. 7. Go back to the 'Main' page and your devices should appear correctly. You may now Start the array. If you are installing this release to a new Flash, please refer to instructions on our website at: http://www.lime-technology.com/wordpress/?page_id=19 Changes from 4.3-beta6 to 4.3 (final) ------------------------------------- Bug fix: correct bug introduced in 4.3-beta4 which could cause New disks added to an existing array to not be cleared(!). Improvement: added NTP (Network Time Protocol) package. Improvement: fixed possible shutdown/reboot if user refreshes browser after previous shutdown/reboot. Improvement: subtle change in 'split-level' value 0. A value of 0 is now interpreted as "split permissable at all levels". Bug fix: fix problem if user shares enabled before first disk is formatted, user shares would not show up unless stop/start array executed. Bug fix: fix problem where new disks added to an existing array were not sent proper spin-down time delay. Bug fix: retored missing 'ethtool', 'dosfsck', and 'compress/uncompress' commands. Bug fix: fix problem with ftp being unable to 'cd' into directories. Bug fix: fix problem where mover 'mv' error messages were not getting into syslog. Improvement: added the 'dumb' terminal terminfo file. Changes from 4.3-beta5 to 4.3-beta6 ----------------------------------- Improvement: update to latest Intel network driver (7.6.15.4). Bug Fix: Correct problem enabling SMART before reading disk temperatures. Bug Fix: Fix crash that may occur if there is a large number of user shares. Changes from 4.3-beta4 to 4.3-beta5 ----------------------------------- Bug Fix: Fix 'hang' that may occur starting syslogd. Improvement: Add 'sync' as last step in 'mover' script Changes from 4.3-beta3 to 4.3-beta4 ----------------------------------- New feature: cache disk support. Improvement: enable SMART before reading disk temperature. Improvement: upgrade from linux kernel 2.6.24.3 to 2.6.24.4 (refer to http://lwn.net/Articles/274741). Improvement: upgrade from Samba 3.0.28 to Samba 3.0.28a (addresses some Vista issues, refer to http://us1.samba.org/samba/history/samba-3.0.28a.html). Improvement: added back a few more missing libraries needed for certain user customizations. Bug Fix: Support normal expansion of array when Parity is not installed. Changes from 4.3-beta2 to 4.3-beta3 ----------------------------------- Bug fix: Turn off user share filesystem debugging output accidentally left on - doh! Changes from 4.3-beta1 to 4.3-beta2 ----------------------------------- Bug fix: Restore missing 'installpkg' script. Bug fix: Fixed possible user share crash if top-level disk directories contain ordinary files. Bug fix: Fixed warning message generated by 'find' when searching user shares. Bug fix: Fixed problem reporting correct hostname to DHCP server. Changes from 4.2.3 to 4.3-beta1 ------------------------------- Improvement: With user shares enabled, directories/files created directly in a disk share will show up immediately in the correct user share. Improvement: Included 'vsftpd' server. Improvement: Upgrade to linux kernel 2.6.24.3. Improvement: Enable kernel support of up to 4GB of memory.

Make sure you set the proper workgroup name on your server. If you already have, it might be a matter of just waiting for the master browser on your network to update it's browse list.

It is possible to form the GUID by looking at the USB info viewable via several Windows-based utilities, and it would not be difficult to write a small utility to do exactly this under Windows. However, we want you to be 100% sure that your hardware will work with unRAID, and in particular, that your Flash will boot properly, before you shell out any $$ for the key. This eliminates a lot of potential hassles and costs.

We backup the MySQL databases every day to a separate site.

As a final conjecture: all data movements between memory, the hard drives, and ethernet are done using DMA. This is going to use a different set of circuits into and out of memory via North Bridge, than the CPU<->Memory path which is the only path tested by memtest. But if I had to bet, I'd agree with Joe and say it's probably the PSU.

This topic has been moved to Motherboards. [iurl]http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1963.0[/iurl]

It still could be the PSU - quite possible it's defective, perhaps too much ripple on one of the rails. Bad power can case extremely strange problems. The Chenbro (SK33502) looks better and perhaps has better EMI shielding, but has unneeded USB ports on the front and costs more. The Supermicro (CSE-M35T-1B) is almost ideal & is what we prefer.

Nice work WeeboTech! I wonder if you know the answer to this: If PAE is enabled in the kernel, but there is 4GB or less memory actually installed, does the kernel still use PAE? Similarly, if the PAE is enabled in the kernel, but the h/w does not support PAE, but there is also not more than 4GB memory, will it still work? This is why we haven't enabled PAE in stock unRAID kernel - because enabling it is a compile-time option and I don't know if it will not run on some user's existing h/w - I guess we can try it and find out Another possibility is to produce 2 bzimage files - one with PAE enabled and one without. Anyway here's a good link to PAE & linux: http://www.spack.org/wiki/LinuxRamLimits

First, I didn't notice in the thread if you suspected the power supply. That PSU has 3 separate +12V rails, each rated at 18A max. At least one of those rails is dedicated to the motherboard, possibly two of them. If so, that leaves 18A for all your hard drives. I also didn't notice how many hard drives you have, but you might try depopulating the server so there's only 2 hard drives. Assign these as disk1 and disk2, leave parity unassigned. Then see if write corruption occurs. Second, those Athena backplanes are not very good (they are just rebranded I-Stars, which themselves might be rebranded who-knows-whats). For test purposes you might try directly connecting the drives to the SATA cables, bypassing the drive cage. Note about the Athena backplanes: We stopped using those long ago and now use either Supermicro or Chenbro exclusively. The problem with the Athenas is that the backplane that the drive plugs into is very thin and very poorly mounted. We found that with some hard drives when you plug them in, the male SATA connector on the hard drive does not fully engage the female connector on the backplane. The typical result is DMA errors in the syslog. A workaround is to push on the drive carrier with your thumb a few times after installing it. The attached images show this problem. img1 is just a view looking down with the rear plastic fan casing removed img2 is a view after inserting a drive tray - note the connector not fully engaged and backplane bowing img3 is a view of my hand pushing on the backplane to press the connector in place I should emphasize that not all hard drives cause this problem - but off the top of my head can't remember which ones are problematic

Yeah - I removed that - got a little "overzealous" cleaning up the Navigation box I guess

What NFS Client do you use on your Windows machines? Also you have PM.

This topic has been moved to Good Deals!. [iurl]http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1935.0[/iurl]

guitarlp- Hey if you finally decide that this issue is indeed h/w related and not necessarily unRAID OS, could I ask a favor? Please update your thread over on AVS forum with your final result

guitarlp- I'm very interested in figuring this out. What player are you using exactly? "TotalMedia Theater" from Acrsoft, or "Total Video Player" from EffectMatrix, or something else (can't find "Total Media Player"). It seems like you've done a good job in isolating h/w, so my theory is this: that's it's a latency issue. The HD data stream is actually a variable bit-rate, and perhaps what's happening is that particular point in the movie demands a very high bit rate, so when the player issues a read request to proceed beyond that point, the round-trip latency is too high & the player gets momentarily starved of data resulting in artifacts. In addition, Vista implements a new version of the SMB protocol called SMB2. Among other things, this protocol permits larger block size requests. Perhaps WHS is using SMB2 as well & this explains why everything works when streaming from WHS. Samba 4 has "experimental" support for SMB2 & I can look into creating a special unRAID release for you to test. But this is all conjecture. Would be interesting to see if you get the same result using a different player.

guitarlp- what unRAID release are you using?

What is your system & network setup - this is very good You meant to say Samba could be the culprit, correct??

From http://hometheater.about.com/od/dvdbasics/a/bluhddvdinfo.htm (referring to Blu-ray): Note these values are Megabits per Second. The data rate of current blu-ray is only 6 MB/sec. So it's not a bandwidth issue. There are a couple things for you to try: 1. If reading from a User Share, try reading directly from the disk share instead. 2. Try write/read to a different disk. What player are you using?

NASUser - you have PM.

Our webhosting account had a 25GB/month bandwidth limit, which we exceeded But the folks at dotable have been extremely diligent in helping us increase this limit in a timely fashion, so hopefully it won't happen again.

This is a common question and our 'unofficial' response has always been this: just email me the circumstances of how your Flash died and the GUID of your new Flash & we'll send you a new key.

You can download the slackware package from an Italian site here: http://www.slacky.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4759&Itemid=56 I haven't tried this - but if you get it to install but it complains of missing libraries, let me know

Yes that works just fine.