seeker

Any Ideas guys? If I was to upgrade to an 5RCx which one should I try first? Got an Intel NIC and two SASLP-MV8's.

Hi! I've been having this intermittent problem on my new UnRaid setup. Had a 6 disk test server running successfully for a few months. When I built my new setup I added three WD disks to the array. Now one of the "new" disks (disk7 which is empty and not even a part of any shares) sometimes is unable to unmount because busy (doing something?) I'm using 5b14 at the moment with two windows 7 computers and a Boxeebox connecting to NFS shares on disks 1-5. And UnMenu on top of that. At times when I try to stop UnRaid to turn it off UnRaid-main shows the drive7 "resizing" and is unable to unmount. At that point Web-GUI hangs and I'm not able to do anything from the browser. I can telnet in with no problem though. So the problem happens right after stop command and it doesn't seem to matter whether the disks are all running or not. (or whether boxee/desktop/laptop are on or off - sometimes turn the box off from the browser in my phone) (Can't be 100% certain about this yet) The disk is usually at sleep when I do the shutdown so there shouldn't be anything going on? (even tried spinning all the drives up first) The drive is a WD 20EADS ripped from an external USB. (Did the wdidle3 -300 a couple of days ago) Of course the only time this happens is when I'm already late for bed/work/something so I haven't had time to properly get on this problem. Got the syslog from one of the hangs and on other occasion telnet printout of shutdown command and fuser too though. And once tried the inotifywait route too but got nothing indicating any access to disk7 Just wondering does the logs shed any light on the problem and where to go from here? So... A Linux Noob waiting for instructions on what to do the NEXT time this happens? (It happens in about two times in ten?) Thanks! syslog_disk7_hang.zip fuser_command_disk7_hang.txt disk7_powerdown_command.txt Disk7_SMART.txt

Well... I SHOULD have been taking better pictures!

Thanks for the compliments! There is an extra Intel GB-NIC at the back. The MB was installed so high that the last PCI-slot was left open for it. Here are some links to pictures from this thread to clarify things. Here you can see the extra NIC installed under the MB And there is the PCIe-extensions going around the back This is the look of the back wall with the NIC in place

Finally had some time to finish this build up! Made a one piece front grill to cover the fans at the front. Painted the mesh portion of the case in red and the accents in black. At the same time painted main rig accents with the same red. And here it is... The whole Dirty 1/3 of a Dozen! From the left... [*]My Main Rig [*]"UnConventional" - The UnRaid Rig [*]Soon to be XBMC Test Rig [*]And the "backup" case that found it's way into the house at some point. The two main setups. The new one piece front grille. Pretty pleased how it turned out at the end. A lot more work than I at first anticipated but fun all the way! No real setbacks or major problems at all. So it actually turned out exactly as I thought it would! Now all I have to do is get some heavy duty sound dampening under the case. It is so heavy that the stock feet are not cutting it any more. 22,6kg / 50lbs with just 11 drives. (Fully loaded it could break 30kg / 66lbs) There seems to be some gremlin at the system hanging one disk at times but I'm working on trying to capture it to the syslog and will make a new post of it if it happens again

Getting a bit OT but... The impact of the server depends greatly on how you live... My new server is not the best system out there but a pretty average 9-drive system perhaps? It uses 53W with all the drives spun down. (6x140mm fans) That would make 1.272KWh/day where my whole studio flat used 1.22KWh last saturday while I was away for the weekend. So If I leave my server running when I'm not there (or sleeping) it doubles my base energy consuption. 53W 24/7 for a year = 484KWh/Year = around 25% increase for my energy bill. Then again... Should you live in a mansion with AC then... If I only use it for a few hours a day it stays shut the rest of the day.

AOC-SASLP-MV8 is a PCIe x4 card for EIGHT 300MB/s SATA connections AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 is a PCIe x8 card for EIGHT 600MB/s SATA connections So no problem there!

I'll probably just enjoy some movies for a few days before I get into modding the front to fit in place and then making the new grill to complete the front. Some painting to the exterior perhaps and after that it'll be done!

Some POWER figures. MAX at start up: 182W Parity check: 112W All disk spinning: 90W Idle 53W This is with: Pentium G620 AsRock Z77 Pro3 2x Kingston Valueram 1GB DDR3 CORSAIR AX850 2x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 1x Intel Gigabit NIC PCIe x1 Kingston DataTraveler G2 4GB 6x FD-FAN140 140mm (fan controller at minimum) 6x 2TB Barracuda LP 2x 2TB WD-EADS 1x 2TB WD-EARS When idle the fans and fan controllers add up like this: 6 Fans at MAX 54.5W 6 Fans at MIN 53.0W 3 Fans at MAX 51.4W 3 Fans at MIN 50.8W

The parity check run for 6h58min on all 2TB greens. No errors detected! Now all I have to figure out is should I wdidle3 the new drives or not? (2x EARS and 2x EADS) Thank You kindly!

It's ALIVE! And beautifull! Transfered all 6 disks from my "test" setup to the new case and UnRaid fired right up! (running 5b14) Added 4 more disks and did some labeling. Serial number, disk number and disk name. Using mostly just disk shares so that when adding stuff my mediaplayer can be ordered to scan just the disk that has changes. Hard to imagine that from that setup all of the cables are connected! 22x SATA 16x SATA-power 4x Molex PCIe x1 extension for the Intel NIC 24 and 8 pin MB-power and all of the front connections. (forgot the MB-"speaker") The back is as clean as can be. Two Silverstone fan cotrollers and the Intel NIC. The front is still a MESS! Need to do some serious modding to get it lookin the way it supposed to be... So what about the BACK SIDE then? What became of the snake den behind the case? . . . . . . . . It ain't pretty but the side slides into it's place without any extra force or bowing. Have to be happy about that! There is a chance to simplify that mess quite a lot. The SATA-power cables of the AX850 are removable. Once I get some more hard drives I was thinking about dismantling some of the extra cables I have and adding those 6 missing connectors to the existing lines. Obviously modding them at the same time to the exact lengths needed. But for now they have to suffice. It's time to look something from my new server! Well propably better to let it do the first parity check first. The parity check has been running for an hour and a half. HDD temps have gone up 6 or 7'C and are between 30 and 36'C right now. Ambient temp is around 25-26'C and the thermometer at the top of the case measuring exhaust temp has been 28'C the whole time. The heat sinks on the MV8's are around 35 to 45'C Looking good atleast with 9 active drives there. These are drivetemps atm. Front of the case on the right. --xx-- = empty slot --dc-- = disconnected spare m --35--- < --xx-- < o --35--- < --xx-- < t --36--- < --xx-- < h --xx--- < --xx-- < f e --32--- < --xx-- < r r --32--- < --xx-- < o b --xx--- < --xx-- < n o --xx--- < --xx-- < t a --xx--- < --30-- < r --dc--- < --32-- < d --34--- < --31-- <

Thanks for the heads up! Been thinking about that too and it is a pretty tricky question... The problem I see with the reverse airflow is that the controller cards probably won't be getting any significant airflow near them at all. Since the top is open in the case all of the incoming air will be coming through there and between the SAS-cards it'll probably be just dead air? The cards themselves block the airflow around them quite effectively I'm afraid. The way it is now even if the air is warm (hot even?) there will be some air moving to help the cooling of the cards. I'll probably try the first parity check out the way it is now and pop the case open every once and a while to check the temperatures with my laser thermo. If it starts to look bad I'll have to try adding exhaust fans to the mix. Luckily the case has been designed for watercooling so there is actually space between the top of the frame and the top grill for TWO 140mm exhaust fans. If I have to reverse the airflow I'll probably have to add an extra fan inside to help the airflow around the cards? Anybody have any idea how hot AOC-SASLP-MV8 components get and how hot they can safely be? Well... Nobody said this project is going to be easy! (or even sane?)

Trying to get ready to power 22 drives from one PSU and you get this MESS! The benefit of adding a second AX850 to your arsenal is that after yet again cannibilizing ones desktop machine you have 16 sata powers and 4 molexes in one PSU Nice starting point. Now all I have to do is stuff that all into that gap there. That's precicely the reason I chose to move the HDD-stacks as far forward as possible. (Even as it ment that I have to do mod the front pretty hard) In the end getting all the cables in place was surprisongly easy. Thanks to fully modular PSU. If it hadn't been there would have been virtually no chance of fitting the PSU there without some MORE modding to the case. Now... Where the Hell-sinki will I stuff all THESE cables then? Have to wait untill tomorrow to find out... Atleast on the other side things look OK for now.

Got it figured out... Made this C-bracket out of 1.5mm aluminium and bended the "legs" I used some extra MB-standoffs I had lying around to get a good mounting point that cleared all the components on the MB. Straightened the SAS-cards brackets and threaded holes for the mounting screws on the C-bracket. That sould hold them in place.

Thanks man! Only got 10 drives at the moment so the cable mess should be tolerable for a while at least. ----------------------------------------------------- As always when things start to roll along famously well and at their own pace one of two things happen... One: You hit a wall HARD! - Hit a snag, break something, don't have something you need... or (as with me a moments ago) Two: You forgot to take pictures! Luckily in the middle of all the feverish modding I suddenly realized that I promised to keep you all entertained! Right as I was about to bolt the other HDD-stack in place remembered the camera. So here it is... (the fans are facing the right direction!) I had thought of it many times along the build but had for a moment forgot the fact that the other stack will probably require some cables too. So first thing today had to cut some more holes into the MB-tray. Then installed the first stack and bolted it on. Had this insulation sticker stuff lying around so I cut some triangles of it to the corners of the fans to insulate them from the stacks. As I bolt the other stack in place the insulation keeps the fans nicely sanwitched in their spot. Hopefully keeping the vibrations to the minimum at the same time. And it fits! Feeling pretty good right now! Now all I have to do is try to contain myself from jumping into installing the hardware to the case right a way. Still have to do some modding to the front and I don't have any of that rubber molding that goes to the edge of the holes in MB-tray. Oh an still need to manufacture some kind of bracket to bolt the SAS-cards to the MB? There is nowhere to fix the brackets as some "GENIUS" ( ) has installed the MB standoffs to the back wall of the case. Hmmm... So IF the hardware side of things should fail in some way I can always convert that to a nice 130TB external case then.

I was remembering that the sticker/fangrill was the exhaust side. At the time was a bit too tired to get it straight into my head. Thanks for all for clearing that up! -------------------------------------------------------------- Got a few hours clocked again yesterday and today. Yesterday started to fabricate the other HDD-Stack. At the end had to cannibalize my desktop machine for it's HDD-cage. On top of that I bought TWO more CM690s to get enough parts for the second stack. Madness! It seems that I've been diagnosed with UCD-syndrome! Today was the time to try to figure out how to get those two stacks tied together and how to fasten them into the case. Took a quick picture of the state the project is in now. Finished stacks attached together with 3 fans sandwitched in between. Got the fixing points to the case mostly figured out and tomorrow it is the crunch time! It's time to try for the first time to stuff everything inside the case and see what's what? I'll have to mod the front of the case atleast for a bit to get the stacks as far forward as possible. That way I'll have more room for the PSU-cables and better air flow to the bottom HDDs. Interresting day ahead tomorrow!

Tiny update to show you that something is happening! Today I cut some aluminium to use as the fan wall. I was planning on bolting the fan wall to the front of the case and then attaching the fans on the inside. After much consideration I decided to bolt the wall to the HDD-stack instead. This way I get better cooling as the airflow is forced on to the HDD's as it can't escape from the sides. As an added bonus I get around 10mm extra space as the fans are actually situated partly in front of the case's front frame. If the space becomes an issue I still have the possibility to cut parts of the case facade to move the fans (around 5mm) further out. The fans installed. (And no... I don't remember to which direction the fans blow. In case they're in reverse... That picture is just a proof of concept!) This case has a quite a decent size but as soon as you stack 12 HDD-cradles into it it starts to look quite small. Yes! There is 12 HDD-cradles there. The top one can't be slided out at the moment but with a little MORE modding it could probably be made fully operational. At least for one (or possibly two) 2.5" HDD/SSD. Here it is easier to se how one would have to cut around 8mm off from the top strut to get the cradle to be operational. (for one 2.5") You could cut a little more and also cut part of the bottom spar off. Then you'd have space to drop the whole stack down a bit. That way you could get the total 18-19mm more space to fit 12x 3.5" HDD's into one stack.

My Corsair AX850 has 8 MOLEX-connectors. Actually from the manual... (happened to be at my desk)

So... Today it was finally time to get the tools out for real. Forget the dremel and get out the big guns. So started up with these cage sides... And ended up with a bunch of stuff like these. Screwed the first parts to a wood block to get the proper alignment and distances checked out. This is the the first of the angled-aluminium pieces to hold everything in place.. Parts still screwed to the wooden block I started to pop-rivet the aluminium angle to the cage-pieces. After four pieces of aluminium and a whole bunch of pop-rivets this is what I ended up with. Whaddya know? It works! Three 140mm fans should fit in between the stacks nicely. 13-Drive stack... Damn! That looks good! 13 not 11? -It was easier to assemble the stack with the top HDD-cage attached. I have to do some measuring and calculations to determine how tall of a stack I can get into the inside of the case. Next it's probably time to start making the front fan wall? Unfortunately I probably will not have time to get into it until next week... Now if I only could figure out from where I could get two more sets of those CM690 HDD-cages? (Would rather not buy two more complete cases just to get those four pieces out of them)

It should be something like this... Don't have them yet... Ordered locally here in Finland and waiting for delivery. Had only 30min today and started destroying the cages I have. Still need to find few cages more but at the moment got enough to get me started on the first stack. It's gonna be tedious job to get them done as both stacks will be made from 5 different parts. Lots of cutting and fitting to get them low enough to fit 11 drives each. Trying very hard to figure out a good way to get them all together. Having two different types of cages (with different depths) doesn't help. Hopefully have some more time tomorrow to sketch things out. Have plenty of ideas but no way to figure out which one (if any) really work out. Just have to get into experimenting.

Since all I need for a regular basis is a network connection I have a Intel Gigabit NIC waiting to go into the only slot still available at the back. For this only reason the MB is installed so high. (had to do some dremeling to get it all the way up) Just ordered some PCI-e x1 extensions so that I can install the NIC at the bottom. (If the extension anyway affects the network reliability I'll just cut a hole in the side panel for the onboard NIC) Figured that if I ever need any of those other connections I'll just slide the side panel off. In cases like these I probably need to get inside the case anyway.

Busy friday and weekend too but atleast got something done today. Made a cover for the IO-port hole from an old case side panel had lying around and had the MB-stands fixed in place. (Not all of the fittings are final. Have to get to the hardware store once everything is in place) Extremely tricky getting everything to line up properly. Since the fit is so tight I had no possibility to break the case into parts to have easier access to the back-wall. This is how the back side looks right now. Since I will be seeing the back from under my table have to take that into consideration too. And there it hangs... waiting for the HDD-stacks to materialize So in the end there is 2mm clearance from the VGA-port on the left. and 5mm clearance to the PCB on the right. As you can see I had to cut away parts of those triangle struts on the side panels to get them to slide into place. (from both sides) Looks nice up there! Looks like to be coming a cable managing dream! HDD-stacks NEXT...

This one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817189006

Photos coming up as ordered! 5.25" cage removed, front opened up and hole cut to the mb-wall for the sideways MB. Cut out some U-profile to use as a base to hold the MB in place. Tapped threads and screwed some MB-stands to them. And that's the plan... plenty of room for the SAS and cables. Might still like to make the cutout a bit bigger? This is how it looks like from behind the MB-wall. Even the VGA-connector fits in I was a bit worried that I would have to file the VGA-connector down to fit in but at the moment everything seems ok. I'm fully prepaired for any problems that might arise at any moment but really pleased right now how things are fitting together. Actually the tightest spot might be with the cables hitting the second HDD-stack coming out of the power supply. When I get the MB-standoffs fastened to the case I'll have to start assembling the HDD-stacks. Really hating the fact that I must make each of them from three different parts. Would have been so nice to manufacture those cage-walls from one peace of plastic or alum. Just don't have access to a cross-feed table and ordering those kind of parts done witn a CNC costs way too much. Atleast I have got parts ready for the first HDD-stack waiting for a good time to start cutting them apart. Here to the end I saved the best picture of the mock-up I got tested today. That's how it's supposed to look like when it's bolted to the frame. Looking good!

Actually 90 degrees vertically. The inside width of the case is around 204mm and the MB-width is 194 + the monitor connector. The IO-ports will be facing towards the left side of the case. I tell you there aren't too many motherboards that have 2xPCIe, are less than 195mm wide and have 6 straight sata-connectors out there!