BartDG

SATA cables have been ordered online. They should be here in a couple of days. We'll see what that gives then. The parity sync still got about 8 hours left to do. Should be done when I get home from work this evening.

Yes, I agree Gary, thanks! The are now at 37°C even Very cool! I'm pretty sure I've got everything down with regards to the AHCI mode, but I'll check when this parity sync is complete. That said, your input did give me an idea. See, I bought this motherboard because it's one of the "official" unRAID boards. It wasn't available in the shops anymore, but I bought it on eBay. It arrived bare. This means I had to grab SATA cables from here, there and everywhere. I have no idea about their quality, and it may be so that some of them don't support SATA-600. (of even 300). I'll order some certified cables online and replace them. Maybe that'll help. In any case, it's a minor operation, both in cost and effort, but I think it may make a world of difference.

Ok, I've now added two 8 cm fans (can't add bigger ones because of the enclosure ; it doesn't allow for it and even this is a bit of DIY - it's an old Thermaltake Lanbox Lite case (without the side window), not ideal for a server, but it does the job - I did remove the 6cm fans though, because they were incredibly noisy). The temperature are dropping steadily (now below 50°C and still dropping), but speeds don't increase. Edit: temps are now about 41°C. I'm guessing they'll stay at this temp, because even the WDC, that is idling at the moment, runs at 38°C.

I agree. These are enterprise type harddisks. While for sure I agree it would be better if they were 10 to 15 degrees cooler, I'm pretty sure they can withstand this heat... (I've just looked it up, they should be fine up to 60°C - but lower is always better of course) Your speed numbers do sound a lot better I must say! I really hope somebody can come up with a reason for the low speeds. Maybe tweak a BIOS setting of some sort?

I know. But HGST drives are known to run a little hotter than most other drives. It's probably also because my case is still opened up at the moment. In other words, airflow is not optimal right now. Should this persist, I'll make sure to add another fan. Just curious, what speeds should I be seeing, I mean, would be more normal with a config like mine? Edit: ok, after reading Gary's respons, closing up the case now...

OK, here you go. tower-diagnostics-20160306-2235.zip

Sorry, it's doing a parity sync. Indeed, the parity check needs to be done afterwards. It's now at 38%. It's been at it the whole day. My hardware is the following: An Asus P5E VM DO motherboard (using onboard VGA, no extra add-on cards) 16GB ram 3 HGST ultrastar 4TB 7200 rpm harddisks (running at AHCI mode) I think this should be a good configuration. I'm not using the unRAID server for anything at the moment. It's happily purring along doing a parity sync, and that's all it's doing at the moment. This is a copy/paste of the PCI devices in the system devices tab: 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express DRAM Controller (rev 02) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) 00:03.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express MEI Controller (rev 02) 00:03.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express PT IDER Controller (rev 02) 00:03.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express Serial KT Controller (rev 02) 00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566DM-2 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 02) 00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02) 00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02) 00:1a.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 02) 00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) 00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) 00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) 00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IO (ICH9DO) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 6 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) Thermal Subsystem (rev 02) Does that give you enough info?

Ok, making a new config went perfectly. I immediately assigned the 2TB WDC drive as a cache drive now, and left the WDC 3TB drive as unassigned (I'll remove it after the parity check is done). Then the parity check automatically started. It's now humming along at about 38 MB/s, so it'll take about 1 day and 3 hours before it'll be finished. This made me think: creating/checking parity is no other that doing XOR calculations, right? So I imagine some CPU's are better suited than other for this? I'm using a Core2Duo 8500, but using a different cpu could probably speed thing up a lot. Maybe even use a hardware co-processor? Does unRaid support those? Maybe even a dedicated GPU? I would put in one of those cards into my system solely for this purpose if that would help.

As always, excellent info! Thanks a lot guys, I'll post about it when it's done.

Thanks for your comments BartDG ! Not sure why it would do that either, probably the disks were spinning up or rsync was still starting up ? No idea. The disks indeed didn't spin up. I waited for 10 minutes. Then I even manually spun them all up, then that also didn't do much good. Then I closed the menus, reopened them and tried again, this time without doing a dry run. (didn't need it anyway since the (empty) target drive was larger than the source. That worked without a problem. Anyway, I'm very happy and your little app was a tremendous help! Thanks again!

Ok, update! Basically, everything went fine! The parity swap procedure worked no problem. I then added the other two 4TB HGST drives to the array. I then copied everything off of the 3TB and 2TB drives to the new 4TB drives via unBalance. I then did a parity check, which was ok. My array now looks like this: -parity 4TB - Disk 1 : WDC 3TB - Disk 2 : WDC 2TB - Disk 3 : HGST 4TB - Disk 4 : HGST 4TB I would now like to remove the two WDC drives from the array. And then use the two 4TB drives as Disk 1 and Disk 2 instead (look tidier) From what I was told before, I should stop the array, and then select: "new config" Then I should re-arrange the drives the way I like them, leaving the two WDC drives as unassigned Then I can power down and remove the drives. Is this correct? I'm also toying with the idea of using the 2TBV drive as a cache drive. Would this be ok, or shouldn't I exptect too much of an improvement that way because it's not an SSD? I also have an 128 GB SSD laying around (Crucial M4). Would this be big enought or would the 2TB drive be better then? Thanks!

Thanks Rob! But as you say: I've already started, using the unbalance plugin. It's working, but it's rather slow, I'm guessing no more than 15-20Mb/s. That's fine, I've got the time. But if there is a faster way, I'm always interested. Have you already posted your modified XFS conversion procedure somewhere? I'd like to read about it, even if it is probably too late for me.

I'm currently using unbalance to copy the contents op a RF disk to an XFS disk. The idea is to completely empty the RF disk and then to format is as XFS as well. I installed the plugin and got the unbalance server started no problem. Told it to move folder /photo from disk 1 to disk 3. Did a calculation and then a "dry run" move. This went fine. Then I unchecked the "dry run" check and clicked "move" again. Nothing happened, but I couldn't click on the buttons anymore (saw the "forbidden" icon when I hovered over the buttons). The console showed "move operation in progress..", but nothing happened. The disks didn't even spin up!. I then closed the window, turned the unbalance server off and back on again. Took the array offline and back online to be sure nothing was in the background, and then tried again, but this time did a simple calculate and immediately unchecked "dry run" before I hit "move". Then it did work, it's currently moving files. Don't know why it didn't work the first time and figured this might be useful info to put in this thread. Otherwise a VERY handy plugin! Thanks so much for devoting your time to create this!

Ok, so I setup the plugin, which went fine. I've setup one folder (photos) to move it from Disk 1 to Disk 3. By default un-balance does a dry run first. This went fine. I then unchecked the "dry run" box, hit "move" again, but now nothing happens? It does say "move operation in progress..3, but that's it. The disks don't even spin up. It's been like this for the last 15 minutes. Any idea if I did something wrong? And can I stop this somewhere? (I don't see a stop button anywhere??) Edit: tried again, but this time I didn't do a "dry run", just a simple calculate and then "move". Now it's working. Files are moving now! I don't know what went wrong the first time, but I figured I'd mention it in the unbalance thread. Maybe it'll be of some use to its author.

This sounds like exactly what I need!! Thanks danioj, I'll imediately have a look at it!!

I found another way, which I believe is easier to do. If I use I use the information on this page, I'm thinking I can do it with less manual intervention. This is my current setup Parity - Hitachi 4TB Disk 1 - WDC 3TB - ReiserFS Disk 2 - WDC 2TB - ReiserFS Disk 3 - Hitachi 4TB - XFS Now, I want to move all the files from Disk 1 to disk 3. I will then remove disk 1 and replace it with another Hitachi 4TB, after which I will move the files from disk 2 to disk 1. By then both the old Disk 1 (WDC 3TB) and Disk 2 should be empty. I would then reposition this old Disk 1 as Disk 4, after which I would like to reformat both disks with XFS. Looking at the aforementioned page, this I believe is what I would need to do: Disk 1 contains 4 folders : /Movies, /Music, /Photos, /Series Would this be the correct command then? nohup mv /mnt/disk1/* /mnt/disk3/ & (what is the ampersand for at the end of the command?) Then Disk 1 should be empty I believe. I will then shutdown the system, remove Disk 1 (wdc 3TB), and put a Hitachi 4TB in its place. Then power on, and assign the Hitachi to Disk 1 and also format it as XFS (all Hitachi disks have been precleared by now) Disk 2 contains the same folders + my Docker image (which is only there for testing atm, so it's unused at the moment. If this should be a problem, I can just remove it) Next I do: nohup mv /mnt/disk2/* /mnt/disk1/ & This I believe should move the contents of Disk 2 to the new Hitachi at Disk 1. Next, power down again. Add the removed 3TB drive again and power up. Add the 3TB as Disk 4. Then format Disk 2 and Disk 4 as XFS. Is this correct? I'm not very linux savvy, so I would like to know if my commands are correct and if by doing it this way I cannot bump into the "user share copy bug". I will hold off doing anything until someone here can give me the green light. Thanks!

Have you installed the most recent drivers from the internet for your network card? I too used to use the standard drivers that came with Windows and, while everything worked, I also experience slow speeds using unraid. Then I installed the newest intel NIC drivers (my network card is an Intel chipset), and speed immediately trippled. Worth looking into IMO.

Update: the parity swap procedure went perfectly! Everything is up and running. Thank you all guys for the excellent help!! Now comes the second part of the chore, transferring the disks from ReiserFS to XFS. I'll be using BJP999's manual for this.

Yes, that is the procedure I ended up using. Thanks Rob! BTW, everything is going fine at the moment. The copy finished an hour ago and now the system is rebuilding the data. At VERY nice speeds I might add! 119 MB/s constant speed! Wow!

Ah, this looks easy enough to me! Thanks Gary!

Ah, yes, that would have been a (very good) option as well. But I'm not 100% sure I got all the files with the backup, since some of the backup was done a long time ago (mostly DVD-rips) and I had to manually check if everything was there because some of the file names had changed over time. I didn't want to go through the trouble of copying everything, because that would have added a lot of hours to an already long-taking task (but in hindsight...) I'm pretty sure I got 99% of the files and even if I missed some it wouldn't be that bad since I still got the original DVD's, so I could always rip a few missing ones again (but I'd rather not since that is also a very tedious task). That's why I decided to take the chance and do the parity swap option because if all ended well, I would be absolutely sure I'd still have all my data. A small, calculated risk. The copy is now at 70 %. It's indeed a lot quicker than a preclear. I also wanted to ask : is the position of the drives in the "array of devices" important? I'm asking because my next step will be to add another new 4TB drive drive, set it up as XFS and then move everything from the freshly created 3TB (reiser FS) drive to the new 4TB drive. I then want to remove the 3TB drive (which sits in the Disk 1 slot) and replace it (in software) with the new 4TB drive (which now sits in Disk slot 3). Can I do this without causing issue? No real reason for this, this just seems "tidier" to me.

Ok, after 30 hours of preclearing, the new 4TB drives are all precleared and I can go ahead with the procedure. I figured I'd risk the "Swap Disable" procedure: I've got all my data backup up anyway, so if anything goes terrible wrong I can completely re-install the server no problem. I just removed the faulty 3TB drive and attached one of the new 4TB drives in its place. I booted the system up, and set the new HGST 4TB drive as the parity (no problem since all other drives are WD drives). I used the old 3TB parity drive and set it as a data drive (replacing the faulty 3TB drive) Parity and Disk 1 are now marked as "wrong". According to the manual I should now start the array, but alas, I cannot. The option is greyed out, saying "Too many wrong and/or missing disks!". Did I forget something? I did everything the "swap disable" procedure told me to. Can somebody help me please? Thx! Edit: I found a more detailed explanation of the "parity swap" procedure. . It seems there was one important step in between that isn't mentioned on the other page, and that's starting the array with the faulty disk already disconnected. Then immediately stop the array again. Next, power down and add the new disk to the array, then power up, unassign the parity disk and swap it with the new disk. Next assign the now unassigned disk to the "Disk 1" (in my case) slot. Then press the "copy" button in the "array operation section. Now it's busy copying. Hope this won't take another 30 hours...

Again, thanks Danioj and itimpi for all your help! I'm pretty sure I'll manage now. I'll report back here when all is finished!

Ah! Thanks itimpi! I can understand this can be dangerous, but on the other hand, this seems like exactly what I need to move all the files from a certain disk. Disk shares are now set to "auto" but none show up under "shares". I cannot alter this at the moment because I need to take the array offline for that and I'm currently busy making the backups. I'll have a look when then copying is done, but will make sure to be extra careful!

Thanks itimpi! To be honest, I don't know the difference between user shares and disk shares. Looking at my "shares" tab, I only have user shares. What actually are disk shares? This is very clear, thanks for that!! Ah! That's what I didn't get. Sorry, I'm new to all of this. Ah, gotcha! Thanks!!!!!