diewurst

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Posts posted by diewurst

  1. I am suffering from some odd system behavior:

    • USB drive has been created with the Wizard as well as manually.
    • UEFI Boot configuration (as the Legacy boot will not work properly in general on my HW)
    • Tried with different USB 2.0 and 3.0 drives, sizes 8GB to 32GB.
    • Tried official Unraid 6.9 and latest 6.8 releases.
       
    • USB drive is recognized in the BIOS as a bootable device and set to first boot option (no other bootable options / entries present)
    • Boot from USB does start the Bootloader and presents the Unraid choices + Memtest.
    • Any choice I pick results in a locked up / frozen system!:
      • Loading /bzimage... ok
      • Loading /bzroot... ok
      • Screen switches to boot process, displays some lines about boot process then the system locks up, hard.
      • Examining the displayed boot process, I cannot find any issues, errors, warnings. ( I can provide a screenshot later.)
         
    • Choosing the Memtest option also locks up the system!
      • I can run a standalone Memtest bootable USB no problem (Memtest made several passes w/o any errors found.)
    • Windows 10 setup from USB as well as a full install from SATA drive boots just fine.
       
    • I have been over the BIOS settings regarding USB. 
      I do not expect to be those at the core of the issues since the bootloader does come up.

     

    Any ideas how to troubleshoot this, what else to try?
     

    • Fan situation has been sorted.  The 12cm rears are Noctua straight on 12V and no RPM management.
      CPU fan and 50mm HBA fan are on 7V. For some reason the speed management on this development oriented hardware is not working properly.
      The two small fans were the worst noise offenders and it's bearable now.
    • Transfer issues have been solved - a higher quality PCIe flex cable was needed. The flashed the  HBA card  to the latest firmware.
    • Ran memtest and CPU /GPU stress tests. All came back fine, all temps stayed within limits. (General ventilation in the upper case section is not the best.)
    • Time to start thinking about what else I can utilize the not so meager CPU for (Intel Xeon E3-1505L v6 - 25W). 🙂


     

  2. In prev. posts I was using a QNAP server but ended up not overly happy with it while having some hardware already I could use in a new build.
    That HW is in part a bit oddball stuff though.

     

    Still a work in progress as I'm waiting on a few more parts.

    • Case: 
      Short depth rackmount case that can hold 12 drives. 
      https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/IPFS-miner-12-bay-nas-server_1600153306892.html
      Verdict: For the price w/o shipping it's great. Once you figure in the shipping it's not really worth the money. 
      It's not terrible but not too much thought was spent on details. Case must've been in production for a while now.
      Hey, it fit's my wall-mounted network closet just fine! 14.5in depth is the max. I can use in it.
    • "Mother"board: Com Express carrier board: https://us.dfi.com/product/index/1411
    • CPU / Computer on Module: Congatec conga-TS175
    • RAM: 2x 8GB
    • HBA: Broadcom Broadcom 9400-16i
    • 350W FlexATX PSU (Silverstone)
    • HDDs: 6x 8TH + 2x 6TB + 512GB SSD cache.
       

    Modifications, oddities, problems:

    • Cut out the rear fan guards for better access to the drive backplanes & cabling.
      (I'll mount guards to both sides of the fans.
    • Need a short PCIE flex cable / riser for the 90deg bend.
      A regular 90deg adapter did not align. Not sure if it's a case, or motherboard issue.
    • Looking into some data transfer issues. Maybe it's the cheap SFF-8087 cables?
      The PCIE flex adapter? Backplane? 
    • Ventilation in the top-portion is not so great and the oddball motherboard only has a single 3-pin fan header.
      Need to manage the fan on computer module, 50mm fan added for the HBA card and the rear 2x 120mm fans.
  3. This is a great thread. Maybe a bit late for me as I am already pretty committed to using a QNAP TS-879 Pro but the unit is not fully setup and things could go South. Thanks for the added confidence.

    On 12/30/2020 at 12:22 PM, bidmead said:

    CAVEAT1: No fan control now. Swapping the fans would be a fix, but there's no noise/heat problem that makes this an issue.

    Is this regarding fan control from the BIOS, or from within Unraid? I have some control over the fans on my unit in the BIOS.

    On 12/30/2020 at 12:22 PM, bidmead said:

    CAVEAT2: The 2-line LCD display is stuck on "SYSTEM BOOTING". There's a Github project that might be useful here: https://github.com/bkram/qnapdisplay

    Awesomeness! I planned to look into this lateron but looks like the initial lifting has already been done.

    On 12/30/2020 at 12:22 PM, bidmead said:

    CAVEAT3: Shutdown doesn't ever shutdown the machine. It always reboots. I need to look into this but the workaround is to catch the machine just before the reboot and pull the plug. No big deal with a machine with removable drives which seldom needs to be shut down.

    I briefly had Win10 running on the system just to poke around - there it was an issue. It's not replicated with Unraid. (HW differs between our boxes though.)

    On 12/30/2020 at 12:22 PM, bidmead said:

    CAVEAT4: This is a new one to me, and puzzling. The DOM is (obviously) an unassigned device and I leave it unmounted. As a precaution it's also set as read-only. SO AS IT'S UNMOUNTED, WHY AM I SEEING READS HERE? These reads are incrementing constantly.

    No answer to your issue. Before starting with Unraid, I removed my DOM. It was sitting on a USB 2.0 header, secured with a glob of sticky compound and a plastic clip. 
     

  4. I have to purchase at a minimum two additional 8TB drives for my 1st unraid setup.

    In the past I bought 2x 6TB and 2x 8TB WD Gold drives - mainly because of feedback and reputation as well as my experience with drives from their Black series prior.

     

    Looking around now, I find that (on paper) the Toshiba MG drive series pretty appealing.

    Their price point is also competitive - 8TB: Toshi $187 vs WD Gold $240ish.
     

    Toshiba's  market share is small compared to WD and Seagate.

    There is feedback but I maybe some from this community here can chime in - hopefully with positives.

  5. Soon to be available (I'm moving HDDs from this case to my new unraid system).

     

    Chenbro SR107 with

    2x 84H210710-104 - 4-bay, 3.5" Hot-swap, w/4-port 12Gbps mini-SAS HD Backplane, SR107/108 (under accessories in case link above)

    1x SK32303 - 3-bay 3.5" HDD Enclosure with 12Gb/s SAS & SATA Backplane

     

    A rather voluminous, traditional, heavy, no frills, very sturdy steel case.
    It's similar to the expensive Supermicro cases with 8x hotswap trays but is wider. They now offer the SR107 PLUS and I cannot see any differences.

    Fits pretty much any size motherboards, any size CPU cooler and the three 12cm fans keep the contents cool as well.

    It can be converted into a 5u rackmountable case. I have never looked into this and it is too deep to use it in this way in my network closet.
    The side panels open from the front (after un-clipping the cover), which makes access when rack-mounted on sliding rails a lot easier.

     

    I spent $400 + tax for the combo.
    Asking $200, shipped.

     

  6. Hi all,

    I'm working on my Unraid contraption right now. I have not touched NAS solutions before and was looking at the open source competition as well.

    I recently bought this at a local auction, cheap: QNAP TS-879 Pro

    After cleaning and function test I have upgraded CPU to an i7-2600S and memory is now 2x 8GB Kingston with ECC.
    (I am surprised & happy it is supported, original memory was regular).

     

    Right now my storage resides in a huge not so HTPC-like Chenbro case in the living room.
    The Unraid QNAP will sit in the network closet in the garage.
    The eight bays I plan to divvy up as follows: 2x parity, 1x cache, 5x storage.

     

    Questions:

    • Any concerns regarding the hardware and a use-case that largely involves streaming?
    • What is the best way to integrate the HDDs from my current setup? I plan to buy parity drives but will have to shuffle a lot of stuff if all my existing data HDDs to be added have to be empty - I am guessing the answer but a quick confirmation would be nice.
    • Despite understanding the USB-boot, running in RAM concept I had a hard time getting over the thought of using a SSD (maybe on a USB adapter). Seems to be a somewhat common theme among some (new) users. Plan to use a Samsung BAR 32GB stick. Any concerns, or recommendations?