syst1k

I got the new disk. I can confirm it was the power issue only and not the card. Thanks everyone for patiently helping me in this process. Really appreciate all the constructive direction I got while debugging this. Cheers!

It said 12v/5v 2A. I dont think i saw 4A anywhere.

As an update, I am still waiting for a new disk to test. However, meanwhile i replaced my power supply to the HDDs. I was using an AC -> molex as I described previously. I swapped it with a SFX psu instead. I read a few more spec sheets and error codes, and I suspect its due to insufficient power to the hard disks. I have cautiously optimistic to report that I haven't seen any "link down" errors since I swapped it out. However, I want to test this out once I have the new disk with me. Will report back with results.

btw, I would like to truly appreciate you helping me so much @Vr2Io ! I don't have a new disk yet (i already ordered one - should arrive in a few days), I am getting another WD 8TB to add as a data drive. I have a feeling, its not related to the drives itself. I have tried 3 drives till now, in different ports and different configuration. But I keep getting these ATA errors. They dont always happen in the same port. Initially i had 2 WD drives (8TB) but I got similar errors. I am waiting to get the new drive and test again with the 8TB (parity + data). Today I also tried installing the original iocrest board onto another NUC7i3 I have lying around, with the same errors. So I dont think its a bad motherboard as well.

Another thing I'd like to add, since the topic of power keeps coming up. I am currently using an external case (https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Enclosure-Internal-Backplane-Optimized/dp/B01BMJ1WD6/) to house my HDDs (the WD and ST), whereas the cache drive (SSD) is connected to the onboard sata port. I'm using an intel NUC7i3BNH - specs here: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/95066/intel-nuc-kit-nuc7i3bnh.html To power these drives, I'm using an AC -> molex adaptor (12V/5V) and then I use a sata power splitter because the kingwin enclosure needs two sata 15pin power. Does any of the above sound suspicious that could lead to this? To eliminate the kingwin enclosure as the source of the problem, I connected the drives directly to the JMB card and then powered the drives using my sata power splitter directly. I still got the same issue, hence I ruled out the external enclosure to be the source of the problem. However, power is something I haven't switched. I did use the same way to power another 3.5inch disk and connect to my computer via USB (to copy some data - I have a sata to USB cable), and it worked fine. So I didn't think the power supply can be a problem. However, I didn't power 2 drives together. Just trying to think through what could be the root cause. If the JMB chip is known to work with unraid, then it could be my motherboard (nuc) + this card? Which is weird, because I did read success stories of people using the same card (iocrest) with NUC and FreeNAS/Windows. Which brings me to the point of what it means when we say "it works". Can I ignore the errors if here are no read/write errors while building the parity and data copying? Or am I limited in speed to the link resest and I cannot rely on the setup?

Also found some more discussion about it: Is this error something I can ignore if the read/write goes through? I'm a little confused.

I was planning on using 3 ports at least - 2 data and 1 parity. default max_performance I also got a new card - https://www.amazon.com/Sedna-PCIe-Adapter-Support-Software/dp/B07T46VSRS/ This is also a JMB chip, but thought I'd try it. Its the same issue. Attaching logs here, in case I missed something others can see. The logs are after I started the Array Building operation and parity was being computed. I still see the progress in the unraid UI, but see these errors in the logs/dmesg. oceans-1125-diagnostics-20210320-1428.zip

I also switched the sata port over to ATA6. this is for my data drive. I get the errors for ATA6 now. I don't think its the port. Attaching the new logs. oceans-1125-diagnostics-20210319-1213.zip

I booted up and just "erased" the disks from the disks section. Didn't do any more rw operation on the disks. And I realized it later, but I don't use power top, so it must be another issue.

You mean the card? I got a replacement and installed it today. I was having the same issue with the one I had previously, hence got the replacement.

FWIW, I installed openmediavault on a flash drive and booted the same configuration up. I don't see any link errors in dmesg on boot at least. I haven't tried the raid setup. Only cleaned the two drives, and it seemed to succeed. Wondering if its a card issue + unraid instead?

I found another discussion about this: Trying to figure out where to update the powertop rule. Maybe its related?

Hi @mgutt, Did you ever get this to work? I'm facing a similar issue Link keeps dropping for the same IOCrest M.2->SATA card. I'm having a hard time even getting 2 HDDs working.

If its the controller thats bad, is there any recommended M.2 -> sata controller I should be using? esp that works with unraid.

Yes it was enabled, I have disabled it and rebooted. I don't think it helped, I can still see the errors. oceans-1125-diagnostics-20210318-2253.zip