kapperz

*** SEE UPDATE & PICTURES BELOW *** I've been looking at a CPU stand for my unRaid server. These servers sure get heavy when full of hard drives. My server is in the closet and I just want to make it easier to move for cleaning around the computer in addition to the usual dust bunny maintenance. I like the Kantek Mobile CPU Stand, but I'd want to weigh my case to make sure it falls under the 60lb limit. There is also this one.

I currently have 3 COOLER MASTER 4-in-3 cages in my CM 590 case. They offer good cooling, look decent, and you can't beat the price. On the other hand, they are hard to clean (I left the fronts on for better protection) and any maintenance requires taking the whole cage out. Also, my setup uses a NexStar HDD Dock for my nightly backup (connected via USB). Without going into too much detail, I like this for easy swapping with the offsite copy and during an emergency (fire, earthquake, whatever) I hope to be able to grab this drive and run (encrypted with whats really important). This is a good reason I haven't installed the nightly drive. One other problem I've found is if the HDD dock is on, unRaid won't boot (haven't found time to debug this - maybe use the esata port). I can S3/wake just fine). If I have a power failure and I'm not home, I can't even use WOL to get back to my server (FTP, streams music). I have been looking at other solutions (bored at work) like a backplane. I'm sorry for the long read. I'm asking for recommendations on a good 4-in-3 Backplane. The official ICY DOCK MB454SPF-B used in the Limetech server does look to be the best. It has a decent size fan (small = noisy) for cooling. I had a heat issue a while back until I taped up all the vents and added a rear fan. Plus, it looks decent. But the reviews (on newegg) are a little discerning with the product quality. Looking around the web, there doesn't seem to be a backplane that stands out. A close 2nd I'm looking at is the iStarUSA BPU-340SATA.

Sorry about that. I was writing the instructions at work The original scripts would copy the jetty folder from RAM. This was not needed since they are created by Subsonic and don't change. I removed this from subsonic_copy_from_memory.sh in scripts02. It saves time too. Hrm, good catch. You can run "cron_subsonic_copy_from_memory_undo.sh" which has the same [wrong] line. This should remove the line from crontab. Then modify cron_subsonic_copy_from_memory.sh and run it to add the correct line in crontabs (It can be run over and over). I have put scripts03.zip in the original post with these fixes. Replacing the scripts and rebooting will also set things up correctly. I have not played with XBMC. I'm using a WD TV Live (piece of shit firmware) for my media player. I might do the Revo + XBMC solution if the Popbox doesn't fit my needs in March. If you get it working, post your findings here for all to share.

Thanks triom I just updated my install from 3.8 to 3.9. The process is fairly simple. run the "/boot/scripts/subsonic_copy_from_memory.sh" This will save any changes made. replace all the files in /boot/subsonic/standalone" with the new version (keep the subsonic_start_RAM.sh script) delete "/boot/subsonic/tmp-subsonic-ehcache/" and "/boot/subsonic/data/jetty/" directories from the thumb drive if they exist. (only the jetty folder has the web files) and reboot I'm not actually sure which formats will stream, but transcoding is mainly used to lower the bitrate for users with limited upstream bandwidth (until fiber to the home is everywhere). So, no you don't need to use it. There have been a lot of discussion on this and it is possible. Keep in mind Subsonic wasn't designed for video. VLC does work without any changes to Subsonic. You need to make sure to add the extension (.avi, .mp4 or .wmv) in Settings -> General -> Music mask. Also, add the path where the videos are in the music folder settings. Searching the Subsonic forums here and here will point you in the right direction.

thanks

I'm thinking of getting some ICY DOCK cages for my CM 590. I'm currently using right-angle SATA cables. From the rear view of the ICY DOCK, it looks like the MOLEX connector will be in the way. Should I get some cables with strait connectors on both ends? Thanks

RAM stays intact while the system is in S3 mode. On my system, I do call the script before S3 and no longer have the cron job set (I S3 sleep each night).

I found a typo in one of my scripts. It's nothing that would cause Subsonic to not work. The cron_subsonic_copy_from_memory.sh script was scheduling to run the subsonic_copy_from_memory.sh script at 7pm. I used * for the rest of the values which made all the minutes between 7:00pm-7:59pm valid (essentially running the script 60 times). I have fixed this and uploaded scripts02.zip in the original instructions. WRONG: * 19 * * * /scripts/subsonic_copy_from_memory.sh CORRECTED: 0 19 * * * /scripts/subsonic_copy_from_memory.sh I also updated the subsonic_copy_from_memory.sh script to create the destination folders if they don't exist and to exclude copying the Subsonic source files from RAM (since they don’t change).

Thanks Joe. I'm tossing around the idea of having my off-site drives in some enclosure for nightly rsync. Thought the ebay item was some sort of NAS without drives. Sorry for going off topic.

Thanks for the link. I like this device since I already have the hard drives. Most NAS units sell with HDD's and that really increases the price. Was thinking of using this as my off-site backup and just use rsync. What software does this unit run? Is it possible to use different size drives? Can you run it in a non-raid configuration? Will NTFS drives work?

Thats the CPU I use. Its plenty of power for normal unraid usage. Here are some CPU usages I've observed... 6% when streaming movies. 11% for my Subsonic music transcoding. 25% when writing to my Truecrypt disk 100% using handbrake video encoding with ~10 fps I've encoded a movie (100%) while having 5 music streams going and the music streams never skipped a beat. I'm still bouncing around the idea of a dual or quad core to encode video faster. I may run a VM server in the future which will require a little more power.

I was going to go the Acer Revo route, but decided to get a plug-in-play WD TV Live. I just didn't want to deal with configuring another full fledged PC. Plus it was cheaper. I'm sure you might have heard of all the problems with the firmware on the WD TV live. Its been making me think that I should have gone with the Revo+Boxee/XBMC. I'm happy with the WD TV Live. I wanted to be able to just plug it in and stream dvd's over Wi-Fi. The only issue I have is a little frame-rate studder, but its not a deal breaker. I'm running on the 1.0 firmware since the latest one has a terrible audio sync issue. I hope the next firmware fixes the minor issues.

With the spin-up groups added in unraid 4.5, thats not a problem anymore either.

Thank you for the great replys (and ascii art). I ran a short SMART test (report attached) on the disabled disk and everything passed. I didn't see anything in the syslog that stood out either. I was using fan splitter cables to be able to connect more than one fan to a single system fan controller on the MB. I had 3 fans and my MB only had 2 [system] connectors. I noticed that one fan was running around 700rpm when I know the CM cages have 1200rpm fans. The problem was the SMART system fan setting in the BIOS was enabled. This lowered those fans because the sensors were reading the case temperature. I disabled this and rebooted and the fan speeds read around 1190rpm. I taped up the top vents and both side panels and added a 1900rpm fan to the back (there was not one before). I decided to go with the "Trust my array". I started the parity check and my temps are much better now (see pic). So far so good. My PSU fan is currently facing up and I'm debating about flipping, but there is very little heat coming off it. The PSU fan cable is not attached to the MB (I don't think it has one). Fitbrit: I'd like to see some of your rig pics

My unRaid consists of a COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 Case with COOLER MASTER 4-in-3 cages. Most of the time only a few drives are spun up at once, but I notice the drive temps get fairly warm when the monthly parity check runs. There is no rear fan installed, but put a 120mm fan in one of the top vents closest to the front of the case (not much affect). I'm wondering if I should be concerned or not worry. The only thing I can thing of to do is seal up the vents on the side and put a fan in the rear (maybe another one on top). This would channel the air away from the drives. Any constructive comments would be welcomed

Most people will use ruTorrent like this. I think the concern is about the drives constantly being accessed and the parity drive being written to when downloading. I plan to have a drive in my box which is not part of the protected array. Right, once my box makes a connection to a peer, then we can both share, but you can't seed if the tracker can't contact your box first. Maybe I'm missing something.

Now this can be given some serious consideration... I'm putting it on my to-do list. Purko I was just going to suggest having the unRUtorrent install create a restricted account. As for your previous post, I thought the port defined in the uTorrent (ruTorrent) interface needed to be forwarded to seed. Forwarding a port to unRaid is what I mean by "opening it up".

Trust me, I take security very seriously (same goes for backups). Although, networking is not my strongest skill (I like seeing code and knowing whats going on). Peer Guardian just blocks IP's. This is useful even if you aren't running torrents. Most people running torrents are probably not confined to distributing files on a closed internal network. You have to open unRaid to the outside for unRUtorrent. If a admin PW is set on unRaid, isn't this sufficient? I curious to learn. Why would forwarding some odd port be a "really bad idea" on unRaid (I understand a open port is like an unlocked apartment door). Thanks again purko for keeping things as close to 1-click install as possible.

wrong topic

Thanks Joe for the helpful reply. Since you suggest putting this in the go script, the setting is not persistent between reboots, right?

I've added a drive to my unRaid box. It is not part of the protected array and doesn't seem to ever spin down. This makes me think that the spin down delay is both controlled by the OS and only includes protected disks. Am I correct in this assumption? If so, could the spin down delay be changed to affect all the drives in the system? Or could someone provide a clue on how I can spin down a drive that is not part of the array? Thanks

You have to think about protection. I have been using PeerGuardian for years (windows), but I haven't had the time to look into its Linux brother. It would be great if this was incorporated into unRUtorrent. http://phoenixlabs.org/pglinux/

Ah very nice work. No fuss install. Thanks for the hard work.

My system hangs when I try to stop the array using the unRaid GUI. Here is a snippet of my syslog... Dec 16 11:37:47 unraid sshd[6188]: lastlog_filetype: Couldn't stat /var/log/lastlog: No such file or directory Dec 16 11:37:47 unraid sshd[6188]: lastlog_openseek: /var/log/lastlog is not a file or directory! Dec 16 11:37:47 unraid sshd[6188]: lastlog_filetype: Couldn't stat /var/log/lastlog: No such file or directory Dec 16 11:37:47 unraid sshd[6188]: lastlog_openseek: /var/log/lastlog is not a file or directory! Dec 16 11:51:58 unraid ntpd[1298]: synchronized to 205.209.166.11, stratum 2 Dec 16 12:27:43 unraid ntpd[1298]: synchronized to 216.45.57.38, stratum 2 Dec 16 13:01:00 unraid unmenu[1367]: ls: cannot access /boot/custom/etc/rc.d/*: No such file or directory Dec 16 13:01:23 unraid emhttp: shcmd (35): /etc/rc.d/rc.samba stop | logger Dec 16 13:01:23 unraid emhttp: shcmd (36): /etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd stop | logger Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid emhttp: Spinning up all drives... Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid emhttp: shcmd (37): sync Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid kernel: mdcmd (10174): spinup 0 Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid kernel: mdcmd (10175): spinup 1 Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid kernel: mdcmd (10176): spinup 2 Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid kernel: mdcmd (10177): spinup 3 Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid kernel: mdcmd (10178): spinup 4 Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid kernel: mdcmd (10179): spinup 5 Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid kernel: mdcmd (10180): spinup 6 Dec 16 13:01:24 unraid kernel: mdcmd (10181): spinup 7 Dec 16 13:01:32 unraid emhttp: shcmd (38): umount /mnt/user >/dev/null 2>&1 Dec 16 13:01:32 unraid emhttp: _shcmd: shcmd (38): exit status: 1 Dec 16 13:01:32 unraid emhttp: shcmd (39): rmdir /mnt/user >/dev/null 2>&1 Dec 16 13:01:32 unraid emhttp: _shcmd: shcmd (39): exit status: 1 Dec 16 13:01:32 unraid emhttp: Retry unmounting user share(s)... Dec 16 13:01:33 unraid emhttp: shcmd (40): umount /mnt/user >/dev/null 2>&1 Dec 16 13:01:33 unraid emhttp: _shcmd: shcmd (40): exit status: 1 Dec 16 13:01:33 unraid emhttp: shcmd (41): rmdir /mnt/user >/dev/null 2>&1 Dec 16 13:01:33 unraid emhttp: _shcmd: shcmd (41): exit status: 1 Dec 16 13:01:33 unraid emhttp: Retry unmounting user share(s)... Dec 16 13:01:34 unraid emhttp: shcmd (42): umount /mnt/user >/dev/null 2>&1 It just repeats like that over and over.

Joe, This most likely is not a unMenu issue. Here is what I observe. I have the unMenu Disk Management page open in Firefox. I plug in the thumb drive and refresh the page. One of two things happen. Either unMenu times out and doesn't want to display unless I execute /boot/unmenu/uu or I see the screen below. I don't want to create a reiserfs because this would erase the data on the thumb drive. If I refresh the page, the drive is no longer displayed. It is also not displayed with the "ls -l /dev/disk/by-id". I have tried several thumb drives formatted using fat32. I'm using the USB ports on the back of the motherboard. I've checked the BIOS and and enabled anything relating to USB. I'm baffled why the drive would show up and then disappear. Thanks for your help. EDIT: This seems to only be happening for my 16Gig Corsair drive. See second image with two other thumb drives working.