Kevlar21

Thanks for the link So, am I correct to assume that it is a Pro Drive based on the model number, and that the drive I shucked just has an older label? (not listing it as a pro drive). And is there any way from unraid or command line that I can verify the rotational speed and cache size? Thanks again

Hi, Just a looking for a little help / clarification on identifying a drive that I just shucked. Recently picked up an 8TB Seagate Expansion External drive to add capacity to my unraid server as they were reasonably prices (for Canadians) @ 239 CAD on Amazon.ca. Opened up the enclosure expecting the usual Seagate Archive Drive (ST8000AS0002) but was surprised to find Seagate BarraCuda ST8000DM0004 instead Just wanted to see in the community could clarify some details on the drive I had received? Searching the drive model only brings up the Seagate Barracuda Pro Model in the 8TB Capacity, which shows a 7200rpm drive with a 256MB cache. In running a few hdparm commands that had been suggested in other threads (output below), It seems this drive is a 5400rpm drive with an unknown cache. In looking through other posts regarding shucking externals, I ran a few hdparm commands as follows. /dev/sde: max sectors = 15628053168/15628053168, HPA is disabled From hdparm -i /dev/sde: Model=ST8000DM004-2CX188, FwRev=0001, SerialNo=WG8019TJ Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% } RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=unknown, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=15628053168 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120} PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled Drive conforms to: unknown: ATA/ATAPI-4,5,6,7 From hdparm -I cache/buffer size = unknown Nominal Media Rotation Rate: 5425 How can I tell, or what to I look for to verify if this is a PMR or SMR drive? How can I find out the actual cache size of the drive? Any help or info is appreciated. Cheers!

Here's my undoubtedly unpopular opinion. Give Tom more money. I've been using unRaid as a platform for going on 7 years to consolidate my storage needs, and to date I have not incurred any considerable downtime or data loss. During this time, I've gone through numerous server configurations running countless different release candidates, ultimately ending up currently with a build based on the combination of a Norco 4220 & X9SCM-F. It wasn't the most frugal of choices, but came highly recommended on the forums, and has to potential to meet all of my unRaid needs. My biggest disappointment with unRaid has always been its untapped potential. I think I'm not alone here as over the past 7 years as I've seen unRaid adapted to a host of plugins and addons. I check the forums on a regular basis, and yes the lack of communication can be frustrating, but that frustration stems from knowing that no updates means no news. I love this product and want to see it grow and thrive. I want to see more updates, not less. If that means incentivizing the developer than so be it. $119 over the past 7 years has been a phenomenal value. Finalize 5. Start development of a 64 bit ASAP, and maybe charge / have a donation drive etc.

Any update on this? It's not isolated to VLC as I also experience it using itunes. It's not isolated to a windows network connection as it happens to me on my Mac Mini (hardwired to the network) and on my MacBook Pro connected via wireless.

+1 I also get intermittent permission issues. My permissions issue manifests often when attempting to rename a file or folder. I've verified permissions, re run the newperms script to no avail. I've even had numerous issues where my first and second attempts to rename a file fail while the third attempt will succeed, all attempts right after one another. I've also concluded that, for no apparent reason, unRAID will intermittently return a spurious permissions error. Also there is nothing unusual recorded in the syslog at the time the problem occurs. Except that I connect via Samba from a Mac running Mountain lion to my unRaid Server (5.0rc5)

Anyone have any experience pulling this drive for use with unRaid? At $199.99 it seems like a pretty cost efficient way to grow my server. http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/wd-wd-my-book-4tb-usb-3-0-external-hard-drive-wdbacw0040hbk-nesn-black-wdbacw0040hbk-nesn/10223593.aspx

Done! So is it ready yet? Respectfully, we've been very patient for over the past 3 years... Thread regarding request for AFP support in which Tom indicates "Working on it..." Post dated October 25, 2007 http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1053.0 <sigh>

To all the people asking for the "complaints" to stop, please realize that unRAID is not perfect and problems do exist, and those with problems do often require assistance to rectify them. I don't understand this attitude of arrogance that permeates threads like this one. When someone has a complaint or grievance that is not addressed, of course they will be vocal about it. There's the attitude now that "hey, my unRAID installation works fine, it's worked fine since the day I bought it, so all other criticisms are null and void". I have this mental picture of unRAID being a car manufacturer with users complaining of poor gas mileage, acceleration performance etc. They contact the company that manufactured the product for help and find out that all the factory's, dealerships, and repair bays have decided not to answer the phone for the past 6 months. Frustrated, they ask other unRAID car owners for help and are met with responses that our cars are perfect, and anybody who criticizes them should shut up. What's going to happen if the lack of official support and communication continues, and currently happy users have to replace hardware, or implement a new server build and possibly run into problems? The current situation regarding the lack of fixes/supports/communication affects every single user of unRAID whether they realize it or not. Maybe dropping the fanboy attitude and working towards addressing everyone's problems on the forum just might BENEFIT THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY.

What!!!!!? First off I think the majority of us here believe that unRAID is a great product. So your solution is that if we have problems or support issues we should just find something different? UnRAID is a product that we love, and unfortunately even the best products have issues and all we want is a more reliable outlet for support. The Veteran users do an amazing job of helping out in the forums, but it just seems that more and more issues are cropping up and some issues are not getting the attention they may need in Limetech's absence.

I'm glad to hear that Tom will be back to a more active role on the boards. A lot of unRAID users are passionate about this product, and with passion comes emotion. There has been a lot of skepticism as well as a lot of optimism on the future of unRAID as well as as the existing hiccups of its current revisions. Given the absence of any official clarity from Tom as of late leads to a lot of speculation. If I am to interpret the graph posted by Joe L., it would appear that LimeTech participation on the forums in somewhat intermittent at times. As it seems that unRAID development will continue and evolve my question to the forums is simply this. Given unRAID's success and growing userbase, what is the expected or acceptable level of official support from LimeTech/Tom?

Joe L., it was not my intention to misquote you and if I have somehow offended I do apologize. My intention was to point out my great experiences with forum support from excellent supporters such as yourself, and my lack of support specifically from Tom. I used my experience to illustrate the IMPRESSION that I was left with. I was experiencing what I felt as poor performance results via SMB. Not a beta feature, but a core feature of the unRAID software. During the course of diagnosing the problem, the fault seemed to lie with unRAID and not my hardware. I was given the IMPRESSION that my results were not the norm by my individual testing, the reaction of veteran members to the results in my post, as well as the general expected speeds posted in the forum and on the wiki. Sure, I can admit I was disapointed that I didn't get the answer I was looking for, but I was more disapointed that there was no indication that my problem would EVER get looked at. Again, this is the IMPRESSION that is given when there is no official support presence in the forums. I can interpret Tom's message several ways. 1. I know about the problem, there are a few higher priorities at the moment, I've noted your case and I'll look into your problem time permitting and get back to you. I'm really busy at the moment so please be patient. If I haven't responded back in a week or so just send me a friendly reminder. Thanks again. 2. I know about the problem, it's not a priority, I don't notice the problem on my system so it's REALLY not a priority, and besides your speed is 2x -3x slower than a lot of others on the forums so no worries. I would be happy with the speed you have and so should you. Obviously 2 interpretations that are polar opposites, and both slanted in comparison to the original message. One clearly professional, and one that would probably piss off the user. The truth usually lies somewhere in between. Now when the average user posts a problem in the SUPPORT forums, which LimeTech has recently not bothered to actively take part in, for many months its easy to get the IMPRESSION closer to the later interpretation. When I post in the support forums, I'm always grateful to the veteran members who post suggestions and advice. I never expect that I would post problem x, and then solution y is posted hours later. I just want Tom to know that we don't expect a perfect answer to every question we ask, just that he participate in the dialog. Sometimes a suggestion, or have you tried xxx? or read www.trythissolution.com and let me know how it works out is all it takes and the entire community benefits.

bubbaQ wrote: So there will be updates? You seem pretty sure that this product will materialize. If this is the case, then why would Tom not wish to communicate this? To the many unanswered bug reports and posts, Tom could simply respond that yes, he is aware of this problem, and yes it will be addressed in the near feature in release x.xx. Of course there would have to be the measure of responsibility to follow through in a timely manner. I've had 2 distinct experiences coming to the support forums. I either get help on my issue, lots of advice on how to thoroughly test my problem, apply different configuration settings or tweaks and have my issue solved. Or, I post an issue, a few others post that they have similar problems, and then the thread dies because the problem hasn't been experienced by a larger portion of the community. These are the posts that Tom needs to step in and comment on, as he can't rely on the 'hero' members to have solutions to everything. I even had a performance issue recently that was forwarded to Tom graciously by one of our hero members. The response that came back was that Tom was aware of the problem and hadn't looked into it. Tell the user that his poor performance should be 'good enough'. What? Seriously? The impression that was left with me was that the forum members that gain absolutely nothing were more than willing to help me with my issue, but the actual company that I purchased my software from couldn't be bothered to look into it. BubbaQ wrote Well said, but isn't there a set of anecdotal rules that developers should follow as well? Is it no surprise that a portion of the user base is become unsympathetic in regards to lack of support?

Regarding Time Machine. I don't currently use time machine, but from what I have read online, once you have netatalk running and you connected to your unRAID server via afp, you should be able to use Time Machine to back up to your unRAID server. I'm including a link that was instrumental in getting afp /avahi up and running for my box. It will walk you through the steps of setting up the netatalk and avahi config files as well as setting up Time Machine. It's written with the purpose of setting up a Ubuntu server, so just substitute some slackfoo when necessary. Walkthrough http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/ And if this inspires any other mac users in the crowd who want afp with user share support, this might work? Its called afpfs-ng From the homepage: afpfs-ng is a client for the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) which will let you mount and access shared volumes from Mac OS X (or netatalk) to Linux, BSD and Mac OS X systems. There is a FUSE-based client which lets you mount a remote filesystem. It is for Linux and FreeBSD. http://alexthepuffin.googlepages.com/ I haven't played around with it as of yet. But would ultimately like to have afp with user share support. Anyone know of any other alternatives? So there you have it. A little more functionality than I had a week ago. If any other mac users using unRAID have had similar or different experiences please share them. Thanks

Hey everyone. Just wanted to start a thread primarily for the mac users among us to discuss the ongoing saga of wanting afp/avahi support for unraid. I was under the (false) impression that netatalk required a custom kernel compile. This seems to be true only if you have a much older mac that requires using Appletalk. As it stands, if you are using a fairly modern mac OSX 10.3 and up, you can install netatalk and use afp to connect to your unraid box. Knowing this it seems that Tom can let the slack/unraid community fill this need as he continues to focus on more core functionality for unRAID. For the mac users in the crowd. AFP vs. SAMBA I've had this up and running for a day or two. Download netatalk and install it as you would any other package. Basic usage is the same as smb. To connect to my unRAID box is now afp://10.0.1.7 instead of smb://10.0.1.7 After doing a little informal testing, the speed seems to be the same. Let me repeat that, the speed seems to be the SAME. 2.55 GB folder with 92 JPGS. afp : 3.58.1 minutes smb : 3.59.6 minutes The only plus for performance that I can give to afp is purely anecdotal. When browsing photos and videos over the network using finder/quickpreview, using afp seemed more responsive. Flipping between 10 to 12 2MB photos seemed quicker. There was no grey loading splash between photos. Launching a 200MB video via VLC seemed to load a second or two quicker. BUT. I can only mount disks, not user shares with afp. AVAHI This is what allows your server(s) to be seen automagically in Finders sidebar. It's basically open source zeroconfig / bonjour. I turn on my mac or macbook on my server is there in the sidebar. No more go > connect to server.. > afp://10.0.1.7. Again this works fine with unRAID. It's a freely available package for slackware. Installs fine, asks for a few dependencies that are readily available. Best thing is that it will do this for afp or samba. As it stands, I'm sticking with Samba announced over avahi. It enables convenient access to my unRAID server with user shares and from what I can tell, no real performance hit over afp. I just wanted to let everyone know that afp/avahi is possible with no recompiling and just a little work looking through some documentation and conf files. Hope this helps!