FreeMan

Well, since I have a cache drive, I'll never notice it thinking at 3:40am. And, since I use high-water to distribute the data over the one new disk at a time I've been adding, there probably won't be much time spent in thought anyway. I didn't really think it would be an issue, but I figure it never hurts to ask. Thanks, guys!

thanks for sharing, dirtysanchez! and take a shower!!! EDIT: One thing to take into consideration - if you're backing up your sabnzbd directory, and your partial and completed download directories are in there, make sure you exclude them. If you happen to be downloading at the time the backup runs (as I was when I decided to test the script to ensure it worked), you'll backup all the download bits and pieces. /usr/bin/rsync -avrtH --delete --exclude-from 'cache_backup_exclude' /mnt/cache/apps/ /mnt/user/Backups/AppsOnCache >>/var/log/cache_backup.log where 'cache_backup_exclude' is a file listing directories (relative to /mnt/cache/apps) to be excluded from the rsync

Nope. Unraid does not red ball a drive unless a write to it fails. It doesn't do any SMART checking. OK understood. Just to make sure I get this I want to ask a question using an example. Lets say a drive has 20 pending sectors, unRAID does not monitor those pending sectors so everything will appear to be fine. I happen to copy something to unRAID and it attempts to write to one of the pending sectors and fails and therefore the drive "red balls"? Only if the drive actually fails the write. A pending sector isn't the end of the world for a drive, they come from the factory with LOTS of spare sectors, and in normal operation, if a sector takes too long to read, the data will be written instead to one of the spares, and the OS is none the wiser. A current pending sector is one that the drive can't read the data from. If a drive finally gives up trying to read the sector and remap it for itself and spits out a read error, unraid immediately spins up all the other drives, does the parity calculation to figure out what was SUPPOSED to be in that sector, and writes it back to the drive. Unraid also increments the error column on that drive, so you have an idea that SOMETHING went wrong, but unraid was able to successfully handle it. An otherwise healthy drive will clear the pending sector counter for that spot, and increment the reallocated sector count. If the WRITE to the drive fails, unraid gives up trying to use the drive, red balls it, and all future operations for that drive are actually being done on the parity drive, and the red ball drive is calculated on the fly from all your drives. The reason a pending sector is death to a rebuild, is that during a rebuild, unraid is using the data from that sector to determine what is supposed to be on another drive. It can't calculate what's supposed to be there and write it back. So, a pending sector will cause a corrupt drive rebuild. Regular parity checks are a good way to make sure all drives can be successfully read end to end so a rebuild will succeed. This needs to be stickied and Wiki'd and all sorts of saved! Excellent write up, Jonathan! Thank you very much.

Most of my drives are very near max capacity. Is this something to worry about (other than not being able to store stuff)? Coming from a Windoze background, I know that it gets a little edgy when disks get near capacity - it that a concern with unRAID (or Linux in general)?

I've got several with over 50,000 hrs (I shouldn't post this -- I'm sure they'll all fail tonight !!) But aren't they supposed to be 2-300,000 hours MTBF? As they say about a Honda, it's just getting broken in! /topic drift

Server, 4 desktop PCs, 2 HTPCs, 4 phones, 4 tablets - all on 24/7. Too lazy to turn 'em off, and as grumpy & gary mentioned the power usage is probably about the same cost as a quick snack at Taco Bell or McDs, so I don't worry about it. Don't know if it's still the case (maybe it never was), but as a young 'un, I was always told that the greatest danger to electronics was in the initial power surge when turning them on, so it was actually better on the electronics to leave them on 24/7. I was just looking at some SMART stats on my drives - I've got one that reports almost 43000 power on hours.

Thanks for the help, guys. Order placed, new toys on the way!

Color me foolish... I copied the model number from the Newegg site and searched the PDF - didn't find it. I copied the second Corsair model number, pasted it into Newegg's search bar - it was filled with spaces between every character. Never occurred to me that was why the number wasn't found in the PDF... Going to go with the 1st Corsair option - Newegg's promo code brings the $93 list down to $77. Now, to shift topics a bit, you got me reading the Gigabyte website in more detail. For the expansion slots, it says: 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot. (The PCIEX16 slot conforms to PCI Express 3.0 standard.) * To support PCI Express 3.0, you must install an FM2+ APU. Is there going to be any appreciable difference in performance if the PCIEx16 slot is running at 2.0 vs 3.0 standard, since I'm looking at an FM2 CPU instead of FM2+? Since the on-board graphics will be more than enough to drive the Linux boot screen when I start up unRAID, I'd be using this slot for some sort of SATA host on down the line. (At the moment, I think all I've got is x1 cards, anyway, so not a big deal right now.)

Thanks, DoeBoye. Of course, none of these four are on the tested list. However this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233283 is. Looking at the specs, I don't see any difference between it and the other Corsair that I listed http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL011614&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL011614-_-EMC-011614-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-20233186-L09A other than 2x the price (including today's sale) and an "End user swappable light bar", whatever that is. If what I choose matches specs on something tested, is that close enough? I've never had any memory compatibility issues just mixing and matching what's on sale. Except for the machine I just put together for my wife...

It might be a bit outside the budget, but Newegg has this right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1519906 There have been some high recommendations for the mobo around here, and it's a $12 drop on Newegg's price. The combo pricing makes the CPU the same price as what you (and I) were looking at, and puts 8 SATA ports on the Mobo, so there's no need to invest in expansion cards down the line. This bugger's in my shopping cart right now, and once I decide on some RAM, it'll be on its way to my front door.

Thanks for your input, Gary! I think it's time to pull the trigger, as Newegg has generously put my MoBo on sale, and combined it with the A6-5400 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113282 for the same price as I was looking at for the A4-4000. The memory they currently have on sale (always a great reason to buy!) is: Corsair Vengance 2x4GB DDR3 1600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL011614&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL011614-_-EMC-011614-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-20233186-L09A G.Skill Ares 2x4GB DDR3 1866 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231550&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL011614&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL011614-_-EMC-011614-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-20231550-L09C GeIL EVO Veloce 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144614&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL011614&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL011614-_-EMC-011614-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-20144614-L09D Team Zeus Yellow 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313436&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL011614&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL011614-_-EMC-011614-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-20313436-L010A Any recommendations on these? They're all 1.5v, look like unbuffered, non-ECC. The CAS latency is 9 on all of them, but the timings are a bit different. I really don't know squat about all these parameters - do they matter much for unRAID? I'm sure most of the memory is produced in the same few factories around the world, then different labels put on them to make them different 'brands'. They all carry lifetime warranties. If there's no real difference, I'll buy on price, if there's a recommendation, there's only about $15 from the bottom to the top of the price range, so it's not huge. Thank again!

It can be 1 per register. I was at a certain Fry's in the midwest a couple of years back. Was informed that the great deal I found on a 1TB was 1/customer. I was about to leave one when the girl at the next register piped up with "I could ring one up over here". Deal! I've also walked out of the store with my 1, dropped it off in the car, then walked right back in to pick up a second 1/purchase item.

OK, so I attempted to upgrade to SAB 0.7.16. (EDIT: running the built-in updater just takes you to the sourceforge download page.) I edited /boot/packages/sabnzbd-unmenu-package.conf by making these changes: # sabnzbd #PACKAGE_URL http://sourceforge.net/projects/sabnzbdplus/files/sabnzbdplus/sabnzbd-0.6.7/SABnzbd-0.6.7-src.tar.gz/download #PACKAGE_FILE SABnzbd-0.6.7-src.tar.gz #PACKAGE_MD5 51fe9b36a8238a04abc2213d1eeec4e2 PACKAGE_URL http://sourceforge.net/projects/sabnzbdplus/files/sabnzbdplus/0.7.16/SABnzbd-0.7.16-src.tar.gz/download PACKAGE_FILE SABnzbd-0.7.16-src.tar.gz PACKAGE_MD5 13f7ff753e22e81fa6f7efab8c3c7213 (I'm a comment-the-old-code-just-in-case-I-need-it kinda guy, what can I say) I then stopped SAB and went into unMENU's package manager. It showed the new version, and it said "installed but not downloaded". I clicked the button which indicated it would download SAB, which it did. I clicked the 'user scripts' button to restart SAB, and still had ver 0.6.7. I rebooted, and still have 0.6.7. I'm at a bit of a loss here. What do I do to get the newer version installed?

I have unMenu installed & working properly now (after sorting out some disk/controller issues). Greatly appreciate all the work that's gone into this! What's the difference between the versions of SAB, Sick & CP that are installable via unMenu packages vs the plugins that are available, specifically, Influencer's http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=21260.0 ? EDIT: Two major differences that I can identify: 1) unMENU gets sub-directory permissions set properly so that SAB can actually download files. For some reason, the plugin version was creating directories read-only. 2) unMENU is installing SAB v0.6.7, while Influencer's plugin installed v0.7.5. I'm not sure how unMENU has found such an old version of SAB. I had been running unRAID 4.7, and had a newer version of SAB installed, via unMENU, right from the start. I have screen shots of all my configuration made prior to updating from 4.7 to 5.0.4, and there are huge differences in style, layout and option availability between my screen shots and what's currently installed via unMENU. I recall from earlier conversations, that Joe L is very much in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp when it comes to updating the utilities installed by unMENU, but this one does seem to have gone back quite a bit in time. What are the ramifications of using SAB's built in updater? Has anyone tried this to see what happens? Thanks again, Joe, zoggy, et al for your work in making and supporting unMENU.

I've been running unRAID for about a year, and my old hardware is at the max. I've just updated to 5.0.4, and my primary usage is storage of TV, movie & photos, but I'll be running SAB, Sick & CP. I don't think I have any need for transcoding, as the XBMCs in the house can all stream whatever I've thrown at them from whatever source they've come from. I'll likely be adding some other plug ins as hardware improvements allow, but don't have anything in particular in mind. I might possibly add in a Raspberry Pi running XBMC - does anybody know if that would need any sort of transcoding? Virtualization sounds like a fun thing to tinker with, but I'm mostly in the 'get it running & leave it alone' mode right now. Here's what I'm looking at right now: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2vuNx MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-F2A88X-D3H for the 8 on board SATA3 ports, and healthy expansion options ($88) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128656&clickid=zWtTbNQV-WGB2OF2PeWxdSKcUkTw51x0eWn4XY0&iradid=97618&ircid=2106&irpid=79301&nm_mc=AFC-IR&cm_mmc=AFC-IR-_-na-_-na-_-na CPU: AMD A4-4000 3.0GHz Dual-Core - I would think this should be enough horsepower for what I need, and is definitely an upgrade from what I've got (~$45) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113343&clickid=zWtTbNQV-WGB2OF2PeWxdSKcUkTw51XweWn4XY0&iradid=97618&ircid=2106&irpid=79301&nm_mc=AFC-IR&cm_mmc=AFC-IR-_-na-_-na-_-na Memory: Not sure which would be a better option. 4GB is cheaper, but 8GB will give more headroom for growth (64-bit unRAID!) G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($44) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231439&clickid=zWtTbNQV-WGB2OF2PeWxdSKcUkTw53wAeWn4XY0&iradid=97618&ircid=2106&irpid=79301&nm_mc=AFC-IR&cm_mmc=AFC-IR-_-na-_-na-_-na G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($80 - $12 MIR) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455&clickid=zWtTbNQV-WGB2OF2PeWxdSKcUkTw53RoeWn4XY0&iradid=97618&ircid=2106&irpid=79301&nm_mc=AFC-IR&cm_mmc=AFC-IR-_-na-_-na-_-na Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($80 - $15 MIR) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148719&clickid=zWtTbNQV-WGB2OF2PeWxdSKcUkTw53QIeWn4XY0&iradid=97618&ircid=2106&irpid=79301&nm_mc=AFC-IR&cm_mmc=AFC-IR-_-na-_-na-_-na For a total upgrade price of $178 - $213 (before MIR) I've already got a small tower case that manages to keep drives under 40c, except for 1 or 2 that hit about 42c during a parity check, and just upgraded to a nice new PSU, so those aren't going anywhere. I've got a small fan to place right in front of those two hot drives, I just haven't gotten to putting it in place yet. I've got a hodge-podge of drives from Samsung, Hitachi, WD & Seagate: 1 x 3TB parity 4 x 2TB data 3 x 1TB data 1 x 250GB 2.5" cache 1 x 320GB PATA (mount via SNAP for plugins) 1 x 1TB data precleared & waiting for a SATA port 1 x 2TB was parity, now preclearing and will be used for data. I've got room enough for 1 more drive in the case, so that will probably be the next upgrade. I know the CPU will be enough for my needs, as I'm running a single core Athlon 2700+ right now, but will it give enough head room for growth? Are there better options at a similar price point? I've seen the MoBo discussed elsewhere here, and it seems to be a good option. Any tips on the memory? I picked mostly on price, and a recommendation (Joe L or garycase, maybe?) to stick with a pair of sticks if not using buffered or ECC.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149408&nm_mc=EMC-EXPRESS010414&cm_mmc=EMC-EXPRESS010414-_-EMC-010414-Index-_-InternalHardDrives-_-22149408-L06B No promo code necessry

TYVM, Gary. I will do so. EDIT: Parity built & checked, old 2TB pre-cleared, formatted & part of the drive. Thanks, again, Gary.

I am just about to put my first 3TB drive into service as my new parity drive (Post-read is 99%!). It will be replacing a 2TB parity drive which will then go into the array for data storage. 1) Is it recommended to let parity rebuild on the new parity drive prior to adding the 2TB to the array? Just to be sure... 2) Do I need to pre-clear the 2TB that's been in parity service to use as a data drive, or will unRAID recognize it as cleared but unformatted when I add it to the array? Running 5.0.4.

I think there may have just been a typo in dgaschk's instructions. if you remove that extra 'e', does it work?

Seems that this is a SATA card issue. I pulled the new 4-port card, and put in the old 2-port card I had, and plugged the 3TB into the one remaining port I had. It's now into Step 2 of the pre-clear, having finshed the Pre-Clear-Read, something it's not been able to do with the other card.

Leave it to me to find the difficult problems... Could it be because of the controller card they're plugged into? I just purchased this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124060 and have the 1TB that is in the array, but red balling, and the 3TB that I can't get to finish the Disk Pre-Read step of preclear_disk.sh both plugged into it. That seems to indicate a common failure point, however, my cache drive (250GB Samsung 2.5" drive) is also plugged into that card and not having any issues. I've only got 3 drives plugged into the 4 ports of this card, and I did move one SATA cable from one port to another, and that coincided with the 1TB finishing the preclear. I've just swapped the 3TB and the Cache drive ports to see if that's going to have an impact. Upon re-boot, the Cache drive seems to be perfectly funtional, and I've kicked off another preclear attempt on the 3TB. I know the controller is only an x2 card, and that will impact speed, however, for the once monthly parity check I'm not too concerned about speed. It just hit me that having the cache drive on the same controller that the new parity drive will be on (the 3TB, once it's functional) may not be the best bet, so I may do some rearranging in the future, once everything is functional.

OK, this didn't really seem to have solved the issue. Disk 8, my new 1TB drive keeps getting a red ball. I've done the Utils -> New Config trick twice, and rebuilt parity, but it keeps coming up red. This time, I restarted the server trying to resolve a different issue, and that's how it appeared. Attached is a copy of the syslog from boot to the time of posting this plea. EDIT: Also, this isn't related to SNAP, as I mentioned earlier, that was just an example. Would it make more sense to move it back to the main support thread? (Don't really care one way or the other, so long as I can get this resolved.) syslog.txt

I've been having other issues with the box since upgrading from 4.7 to 5.0.4 and adding 2 drives, so I'll see if I can get those sorted before totally giving up on this drive. On the bright side, I picked up the drive locally at Fry's, so it shouldn't be an issue walking back in to return it as DOA. The drive was on sale for $100 - if it hadn't been just before Christmas, with lots o' cash already spent on presents, I'd have picked up several. EDIT: Seems that it was an issue with the SATA controller card I also purchased. The drive's fine, preclear has finished and parity is now syncing.

Not really sure why this got moved here - it wasn't an issue with SNAP. I saw the errors in the syslog and on the console for all drives, too. SNAP was the easiest way to get a quick screen grab of the error message. Anyway... It seems that a new power supply did solve the red ball issue. 9 green drives = 18 A 2 7200 drives = 6 A (or is it 4?) 1 PATA drive = 4 A (my estimate for an older drive) 1 Mobo, etc = 5 A 33 Amps from a 30A power supply doesn't work well. Just picked up a nice new Corsair TX650 with 54 A, so that should give me some growing room. I'll continue to pursue the preclear issue I'm still having in the other thread I started, and I'll move on. Thanks, dgaschk for your help!

That's essentially where I came from as I joined the unRAID brigade, but I moved the drives out of my primary WinXP desktop box before it failed (thankfully!). I got the Pro key and went with existing hardware. I'm still running the old MoBo with old CPU (Athlon 2500+, single core!), but have 11TB shoehorned onto it. I've reached the limits of this hardware (only 2 SATA ports on the MoBo), and am now looking at an upgrade for that.