DoeBoye

If you have "Use cache drive" enabled for a user share, any content copied to that share will first be copied to the cache drive. If the folder doesn't exist on the cache drive, it will create it. When viewing the user share through Windows Explorer, for example, the recently copied content will appear in the user share, as if it is in the array (when in fact it is currently only on the cache drive). When Mover activates on schedule (Assuming you have both enabled Mover, and set a schedule), it will transfer those files off the cache drive, and into the array. There is no need to make any folders (Unless you are using a split level of 0, which is outside the scope of this answer...). The minimum free space just stops Mover from trying to move a file that is larger then the number you have set, if there is less then that amount of space left. i.e: Mover wants to move a 52GB file to disk1. Disk1 has min free space set to 50GB. Disk1 has 46GB left. Mover does not move file onto Disk1, but looks for next disk to move it to, based on your share settings.

+1! Simple and elegant . Did not even consider this! Way to under-complicate things! Sheesh! . EDIT: The only downside (Small but potentially irritating) would be transferring of data onto the server from a 3rd machine would be a bit poky (over w-G or w-N), unless the HTPC is serving dual-purpose and ripping/capturing content as well as playing it...

In my personal experience, wireless g or n is fine for regular networking, but streaming HD video from a server to a client just doesn't work reliably (even side by side). 720p was barely doable, and any ff or rw on my media player, and I would get jerky play and random pauses. Too much annoyance, as far as I'm concerned. Not to mention you're much more at the mercy of external influences (neighbours' over-powered transmitters interrupting, SO microwaving some popcorn etc etc ). 1080p (25+ mbps) was not even an option over wireless-n... Not to mention the halving of bandwidth from the repeating process, unless the repeater has 2 transmitters (which means a more expensive router)... Perhaps others have had more success, but personally, I like a simple reliable solution, and if ethernet is not an option, 500 mbps Powerline ethernet, or Coax ethernet (as of this morning, this is what I would lean towards) is what I would implement. The closing thoughts of smallNetBuilder's review of the Netgear 500 series of powerline ethernet sums it up well. Again, this is my personal experience combined with some internet reviews. I'm sure there is bound to be some people out there who are streaming 1080p flawlessly over Wireless N, I just have never seen it or know anyone who has been able to do it reliably .

For anyone interested in ethernet over coax, Amazon has a great price right now, including free shipping: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001N85NMI?linkCode=xm2&tag=invihand-20 Looks like it could be a good alternative for streaming 1080p video if ethernet is not an option! EDIT: $123 in Canada with free shipping

If #1 is not an option, I would definitely go for #2. However, if you are not willing to run cat5-cables and if you have coax (tv-antenna) in place, you could use an Ethernet to Coax adapter between your router and NAS located upstairs. Check this: http://www.missingremote.com/review/actiontec-ethernet-over-coax-moca-network-adapter. Particulary the Netgear brand is tested (cons = expensive) and does the job since it has 70/140Mbps passthrough, ie = http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-reviews/30743-ethernet-from-your-tv-outlet-netgear-moca-coax-ethernet-adapter-kit-reviewed #3 will cut the bandwidth by 50%. Depending on your starting bandwidth it may not be sufficient (g) or it may be (n) - you need to try it yourself and see. Read these for a start: Part 1 http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-howto/31191-everything-you-need-to-know-about-wireless-bridging-and-repeating-part-1-wds?start=4 Part 2 http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-howto/31201-everything-you-need-to-know-about-wireless-bridging-and-repeating-part-2-no-wds-required?start=2 After reading the article on ethernet over coax, I'm quite impressed! No experience with it personally, but if you have a coax jack available, it sounds like it might be better then Powerline. Also, NewEgg has it on sale right now for $120 for a kit! EDIT: Amazon even cheaper! And free shipping: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001N85NMI?linkCode=xm2&tag=invihand-20

+1 for powerline adapters! The new 500 mbps rated units perform quite well (NETGEAR's XAVB5001 reviewed). Nowhere near 500mbps, but generally at least as fast as 10/100 wired networks (unless you have some crazy internal electrical wiring). If possible, I would get the powerline ethernet product from somewhere with an easy return policy, just in case you're unlucky enough to have a messed up power setup... As far as the usb stick, why not get an internal usb header-to-female usb adapter? Stick is inside the case, away from prying hands Something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200294

Great news! I was disappointed that I had to roll back to beta9 because I was having parity-check performance issues on 10! Can't wait to try 11 and the new plugins!

+1! I plan on grabbing another 2 or 3 3TB Hitachis when they go back on sale in Canada! I finally swapped out my parity drive with a 3TB Hitachi, and added a second as a data drive, and they are running great. Already have 2 more 2TB Hitachis in the system. Love them!

I just saw that shipping is free as well! This PSU should be more then enough for your current system, and provides a bit of headroom to expand a few more Green drives (maybe total of 15 green drives max...).

This is fantastic! Assuming my math is correct (no guarantees there! ), with this deal, you can get the 600w Builder Series PSU for $35 after mail-in rebate!! 40amps on single 12v rail. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028 $35 for a 600w Corsair PSU?? Can't beat that!!! EDIT: And shipping is free!

Personally, I would stick with one of the big names. Power supply is the last thing you want to bargain shop for. Corsair or Seasonic (who makes the Corsair PSUs I believe) would be my choice. That said, there seems to be a fantastic deal on right now (Thanks for the link Raj!). You can get a 600w Corsair PS for $55 and and an additional $20 mail-in rebate! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028 $35 for a 600w Corsair PSU?? Can't beat that!!!

Any updates on this? Did you manage to get it working? If still no love, I would run the tail command from a telnet window so you can see what is happening just before it fails... May give you/us some more useable info... Here's a link to a how to

This looks very interesting!!! Security might be a concern though... Mind you, their site claims it is 100% secure...

Could this have anything to do with the parity Check Speed issues Tom mentioned he found in the 2.6.39.1 kernel back in the beta.7 days? I know beta10 is using 2.6.39.3, but it may be related...

Looks like you've still got lots of free ram available.... That could change as time passes. Can anyone with more Linux knowledge comment on the processes running? Server is still responding?

Doh! If I had read more carefully I would have seen you already mention Samba . Anywho, shot in the dark: Maybe a process is infinitely looping and using up all your ram? I know that other processes start getting automatically killed off (like samba, for instance) when the server starts running low on ram. While the server is still responsive, try telnetting in with puTTY and see what's going on with ram and processes: Check ram usage: free -m Check top processes: top Also, how much ram do you have?

Is it just the web gui you can't connect to, or the shares are also not available?

Thanks for the great idea about swapping USB sticks. I was all ready to pull them out one at a time and update in another box!!! FYI: I did have to move the drives one by one onto mobo sata ports, as wdidle could not see drives on the Supermicro cards...

Just in case Tom only has time to monitor this thread for beta-related issues, here is a link to my post re: beta10 parity check issues!

So just to conclude: Hurrah! beta9 finished the parity check without any issues. Everything is running as it should! Next step: Bringing my new 3TB drives into the array! If I had to guess what the issue is with beta 10, I would say it must have something to do with the new kernel being employed. Tom mentions that there are some definite parity speed issues with the new kernel, so the odd results I am getting (including parity checks running 2 to 3 times slower than normal) could well be linked to this.... The fact that I am seeing an unusual number of posts with people having various issues with beta10 and parity checks leads me to believe that this is definitely not a unique case with my own setup, and might be something that needs to be examined more closely...

So after a few more days of testing I've got some more data: 1. I switched back to beta 6a, and parity check runs at regular speed (Between 60-90MB/s), and completes without issue 2. After the successful parity check on 6a, I tried 10 again, just in case it was an unseated cable. No luck. Tried 3 more times and: a) parity checks all ran significantly slower (25-35 MB/s) b) GUI hung every time (One time parity check almost finished before it happens), and hard resets eventually required. Also, after parity check should be finished, server was consuming significantly more power then when at idle (though less then when parity check is running)... 3. Switched to beta 9. First thing I notice is parity checks are back to normal. Can't report yet if things finish properly, but my gut tells me it will finish without issue. I've attached the syslogs from the last time beta10 was running, as well as the current beta9 syslogs.zip

I checked this at home as well last night, and saw my EADS and EARS drives are in the 200K region! What the hell!! I too ignored the warnings from earlier, but now will be applying the fix asap. For anyone looking for a quick synopsis of the issue and how to fix, and don't feel like searching through the forums again: Link Thanks for the reminder Raj!

That's what I thought as well, so when you mentioned a few posts ago that those drives were misbehaving, i reseated all the sata and power cables on the drives... If that was the problem, that might explain the clean smart data (I took it after I reseated everything)... Also, just to see what would happen, I reverted back to .6a and re-ran the parity check. Things appear to be back to normal. Speeds are good, finishing much faster then before, emails continue arriving every hour (before they stopped coming halfway through) and interface is coming up (So far). If this finishes without issue, I'll switch back to .10 and see if it parity checks no problem as well. If it does, logic dictates that it must have been an unseated cable. If it gives me the same issues as before, it leads me to believe there is something not right in the new beta... Thanks for all the help! [EDIT] There's another new post in the support forum about beta 10 and parity check issues in installations that were working before.... [/EDIT]

Here you go! Thanks dgaschk! Disk7: smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdh smartctl version 5.38 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] Copyright © 2002-8 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Device Model: WDC WD20EADS-32S2B0 Serial Number: WD-WCAVY2103709 Firmware Version: 01.00A01 User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall] ATA Version is: 8 ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated Local Time is: Fri Aug 5 01:38:28 2011 EDT SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED General SMART Values: Offline data collection status: (0x85) Offline data collection activity was aborted by an interrupting command from host. Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled. Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed without error or no self-test has ever been run. Total time to complete Offline data collection: (40680) seconds. Offline data collection capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate. Auto Offline data collection on/off support. Suspend Offline collection upon new command. Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. Conveyance Self-test supported. Selective Self-test supported. SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering power-saving mode. Supports SMART auto save timer. Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported. General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes. Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 255) minutes. Conveyance self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes. SCT capabilities: (0x303f) SCT Status supported. SCT Feature Control supported. SCT Data Table supported. SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 160 150 021 Pre-fail Always - 8983 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1415 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 085 085 000 Old_age Always - 11676 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 124 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 26 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 124 124 000 Old_age Always - 229747 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 112 105 000 Old_age Always - 40 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0 SMART Error Log Version: 1 No Errors Logged SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1 Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error # 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 11676 - SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1 SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS 1 0 0 Not_testing 2 0 0 Not_testing 3 0 0 Not_testing 4 0 0 Not_testing 5 0 0 Not_testing Selective self-test flags (0x0): After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk. If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay. Disk8: smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdc smartctl version 5.38 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] Copyright © 2002-8 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Device Model: WDC WD20EADS-32S2B0 Serial Number: WD-WCAVY2140153 Firmware Version: 01.00A01 User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall] ATA Version is: 8 ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated Local Time is: Fri Aug 5 01:41:01 2011 EDT SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED General SMART Values: Offline data collection status: (0x84) Offline data collection activity was suspended by an interrupting command from host. Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled. Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed without error or no self-test has ever been run. Total time to complete Offline data collection: (39300) seconds. Offline data collection capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate. Auto Offline data collection on/off support. Suspend Offline collection upon new command. Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. Conveyance Self-test supported. Selective Self-test supported. SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering power-saving mode. Supports SMART auto save timer. Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported. General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes. Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 255) minutes. Conveyance self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes. SCT capabilities: (0x303f) SCT Status supported. SCT Feature Control supported. SCT Data Table supported. SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 2 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 187 147 021 Pre-fail Always - 7641 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1498 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 084 084 000 Old_age Always - 11786 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 125 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 30 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 132 132 000 Old_age Always - 204407 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 113 106 000 Old_age Always - 39 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0 SMART Error Log Version: 1 No Errors Logged SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1 No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t] SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1 SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS 1 0 0 Not_testing 2 0 0 Not_testing 3 0 0 Not_testing 4 0 0 Not_testing 5 0 0 Not_testing Selective self-test flags (0x0): After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk. If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Part 2 of syslog! (Too large to fit in one post) syslog2of2.txt