bcbgboy13

Possible problems with "clear_array_drive" script and xfs formatted disks resulting in extremely low speed I initially ran the script on one "reiserFS" formatted disk and it worked beautifully. Then I decided to change my disks from "reiserFS to xfs using the "mirror" strategy and ended with one unused drive (the smallest one). By default my disks are set to use xfs and when I formatted it in the last step it did use the xfs. I saw that the disk was set as "MBR unaligned" and I zeroed the first 512 bytes. After another formatting it was all OK and I proceed to zero the disk using the script above. It started with over 200MB/s but quickly dropped to 1.2MB/s and later to 600-700kB/s. In a few hours it was zeroed only 1.5GB but it resulted in tens of millions of "writes" on the main page. Nothing wrong in the log file... I tried to kill the "dd" PID, then used Ctrl-C but was not successful and had to stop the array. It took maybe 10-20-30 minutes but finally it stopped and I could power down the server. I inspected the cables and the powered-up the server , formatted the disk again and then let it run overnight. In the morning it was barely zeroed 15GB, speed was around 500kB/s and again tens of millions of "writes " om the main page. Repeated the stopping/shut-down procedure again but this time after the power-up I formatted it with the older "reiserFS" and then gave it another go with the script. BINGO - it works as it should - in the 2 and half hours it did zeroed 700GB+ and the "writes" are around 1.65 million I believe someone should investigate it further reiserFS formatted disks - works fine xfs formatted disks - read elsewhere that the array should be in "maintenance mode" (not tested by me) btrfs formatted disks - no idea!!! Just for the kick I decided to format the drive with btrfs and surprisingly the script refused to run claiming that there is not a single empty hard drive !!! ============================================================================================== To summarize my tests for the "clear_array_drive" script: unRAID v 6.6.6 1TB WD green disk with no SMART problems. reiserFS format - 33.6MB used space - script runs as intended btrfs format - 17.2MB used space - script refused to run claiming no empty hard drive found xfs format - 1.03GB used space - script runs painfully slow with tens of millions of "writes" to the disk. The test was cancelled by me as the estimated time could be weeks or even month!!! Another post here claims OK but with array running in "maintenance mode" (this I did not test) =============================================================================================

One has to be careful here - there is 1068 chip and there is 1068e with one of them being PCI-X chip and the other being PCIe (express) chip. Yours appear to be 1068 (b0) and in this case you should look for the LSI legacy products as source for newer firmware and BIOS. One such example is the LSI SAS 3081X-R Direct link to the latest firmware here - http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Host%20Bus%20Adapters/Host%20Bus%20Adapters%20Common%20Files/SAS_SATA_3G_P21/SAS3080XR_%20Package_P21_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip If you decide to proceed I am not responsible for what could happen. And if you succeed please let us know.

another reason could be the fact you are using older firmware - P11 P14 is the latest one with many fixes

This powers supply is worth its price: (now with 25% off for a limited time) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121083 Fanless, Platinum rated, Modular Will drive 20 green drives without problem People from countries with high electricity cost should give it a good look (and it looks better in the 220V world)

It is strange as the IR firmware is always larger than the IT firmware: Anyway the link is here - http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Host%20Bus%20Adapters/Host%20Bus%20Adapters%20Common%20Files/SAS_SATA_3G_P21/SAS3081ER_%20Package_P21_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip As you have B1 chip you must use 3081ETB1.fw

can someone with P14 please answer. Thank you I do not use the files posted on the first page so cannot comment ot the flashing procedure under Windows. However one can safely copy/overwrite the firmware file and the BIOS file from any newer revision over the exiting ones and update right to the latest one. Keep in mind that 2118it.bin is the original firmware file name for LSI9211-8i and 2108it.bin is for LSI9210-8i - they are functionally identical but the device name will change. Do not forget to overwrite the correct BIOS file too- always named mptsas2.rom If you have a previous version one does not need to go thru the whole procedure - update is done with one line command only: sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom

Firmware P14 has been released recently - some interesting "defect" fixed specially for SATA drives: Example: SCGCQ00280727 (DFCT) - (Sata Only) Executing Start Stop Unit to move SATA Drive from Standby to Active doesn’t work Perhaps this will finally allows for a real release 5.0

P11 is old version for the firmware - the latest one is P13.5 - http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Host%20Bus%20Adapters/Host%20Bus%20Adapters%20Common%20Files/SAS_SATA_6G_P13.5/9210_8i_Package_P13.5_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip And as this is often read from other non Unraid users there is a newer firmware for 9240-8i mode as well - http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/MegaRAID%20Common%20Files/MERGED_20.10.1-0099_SAS_2008_FW_Image_APP-2.120.294-1580.zip BTW - there are now PCIe 3.0 versions of these cards (based on SAS2308)

A few suggestions: 1. Flash the motherboard with the latest BIOS, then set the default configuration, save it, reboot, go into the BIOS again and disable any unused hardware features - Floppy drive, serial and parallel ports, audio, firewire, IDE controller if you are not using any of the older IDE HDs. Save this one. 2. Make sure that all the jumpers JPE1 to JPE8 and also JPE9 are set to CrossFire mode - (all of them are in position 2-3 closed) - reference page 21 bottom right - in this way you "enable" the second PCIe x16 slot to be functional and working at x*8 speed. By default they are in position 1-2 to provide your video card with max bandwidth and the second PCIe x16 slot is disabled. Try now - your M1015 should work. 3. If no luck again - swap the controller with the video card and try again (Controller in the Master PCIe, video card in the Slave PCIe). 4. If no luck again and if you only plan to use max of 16-18 HDs you can try to look for an older PCI only video card - people usually trow these in the garbage - but it may be possible to avoid buying an new MB However I am 99% sure that everything will work after steps 1 and 2 Good luck and let me know. PS. Use only Beta 12/12a or the new just released RC2

This is much nicer (and different card - based on SAS2108 chip). It looks like the LSI 9260-8i, IBM M5015 The procedure will be similar but you may have to use different tools and firmware. Some quick search: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/servers/raid/raid-controller-rs2bl.html http://www.lsi.com/products/storagecomponents/Pages/MegaRAIDSAS9260-8i.aspx http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271922-LSI-2108-based-card-cross-flashing-%28Dell-H700-LSI-9260-IBM-M5015-Intel-RS2BL080%29

After it is done, and before assigning the drive to the unRAID array, you can post the results of this command to assist me in knowing if it worked as expected on your 3 TB drive: dd if=/dev/sda count=1 2>/dev/null | od -x -A x (substituting your disk for /dev/sda ) The report: Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: ========================================================================1.12 Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == invoked as: ./preclear_disk1.12beta.sh -A /dev/sdb Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Hitachi HDS5C3030ALA630 MJ1311YNG258NA Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Disk /dev/sdb has been successfully precleared Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == with a starting sector of 1 Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Ran 1 cycle Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Using :Read block size = 8225280 Bytes Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Last Cycle's Pre Read Time : 9:42:34 (85 MB/s) Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Last Cycle's Zeroing time : 9:26:21 (88 MB/s) Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Last Cycle's Post Read Time : 18:50:50 (44 MB/s) Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Last Cycle's Total Time : 38:00:54 Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Total Elapsed Time 38:00:54 Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Disk Start Temperature: 29C Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Current Disk Temperature: 32C, Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: == Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: ============================================================================ Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: ** Changed attributes in files: /tmp/smart_start_sdb /tmp/smart_finish_sdb Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: ATTRIBUTE NEW_VAL OLD_VAL FAILURE_THRESHOLD STATUS RAW_VALUE Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: Temperature_Celsius = 187 206 0 ok 32 Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: No SMART attributes are FAILING_NOW Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: 0 sectors were pending re-allocation before the start of the preclear. Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after pre-read in cycle 1 of 1. Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after zero of disk in cycle 1 of 1. Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: 0 sectors are pending re-allocation at the end of the preclear, Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: the number of sectors pending re-allocation did not change. Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: 0 sectors had been re-allocated before the start of the preclear. Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: 0 sectors are re-allocated at the end of the preclear, Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: the number of sectors re-allocated did not change. Jun 18 21:27:21 unraid preclear_disk-diff[16035]: ============================================================================ The output of the command: dd if=/dev/sdb count=1 2>/dev/null | od -x -A x 000000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 * 0001c0 0002 ff00 ffff 0001 0000 ffff ffff 0000 0001d0 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 * 0001f0 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 aa55 000200

I am running the 12 beta on a brand new 3TB Hitachi green HD. There was a 6 to 11 MB/s difference in the speed reported from the console (higher) than the myMain at one point. This difference has grown now to 40 MB/s during the post-read. myMain speed is given as 51 MB/s while the console is showing around 91 MB/s ( at the 58% done post-read -around 28h:30min mark) Will report later once it is done.

You are using full Slackware install (which is way above my "pay grade" ) but you are omitting a lot of things in your "simple" hardware list - WD7000 SCSI and 3ware 9xxx controllers, RAID6, some Compaq hardware and all this on an older nVidia based motherboard. Let see what the Linux guys will say.