flambot

Greetings, This is perhaps part of this post https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=47358.0 No weird Bios messages this time, but while watching a show again (via HTPC), the video on screen froze again. I checked my server via SMB shares under "Network Places" and I couldn't access it. Nor could I access it via the GUI. I could however "Ping" it and I could get a reply. I could also see that it had a network address via ifconfig at the cmdline. I rebooted the router. That didn't do anything. I ended up rebooting the server and that got the connection back up again. So what should I be looking for?? This is the second time it has done it (It's never done it in the past) - so something is obviously amiss. I did notice that ifconfig eth0 shows some packets dropped? Is this normal? I couldn't see anything in the log. I have included it here, but I cut off the shutdown part to get the space down in the file. Hope to get to the bottom of it. Thanks. syslog-.txt

Ahh..that makes sense. DIdn't know you could do that. I used to run a static IP on my server, but my router died. The new one I got came with an ISP package and isn't as good. With this new router and a static IP on my server, if often started without a network connection, so I switched it back to a auto one. The new one couldn't reserve an IP like my old one could. Sure wish I was better at computers. Really appreciate the help. Cheers

Which makes me curious why you asked about refreshing the IP. If it were me, I would reboot the router. Then when you have time, check the router settings, make sure IP assignments (if any) look correct, no conflicts. That's an old machine, old BIOS. It wouldn't surprise me to see hiccups on boot. Could be dust buildup, CMOS battery getting weak, etc. You can Ctl-Alt-Del repeatedly, and get an idea what the fast passing message was. Thx Rob for the input. Yeah...it's getting old now, but it's usually very reliable. I did reboot the router (first thing I tried). It didn't help. Weird thing was that I could ping the server and it replied, but I couldn't connect through my HTPC, the GUI or SMB shares. I gave it a clean out mid last year - still very clean and replaced the cmos battery at the same time. "Ctl-Alt-Del" will make it cleanly powerdown. I found if I used the the shift pgup/down buttons I could review the comand line stuff, but only as far back as unraid starting. This message was prior to that. It could just have been a one off weirdness. Sometimes, the universe trys to be messen with ya! It could have been an IP conflict that caused the original issue. I reboot my router regularly, so times I get a conflict message on my own PC. I'll keep an eye on it. Appreciate the assistance.

Hello, During the watching of a show, the server froze suddenly (I seemed to have lost netwrok access). I ended up rebooting the server and during the post it had some weird BIOS is missing message (which scrolled passed to fast to read). Then unRAID started and I can access it again as per usual. Normally I have the drives being recognisied before unraid startes and this didn't seem to happen - yet the system appears to be working?? I am posting my log in the hope someone can tell me if something is amiss. Thanks. One more question. Can you refresh the network address under unraid without rebooting? Not sure I"m using the correct terms here, but I'm asking if I can get a new address on the server without rebooting using the cmd line. Thx for the help. syslog-2016-03-10.txt

Thanks for the input. I think I can breathe a little easier. I found that post during my searching, but wasn't sure I was doing the right thing until I got more knowledgeable input from more informed people . Much appreciated.

Greetings, I recently noticed that mymain is showing my 2x6TB drives as HPA with a question mark? I originally thought it was because unmenu was out-of-date, so I upgrade and found it the same. So I looked into HPA and am not sure what I should do - if anything. Surprised a 4TD drive shows correctly. As the parity is showing this, do I need to be concerned? My next 6TD drive is on it's way. They are all WD6TB reds.

In this case, the Promise TX4 cards are only going to be used for other drives. Only one drive is connected at present to one card, the other is attached to my spare slot in my hot-swap bay. IN time, once I get another 6Tb drive, I will remove the drive on the TX4, and then probably remove one of the cards. It will only be used for a preclear drive. Thanks for the comments. They help me to understand the system better.

Shame your gigabit will come to a shuddering standstill as it all tries to squeeze through the PCI interface... How much difference will it really make? I brought a PCI-E card at the same time, but never tried it because this one seemed to have the better specs. I guess that's a PCI card as well. While it might not seem as fast as the on-board nic, it doesn't seem that much slower. Takes about 4 min to write from - to the server with a 4-5gb iso. Was taking about 9 mins with the on-board only running at 100Mb/s. Ultimately, it hasn't been in long enough to get a good feel of it.

Prior to receiving the advice here about the i1210-At, I ordered this card... http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=366099 I installed it today without issue and it was recognised out of the box. I am now running at 1000 Mb/s again, which I'm rather pleased about. Thank you for the assistance. Very much appreciated.

Most of these types of units come with 2 power connectors - and you only need to connect one. The second one is for a second power supply for use in servers that have two power supplies for redundancy. As long as one of the power supplies is working, the cage will get power. Interesting. Would never have picked that. I just assumed they both had to be connected. There was no documentation with the unit. I did like the fan connector that could be connected either small 2pin?(maybe 3pin), and either male or female molex. Quite a tricky little plug. The 3HDD unit is definitely the better of the two. I tried really hard locally to get another one, but they are "End of Line" so had to go with what they could supply.

Thx for the recommendation. I couldn't find a i210AT on ebay, or here locally in NZ, but there is a i210-T1. Not sure if it's a similar card or not.

How do I do this? I can Disable the OB NIC in the bios. Will that make the system look elsewhere? yes Jolly Good!

How do I do this? I can Disable the OB NIC in the bios. Will that make the system look elsewhere?

I ended up buying the Lian-Li Hot Swap Cage as listed in the first post of this thread. Unfortunately, the supplier couldn't supply 3xunits, so I had to put in a 4xHDD one. Here are my thoughts. The 3xHDD cage has the SATA ports on the outside of the unit on the correct side for easy connection from the open side of the server case. (see pic) It has a single molex plug for power and and nifty multi-way plug for the fan. I noticed an immediate drop in the HDD temps once installed - even though I had the HDD's in a TT cage. This unit did not have any SATA cables. The unit is supplied with 3xhandles that screw to each drive for easy removal. There is a grey plastic knob on each side of the tray to lock the drive into place. These knobs slide down. (See pic). Overall, I thought this was a great step up from what I had. They are much quieter the the Thermaltake units I replaced. http://s159.photobucket.com/user/Grooving_Kiwi/media/Lian-Li%20How%20Swap%20Cage/HSCage-3HDD.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1[/ http://s159.photobucket.com/user/Grooving_Kiwi/media/Lian-Li%20How%20Swap%20Cage/HSCage-3HDD-2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 I cannot get as excited about the 4xHDD version. It is deeper by about 25mm. The SATA ports are located behind the fan - which is screwed into position. The SATA cables need to be low profile ones to fit (although in this case they came with the unit). This unit takes 2xmolex connectors for drive power. Downside is all the cables come out of the unit on the inside of the case opening, making them very difficult to work with. Overall, I couldn't recommend this unit. The 3xHDD one is better value and easier to work with.

I have finally completed my server rebuild and have removed 7x data drives from the original 16. It was a major undertaking Generally, the whole process went okay - and thank you very much for all the support and advice here. My parity check is now taking 19 hours (a far cry from the 33 hours previously). I would like it better than this, but I have let a single drive on my TX4 expansion card until I get my next 6Tb upgrade. I'd still like to remove a couple of more drives, but that'll have to wait. My upgrade included the addition of some Lian-Li Hot Swap cages, which makes changing the drives a simple process now. My main concern now is a network connection issue I am trying to resolve (see another thread). So thanks again

Greetings, I've been having network connection issues with my server. It would appear the on-board NIC is dying or partially dead. Currently, it is only connecting at 100Mbs - which while good enough for streaming, but is lousy for writing to and from the server. I have done all the usual things like changing cables, network switch sockets, plugging directly into router etc. This hasn't fixed the issue. I need a new card to verify if it is something outside my server. I have an old card I installed, but the system doesn't appear to be able to see it. I am about to look at the bios for a setting that controls the network?? I have been looking at this card http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=387807, which seems to work with linux. I do not know what version of linux unraid uses. Most Mobo's use an on-board NIC, so you don't see much posted here about stand-alone cards. Any recommendations and advice on what to do would be appreciated. Thx. Update: Seems the only option in the bios is to disable the ONboard PCIE Gbe LAN. (There is an otion under that called LAN Option ROM - not sure what that is) I have also found this card http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=366099 Looking at the manufacturers site, this card states linux, while the above card only says windows. This one also mentions Jumbo Frames.

Yep...lets hope so

Thx. That sorts me out. I'll skip the steps you suggested, click new config, shutdown and remove the old drives. This is the most I've played with the server since I built it in 2007 And...as I said in another post, I'm sure the universe is messing with me. I discovered a failed drive in the system this morning (obviously failed a write while copying data across to another disk), so I'm currently rebuilding that drive. I'm a little concerned because I've just copied 5Tb of data since the last parity check. All I can hope is that it's fine. My server has been very reliable and the only 2nd failed drive ever. What did I say about computers!! :'( Perhaps this is a good time to do a non-correcting parity check at the end of this rebuild?? If it finds an error this way, what is the procedure? I'm using my old 4Tb parity drive, which I know is good.

Ahh...that makes sense. I've never done a non-correctly parity check (not sure you can even do this through unraid 5.0 can you?)

Why a non-correcting check? I've never really understood why (or when) this is necessary. Also, this has to be done through unMenu doesn't it?

Thx for that - it was my expectation, but I've been caught before How are the other steps? Sound about right? When should the old drives be removed? The parity is voided right?

Yeah...that would get one excited.

I have been reading up on this part of unraid. I have never used the new config before in version 5.0 and I'd like to know what I will be presented with. Does the "New Config" link take you to another page and then allow you to do something, or does it happen as soon as you click the link? I am removing 7 drives from my array. I have just about finished moving 6tb of data (it's taken days), but my next step is a new config. A which point do I disconnect the drives I am removing? Is this done "First" or do I unassign them first? I am assuming a "New Config" will void the parity info. So...if the old drives are still in the array, but unassigned, does the parity sync still look at those disks or are they just sitting there being dumb as this takes place? This question is to do with the time it takes to do the sync. If I remove the disks they are out of there, but if they are still present, will the sync time be reduced because they are not included. This was going to be my process... 1 - Take screenshot of current drive setup 2 - Power down unraid 3 - Disconnect old drives. 4 - Start Unraid (It will start in the stopped position because of missing disks) 5 - Unassign the Disks being removed 6 - Click the "New Config" link (Not sure what happens here..new page?) 7 - Parity Sync takes place. I have to assume the time to assign new drive positions is after unassigning the old drives. I want to keep my drives sequentially numbered, so some of the drive positions will change. Thx

Thx Gary. I hope this has sorted it out for me. Currently, everything is working as it should. Even my network issue (see another post) seems to have gone away. Sometimes, I think the universe is out to get me! ;D or perhaps it's Loki messing with me. And then there are times I just hate computers! :'( Always appreciated.

I think I spoke too soon. Now I've gone back to Disk9. I only copied half of the disk across yesterday. Now...only the files I copied are showing in the Disk9 share in network places. Yet Disk9 on unraid still has all the files - and I can see them (and play them) through \\Tower\TV Shows. I have never had this issue before and have moved around heaps of files. This is a real mystery! EDIT: I think I might have sorted it out. I created a Temp folder on Unraid to copy the files to and it seems it was conflicting somehow with user shares. I've renamed it something that doesn't conflict and I hope we're away. Time well tell!