PeterB

If you're not successful in finding a European distributor, try ordering from Rackmount ChassisPlus. I was extremely happy with the service I received.

Seasonic X-660. The Fan doesn't spin at less than 25% load. I suspect that this would mean that the fan would only spin during parity check/build in most unRAID servers.

If I have a 500W and only use 100W is the 400W difference going somewhere? No, you're not wasting 400W, but a power supply is not running at its most efficient when on a light load. So if you're pulling 100W, a 300W psu will take less power from the mains than would a 600W psu (all other factors being equal).

Not a typo - the x660 is a newer replacement for the x650. Either would be perfectly suited to use in an unRAID server. I opted for the x650 even though the x660 was already available for one simple reason - the x650 includes eight molex connectors as standard, while the x660 only includes five. I required more than five molex because of my plan to install three 5in3 cages, each requiring two power connections, plus an additional molex for one of the case-mounted cooling fans. I understand that Seasonic are very good at providing additional modular leads if requested - however, since I'm in Philippines, I was concerned that the support from the local distributor may not be as accommodating as that of the manufacturer in the States.

This is the one I'm using, with an SD card. It has a slide-out cover to protect the flash card. The only concerns are about its size - firstly, it may obstruct adjacent ports - secondly, it is quite heavy which, if unsupported, may result in a poor connection at the usb port. I have already had one occasion when the machine failed to find the boot device, requiring a 'jiggle' to get it working again. It has just occurred to me that both of these shortcomings could be addressed by using one of the short male-female usb leads, and strapping the reader to a nearby fixing point. I will give this a try in the morning.

I have three of the older iStar units - the BPN-350V2-SS (as reviewed earlier in this thread). I have never been aware of, or concerned over, any issues relating to vibration.

More particularly: http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Host%20Bus%20Adapters/Host%20Bus%20Adapters%20Common%20Files/SAS_SATA_6G_P14/9211_8i_Package_P14_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip Something I'd not spotted before ... don't know whether it is new .. is the sas2ircu tool. Apparently intended for configuration of the array in IR (RAID) mode from the host environment, it's not of tremendous use in an unRAID system. However, the 'DISPLAY' command gives some interesting info. If you identify the 'Slot #' for each bay in your drive cages, you can find out what drive is in each bay - Type, Model Number, Firmware Revision, Serial Number, GUID. The 'Manufacturer' field is suspect, but manufacturer is included in Model Number. I had hoped that the 'LOCATE' command might do something useful, but it doesn't appear to turn on any lights in my configuration.

I don't have an M1015, but I believe that the flashing process should be just the same - yes, all you need to do is to change the name of the .bin and .rom files.

Nope! My testing with P14 shows that it doesn't fix the problem we have with recent Linux kernels. However, Tom has just released a testing version of RC6 which does fix the problem!

If you read back up this thread, you will see that it is possible to run the flash utility from within unRAID. This is how I've always flashed my USAS2-L8i.

Wow, that's quick ... try having stuff delivered to Philippines!

Don't cover just the front - I covered all vents except those in the drive cages, and the ones where fans are fitted to exhaust the air. Even with ambient temperatures in excess of 30C, my drives run at 40 - 44C during parity check.

If your Zalman case is like most other cases, these rails are simple punch-outs and folds of the steel side panels - you should bend them flat before attempting to install your drive cages. The normal method for unRAIDers, is to use a large G-clamp to flatten them. If you look back up this thread, you can see my photo with the clamp in action. Most (all?) 4 in 3 and lesser cages have slots to accomodate the rails, but with 5 in 3 cages, there simply isn't space. No 5 in 3 cage has slots.

Yes, I run my iStarUSA cages with the fans removed. They are much quieter this way, and the drive temperatures are exactly the same as with the fans installed. Ambient temperature reaches 30+C

No wonder why your drive temps are running hotter. Your house temp. is 161.6 degree Fahrenheit or 72 C. That's pretty hot. ... and I thought that it was quite warm in my house, when temperatures sometimes reach 35C! Still, my drives run fine with all the fans removed from the drive cages.

Go trayless with the iStartUSA BPN-350?

Indeed, the Gold-rated device is 5% more efficient than the Bronze - eg at 50% load the Bronze is 85% and the Gold is 90%. This is true, and in the case of an unRAID server, where the PSU has to be rated for simultaneous spin up of all drives, the fan will seldom, if ever, be running. That certainly contributes to the silence of my server.

I've been running beta11 for several months, with an LSI controller.

I'm not sure that will work with unRAID. You would be well advised to do what all other unRAID users do, and configure your card for IT mode.

Not immediately, perhaps - but just think how nice that case would look if filled with a set of three 5-in-3 cages! Aside from that, the practicality of having trays (or even trayless cages) really does simplify drive replacement and upgrades.

I was a little confused when I first installed my controller card - first, you must hit the ctrl+c as the machine is powered up, then you have to select the 'bios' option at the normal prompt.

I believe that drive spindown does not work unless the drive is allocated to a spinup group. I have all my drives allocated to their own spinup group (parity = host0, drive1 = host1, drive2 = host2 ... etc). I had recently added another drive to the array and I noted that it wasn't spinning down - I added a spinup group to the drive's configuration and it span down immediately.

Errr ... you can do it with the unRAID slackware distribution. Simply cd to a directory where you have placed the files (on your flash drive?) and use a command similar to: sas2flash11 -o -f 2118it-11.bin -b mptsas2-11.rom Note that I make a habit of changing all the file names so that I know which release they belong to. You may find it necessary to use an older version of sas2flash, depending on which card you have, and what firmware is currently loaded.

Zeron is also reporting that P11 has resolved the same issue for him. I'm guessing that he also uses a drive cage (almost certainly not the same model as I use, since I believe that I am the first to use it with unRAID). I'm still not sure whether drive cages are simply a wire extension to the sata cable, or whether the cage includes intelligence which intercepts and modifies the SCSI messages. My original belief was that addition of the cages alters the signal timings in some subtle way and that it was this timing difference which provoked the errors.

With respect, just because you don't experience a problem doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. My Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i was solid on P10 ... until I added iStarUSA 5in3 cages. When the USAS2 was connected directly to the drives everything was fine. When the USAS2 was connected to drives installed in the cages, preclear would start logging messages within seconds. There is no problem with drives in cages connected to motherboard ports. P11 firmware appears to have fixed the problem with the USAS2/iStarUSA combination.