PeterB

I can confirm that, for me at least, all spindown problems relating to the AOC USAS2 L8i appear to be resolved with the latest 'testing' version of unRAID.

I've been unsuccessful in flashing the IT firmware - as I've posted in another thread, there seems to be some incompatibility between my mobo and the flash program. However, since the syslog entry tells me that the card is running in IT mode, I'll ignore this for the time being. I have now moved three data drives onto the L8i interface and the system rebooted and came up perfectly. All seems to be well, except for the SMART/temperature readings in preclear and unMENU. However, temperatures are still available in the standard browser interface. Everytime a drive is spun down, I get an ioctl error in the syslog but, according to the UI, the drive is still spun down (I have each drive assigned to its own spinup group). I'm just downloading the new test firmware to see whether the situation is resolved with Tom's latest change. Anyway, as far as I can determine, the Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i controller is pretty well compatible with unRAID (but not with all add-ons). I'm pleased that I have the Supermicro 'UIO' card layout. The main chip/heatsink on the card does seem to get quite warm, so it's good that it is on top rather than underneath. Also, this orientation puts the heatsink directly in line with the cpu fan in my system. Oh, and it's also very easy to see the onboard leds for drive activity/fault, looking through the viewing panel on the side cover, or through the top fan aperture.

Not that I'm aware of. I'm using the version I downloaded from here.

I have been attempting to re-flash my Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i (LSI 2008-based), using the dos reflash utility and image files as found on the Supermicro site. As soon as I run sas2flsh, irrespective of what switches I apply, I get an error 'Failed to initialize PAL ...'. The only reference to this error I can find anywhere is on the LSI knowledge base where it offers, rather unhelpfully, "... you will need to flash in a different system/motherboard". Since I only have two, almost identical mobos, I appear to be rather stuck. Can anyone offer any insights as to why this error should occur and whether there might be any way to make the flash work in my motherboard?

Pre-clear completed, but still doesn't report any SMART data: ================================================================== 1.11 = unRAID server Pre-Clear disk /dev/sdg = cycle 1 of 1, partition start on sector 64 = Disk Pre-Clear-Read completed DONE = Step 1 of 10 - Copying zeros to first 2048k bytes DONE = Step 2 of 10 - Copying zeros to remainder of disk to clear it DONE = Step 3 of 10 - Disk is now cleared from MBR onward. DONE = Step 4 of 10 - Clearing MBR bytes for partition 2,3 & 4 DONE = Step 5 of 10 - Clearing MBR code area DONE = Step 6 of 10 - Setting MBR signature bytes DONE = Step 7 of 10 - Setting partition 1 to precleared state DONE = Step 8 of 10 - Notifying kernel we changed the partitioning DONE = Step 9 of 10 - Creating the /dev/disk/by* entries DONE = Step 10 of 10 - Verifying if the MBR is cleared. DONE = Disk Post-Clear-Read completed DONE Elapsed Time: 5:54:19 ========================================================================1.11 == == Disk /dev/sdg has been successfully precleared == with a starting sector of 64 ============================================================================ No SMART attributes are FAILING_NOW the number of sectors pending re-allocation did not change. the number of sectors re-allocated did not change. SMART overall-health status = root@Tower:~# ... and, if I invoke Smart Status from unMENU, I get: SMART status Info for /dev/sdg smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net Smartctl: Device Read Identity Failed (not an ATA/ATAPI device) A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options. However, smartctl produces a full report without any difficulty, so it would appear that preclear and unMENU are doing something odd: root@Tower:~# smartctl -a /dev/sdg smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: SAMSUNG SpinPoint F3 series Device Model: SAMSUNG HD502HJ Serial Number: S20BJ90Z601039 Firmware Version: 1AJ10001 User Capacity: 500,107,862,016 bytes Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: 8 ATA Standard is: ATA-8-ACS revision 6 Local Time is: Sat May 21 11:03:44 2011 SGT 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: (0x00) Offline data collection activity was never started. Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled. 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: (4740) seconds. Offline data collection capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate. Auto Offline data collection on/off support. Suspend Offline collection upon new command. Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. No 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: ( 79) minutes. SCT capabilities: (0x003f) SCT Status supported. SCT Error Recovery Control 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 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0 2 Throughput_Performance 0x0026 056 056 000 Old_age Always - 4295 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0023 083 083 025 Pre-fail Always - 5308 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 252 252 010 Pre-fail Always - 0 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 252 252 051 Old_age Always - 0 8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0024 252 252 015 Old_age Offline - 0 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 44 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 252 252 051 Old_age Always - 0 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6 191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0022 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0022 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 063 058 000 Old_age Always - 37 (Min/Max 29/45) 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 252 252 000 Old_age Offline - 0 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0036 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x002a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 223 Load_Retry_Count 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0 225 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6 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% 19 - # 2 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 15 - # 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 14 - # 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 14 - # 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 14 - # 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 14 - Note: selective self-test log revision number (0) not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0 Note: revision number not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS 1 0 0 Completed [00% left] (0-65535) 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. root@Tower:~#

I believe that it's x8.

Errr .. from the only Supermicro reseller in this part of the Philippines ... and too much - PHP9,550 (around USD210)! Thanks for the other advices and suggestions - I'll work on those.

I received my Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i card today. As a quick resume, this is an 8-port SAS/SATA card, using the LSI SAS 2008 controller chip. It supports SATA3 6Gb/s transfers and has a PCIe 2.0 x8 host interface. Actually, Supermicro call the interface 'UIO', but all this means is that the card is made the 'wrong way round' - the majority of the components and the backplate are on the opposite side to what they should be for a standard PCI card. I actually see this as an advantage because, in a standard tower case, the heatsink is on the upper side of the card, where it can work effectively, rather than being on the underneath. However, it does mean that the backplate has to be removed (and refitted with spacers, if you wish to support the card in the conventional way in a PCIe slot). The other thing to note about this card is that it has RAID functionality build in (there is an AOC-USAS2-L8e card which is plain JBOD, but it is more expensive!). Anyway, within minutes of arriving home with the card, I'd removed the backplate and plugged it into the PCIe x16 'video card slot' on my Intel mobo. I'd already concluded that this bus slot is not a 'dedicated' video slot. unRAID 5.0 beta6 booted straight up and ran with no problems. The syslog file indicates that the card is recognised by the mpt2sas driver. Log entries do suggest that the card is flashed with the RAID firmware (IR mode), but it still seems to be able to operate in JBOD (IT mode) - Protocol=(Initiator, Target) . root@Tower:~# grep mpt2 /var/log/syslog May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas version 06.100.00.00 loaded May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16 May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: 64 BIT PCI BUS DMA ADDRESSING SUPPORTED, total mem (3942652 kB) May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas 0000:01:00.0: irq 41 for MSI/MSI-X May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: PCI-MSI-X enabled: IRQ 41 May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: iomem(0x00000000fe4c0000), mapped(0xf8558000), size(16384) May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: ioport(0x000000000000e000), size(256) May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: sending diag reset !! May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: diag reset: SUCCESS May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: Allocated physical memory: size(839 kB) May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: Current Controller Queue Depth(339), Max Controller Queue Depth(2239) May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: Scatter Gather Elements per IO(128) May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: LSISAS2008: FWVersion(07.00.00.00), ChipRevision(0x02), BiosVersion(07.11.00.00) May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: Protocol=(Initiator,Target), Capabilities=(Raid,TLR,EEDP,Snapshot Buffer,Diag Trace Buffer,Task Set Full,NCQ) May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: sending port enable !! May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: host_add: handle(0x0001), sas_addr(0x50030480041f4c00), phys( May 20 23:21:16 Tower kernel: mpt2sas0: port enable: SUCCESS root@Tower:~# I then shut unRAID down, and connected up a spare Samsung HD502HJ (512GB) drive. I am in the middle of preclearing this drive and during Step 2 'Copying zeros to remainder of disk ....' it is reporting a rate in excess of 120MB/s (at 90% complete). The only slight issue I've noted so far is that it is claimed not to be able to access SMART data. I'm sure that I've read of this problem with other cards and that there is a work-around - I will research this tomorrow. When the preclear has finished, I will try moving a couple of my array drives to the new card - if I understand correctly, unRAID 5b6 should be unfazed by this and should start and run as normal. I've just noticed that the preclear has completed the ten steps and is now on the Post-Read, reporting 120+MB/s. As far as I can tell, so far, the SM AOC-USAS2-L8i card is compatible with unRAID, with the slight proviso, that something needs to be tweaked to persuade it to give up the SMART data. I will download the alternat firmwares from the SM site, and experiment to see whether there is any noticeable change from using the IT firmware. If any one can think of other things I could, or should, test, then let me know. To be continued ......

Well, I found a mechanism for placing my order with good delivery arrangements and reasonable cost ... but the service company can only accept payment by paypal. I've tried paying twice, using different cards, and on both occasions Paypal have taken the money out of my accounts sat on it for a couple of weeks and then returned it ... with no explanation why. They wrote a message to the merchant with advice on how to avoid disputes with the customer! The merchant and I have had very good, amicable, communication throughout the whole sad affair - the only problem has been the high-handedness of Paypal. So, I'm back at square one - no backplanes and with difficulty finding a supplier who can accept direct payment by card (rather than Paypal [spit!]) and who can ship to Philippines at an acceptable cost. .... or I have to accept the Supermicro trayed units, and pay whatever the distributor here in Philippines charges. ================================================================ Later: I've just received the quotation from the local Supermicro reseller - the CSE-M35T-1 backplanes sell for 8000 pesos here - the equivalent of USD185. That makes a total of USD555 for three... against the USD415 it was going to cost me obtain the IStarUSA BPN-350V2 units from USofA.

I'm not sure what colour lights those have but, with a total of 13 indicators on the front, I guess that they are separate for power and activity.

The newer iStar's (well, certainly the BPN-340 and 350) use blue for power on, red for activity.

Didn't someone produce an 'identify' utility, which flashes the drive activity light?

Thanks! That is very helpful.

Hi Shawn, Are you able to give some indication of the size of the cartons which these units came in? I'm particularly interested in the iStar (although I know that the BPN is slightly smaller than the BPU, I guess that the cartons will be much the same size). I need this information in order to estimate shipping costs in the event that I have them shipped from USofA. I have a horrible feeling that adding shipping costs will make the exercise prohibitively expensive. One supplier has already told me that, on top of the actual shipping costs, there would be freight handling charges added ($25 export fee and $20 inbound freight cost). The big unknown, especially here in Phils where demands for 'rush fees', or some such, is the norm, is the cost of getting the units through customs. The cost of the three units themselves would be $257. Can anyone here suggest a reasonably cost-effective, but reasonably secure, method of shipping three units internationally? In the end, I may have to accept the Supermicro units, because that is the only supplier with an official distribution in Philippines. Even then, I expect that the price will be almost double that in the states.

That is a little puzzling. If the specs on the SM site are to be believed, the CSE-M35T-1 does not support hard drive failure indicators, but the CSE-M35TQ does. Then I have the CSE-M35TQ's. Mine have the hard drive failure indicator in the front. Hey, if yours say M35T-1 on them, then I'm not going to disbelieve you. After all, most websites are, at best, incomplete and , at worst, downright wrong! I believe that the drive failure light is actually on the tray bezel, not on the main unit and I'm sure that he trays are common between the units.

That is a little puzzling. If the specs on the SM site are to be believed, the CSE-M35T-1 does not support hard drive failure indicators, but the CSE-M35TQ does.

The -BPL variant is the one with lockable tray. There is also a BPU-350SATA-BLACK which is the black version of the other colours, with a non-lockable aluminium handle. See here. There are pictures of both black versions. My current suspicion is that the -SATA version is the sata3 compliant replacement for the older -SA version which was only sata2. Both versions were available with either style of tray. In fact, the trays are probably exactly the same for the sata2 and sata3 versions and, I suspect, the lockable and aluminium handle trays are interchangeable - in other words, you could mix tray styles in a single backplane.

If you don't absolutely need the hdd docking station, the V5 is a better bet. The differences, as far as I'm aware: o The V5 has a large handle on top - not too useful as a handle on a file server, but it certainly stops you obstructing the top fan by laying things on top of the case! o The V5 has only one fan aperture (with fan fitted) on the top panel - slightly further forward than the active fan on the V6 o In place of the docking station, the V5 has an eSATA socket. This does not obstruct the top bay so that it should be possible to install three full 5in3 backplanes o The V5 is slightly cheaper than the V6 I believe that, in all other respects, the two cases are identical. This, to my mind, makes the V5 an ideal case for a mid-sized (15 drive) unRAID configuration. It is stylish (as long as you don't object to the handle), extremely quiet. Easy to cool. I would much rather have the full 9 bay capacity, than the docking station - If I really want/need to attach another drive temporarily, I would use an eSATA enclosure (possibly with a trayless hot-swap facility). The only caution I would give is that I suspect it's not deep enough to comfortably accommodate the largest drive backplanes (Norco and Supermicro). I plan to install iStar trayless backplanes (if I can get hold of them), otherwise I will try the Supermicro. At least there is latitude to adjust the clearance at the rear by bringing the backplanes forward - they could even protrude a little forward of the front panel without looking too odd.

I'm hoping to receive a SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8i (LSI2008-based, both IT and IR firmware available from SM) soon, so I look forward to posting about my experience with that.

After a little more hunting around the net, it appear that there are two different models of the iStar cage - the BPU-350-SA and the BPU-350-SATA. the unit in your review is the -SATA. The -SA is the 'other' model, without locks but (I presume) with aluminium handles. It also seems that there are two versions of the iStar trayless (or, perhaps, just a new version), BPN-350-SS and BPN-350V2-SS. I haven't discovered what the difference is between these two. Edit: The V2 appears to add SATA3 capability, and ventilation slots in the door. The V2 seems to be out of stack everywhere - one site says delivery expected in June. The other version also appears to be out of stock, with no further stock anticipated. There also appears to be two versions of the SM cage, the CSE-M35T-1 and the CSE-M35TQ. The TQ version adds 'SES-2 Enclosure Management'.

According to the iStar website, the BPU-350 is available with either black, blue, red or silver handles - however, I hadn't appreciated that they were now aluminium - this overcomes a significant drawback which I had read of in another review - that parts of the plastic were judged to be weak points. That bit of your review had me puzzled because some photos I've seen seem to show air vents in the front panel. In fact, I've just realised that the iStar website photos show two different designs of the tray fronts (some with key locks, some without) - presumably the old and new? Anyway, from what I now know, I'm pretty well decide to go for the iStar backplanes .... but do I want to venture into the unknown with the trayless BPN design, or stick with the (relatively) tried and tested BPU?

Okay, thanks - I will give those a try ... but with 4GB available, I'm surprised. However, with this info, it does look as though something is being greedy!: Memory Info (from /usr/bin/free) total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 3943140 3570284 372856 0 115252 3294348 -/+ buffers/cache: 160684 3782456 Swap: 0 0 0

Ah. okay - thanks for the explanation and reassurance!

I'm not sure what to make of the data collection never started/suspended, but I had exactly the same SMART report from my WD20EARS (green): S.M.A.R.T. error count differences detected after pre-clear note, some 'raw' values may change, but not be an indication of a problem 58c58 < 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0 --- > 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 63c63 < 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 97 --- > 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 98 I believe that the load_cycle is normal, but I'm puzzled by the change in seek error rate parameters (although the error count is zero?).

There is definitely something odd going on. I'm running the preclear on the old parity drive now, prior to configuring it as an additional data drive. The preclear activity had reached the Post-Read when the family attempted to watch a movie (this time on disk1). The movie would only play for a few seconds and then just stop. I found that the Post-Read was reporting 85MB/s. I stopped the array, whereupon the Post-Read speed went up to 106MB/s. I restarted the array and the Post-Read speed remained over 100MB/s, and the movie would now play okay. In case it's relevant, I'm currently running unRAID 4.6-rc3.