unTER

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    unRAID Server Release 6.0-beta6-x86_64 Available

    in Announcements

    Posted

    I'm not very familiar with Linux, but I've been planning to go the Xen route with Arch to get me up and running with a full-featured and functioning download & media management server, plex media server, etc. It sounds like Docker is going to be the perfect solution for someone like me that isn't too skilled in Linux and struggles to find the time to really learn it, but still wants many of the goodies you can get from Linux apps. Am I am understanding correctly that Docker provides that for us... the apps of a Linux VM without needing a VM?

    LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes

    in Storage Devices and Controllers

    Posted

    I have solved my cross flashing issue. But not after my favorite mainboard brand Gigabyte disappointed me.

     

    I learned how easy it is to make a USB pendrive EFI bootable. Just drop this binary into that flash drive FAT's root directory and rename it to <shellx64.efi>.

    Also, from Roderick W. Smith's site rodsbook.com I learned that Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI implementation is one of the worst that Mr Smith has encountered. So, if you have a Gigabyte mainboard forget EFI Shell, it probably won't work. It has cost me several hours today.

     

    I eventually solved it by inserting the LSI 9240-8i into the PCI Express x16 slot of an Asrock H81 Pro BTC mainboard. (A mainboard I almost forgot I still own. A relic from my scrypt mining days.) After entering the BIOS and going to the last menu "Exit", I selected the bottom option "Launch EFI Shell from filesystem device". It gave me a <SHELL> prompt. I selected my USB pendrive by typing "FS0:". I browsed to the location of my sas2flash.efi, 2118it.bin and mptsas2.rom files and executed the following two commands;

    sas2flash -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom
sas2flash -o -sasadd 500605b0xxxxxxxx (replace the xx's with the SAS address from your card)

     

    Identical to BetaQuasi's M1015 Cross flashing instructions except that I used <sas2flash.efi> instead of <sas2flsh.exe>.

    Unraid 5.0.5 has identified the card and the attached drives. I'm a happy camper ! ;-)

    After having the same issue with a different motherboard and manufacturer, this unRAID post helped me through all my problems. Glad you got through your issues.

    [SOLVED] Flashing LSI 9220-8i Controller (IBM M1015) on a ASROCK 970 Extreme3

    in Storage Devices and Controllers

    Posted

    I didn't get to try your hint BQ.  Didn't see your post.  I was playing around with it as I was having the dreaded "Failed to initialize PAL" error message.  I was about to try flashing on another MB, but decided to search around and found out it works on the UEFI console.

     

    You'll need two items:

     

    1. Download the full UFEI shell from here:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#UEFI_Shell  (used x86_64 1.0) and paste Shell_Full.efi on the root of the USB.  I unfortunately figured this out after going through the whole routine.  Makes things a bit easier.

     

    2. http://www.lsi.com/channel/products/storagecomponents/Pages/LSISAS9211-8i.aspx

    download firmware > Installer_P15_for_UEFI

    Drop the resulting sas2flash.efi into the folder with the sas2flsh.exe.

     

     

    Now to actually do the deed:

     

    In my MB, if I bring up the boot menu by pressing F11, one of the options is "Built-in EFI Shell".  If you don't have this, I searched and saw there are bootable linux distros what come with EFI shells.  If it will work for flashing the card, I have no idea :(

     

    Booting into this, you'll get a command promt.  Listed above the promt, will be all the devices attached.  In my case, there was fs0 and blk0.

     

    Type

     

    > fs0:

     

    Type "ls" (list).  If "ls" doesn't work, keep pressing tab.  If you see the files in your usb appearing one after another, you're in business.  if not, try some of the other FS.  DON'T FORGET THE COLON :

     

    Keep tabbing until you come to Shell_Full.efi and press enter.  Now you will see the same device info listed once more.  Now ls will work.  cd into the directory with your bat files (which is where you have your sas2flash.efi).

     

    Now to run the commands for step 5 and 6.  Execute the following.

     

    Step 5:

    > sas2flash.efi -l Flashlog.txt -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom

     

    Step 6:

    > sas2flash.efi -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx

     

    Where 500605bxxxxxxxxx is replaced by SAS Address from Adapters.txt

     

     

    THAT'S IT!  I've been struggling with this since saturday and after BobPhoenix's hint about using the right software, it's fixed in one.  I hope this helps someone stuck in this step.

     

    Cheers

    I know this topic hasn't been posted on for a while, but I had to thank you for these instructions. They helped me so much. I have a SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O motherboard and was getting the "Failed to initialize PAL" error message when using sas2flsh.exe. Everything else worked just as you instructed, but after running Step 5, I would get an "ERROR: Cannot Flash IT Firmware over IR Firmware!" message, so I actually had to run "megarec -cleanflash 0" in DOS first. After that, Step 5 and Step 6 worked flawlessly. I'm now in IT mode and running Firmware P19 and BIOS 7.37.

     

    Regarding MegaRec, I am guessing I could have run sas2flsh.exe –o –e [6 or 7] in DOS, which I didn't realize until just now.

    [REQ] A Newbie Guide to Virtualization, unRAID 64, and unRAID Distro

    in User Customizations

    Posted

    i currently have a small 40gb ssd as my cache drive (old drive just trying to get some use out of it). i would assume a vm image+using this drive is going to decrease the life of it and eat up a bit of space. i have another small ssd laying around, just was curious if i could use it for that purpose or not.

    I'd love to see best practices that would try to account for most of the variations of going VM with pieced together hardware.

     

    In my case, I have a second USB flash drive I was going to use for booting maybe CentOS, Arch, or OpenSUSE to run KVM. Then I have two smaller 64GB SSDs I was going to software RAID1 for my datastores. Should I just run my host Linux distro from those SSDs along with the datastores, or would my USB host + SSDs datastores be a good direction?

    [POLL] Should Lime Technology make unRAID CentOS 64-Bit Edition?

    in User Customizations

    Posted

    I think we are talking about a few different things here and some are unable to separate / image the various concepts / ideas being discussed.

     

    unRAID 5.0 Appliance

     

    USB / Small Footprint

     

    Linux Distro - Slackware

     

    ESXi / KVM / Xen Guest Support - unRAID in a VM on ESXi, KVM or Xen.

     

    To run unRAID in a VM - Requires one of the following... ESXi, XenServer, Xen or KVM Host running on a Linux Distro.

     

    Requires specific Hardware (Motherboard, CPU, BIOs, Driver Support, etc.) that is capable of doing PCI Passthrough for your SATA / RAID / SAS Controller(s).

     

    unRAID 6.0 Appliance

     

    USB / Small Footprint

     

    Linux Distro - Slackware

     

    Type 1 Hypervisor Host / Guest support

     

    ESXi / KVM / Xen Guest Support - unRAID in a VM on ESXi, KVM or Xen.

     

    To run unRAID in a VM - Requires one of the following... ESXi, XenServer, Xen or KVM Host running on a Linux Distro.

     

    Requires specific Hardware (Motherboard, CPU, BIOs, Driver Support, etc.) that is capable of doing PCI Passthrough for your SATA / RAID / SAS Controller(s).

     

    KVM / Xen Host (not sure if it's KVM / Xen or Both yet) Support

     

    Since you no longer need to pass the SATA / RAID / SAS Controller it does not require specific Hardware for PCI Passthrough.

     

    With Type 1 Hypervisor Support built in, you are no longer a required to run ESXi, XenServer, Xen or KVM if you want VMs that run / preform faster than the Type 2 Virtualbox Plugin.

     

    If you want to use plugins, fine.

     

    If you do no want plugins or want to run plugins and have the "freedom" to run other apps where a plugin doesn't exist, create VMs in your OS of choice (Windows / Linux / OSX / Solaris / Etc.)  and run whatever Applications you want

     

    unRAID Distro

     

    Totally SEPARATE Product / Name / Version / Etc.

     

    NOT an Appliance

     

    Linux Distro - Not Slackware and not CentOS (see other threads as to why).

     

    Would be created / supported / maintained by Lime Technology

     

    My personal thoughts on a unRAID Distro...

     

    I do not think this will ever see the light of day.

     

    Look at any Linux Distro that has ever been created. There is no way in hell can Tom support / maintain this by himself. There are thousand moving parts and whatever Linux Distro Tom would usually have a releases ever 6 months or to a year. Linux Distros needs constant attention, updates, maintenance or it gets old quick and the users would become very frustrated that they can't install / do X, Y or Z because packages / libraries / Linux Kernel / etc. haven't been updated.

     

    Every Linux Distro has it's own forum / website / community and an unRAID Distro would require one. If not, confusion between the unRAID Slackware Appliance and unRAID in <Insert Different Linux Distro than Slackware> would drive us all insane. You would have new users / Linux Noobs searching the forums and getting all kinds of answers for either Slackware or <Insert Different Linux Distro than Slackware> and be copying / pasting / trying things that do not work or could break their system.

     

    My advice if you want to use a Linux Distro other than Slackware...

     

    Install your Linux Distro of choice and use RAID 5 or 6, ZFS, etc. and even use your Filesystem of choice. The are more / "better" GUIs and Tools than unRAID could ever dream of (you have countless Developers, Companies, etc. creating / improving / contributing towards them as compared to one guy who has a family, full time job, etc.) and it's just as reliable.

    This helps a lot. Thank you.

     

    In the example of unRAID KVM / Xen Host,

    [*]Would unRAID still be running from a USB?

    [*]Would you then use a drive or maybe RAID drives for your datastore outside of unRAID disk array?

    [*]Would a cache disk be useful or a waste of a disk if you are utilizing VMs to run your apps/plugins?

    [GUIDE] Virtualizing unRAID in XenServer 6.2 - Updated to 5.0.4

    in Virtualizing Unraid

    Posted

    I'm looking at upgrading to that same motherboard and CPU along with a similar size SSD as a datastore as part of my project to start using Xen. Do post back with how you get on! I would be very interested to hear if you have any problems with this hardware combo and using Xen. :)

     

    On another note, just wanted to thank grumpy, ironicbadger and co for all the work they have done, and hopefully will continue to do, working with Tom regarding Xen. I know I'm truly grateful, and sure I'm not alone in feeling that way  ;)

    Agreed. These tutorials are great and the authors are awesome!

     

    I'm debating on going the Virtualizing unRAID in KVM on openSUSE route, as it seems more user-friendly in the end, will run nicely on my USB flash, and should recognize the two SSDs I would like to RAID 1 for datastores using the onboard RAID.

    [GUIDE] Virtualizing unRAID in XenServer 6.2 - Updated to 5.0.4

    in Virtualizing Unraid

    Posted

    I suspect most of you will have a motherboard that you either passthrough ALL or none of your onboard sata ports. By default XenServer cannot be installed to a USB Stick. Either get a motherboard like mine where you aren't forced to passthrough all your onboard sata ports or get a cheap ($10 - $15) PCI sata card for a datastore drive (where your VMs and their virtual hard drives reside). Why? You can install XenServer onto a USB Stick (guides on how to do this are on the web) or your favorite Distro with Xen onto on a USB Stick. However, you will either run your VMs from other USB drives or the unRAID server VM. Your drives won't ever sleep unless using a cache drive (Which would take up a precious sata port anyway).

     

    My advice... Go with a PCI sata card and get an SSD or use your old cache drive (Sickbeard, Couchpotato, SQL, PFSense, TFTP server are running on other VMs now so why even bother with a cache drive). XenServer (or your Distro with Xen on it) only takes a very small portion of space and the rest can be used as your datestore. You can do this with a large enough flash drive but I don't recommend it.

     

    Edit: I'm not sure why I didn't pay attention to this, but it sounds like Virtualizing unRAID in KVM on openSUSE is probably the route I should go first.

     

    First, this thread is already great; it has me excited for Xen -- thank you in advance. I have a beginner question. I was planning on virtualizing with ESXi, but I like the idea of and what I'm reading about XenServer better. However, I was hoping to get additional thoughts on running XenServer from USB and using a cache drive before I proceed. Here was my plan for ESXi and what I'm thinking for XenServer if it'll work.

     

    Questions

    [*]Is it a bad idea (performance hit, stability issues, etc.) to run XenServer from a USB flash drive? I still like the plan of running unRAID and my virtualization platform from simple USB sticks plugged into my motherboard (I have a USB header-to-port adapter giving me the second internal USB port).

    [*]I was going to run my ESXi datastores off of my 120GB SSD. If it's okay running XenServer from USB, this should still be my plan, right? If I should instead install Xen to my SSD, do I still run my datastores on it too?

    [*]You mention not needing a cache drive in your tutorial. Is it completely useless and a waste when virtualizing?

    [*]Here is my set up for reference, and I'd love to get any general advice and recommendations on how I should proceed based on it.

     

    Hardware

    • CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz
    • Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O
    • RAM: 24GB (2x4GB, 2x8GB)
    • PSU: 450W
    • HBA: LSI SAS 9211-8i 6Gb/s SAS/SATA Host Bus Adapter [not flashed to IT mode yet] (w/ Forward breakout cables)
    • UPS: CyberPower Intelligent LCD Series CP600LCD 600VA 340W

     

    Storage

    • Flash Drives: 2 x SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB USB
    • Parity Drive: 1 x WD Red 3TB
    • Data Drives: 3 x WD Red 3TB, 1 x WD Black 1TB
    • Cache Drive: 1 x WD Black 500GB
    • Datastore: 1 x 120GB SSD

     

    Side questions

    [*]Do you have your UPS properly powering down with Xen?

    [*]Does Xen recognize onboard RAID 1 unlike ESXi if I wanted to run two SSDs for my datastores without having to buy another card?

    LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes

    in Storage Devices and Controllers

    Posted

    I'm grabbing an LSI MegaRAID SAS-9240-8i off of eBay to use in RAID 1 for my ESXi Datastore. Will I need to flash it in this case, or will it be ready to use in RAID 1 out of the box?

     

    Edit: Unless I change my mind and grab a Dell PERC 6/i instead. Ugh. Choices.

    I'd get the dell with battery backup.

    I don't have much experience with tradition RAID up to this point. Do you think it's noticeable going with a 3 Gbps RAID card rather than an obviously more expensive 6 Gbps?

    Need hardware raid card for ESXi datastore

    in Storage Devices and Controllers

    Posted

    so a 1015 in IR mode can be used as a Datastore RAID 1. right?

    Yes, that should work fine for your Datastore RAID.

     

    I have an LSI SAS 9211-8i in IT mode connected to 7 unRAID data drives. Does anyone see an issue if I were to add in an LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i (m1015) to run my Datastore RAID? Are there any conflicts with running the two different cards in differing IT/IR modes? I wouldn't think so, but I wouldn't be surprised either if there were.

     

    There's a chance I might go with a Dell PERC 6/i instead, but it'd be nice I guess if it were 6 Gbps instead of 3 Gbps. Sometimes I don't like choices. :S

    ESXi question

    in Hardware

    Posted

    I'm planning to do as you mentioned above - setting up a RAID1 data store using the X9SCM motherboard RAID controller, only I'll be using Xen/KVM rather than ESXi.

     

    So if it turns out you can't do this with ESXi you could always consider Xen or KVM as an alternative. :-)

    Thanks for the info. It sounds like ESXi won't recognize the RAID 1 SSDs as a single disk, so I'll have to look into those alternatives. I haven't heard much about them on these forums though.

    Moving to ESXi

    in Hardware

    Posted

    i have 2 SSD's for local datastores. these have several high performance VM's and my domain controller. (a single mechanical would work fine also)

     

    then I have a ZFS guest on one of the SSD's. This could be OI, FreeNAS, ect. this server then has a ZFS raid array that is shared via NFS. on this share are my virtual drives for the rest of my ESXi guests.

    You could also use iSCSI targets instead of NFS.

     

    my first VM to autostart is my ZFS server.

     

    How exactly is your ZFS configured?  You're booting your guest off the one SSD (is this configured as an ESXI datastore?), then the other SSD is part of another ZFS array?  What other drives are part of the ZFS array?

     

    Sorry if this is a stupid question, just trying to better understand the physical layout of your disks.

    Planetscott, did you find your answer to this question?

    ESXi question

    in Hardware

    Posted

    Hi electron yeah i already contacted that guy and will meet him up hopefully this weekend. after that I can probably start this project. is 8gb mem enough for the meantime? I need to buy atleast 2 500gb and do a raid 1 for my datastore using my onboard raid controller is it doable? thanks

    has to be a hardware raid so I highly doubt your motherboard RAID is going to work.

    I'm going the ESXi route and plan on running my cache, parity, and five data drives on an LSI SAS 9211-8i. I was thinking that I would run two SSDs in RAID 1 for my Datastore off of my SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O two SATA3 ports. Are you saying there is a limitation with ESXi or something else that probably won't allow me to do RAID 1 Datastores with my onboard controller, or is this a limitation with OP's motherboard while mine should work fine? Sorry, I'm fairly new to ESXi and RAID.

     

    Edit: I read that ESXi doesn't support booting off of software RAID, but I will be booting ESXi from USB Flash, so I should be fine with onboard RAID just for my datastore SSDs, right?

    Pre-ESXi: Hardware & Install Sanity Check

    in Hardware

    Posted

    I'm thinking of snagging a Crucial M500 120GB or 240GB for my Datastore drive. I'm thinking I'll just do one for now with backups. If it crashes, I can be down for a few days while a new one ships... again, as long as I have my backups.

     

    I just had a crazy thought. I could still purchase the SSD but instead use it as my cache drive and repurpose my 500GB WD Black from my cache drive into my Datastore. I don't necessarily need blazing speeds for my VMs although they would be appreciated. I wonder which use of the SSD I would see more performance boost.

    Pre-ESXi: Hardware & Install Sanity Check

    in Hardware

    Posted

    I've been working on an unRAID build for some time now. I have unRAID running and preclears run on my drives, but I have no shares yet and no data on the drives. Life got busy, and I haven't touched it for a while. Before I go any further, I've decided I want to run ESXi now rather than deciding to do it later when it's more difficult. My first priority is to run unRAID and all necessary plugins if I kept it simple, but I prefer settings this thing up for expanded VM functionality as time goes on.

     

    Please help me check my thoughts for sanity here.

     

    Hardware

     

    Storage

    • Flash Drives: 2 x SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB USB
    • Parity Drive: WD Red 3TB
    • Data Drives: 3 x WD Red 3TB, 1 x WD Black 1TB
    • Cache Drive: WD Black 500GB
    • Datastore: ?

     

    Questions

    [*]I don't yet have a Datastore drive or drives. I only plan to start out with running unRAID and then probably a Ubunutu or Windows VM. Can I just use my 1TB drive from above for my one Datastore drive? Should I go get an SSD? Do I need more than one drive?

    [*]Regarding that 1TB drive from above, if I don't use it as datastore, I was thinking I'd keep it in my unRAID array but mostly using that disk for ISOs, backups, etc. In that case, maybe it'd be better off outside of the unRAID array. Thoughts on this?

    [*]Do I need to use two flash drives, are there other ways, are two flash drives the best way?

    [*]What else am I missing or don't understand on the hardware side of this?

    [*]I plan on following the ATLAS installation instructions. What else should I focus on? I've got the following resources bookmarked, but I'm a bit overwhelmed. What post-ATLAS resources do you recommend?

     

    Finally, what plugins do you recommend I still run on unRAID or what should I leave for one of the VMs (e.g., Plex Media Server)?

    [preclear_disk.sh] Should I use the -A flag?

    in User Customizations

    Posted

    Thanks for the quick reply

    version 1.14 is now available.  Hopefully the improved wording

    on the output will make it more clear in the future when dealing with disks > 2.2TB.

     

    I just finished preclearing 2 3TB drives using 1.13.  I used -A.  Is this going to be a problem?

    no problem.

     

    The "-a" and '-A" are silently ignored on disks greater than 2.2TB.  They always get a GPT partition aligned on a 4k boundary.

    I take it that this won't be a problem as you've just stated, but I wanted to ask again in regards to my situation. I precleared three 3TB drives back in June 2013 but got too busy to complete my unRAID project. I'm back at it now and with one more 3TB drive. I'm going to use preclear v1.14 the new drive. Would there be any benefit of me preclearing the other drives again with this newest 1.14 version since I don't have any data on them yet?

    3x2 Cages -- iStarUSA | AMS | ICY DOCK | NORCO | etc...

    in Hardware

    Posted

    I'm looking to fill two (2) 5.25" drive bays with three (3) 3.5" hard drives. The 3X2 Cage review - iStarUSA and Icy Dock (and more) thread was helpful, but it's a bit old now, so I thought I'd start a new one to focus on the current options out there. Here's what I'm seeing as serious contenders. Does anyone have strong opinions about or great experiences with any of these?

     

    iStarUSA BPN-DE230SS (multiple color options)

    AMS DS-236TL (multiple color options)

    ICY DOCK MB153SP-B

    NORCO SS-300

    KingWing KF-3002-BK

     

    My top two choices are the iStarUSA and AMS. I see positive praise for the larger iStarUSA, so that seems like a safe bet, but the AMS seems like a worthy product as well.

     

    There are also non-swappable bays that would work for my needs. I'm just nervous about some reviewers mentioning that they wouldn't try to cram in three 3.5" drives or that the vibrations reach unacceptable levels.

    iStarUSA iStorm7

    Evercool HD-AR-RBK (Amazon Reviews)

    Power supply and other recommendations for X9SCM-F that fails to boot.

    in Hardware

    Posted

     

    From the manual.

     

     

    1-6 Power Supply

    As with all computer products, a stable power source is necessary for proper and

    reliable operation. It is even more important for processors that have high CPU

    clock rates.

    This motherboard accommodates 24-pin ATX power supplies. Although most

    power supplies generally meet the specifications required by the CPU, some are

    inadequate. In addition, the 12V 8-pin power connector located at JPW2 is also

    required to ensure adequate power supply to the system. Also your power supply

    must supply 1.5A for the Ethernet ports.

    Warning! Please use a power supply that contains a 24-pin and an 8-pin

    or a 4-pin power connector. Be sure to connect these connectors to the 24-

    pin (JPW1) and the 8-pin (JPW2) power connectors on the motherboard.

    Note: The JPW2 power connector on the motherboard also supports

    one 4-pin connector. It is strongly recommended that you use a high quality power supply that meets ATX

    power supply Specification 2.02 or above. It must also be SSI compliant. (For more

    information, please refer to the web site at http://www.ssiforum.org/). Additionally, in

    areas where noisy power transmission is present, you may choose to install a line

    filter to shield the computer from noise. It is recommended that you also install a

    power surge protector to help avoid problems caused by power surges.

     

    From what I can tell, the SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W meets those requirements, but I might be missing something that I'm not knowledgeable enough to catch yet.