graywolf

ok. Will check BIOS when pre-clears are done. Think it is set for ACHI. Know I did it before I updated the BIOS but forget if I redid it afterwards. After pre-clear, will play around some swapping bays, cables, etc to see what I can see. Hitachi 7200 2TB 48% done. Both WD20EADS 5400 2TB 29% done.

Got all the components connected, still need to "neaten" up the cables and put the sides back on. Currently preclearing 3 2TB drives and seems to be going well. Have 4 drives in SuperMicro 5x3 cse-m35t1 hot swap . System only seems to see 3 out of 4 of the drives. ls -l /dev/disk/by-id shows 2 wd20eads (3rd one is not showing), Hitachi, and then the usb (SanDisk). I've swapped the "missing" drive between the 2 bays not being used. but still not seeing it when I do the ls -l /dev/disk/by-id or do I need to do something else before system will now see it? Prefer steps which would not be disruptive to the currently running pre-clears.

I think that would be UserShares.

Might depend upon the cables and the quality. Cat5 do not always get you gigabit speeds and might be throtled to 100m Especially with the 100ft leg. Might need Cat5e or Cat6

From all my reading (done a whole bunch), you want the parity drive to be the largest (since it'll restrict how much is actually used by the data drives) and you want it to be the fastest. The reason for this is any writes would be as fast as your slowest drive being used (ie...data & parity). And since you can be writing to multiple data drives and they would also be needing to write to the parity drive, you could have writes being delayed if you end up with an IO queue on the parity drive.

Want to set up a Backup/Archive Script for RAID configuration files that I'll include in my go file so that I'll have a version of them at every reboot. I'm guess I would want /boot/syslinux.cfg and everything in /boot/config Anything/anywhere else that you might think of? Or would it just be best to just tar up the entire /boot structure? What are others doing to archive/version their configs to maintain history of changes and make it easy to revert if needed?

Excellent point!! I'll modify it to append ( >> ) instead of overwrite ( > )

Yes, but since /root/.profile didn't exist prior, not overlaying anything. Guess I need to see if /root/.profile is recreated each time on reboot or is persistent. My guess is like /etc/profile it is recreated. In which case there wouldn't be a difference I guess between > and >> for /root/.profile. Would be a HUGE difference for /etc/profile If /root/.profile was persistent between reboots, you'd end up with many many (1 for each reboot) duplicate lines for the added PATH statement

Thanks WeeboTech. Might do your way if I decide I want the changed PATH for all users, else I might just leave it for /root/.profile So from my experiments, I assume that /etc/profile gets "rebuilt/recreated" at each reboot from the biz* processes ? Will take a little getting used to. Know a little Unix (AIX) and Shell (ksh) Scripting, guess I'll be learning more as I go along regarding linux, bash, and unRAID specifics

did some more digging and found the answer. put in the go script echo 'export PATH=${PATH}:/boot/scripts' > /root/.profile Note: be sure to use single quote, not double quote otherwise you get different results

I want to update the PATH environmental variable to include /boot/scripts and have it there upon each reboot. I tried updating the /etc/profile but that didn't seem to stick between reboots. I tried the following in go but that didn't work either: export PATH=${PATH}:/boot/scripts

ok. So how would I tell if an EADS needed the jumpers or not? Got 3 OEM/Bare Drives for my first build and figured I wouldn't need to jumper them.

Would that not apply only if it is a EARS? Did not think the EADS (or others) needed the jumpering. Or maybe the EARS is the only Caviar Green with the specs mentioned and that is how you knew?

Can you change the DHCP range to 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.199 ?? Just a thought, not really knowledgable on the network stuff.

Yes, realize 750 is overkill but got it from a friend (NIB) for slightly over what it would have cost me to get the Corsair's 400W CX. Worse case, if I need a psu more along the lines of 750 for another machine in the future, can always swap them out. Eventually how many drives? Not sure, fairly new to htpc world and already have 2TB and thats not keeping some stuff that I might like due to current space available. Saw the writing on the wall so that is what ended up bringing me to unRAID. Just starting out with "free" 3 drive system to get my feet wet, then most like add drives along the way until max out the case then build a 2nd machine btw - forgot to put down the biostar (budget build) mb in the list. Already had that (cheaply) that just never got into a build before.

Well, after doing tons of reading, pulling the trigger. Below is what I've ordered, can't wait to get it all and start putting it together. I've already loaded the software onto the SanDisk Cruzer and booted it on my laptop. At least all was functional. Came up and able to access it via http://tower and copied preclear.sh to /boot Did trial of preclear.sh via USB Docking station to laptop but will wait for server build before preclearing. Would take too long using USB Docking station (only got 32.5mb/s pre-read) Not sure what add-ons I might also run so went with the 2 core [has always worked well for me in the past] instead of the Sempron. SanDisk Cruzer 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) Model SDCZ36-004G-A11 2x [Data Drives] Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EADS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA HDD Enclosure COOLER MASTER GX Series RS750-ACAAE3-US 750W ATX12V v2.31 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply [Future Proof] AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX245OCGQBOX 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 1x [Parity Drive] HITACHI Deskstar 7K2000 HDS722020ALA330 (0F10311) 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive [Router out of Ports] NETGEAR GS108 10/100/1000Mbps ProSafe Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch with Jumbo Frame support Furhter thoughts, while spouse is in generous mood, might need to look into UPS for this, htpc machine, and desktop. Any recommendations? Depends upon where I'm going to place unRAID server but might be able to get all 3 machines, plus modem/router/switch onto same UPS (just need to figure out how big). Mainly want something to the blips and sometimes 5min outages we're starting to get lately. Figure 10-15mins capacity would work in order to give time to shutdown everything. Another question, is there a method where once power is restored, to bring up everything cleanly? BIOS setting, or what?

From what I've read with how busy they are with the Beta, probably doubtful. Or at least that is my impression. Decided to build my own based partly on the Budget Build http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hardware_Compatibility#Budget_Box

OK, <sigh> sounds like I might just need to be patient and wait until I build the server. Since I put the order in this morning, guess I won't see it until Monday (earliest). Just hope UPS doesn't bang up the case like they did last time. Had to RMA it to get replacement it was so bad. Figure (if my thought process is correct) it'd be approx 54hrs if I got the consistent 32.5mb/s (doubtful) (2TB * 1048576 [to get MB] * 3 [pre-read, write, post-read]) / 32.5 = 193583.26 secs / 3600 [to get hrs] = 53.77 Way too long for me to be without my laptop.

Been researching storage solutions and have decided that I like unRAID (at least from all I've read). Been reading tons of posts from forums and wiki, so much so I can't remember where I saw what. Thought I saw somewhere how to calculate how long preclear might take but of course now I can't find it anywhere. Currently have the server parts on order but have the HDDs and thought I might preclear them before hand. Put unRAID on SanDisk Cruzer and plugged it into my laptop, rebooted, came up fine, able to get to menu via http://tower Plugged a USB Docking Station to laptop, put in one of the drives into it (2TB WD20EADS [have 3 of them to clear]- no jumpers required - correct?) started preclear.sh and seems to be working well so far except maybe the speed. pre-read is currently 32.5M/sec. (suspect because of USB docking station???) So if I recall, pre-read is the fastest phase. At that speed, I'd be looking at approx 18hrs just for pre-read correct? Any benchmarks on what percentage decrease the write and post-read phases would be based on 32.5M/sec ? Just trying to figure out if its even worthwhile preclearing (and being without usage of my laptop) beforehand or just suck it up and wait until I get the parts and put the server together.

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Yes, I get a daily e-mail that lists what the 3 (weekdays) Shell Shocker items will be. Got too busy at work today, forgot about it. Oh well, would have just been a spare (for now)

Shell Shocker deal while supplies last during that timeframe.