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mnemonic222000

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Posts posted by mnemonic222000

    Advice on possible build.... WHS convert....

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    John/boof,

     

    Thanks for the reply, I looked at your build very closely, so I hoped you would respond.

     

    I agree my server is very decent and can do everything I need it to, but at a LARGE cost of heat and electricity.  This is why I am looking at building something new.  Currently I don't have any real issues with my existing server using unRAID, so I don't think an i3 will outperform my Xeon, except in the heat/energy department.  I guess I am just looking for confirmation that I won't be creating problems for myself my going down this road.

     

    Currently all my streaming is done to Windows 7 Media Center boxes thru the house via the My Movies plug-in.  All ISO mounted and streamed thru Total Media Theater 5, so no transcoding is necessary.  All streams are done over CAT6 wired connections with a Cisco Small Business Smart Gigabit Switch providing the network backbone.  I also have Intel NIC on all my computers to help minimize issues, etc.  All my infrastructure (server and network) were built while I was chasing WHS stuttering issues, which unRAID has resolved.  And I don't want to go back to chasing my tail.  I threw a TON of hardware, time, and money at this stuttering problem and I really don't want to go back, but I am willing to invest a few more dollars to build a new server to reduce electrical consumption and heat load (heat load is VERY critical with summer approaching, my upstairs office and server closet get quite warm due to the BTU output of all my machines or the AC runs constantly).

     

    On the drive front, I am torn.  I still have 3-4 Green drives, but really want to move to a more Enterprise grade 7200 RPM HDD.  Well I want to until I look at the price and the energy hit.  I will probably re-evaluate this as I move forward and have my new server in place.

     

    I do appreciate the feedback and am open to hear more from anyone in the peanut gallery!  ;)

     

    Advice on possible build.... WHS convert....

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    neilt0,

     

    Thanks for the reply.  I had read that exact post about your experiences previously and it happens to be one of the thing I have been hanging my system change on (no pressure).  One thing I noticed when I just re-read the post that may explain a couple of slight stutters I have had in my own unRAID testing is from John about controller cards playing a part.  Up until recently, I had not considered my AOC-SAT2 as a weak link, but I have read a number of posts explaining that it doesn't supply the bandwidth the AOC-SASLP can.

     

    I already own unRAID Pro and have been conducting tons of test variations.  And aside from a few slight stutters here and there, all is well, so I know my current equipment is up to the task (may swap out to the AOC-SASLP first for more testing).  Again, I am just leery of creating problems that don't now exist.  I have experienced similar results in my testing with number of streams from the same drive.  I am trying to formulate a distribution plan for my movies across the physical discs to eliminate some of the possible issues in the future, but that will require A LOT of file moving, etc.

     

    Thanks again for the feedback and I look forward to more from the board!

     

    TC

    Advice on possible build.... WHS convert....

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    Everyone,

     

    I am to a WHS "convert" after running into a number of limitations and frustrations with WHS, I luckily found unRAID. I am using my old WHS server as my unRAID box and am having great results, however I need something a little more efficient.  

     

    My WHS experience led me to throw a TON of hardware at my stuttering issues; server quality MB, Xeon L3360 processor, lots of RAM, Intel server NIC, enterprise HDD, etc.  None of these fixed the DE issue which caused an unbearable stutter on 1080P content and only added to my electric bill.

     

    I would like to move to an i3 Sandy Bridge solution for its power/efficiency ratio, but am nervous to downgrade hardware and have the stuttering issue crop up again.  I have searched and searched, read and read, and know that I am going to hear plenty of "you don't need a ton of power to stream", however I am gun shy with my previous experience and just need a little more detailed reinforcement.

     

    My needs are fairly simple and pedestrian.  I just need a large, bullet proof storage array that can provide 2-3 Bluray ISO streams to my Windows Media Centers.  Needless to say WAF is high on the list, as well as having 3 boys that LOVE to watch movies when they are allowed.  So stuttering, lag, and inconsistent results need to be minimal.  As I am a Linux IDIOT, I will still keep a normal full time Windows machine in place for "other" server needs based on my comfort level.

     

    So long story short here is my existing build and what my proposed build would transition to, let me know what you think... (I have listed a few options on the CPU, both me being anal and overspec'ing and others based on what I have read on the board)

     

    Motherboard

     

    Current: ASUS P5BV-C LGA 775 Intel 3200 ATX Intel Xeon Server Motherboard

    Planned: SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard (only 1155 board with video and "compatible" with unRAID that I have found)

     

    Processor

     

    Current:  Intel Xeon L3360 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Quad-Core Server Processor

    Server Quality: Intel Xeon E3-1220 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 80W Quad-Core Server (might not decrease my energy footprint 80w vs 65w TDP)

    Consumer Quality 1: Intel Core i5-2400S Sandy Bridge 2.5GHz (3.3GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 65W Quad-Core Desktop Processor (know its enough, but is it too much)

    Consumer Quality 2: Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz 2 x 256KB L2 Cache 3MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor (have one in a HTPC and am impressed, but is it enough)

    Consumer Quality 3: Intel Core i3-2100T Sandy Bridge 2.5GHz 2 x 256KB L2 Cache 3MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 35W Dual-Core Desktop Processor (like the 35W TDP, but is it enough horsepower)

     

    If you can't tell this is where I am struggling!

     

    RAM

     

    Current: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Server Memory

    Planned: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Server Memory

     

    SATA Controller

     

    Current: SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card

    Planned: SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI Express x4 Low Profile SAS SAS RAID Controller (improved throughput from existing from my reading)

     

    I will be keeping my NIC, power supply, case and drive cages

     

    NIC:  Intel EXPI9400PT 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit Copper Connection for Servers

    Power Supply:  ENERMAX PRO82+ EPR525AWT 525W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE (may upgrade to 80 GOLD?)

    Case: iStarUSA Storm Series D-400 (sure 20 drives would be AWESOME, but I really don't need it... Remember I said need not want!)

    Drive Cages: iStarUSA BPU-350SATA 3x5.25" to 5x3.5" SAS/SATA 6.0 Gb/s Hot-Swap Cage x 2

     

    I will be replacing my hard drives as necessary, I really want to get to all server class HDD, but I am really struggling with the cost/benefit of it.  Here is what I currently have

     

    Parity: WDC_WD2001FASS - WD Black 2 TB

    Drive 1: WDC_WD2003FYYS - WD RE4 2 TB

    Drive 2: WDC_WD20EADS

    Drive 3: WDC_WD20EADS

    Drive 4: WDC_WD2002FYPS - WD RE4-GP 2 TB (just precleared and installed to replace failed WD20EADS)

    Drive 5: WDC_WD20EADS

    Drive 6: WDC_WD20EADS (will be installed once I receive the RMA from the failed drive 4 listed above)

    Disk 7: TDB

    Disk 8: TDB

    Disk 9: TDB (moving to SSD Cache will free up drive bay)

    Cache: ST3500630AS - Seagate 7200.11 500 GB (was the fastest drive I had left over from other items) to be replaced by Intel 510 120GB SATA III in new build

     

    So based on board experience what should I choose?  And if you have attempted to stream bluray ISOs with similar specs how have you fared?  Also have you been successful doing so from more than 1 stream?

     

    I look forward to your response.

    Formatting Error on 2 WD 2TB... Please help

    in unRAID Server 4.5 [No new topics]

    Posted

    Guys thanks for the replies.

     

    bkasten -

     

    I have not run the pre-clear script.  I guess I missed this part, but I didn't run it on any of my drives and my "disk 2" formatted very quickly and is recognized.  I will run the pre-clear script on my drives.  I assume I do this in unRAID.

     

    bubbaQ -

     

    I am running 4.5.6.  The Green drives do not have jumpers on 7-8 and have never have.  When I purchased them for use in my WHS box, they went straight in, were formatted and put into use.  No jumpers, no alignment.  As I said in my long post, they work fine in the Windows environment.  I read a great deal on the forums and the EARS drives seemed to need the jumpers.  I am running the EADS drives.  Please let me know if this is my mistake and I will install jumpers.

     

    TC

    Formatting Error on 2 WD 2TB... Please help

    in unRAID Server 4.5 [No new topics]

    Posted

    Guys,

     

    I am a complete neophyte to unRAID and Linux in general so please be easy on me.  I am in the process of implementing an unRAID box here at the house for media storage and am running into issues.  The box I am using is a "converted" WHS box that I could never get to properly stream BR iso's without stutter.  I threw hardware at the issue, but the DE problems software issues were never fixed, so unRAID was my software solution.  Currently I am running a machine that is FAR too overpowered for unRAID, but it is what I have at the moment and will eventually be transitioned to a different MB and CPU combination (like I said I threw hardware at my WHS issues)

     

    Here is what I am running

     

    iStar Storm 4U case with iStar 3x5 Caddies (10 total drive spaces)

    Asus P5BV-C LGA775

    Intel Xeon X3370 - Quad Core 3.0 GHz Processor

    Crucial 2GB x 2 ECC Unbuffered RAM

    Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8

     

    Hard Drives:

    1 x Seagate 500 GB 7200.11 - Cache

    1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB 32MB/7200RPM - Parity

    3 x Western Digital Green WD20EADS 2TB

     

    So my issue....  After a bit of tinkering I was able to get my server to boot from the flash drive.  And I was able to get the web interface of unRAID.  Everything seemed quite easy until I attempted to assign my drives in the devices page to their appropriate "slots". 

     

    I started small, with just assigning my Parity and Disk 1 (1 Black & 1 Green).  The Black is a new drive that I purchased specifically for use as my Parity, the Green was a drive that I used in my WHS.  All the data on the Green had been backed up to a separate disk and had normal Windows maintenance run on it (format, scanned for bad sectors, etc) prior to being added to my unRAID config.

     

    Once I assigned my drives and started my array, I was prompted to format my drives.  I accepted the formatting process and began to wait.  Having read that formatting only takes a few minutes on the forums, I went on to other tasks and came back to hit refresh about 10 minutes later.  After hitting refresh, it still showed the drive as unformatted, so I formated again and waited 10 more minutes.  Again, after hitting refresh, it still showed the drive as unformatted, so I hit reboot.

     

    When the server came back up, "disk 1" appeared with a size next to it and I could navigate to it on the network.  However when I tried to create a share on the disk or directly create a folder on the disk I got a permissions error.  Very frustrated, I tinkered and toyed with things until I just re-formatted the flash drive and re-formatted the "disk 1" in Windows and started again.  This time however, I did add a second Green drive to the array just to see what might be going on.

     

    After stepping thru the setup again, I again could see "disk 1" and now "disk 2" on my network.  I still wasn't able to create a folder or file on "disk 1" because of "permissions error", but I could on "disk 2".  I thought it might be a bad SATA connection or cable on my board, so I swapped the drives, reset their slots in unRAID and was still unable to create a folder or file on my original "disk 1".

     

    So I started again.  This time I viewed the syslog and saw a formatting error on "disk 1" that it had a bad sector, even though when I ran it thru Windows maintenance this didn't show up.  So I swapped the hard drive to a third Green drive I had available.

     

    Again I started the process again, formatting the flash, getting unRAID to boot and adding the new "disk 1" and existing "disk 2" to my array, only to get the same formatting error on my new "disk 1".  So I swapped my new "disk 1" into a different physical slot on the server and tried to format again after a reboot, only to get the same formatting error.

     

    So here I am.  I have 3 WD Green WD20EADS, 2 of which are showing bad sectors in unRAID formatting, but pass testing in Windows without issue.  Both drives were working fine in my WHS, I was able to move data off each one prior to "transitioning" to unRAID, but I can't use either one in my new server.  I ran both back thru Windows Error-Checking last night and both passed without issue.  I have requested an RMA from WD, but there is no telling how long it will take to get the new drives and I have NO protection in the mean time.

     

    Can someone please give me a hand in getting things up and going properly.  It seems highly unlikely that I had 2 drives (of different vintage by the way) both have the same bad sectors at the same time and both pass Error-Checking.  I am happy to use the command line in unRAID to use Linux commands to help find/solve my issues, but like I said I'm a Windows guy in an unRAID world and would need very specific instructions to guide me.

     

    Thanks in advance.

     

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