unraider

I believe that this is THE key for using smaller power supplies that will provide higher efficiency ratings at lower power levels. Does your Biostar motherboard enable this...or have you found an unRaid-supported add-in card that does? Any info. on this previous quesiton? Or which controller r u using that staggers powerup the drives?

Thanks a lot Joe.

Hi, While parity calculation is in progress, I understand that the array is available in unprotected status. During this, is is perfectly fine to copy data to the unraid drives (whether using windows explorer, or smbmount'ed from another machine)? Will the parity calculation take into account of these new changes on the fly and update the parity numbers? Also during this, is it ok to move data between two unraid drives (whether using windows explorer or telnet and mv/cp)? Again, will the parity calculation take into account of these new changes on the fly and update the parity numbers? Thanks.

While debugging more for this on google, I found this link: http://fak3r.com/2007/06/22/failed-to-set-xfermode-solved/ I'm not sure how to use this thing inside unraid environment and is this solution even recommended? Or probably a patch needed from Tom on unraid? Any other thoughts? Thanks.

Hi, This particular motherboard has 8 sata ports: 7 internal and 1 external. Tom also uses this motherboard for his products. Pictorially, the colored ports are laid out in this order on the motherboard. 1Red 2Red 3Black 4Black 5Red 6Red and 7Black being at some far place, and the 8th external sata port on the back of mobo. I had used 1Red, 2Red, 5Red, 6Red ports (basically, all 4 red ports) till now for 4 sata hard drives. I just added a 5th drive at 3Black port. BIOS is set to AHCI for all ports. One thing to note is this new 5th drive supports SATA I only, whereas all the previous 4 drives supported SATA II. I'm getting error messages for this 3Black port. Here is the relevant part of syslog file: Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.207748] scsi1 : ahci Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.207968] scsi2 : ahci Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.208129] scsi3 : ahci Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.208289] scsi4 : ahci Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.208446] scsi5 : ahci Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.208600] scsi6 : ahci Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.208687] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf8822900 ctl 0x00000000 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 220 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.208804] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf8822980 ctl 0x00000000 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 220 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.208920] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf8822a00 ctl 0x00000000 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 220 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.209036] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf8822a80 ctl 0x00000000 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 220 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.209153] ata5: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf8822b00 ctl 0x00000000 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 220 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.209269] ata6: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf8822b80 ctl 0x00000000 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 220 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.737901] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.779072] ata1.00: ATA-7: ST3750640AS, 3.AAE, max UDMA/133 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.779149] ata1.00: 1465149168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 58.837341] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 59.358914] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 59.405995] ata2.00: ATA-7: ST3750640AS, 3.AAE, max UDMA/133 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 59.406072] ata2.00: 1465149168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 59.464263] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 59.989943] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.571869] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access Sony Storage Media 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.572973] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1014784 512-byte hardware sectors (520 MB) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.573846] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.574622] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.574624] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.577094] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1014784 512-byte hardware sectors (520 MB) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.577968] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.578044] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.578046] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.578126] sda: sda1 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.579101] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 60.579524] usb-storage: device scan complete Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 90.034407] ata3.00: qc timeout (cmd 0x27) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 90.034489] ata3.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: hpa sectors (0) is smaller than sectors (781422768) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 90.034613] ata3.00: ATA-7: HDS724040KLSA80, KFAOAC6A, max UDMA/133 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 90.034693] ata3.00: 781422768 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 90.034779] ata3.00: failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x40) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 90.034849] ata3: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 100.609937] ata3: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0x80) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 105.116558] ata3: COMRESET failed (errno=-16) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 105.627312] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 135.671465] ata3.00: qc timeout (cmd 0x27) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 135.671541] ata3.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: hpa sectors (0) is smaller than sectors (781422768) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 135.671668] ata3.00: failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x40) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 135.671745] ata3.00: limiting speed to UDMA/133:PIO3 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 135.671827] ata3: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 146.247000] ata3: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0x80) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 150.753620] ata3: COMRESET failed (errno=-16) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 151.264375] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 181.308527] ata3.00: qc timeout (cmd 0x27) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 181.308603] ata3.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: hpa sectors (0) is smaller than sectors (781422768) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 181.308727] ata3.00: failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x40) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 181.308802] ata3.00: disabled Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 182.149764] ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 182.680544] ata5: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 182.727331] ata5.00: ATA-7: ST3500630AS, 3.AAE, max UDMA/133 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 182.727409] ata5.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 182.785602] ata5.00: configured for UDMA/133 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 183.311572] ata6: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 183.347520] ata6.00: ATA-7: ST3500641AS, 3.AAE, max UDMA/133 Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 183.347597] ata6.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32) Aug 20 15:57:46 Tower kernel: [ 183.414123] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/133 Could it be that this new hard drive is dead? I doubt as it is spitting out information HDS724040KLSA80 indicating it is Hitachi 400gb sata drive, which is true.

Hi, If someone is using a mix lets say, all but one as SATA 300 drives and one drive is SATA 150... what should he expect for read/write/parity speeds? Let me know if my assumptions are wrong. Also, I'm assuming parity drive to be a SATA 300 hdd. Read: If the read is from SATA 300 drive, it will be at SATA 300 read speed (ofcourse eventually limited by network speed). Read: If the read is from SATA 150 drive, it will be at SATA 150 read speed (ofcourse eventually limited by network speed). Write: If the write is to a SATA 300 drive, it will be at SATA 300 write speed (if data transfer from outside then limited by network speed, if data shuffle between drives then limited by the lowest of the two drives or pci bandwidth). Write: If the write is to a SATA 150 drive, it will be at SATA 150 write speed (if data transfer from outside then limited by network speed, if data shuffle between drives then limited by the lowest of the two drives or pci bandwidth). Parity: this is where I'm confused... will the whole parity calculation really slow down as one drive is a sata 150? Thanks.

and are u using the eSATA ports? or the normal SATA ports on the motherboard? Thanks.

bump...

Hi Tom, I can understand your support issue w/ mixed controllers. But does it mean that if I use just 2 Promise controllers (two PromiseSX8 models totalling 16 drives --OR-- one SX8 and one TX4 and 4 on mobo --OR-- two TX4s and 8 on mobo...) should things work? As in this case, it won't require any support issue related to mix controllers... and will the management page will work too... Thanks

Hi, Is there a possibility to configure Unraid for more than 12 disks? As of now, I have 3 5in3 modules with 9 drives. Theoretically, stacker can support upto 20 drives (with 4 5in3 modules, of course with huge dual power supplies!). Thinking of heating concerns, if not 20 drives.. at least 16 drives would be feasible with 4 4in3 modules. Is there a way to change some parameters to configure Unraid's maximum support of drives? and has Tom (or anyone else) every tried this out? Also, does anyone else have used these 5in3 modules at full capacity (filled with 5 drives). I was concerned about the heating issue. Currently I have configured like (DEDED DEDED DEDED) where D= drive, E= empty slot. If someone else is using these modules filled with pretty large drives like 300/500GB's, I'll feel more comfortable putting more drives in. Thanks

Hi Tom, I read in the other post, your feedback regarding the "not so optimistic working solution" for Silicon Image Sil3114 in the drivers. I had a question regarding the a different Silicon Image configuration, the one used in the rackmount Norco DS-1220. http://www.norcotek.com/DS-1220.php 1. With Unraid, can one use just this Norco rackmount (which has SiI3726 Multipliers inside) with 4 ports outside... and the cables from these ports going into the sata ports of the supported motherboard Intel 915GAGLK or into any of the Promise SATA supported cards by you? In this configuration, one won't use the included pci-x/pci card with Norco containing Sil3124 raid card, which seems another raid card with different version than Sil3114. http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?id=26&ptid=1 http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?id=27&ptid=1 The block diagram in the first link shows as if any host(port) should be able to handle this... and it is transparent form the point of view of software/drivers... no need of support of any driver/software to handle this multiplier as it is out the host and handled transparently in hardware... Correct me if I'm wrong? 2. Also what are you thoughts on using Unraid with full configuration of Norco DS-1220, using both rackmount (containing Sil3276 multipliers) with the included pci-x/pci card (having Silicon Image SiI3124 on card)? Thanks a lot for a great product

Hi Tom, What about the SATA 150 TX4 version of the promise card? I have already ordered from a retailer today... If you can advice in time, may be I can cancel my order. Thanks a lot for a great product.

I'm not a beta tester but still probably can help you... The difference between Wed Mar 22 00:27:55 GMT 2006 and 3/21/2006 4:27:43 PM is not 4 hours... see carefully, the former is 22nd Mar, 00.27 (am), (as in 21st Mar late night), the latter is clear - 21st Mar, 4.27PM... so the former is 16 hours ahead of latter... I'm sure rest you can figure it out...

Hi Tom, I had couple of questions: You had mentioned once in avs-forum regarding the next supported motherboard being: Intel D915GAG (although, you never officially confirmed it). 1. Will this motherboard work (and/or is going to be supported) with this newer version of unraid software? 2. If I buy the USB flash today, does it come with the latest updated version of the unraid software that you released couple of days back. I would like to know this as I don't have a Windows machine to flash the USB drive later-on. 3. What is your experience/thoughts on Promise Fasttrack 100 TX4 card? Do you forsee any problem?