superloopy1

Many thanks, i'll continue on then. Mobo supports 4 x nvme2 and 8 sata so i'll try and populate these out as best possible then install unraid and dockers.

Presumably if not being written to then trim wouldnt be necessary? Any way to trim the pooled ssds? The more i learn the less convinced i am that this is a good idea ...

Could a 'gash' ssd serving no useful purpose be used IN the array to satisfy this requirement and if so would it need to be comparable in speed to the pool ssds. I'm reading a lot about unraid operating at only the speed of the lowest drive in the array? Is this only when you ARE actually writing to data disks themselves. In my case i'll be writing to pooled cached drives, probably cache10. Seems a bit messy in order to run up a working Unraid system when just wanting to get as much processing control and minimal power out of the hardware.

The ssd pool will be short term storage, once processed, hopefully a lot quicker thn at present, then it will be moved off to one of three longer term storage arrays. So this small, efficient nas is only there as a frontend. The data WILL be held on the ssd pool but not long term. Cronjob will ship off on a regular interval. I gather this on/off writes to the ssd pool is the reason why unraid wont allow to be used in a full array as spinning disks are. My unraid array wlll therefore only be a couple of cache pools of ssds with no spinners to be seen. NVME slots are available but i'm guesing they'll be for metadata. once working, its all to be shipped off via 10Gb/e to a final resting place. I'm sure this is being used by others but cant find a decent writeup of the whole process .... thanks for the help!

Wow, quick, thanks! Can i run this past you then ... 8 disk nas, all ssds, how do i configure an Unraid system? No parity i assume, not needed as all content to be shipped asap to a 'suitable' array for storage. This lean nas is purely to do all the donkey work and allow the running of dockers, within Unraid? all post processing, unpacking etc to be done and then short term stored on an ssd structured cache pool, yes? Am i understanding or not? Would 10GBe be of use in shipping out no longer required filestore to the slower spinning disk array? Tell me if i'm talking bilge here ....

I'm trying to plan out a small Unraid system which is both powerful and efficient. Initailly i wanted a small nas utilising SSDs but since reading that ssds are not recommended to be IN an unraid array i'm wondering what the next best option is? I already have three storage arrays which i intended to use to service this smaller, leaner array which was going to be mini-itx with all ssds/nvme m2 from the get go. This was to be the workhorse frontend to the 'arrs, plex, dockers and further down the line VMs as i understand whats best needed. But now, without ssds as that backbone what are my options. This smaller nas was to have 10Gb/e (just because it can and as possible future proofing) coupled with a 13th gen intel cpu utilising quicksync capabilities. A lot of this is MY wishlist and, i understand, not necessary in order to transcode plex/emby. I understand this. Now, left without an ssd based objective, how do i proceed? Maybe i just stick with the xeon based storage i have, maybe consolodate the lot into one larger case and forget the 'efficiency' angle altogether. I cant help thinking this is not the way i saw my use of ssds progressing in the longer term. Will Unraid ever sanction an ssd based array i wonder and If not then what are others using as a good alternative to run a 'lean mean Unraid' system.

Thanks guys, couple of suggestions there that i could take up. One non-runner is moving my server to take advantage of the Xeon (mega!) haeat output, my wife would kill me if either of my three servers ever became visible around the house , that's why i need to go with a mini-itx based system and only a couple of nvme/ssd drives so an almost silent system. I DO have electricity at slightly higher rate than yours across there overnight so i'm thinking along similar lines and 'moving' lets say a weeks worth of downloads, again everything now has to be on cheap rate electricity, via rsync nightly from a cached pool on my main servers to the small, silent itx system in my lounge. Might work? But, it means i cannot then access any back catalogue stuff, a big downer on the 'wife' front. Seems it cant be done in a 'wife-friendly' manner ... so, it stays as it is, zilch downloads.

Can i just vent my spleen over electricity prices here in the UK and ask other forum members for some constructive advice. Power costs are horrendous here in the UK (and no doubt elsewhere) to the extent that i cannot financially afford to run up my Unraid servers for any length of time. Unfortunately i have three Xeon based servers consisting of some 30+disks. Main use is storage and obviously, like others streaming as a nas to my own local devices. This has had to stop as has adding any new content to my machines. Its a pretty sad situation which i'm looking for ideas on how to minimise powering up the lot in one go and still have an effective subset of my main NAS available in a leaner, meaner form. The drive sizes range from 10TB to 18TB so obviously rolling up to larger drives is really not an option as it would mean shelling out for 20TB drives which just isnt do-able. Just wondering how i can tweak my setup to just have a 'small' nas setup of some 1-2 drives and how its possible to offload any files wanted 'automatically' until watched? I do have cheap rate (sic) overnight electricity but whats a decent, cheap setup to allow up to 4K playback, whether direct or transcoded? Best bare minimum needed anyone? All suggestions gratefully received. Ta!

Sorted now but for info it was in the scheduler settings as a new heading ...

You are spot on sir! I have no knowledge of ever installing that plugin. Now removed as it has no 'help' associiated with it so of little use in its current online form.

I have updated three of my servers to 6.11.0 recently. One of them has 'gained' a new section to the settings page of 'Fixed Schedules' with some info which i need to understand. The help gives no help for this heading at all. Why has this popped up on only one of my machines all running same os level and has everyone got this or is it random? Just need to know what it refers to and how it got there as i cant fathom out what its doing??

Reason i ask is that i now have cheaper rate electricity available but only between the hours of 12am and 7am so i want to be able to schedule a lot of my more time intensive jobs to avaoid peak rate electricity. I'm moving a lot of data around and it would help to be able to schedule and pause jobs to take advantage of this. Anyone any advice? Bear in mind that i'm running across three unraid servers so the savings would be very useful here in UK where leccy costs are now way OTT ;>(((

Right. I've had a read but am still slightly confused. My existing controller is already a sas2308 so i'm looking for an IT firmware also for a sas 2308, yes? That video seems to be bringing an existing sas 2208 up to the level of a sas 2308 so there's a lot of editing that i dont need?? That's where i'm at. Alongwith locating the tools and identifying where to run these from. I'm assuming i boot from a dos usb stick?

Yeah, it seems daunting. I'm not sure whether the term cross-flashing is applicable though. The board has LSI-2308 onboard but in IR mode, which i understand to be raid mode. I just need it to be in IT direct attachment mode, yes? Is that 'cross-flashing' still as i dont see why i'm flashing at all, seems i just need a mode change. I assume its because there isnt a FW appropriate for the 2308 so it needs to be off a 2208, am i reasoning correctly?? Help, as always, greatly appreciated.

Bios of IR mode doesnt have a JBOD option unfortunately, only raid, of which raid0 would seem the closest fit but that just presents one large disk not directly attached indidvidual disks unfortunately. And, the fans are LLLOOOOOUUUDDD. Where can i get a 120x120x38 quiet set of fans ;>))

Wow H, that's some video and way over MY head. All i gleaned was that it shuld be possible to flash to IT mode but never having done anything like that before i chickened out at the first hurdle. Too many cli commands there for me and comprehension of what to do and when was never my strong point. Thanks any way.

Should have said that this is an onboard lsi2308 not an external card. Does that make a difference? It's being presented as LS2308-IR in the lsi bios. There's also an external lsi 16 port card, same problem, which accodates the total of 24 drives. How do I change the presentation to jbod though, suppose that's my question. I've not done this before ...

Guys, i just puchased an old SM based 24 port system and installed a trail version of unraid. Its got an 8 port LSI2308 which doesnt seem to pass thru any drives i've been trying so went into LSI bios and it seems to be configured in IR mode?? Am i right in thinking that this needs to be changed and if so, any ideas how? Seemingly thats a raid mode and i need a pass thru, jbod mode in order to present discs to unraid, yes? Am i talking garbage here, if so tell me now, i just need this to work ... thanks!!

Thanks guys, understood now. I'm stuck with an extremely slow parity check it appears, heyho ...

No? I've never understood this thread and i've read it back to back a number of times. So we are only talking write speeds that are affected by this, reads are not handled similarly? Apolgies if i'm way off beam here .... educate me.

Guys, do i set the number of drives to the max in my array prior to doing a parity check? Parity check takes an age on my system, just looking for ways to speed it up besides buying a whole new setup ;)>

sounds like it had done someting though if you could undo it so maybe not that bad. Maybe try with a smaller 'sample' next time ...

i'm watching this one cos i intended (not now) to do this soon ... wish you luck.

Google "unraid syslog server" or check unraid wiki, it's in there. Pretty simples.

Been having a few lockups on my system recently but tonite is the first time i've seen critical media read errors (there's three of them following the latest reboot). Now i appreciate the drive is perhaps failing but exactly what is the procedure from hereon to firstly check the drive and if found to be errorred to actually replace it. Is there a clear script to follow anywhere?