void4ever

So just another update. I got a new drive to use for cache, however it did not resolve the issue. I didn't really expect it to because the 2 unassigned device SSD's i have on the system are showing the same issue as i mentioned above. But at least i have a larger cache drive now I went ahead and cleared the bios/cmos as a test, but again no change after setting everything up again. One thing i did realize as i was poking around is the cache drive and the other 2 SSD's i have on the system as unassigned devices are all connected to the same chipset The motherboard i'm running is an ASrock Z87 Extreme6. This board has 10 SATA ports, 6 are controlled by the intel chipset, and 4 are controlled by a ASMedia ASM1061. The cache drive and the other 2 drives are on the ASMedia controller. Can anyone tell me if the driver for that controller changed from 6.11 to 6.12? Void4ever

I've done a bit more testing, but I still can't track down what is happening. Went ahead and booted the server into Safe Mode, exact same issue, so it's definitely not a plugin, docker, or whatever. I attempted to monitor disk activity with iostat -d, but it's showing exactly the same thing. No activity shows on any drive until it decides to burst write whatever data has been cached, then back to nothing until the next burst write. I monitored the systems RAM using HTOP hoping maybe it was getting cached there, but ram usage barely moves at all during a transfer, so thats not it. I checked the DRAM cache on the SSD I'm using which is a Samsung 860 btw. The 1 TB model has 1GB of onboard cache. My thought was that maybe the drive IS broken, and is filling it's onboard cache before attempting to write. However after multiple tests it appears the burst write starts after about 2 to 2.4GB of data has been copied. Which far exceeds the drives onboard cache. I'm at a complete loss how or why this is happening. Unless anyone has any other ideas, I guess I'll need to look into replacing the cache drive as a next step, despite it not showing any signs anything is wrong. Void4ever

I've got a speed problem I just can't seem to track down. I first noticed it when I was no longer able to download at 100MB/s from newsgroups with SAB. (Which I've been doing for years, gig fiber up and down) The speeds we're now running around 60 to 80MB/s. I honestly chocked it up to my new router and some setting I had misconfigured and ignored it for about a month before I started poking into it. I've now discovered that for some reason transfers to the Unraid server, whether from Windows SMB or a docker like SAB aren't running at full speed to the cache drive or Unassigned Drives. In the past when transferring to the server I could watch the speed on the "MAIN" page, a constant 100MB/s give or take (1Gb network). Now however it appears to be caching somewhere before doing a burst write at around 400MB/s, then filling whatever cache it's using and bursting again, over and over until the transfer is finished. Transfers from Windows (various machines) all hover around 50 to 70MB/s. Copying FROM the cache drive does produce the results I'm use to seeing. Full network speed, and the "MAIN" page shows the constant read of around 100MB/s per usual. I've also noticed the same behavior with my Unassigned Drives as well. I have two SSD's mounted with UD, and they act EXACTLY the same as above. I want to say this all happened when I upgraded to 6.12 but honestly I can't say for sure. I waited until .3 was released before upgrading, and just recently upgraded to .4 I was previously on 6.11.5. Troubleshooting I've done: Tested multiple shares, thought admittedly not every single one. All of them are set to Cache drive Primary, and Array secondary with the mover running at night around..... 4am I think. Disabled secondary storage on one of the shares with Cache as primary. Same results Created brand new shares, one setup as usual with Cache as primary, Array secondary, Same results. Created a second share using array only, and transferring to that share shows exactly what I would expect from the MAIN page, constant writes on the data drive and parity, none of this burst writing. I'd recently disabled SMB 1.0, but I went ahead and re-enabled it just for testing. Same results I had the CA Auto Turbo Write Mode plugin installed, I've since removed it and played with the settings manually. Trying all 3 (Auto, Read/Modify/Write, and Reconstruct Write) none of which made a difference, nor would I expect it to on cache drive only writes. I've run read/write tests on the cache drive itself, it's acting perfectly normal: Read Speed hdparm -tT /dev/sdn /dev/sdn: Timing cached reads: 29548 MB in 1.99 seconds = 14876.03 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 1174 MB in 3.00 seconds = 390.73 MB/sec Write speed /mnt/cache# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1G count=1 oflag=direct 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 2.78236 s, 386 MB/s Ran network tests to make sure it wasn't the network, though given it's happening on multiple machines i knew it wasn't, but i also knew i'd be asked! From Client to Unraid [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 113 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec [ 4] 1.00-2.00 sec 112 MBytes 943 Mbits/sec [ 4] 2.00-3.00 sec 112 MBytes 942 Mbits/sec [ 4] 3.00-4.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec [ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec [ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 112 MBytes 938 Mbits/sec [ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 109 MBytes 911 Mbits/sec [ 4] 7.00-8.00 sec 112 MBytes 936 Mbits/sec [ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 112 MBytes 942 Mbits/sec [ 4] 9.00-10.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.09 GBytes 939 Mbits/sec sender [ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.09 GBytes 939 Mbits/sec receiver From Unraid to Client [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd [ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 114 MBytes 957 Mbits/sec 0 308 KBytes [ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 112 MBytes 942 Mbits/sec 0 302 KBytes [ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 112 MBytes 936 Mbits/sec 0 302 KBytes [ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 112 MBytes 938 Mbits/sec 0 297 KBytes [ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 112 MBytes 938 Mbits/sec 0 314 KBytes [ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 111 MBytes 934 Mbits/sec 0 311 KBytes [ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 106 MBytes 887 Mbits/sec 0 299 KBytes [ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 111 MBytes 934 Mbits/sec 0 319 KBytes [ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 111 MBytes 928 Mbits/sec 0 297 KBytes [ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 112 MBytes 938 Mbits/sec 0 299 KBytes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.09 GBytes 933 Mbits/sec 0 sender [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.08 GBytes 931 Mbits/sec receiver I saw another post about something similar if not exactly like this issue back in Dec 2022, but it didn't appear to have a resolution. So instead of necro'ing a post, I figured I'd make my own. The previous one I found was: Grabbed a diag file moments after a test send finished, hopefully you guys see something I don't. Thank you guys as always! storage51-diagnostics-20230906-1902.zip

Thanks for the insight guys. I will probably pick up one or two of these to start. I can fit 3, but i won't have that many drives to start, something i can grow into. Just need to figure out where i'm going to put the server itself so i can decide if i want to swap the fans for something quieter or not

Have you had any issues with speed using these? I noticed some poor reviews on newegg (about 10 between 1 and 2 egg reviews), mostly relating to speed. Reading through them it seems the issue is probably the drives not making complete contact with the sata ports on the backplane, as 1 user figured out. Void4ever

I think I'm going to pull the trigger on this case today or tomorrow since the rebate ends on the 31st. Now that you've had it for a while longer @Jcloud are you still happy with your purchase? Any other unforeseen issues? Also how are you liking those icy docks? Thats my next issue is trying to figure out which 3x5 dock i like. Thanks for the pix too btw! Void4ever

A buddy of mine saw this case and I thought i'd ask your guy's opinions. Azza CSAZ-GT 1 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517030 http://www.azzatek.com/m/2001-1307-415288-1.php?Lang=en For 67 bucks (47 with a rebate until Jan31st) I think this might be the case i was looking for. It's a little ugly imo, but aside from that it meets my requirements. Excellent cable management because of the room, 9 bays for a total of 15 drives, and under a 100 bucks. Thoughts? Void4ever

Ahhh my apologizes I didn't realize what you were getting at! Void4ever

The heat issue is entirely dependent on use case. Even with 15 drives in a machine the majority of them will be spun down, at least for me as this will be mostly a storage server with some light calls to media from 1 maybe 2 other machines. I dunno if your hosting 15 different plex streams with each individual movie stored on a per drive basis to where all 15 drives are spun up, but i don't think thats normal use case! Granted when doing a rebuild everything will be active, but thats not going to happen often, and if my airflow were truly THAT bad i could pop the case open during a rebuild and take steps to lower the temps. I dunno if you guys ever look at BackBlaze Blogs about hard drive failure rates and what not (super interesting reads). They also pulled some data on hard drive temp / failure rates about 3 years ago. Interesting read! https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-temperature-does-it-matter/ Of course as with all electronics the cooler the better!! Void4ever

Has anyone looked at the Cougar Evolution? https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811553002 It has 6x 5.25 bays. Below that is 4 side loaded 3.5 bays, but the pictures make it appear like you can remove that cage. I wonder if this case could be modded to accept 1 more 5x3 cage once those 3.5 side load bay is removed. For 50 bucks i'm almost willing to try. Anyone else try this case out?

The other issue with rack mount cases is most (not all) are much deeper than a mid or even full tower case just because of how they are laid out. The noise issue as Green pointed out is also a problem. Of course you could always swap out fans i suppose, but your increasing cost there as well. The other thing is I might just start with one or two 5x3's, instead of doing all of them at once. Granted there's cost down the road, but there is something to be said for up front sticker shock vs piece mealed over time ya know ATM though I'm certainly keeping my options open, and will certainly take your advice Jonathanm and look at some of those decommissioned racks to see if any of them fit my needs/cost. I really appreciate you guys continuing this topic with me! Void4ever

Thank you Green for the info. That case does look like it would work perfectly for me. Unfortunately i am in the U.S. but it appears out of stock even in the UK as well. Checked ebay and didn't find anything either. I'll just keep an eye on it for now. Anyone with any other suggestions?! Void4ever

Been going over this thread quite a bit trying to find a case that will suit my needs. Looking for something that will support two to three, 3x5 drive cages for a total of 10 to 15 drives (plus whatever SSD's i double stick tape somewhere! ATX motherboard support, and I'd prefer something i didn't have to heavily modify to get the drive cages to fit. I'm good with a mid/full tower, or even a Rack mount, but i am looking to keep it under 150 (cheaper if possible), which counts out most rack mount stuff. My main thing is i don't want to open up the box everytime i need to add storage, or swap a failed drive, hence the drive cages. The last time there was any activity here was back in Aug so i was just wondering if anyone had some newer suggestions. I see the Antec stuff is fairly popular. I don't like how some of them look, but then this is going to sit in a corner under a shelf so who cares i guess! Void4ever

I hear exactly what your saying Raj and i actually spent some time thinking about that before i made the choice on that board. For the moment at least i don't see myself going over 6-7 data drives (haven't decided on a cache drive yet, but i have plenty of spares laying around). In fact I'm not sure I'll be going over 2 or 3 to start with. I def won't be building a 22 drive server ANYTIME soon, and if i do get that high i'll probably have rebuild the box by then, and I'll bet unraid supports more then 22 by then too This board will also serve as a possible replacement for something else in my house should something go horribly horribly wrong, so i like to have a little bit higher end in that respect. I do appreciate the advice and insight though from a seasoned veteran like yourself. Not a day goes by where i do research on this forum and i see you posting in a topic!

Good morning all, So after a month of research into various NAS solutions I've settled on Unraid. Perhaps settled isn't the right word because I'm quite excited about my choice! I've started researching hardware (there's that word again) and of course the starting point of any of my builds is the motherboard. After poking around i found the GA-880GA-UD3H seemed to suit my needs, I'll include the Newegg link at the end for easy reference. I've found 3 threads that are a few months old concerning this board. From what I read it is compatible and HPA is an option and disabled by default (yay). I'm looking to see if anyone else has had any more exp with these boards. The first thread was from someone who admittedly knew nothing about hardware and the thread just kinda stopped, no reports. The second thread the guy had unreal parity sync times which appeared to be bios related but a true cause was never really mentioned. The third appeared to have no issues at all and loved the board, which should be enough for me. I do like to be sure though, so anymore exp with this board, or at least perhaps the chipset? I appreciate any input you guys might have and i look forward to being part of this community. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128444 Void4ever