garycase

Changing the file system will indeed result in the disk being formatted & all data being lost from that disk. Not sure exactly which list of steps you're referring to ... this is a very long thread with several lists ... but the concept is simple. Just PAY ATTENTION to where your data is at all times, and after you've safely moved it off of an RFS disk, you can then change that RFS disk's format to XFS and let UnRAID format it -- then use it for the next target disk. That process is really independent of "moving the assignments" around to satisfy your organizational OCD. You can do the reassignments after each format change -- or you could just do them all at the end after you've completed the format changes. There's another LONGER (and arguably safer) way to do this -- it's actually what I did when I finally decided to convert my media server to XFS (really just an OCD thing to have all my servers using the same file system -- since it was just 16 disks of mostly static content there wasn't any real reason to switch the file format) ==> and this approach didn't result in any disk assignments changes or physical relocation of the disks .... One-at-a-time, just do the following: (a) Copy all of the content of a disk to another location not on the server [Being OCD, ALL of my copies were verified, so I just did a TeraCopy of the entire disk to a folder on my main PC called "UnRAID DiskX" ... I changed the X to match the current disk I was converting]. Clearly this requires that you have a large enough disk to hold all of the data [I used a spare 8TB disk that I put in my PC for this purpose] (b) Change the format of the disk in UnRAID to XFS and format it. (c) Copy all the data back [I again used TeraCopy with verification. That process is simple; safe (although for the time that data only exists on the PC it's "at risk" since it's not fault tolerant -- although you should still have your backups just in case); and no drive is ever moved or reassigned. It DOES take a long time -- two complete copies of every disk's data with verification isn't all that fast [The copy TO the PC is pretty fast ... over 100MB/s in my case; but the copy back to the server is slower, since you're copying to a parity protected array].

Understand -- and with single parity you can freely move the drives to any assigned slot you want. I certainly understand a bit of OCD ... my wife would tell you I have a LOT of that . [Just not in my server drive assignments and data distribution]

While I understand the psychology of putting "important files" on a newer drive; note that there's no difference in how well protected those files are. Not sure what difference it makes, but you can certainly do this if you want. Note that if you change slot assignments, it will invalidate parity if you're using dual parity. [The assignments can be freely changed with single parity]

Yes, of course. You can replace the parity drive with any size drive you want (12TB anyone??). Then you can add a drive of the same size (and format it XFS). Then you could simply move all of the files off of an RFS disk, and reformat it to XFS ... and repeat the process for all of the RFS drives.

Well ... I've always been a big fan of the WD Reds because of their rock solid performance and very cool temperatures relative to other drives. Still am ... HOWEVER, I was tempted by a sale at Newegg last month to pick up 8 of the 8TB HGST NAS units ($205 ea) and pop them in my one remaining box full of small (1-2TB) drives ... and I have to admit that the performance of these 7200rpm guys is REALLY nice. Doesn't make any real difference in my actual usage -- but it's neat to see the much higher write speeds (65-70MB/s to a dual parity array). Only down side is they DO run significantly hotter than Reds ... they ran mid-40's on the first parity check (well within spec but hotter than I like). I added a small tower fan directly in front of the server and this added airflow keeps the temps in the mid-30's, so I'm going to get some very high CFM units and redo the airflow in the case. Given the temperatures these drives hit, I suspect I'll go back to Reds for my next build ... but the speed IS nice . (and $205 for a good 8TB drive was a very nice price)

landS => Let us know the results with the 2000 rpm fans ... both the temps and the noise level.

Noticed a STRANGE display anomaly this afternoon ... The following snippets are from my 3 servers ... (all have been updated to 6.4 in the past couple weeks) This one has some disks spun up, some spun down, and shows the correct indicators ... This one has all disks spun up, and also shows the correct indicators .... This one has all disks spun up (note the temps are displayed) ... but is missing the "green ball" to show the spun up status. ... but the same server DOES show the white ball to indicate spun down status (note I spun up disk 2 after spinning them all down to see if that would change the spun up indicator back to normal -- it did not). I've never seen this before -- and the server that had this issue has been working just fine. FWIW I powered down the server and then rebooted it, and the display is now working normally. Just curious if anyone has any idea about what might have happened.

Did you notice the date on the post you responded to ?? [More than 7 years old ]

As I noted above, the Vortex is a VERY good choice, and provides much better cooling than the 5-in-3 units that have smaller fans "pulling" air from the rear. My Vortex units keeps drives about 6-8 degrees cooler than my Icy Dock 5-in-3 cages.

Johnnie will answer when he sees this, but I'm fairly certain it does not apply to an LSI card. I don't recall the specific controller, but this issue impacted systems using certain controller chips (I have one system that was impacted). It's VERY easy to confirm whether or not you need the change: With nr_requests at the default 128, Start a parity check, wait a couple minutes and see what speed it's running at; then stop it. Now change the nr_requests parameter to 8 and repeat that process. If the speed jumps a LOT then your controller needs it; if not, just change it back to 128 and leave it alone. For controllers where it helps, the difference is VERY (and immediately) noticeable.

An interesting anomaly with v6.4 and the SuperMicro X7SPA-H Atom D525 motherboard. See the posts towards the end of the thread I referenced below by landS and the dialogue we had about his issue. Quick summary: He noticed VERY high disk temps on his first parity check on v6.4. My initial suggestion was the fans blowing air over the disks had failed, but when he checked he found they were still spinning, but at a very low rpm. I suggested he connect the fans via molex -> fan adapters (i.e. not using the PWM control on the motherboard), and that resolved the issue. But all worked fine until 6.4. So apparently something has caused a "glitch" in the PWM control. While landS's issue has been resolved (by not using PWM for the fans), I have to wonder if that's the only motherboard that this issue is impacting. FWIW, I also have a system using that board, but my fans aren't PWM fans so I don't have the issue.

On any Windows OS you can do a "Properties" on "Computer", "My Computer", "This PC" (depending on version) and it will show what the CPU is. With VMWare this will always be the actual CPU, even though the emulated chipset is an old chipset that doesn't actually correlate with any modern processor. But if the CPU is a 7th gen or later Intel, then Windows 7 and Windows 8 will NOT do the latest updates. [As I noted, this is easily bypassed by first running the WUFUC utility.] I suspect that KVM reports the real processor as well -- but I don't have any KVM VM's, so don't know for sure. Anyone with the virtual Windows 7 or 8 machine could answer this by simply doing a Properties and confirming that the CPU that's shown is the actual CPU in the system (or not).

The fans in my Q25B aren't PWM fans, so that explains why I haven't had this issue with 6.4 It does seem that anyone with that SuperMicro board and 6.4 would likely see the same thing you did, however. Begs the question r.e. whether or not other motherboards might have the same issue.

Yep, that's the bottom line. And the "performance hit" is really irrelevant => even on the innermost (slowest) cylinders modern drives can provide data far faster than you need for a streaming video (even 4K HD). In fact, the higher density platters on high capacity drives can easily saturate a Gb Ethernet connection no matter where the data is on the drive.

Sounds like your problem is resolved -- with even better cooling in the near future with the 2000 rpm fans. It DOES, however, beg the question as to WHY v6.4 is causing the lower speeds for the PWM fans. I'll have to pop open my Q25B and see if the fans in it are PWM or not (don't recall offhand). I suspect they're not, or I'd have probably seen the same issue when I moved it to 6.4, since it's the same motherboard. [Or I may have connected them via Molex power]

You did note I said ... I also noted I was torn because of the lack of ECC -- and haven't actually decided yet. I've been looking for the 8th gen E3 Xeons, which should have similar performance AND ECC. The i9's are also tempting, but I have a hard time convincing myself to spend over $1K on just the CPU (which, in the great scheme of things, is irrelevant, but I just have this mental reservation about that number.) The 23482 PassMark for your i9 is indeed a very nice number . [Not sure why, as I once spent about $1200 for a 4K (yes, "K") memory board (circa 1976) that, in today's dollars is about $5000 !!] As for the VM's -- VMWare emulates an older chipset as well; but the actual CPU model is passed through to the VM, and it will cause the "no updates" issue on Win7 or Win8 VMs on 7th gen or later systems (I've had this issue on a 7th gen -- don't have any 8th gen units to try). The WUFUC utility resolves this -- I was just curious if this would also be needed on the KVM Vm's. Sounds like it would. Not a big deal, I was just curious if there was a KVM option to NOT pass through the actual CPU type.

.... one other thought related to this question: I know that 7th and 8th gen Intel CPU's are excluded from getting updates if running Windows versions earlier than Win 10. This is also an issue with virtual machines running on systems using those processors -- at least in the VMWare world. Do UnRAID VM's have the same issue when running on 7th or 8th gen hardware? There's a workaround using a utility [WUFUC] that masks the CPU flag, but I'm curious whether or not this capability might be a built-in option for UnRAID virtual machines.

I'm thinking of building a new server using an 8th gen Coffee Lake CPU [6-core Core i7-8700k]. Just curious if anyone's already using this CPU or another 8th gen processor and if there are any known issues with these with UnRAID. I'm debating between this and a previous gen Xeon E3 ... I'd much rather have the ECC support of a Xeon, but the 16229 PassMark of the 8700k is very tempting. But before deciding, I thought I'd see if anyone has confirmed that the 8th gen CPUs don't have any known issues. I don't want to suffer "early adopter" issues like those who built Ryzen systems had to go through

And you consider this an issue because ?? I can understand the psychology of wanting to "balance" your content, but really don't see any actual reason to do so. Especially for effectively "static" content. My main media server has dual parity plus 12 data disks (all 4TB Reds); with the first 8 being my main "DVDs" share, and the last 4 containing a few other shares that are modified more frequently. The DVDs share uses "fill up" -- and the first 7 all report 100% utilization (actual free space varies from 88MB to 348MB). The other shares are set to high water (the last disk was only recently added).

Have you tried just connecting the voltage connections to the fans without the PWM connection? (You also don't need the tachometer connection, although without it you won't be able to see the RPM values). The easiest way to do this without cutting any wires or pulling plugs out of a connector is to just use a Molex -> fan adapter ... you may have a few in your "junk box" if you've kept them (they often come with fans) -- or you can buy one very inexpensively [ https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812423171&cm_re=molex_to_3_pin_fan_adapter-_-12-423-171-_-Product ] It definitely sounds like something in 6.4 is causing the PWM control to dramatically lower your fan speeds -- although if you were already seeing mid-40s temps before that, I'd still move up to a 2000 rpm fan with the higher airflow.

I suspect the air moved by these compared to what you have now will be like the difference between night-and-day ... or at least between hot and cool fan temps !! It's very interesting that you didn't have this issue until v6 => I have to wonder if something is actually forcing this lower speed through PWM control. I'd try not connecting the PWM wire -- it should then run at full speed (1500rpm), which may be all you need to do. Clearly a higher airflow unit would be even better ... but if it's been working okay until now then just getting the fan back to full speed may be all you need. Note that even at full speed this is only a 54.9 CFM fan. The 3000 rpm until would move twice as much air ... but is likely a pretty loud fan. Their 2000 rpm unit bumps airflow to 72CFM and is a lot quieter than the 3000 rpm fan. I'd certainly this this would be plenty of air movement. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608051

The A79 is a typical "fans in front" case, where the fans are "inside" the case and need to be removed if, for example, you want to use 5-in-3 hotswap cages. With the A80 you can use these cages and still have the larger, higher airflow, 140mm fans blowing air directly into the cages, which greatly enhances the cooling capabilities. When I had an A80 here (while I was building a system for a friend a couple years ago), the difference in temps between just using the 5-in-3 cage fans and closing the door was about 6-8 degrees on a parity check. I've NEVER seen any cooling combination that did as well as that case. It's a real shame it's no longer available. I've actually thought about building a small "tower" with 3 140mm fans that I could set in front of any system I want to provide roughly the same degree of extra airflow [wouldn't be as good, however, since there would be a path around the edges for air to "escape".].

The most critical fans are the 2 120mm fans that blow directly across the disks. With the temps you're seeing, I have to wonder if those fans are moving enough air. You might want to consider using higher airflow fans than what you have now. Just remember that the more air it pushes, the louder a fan is likely to be. But airflow absolutely makes a difference. I just moved my 8TB HGSTs from 5-in-3 cages to 4-in-3 Icy Dock Vortexes, and now even during a parity check they never hit 40 ... they idle around 30; hit 32-33 under heavy lead; and hit 36-38 on parity checks. Not at all bad for 8TB 7200rpm drives

A few thoughts on your original question ... First, UnRAID works just fine on a D525. It's rock solid and draws very little power. For some unexplained reason v5 runs significantly better than v6 -- at least on my SuperMicro D525 board. I've outlined the performance issues in the following thread, but to summarize parity checks take nearly twice as long with v6; and transfer speeds are about 1/3rd slower with v6. There's NO reason I can think of for these differences. In fact, after I tried v6 about a year ago, I decided to just leave that particular server on v5 for the higher speeds. But a couple weeks ago I decided to try it again and see if the latest version of v6 had improved any with regards to this -- it had not ... BUT the GUI improvements in v6.4 made me decide to simply leave that server at v6. The GUI responsiveness has been DRAMATICALLY improved with 6.4 (not just on an Atom, but on all of my servers). Bottom line: As a basic NAS, I think you'd be fine with your D525 board. I'd think even the lower transfer rate is still plenty fast enough to stream your 4k videos, but as already noted, the best way to confirm that is to simply get a Trial license and give it a try. I would not, of course, suggest buying a D525 for a new build, but since you already have the board, I'd certainly give it a try.

landS => Just curious if you resolved your high temps issue.