kman321

[sOLVED] - should have read the troubleshooting section of v6 wiki, had to remove the 'startState' from the /config/disk.cfg file.

I have 2 unraid servers, 1 running directly on hardware & the 2nd one running on ESXi v6. I upgraded the first server to unRAID v6.1.3 from v5.0.5 no problem but trying to do the same thing on my 2nd server & I can't start the array. In the webgui it says 'configuration valid' but when I press the start button it looks like it's doing something for a few seconds but then takes me back to the same screen without starting the array (& no errors). Any idea what's going on?

yeah, i "requested a quote" on the Hynix stuff and they came back with the following response: "I just checked in with my purchasing manager and unfortunately there is no ETA. You may be interested in W1333EB8GS, which is the same specs, but just made with a Samsung chip"

Would this memory work with the X9SCM? (since the other memory is hard to come by) http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=W1333EB8GS

A little off topic but i had a question regarding UPS's. I've been running an unRaid box for about 3 years without a UPS. it's crashed due to power outtages probably at least 2 dozen times and other than having to run a parity check it doesn't seem like there has been any serious issues. Given the upfront cost and and the cost to replace batteries (about every 4 years or so) do you think a UPS is a necessity? If so, why?

Is that a better option than just doing passthrough on the NIC?

I'm not running VMTools because i wasn't sure if i wanted to rely on them since they aren't officially supported in unRaid. What's are the benefits of installing them? Should I install them?

So everything seems to be running pretty good except: after streaming a blu-ray across the network from the virtualized unraid box i started getting the following errors in syslog and my network performance would tank: Feb 19 02:15:30 Tower02 kernel: swapper: page allocation failure: order:3, mode:0x4020 Feb 19 02:15:30 Tower02 kernel: Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 3.0.3-unRAID #7 (Errors) Feb 19 02:15:30 Tower02 kernel: Call Trace: (Errors) Feb 19 02:15:30 Tower02 kernel: [<c105f857>] warn_alloc_failed+0xb2/0xc4 (Errors) Feb 19 02:15:30 Tower02 kernel: [<c105ffc2>] __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x456/0x47f (Errors) I've set unRaid to use the 2nd NIC in my SuperMicro X9SCM (Intel 82579LM using E1000 driver in VM). After setting /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes = 8192 I was able to get the network performance back but I'm still seeing the above errors. Any ideas? Should I passthrough the NIC instead of trying to have the guest manage it?

should i do anything about it or just choose based on serial number?

Can someone explain why the disks in unRaid (v5.12a beta) are showing up in a different order than they appear in the M1015 bios? For example I have (2) 3TB disks in my current setup and while booting i can see that slot0 has the first disk (disk0) and slot3 has the second disk (disk1) (i'm skipping slot1 & slot2 in case i add a cache drive and in case unRaid ever supports a 2nd parity drive). But in unRaid these are showing up in reverse order with disk0 = /dev/sdb and disk1 = /dev/sda. It seems like this could get confusing pretty quickly if they don't match what the hardware is showing. I hope this makes sense.

Does anyone know how hard it would be to move drives to different controllers in unRaid after having a number of drives populated with data? For example, I want to start with (3) M1015 controllers to get the best performance for now but in the future i might want to move this over to (1) M1015 and (1) Chenbro CK13601 so i can virtualize another unRaid server if needed.

So this is obviously a limitation (or shortcoming) of VMWare and has nothing to do with how unRaid handles multiple processors, correct?

JohnM (& others), How many CPUs should i assign to unRaid in my VM guest? Thanks for this great guide, I got my 2nd unRaid box up and running with the SCM-F-0, E-1240, 16GB RAM, & a M1015 card.

Thanks so much. can you answer the other part of my question: how hard would it be to re-configure the cards later if i decided to add another unRaid guest. (i.e. remove one of the M1015 and add (2) expanders using dual-link)? Doing this would require moving drives to a different controller so I'm not sure if this is possible in unRaid without wiping the data in the array. Also, do you still think the X9SCM-F-O & Xeon 1240 is the way to go for price/performance/compatibility? Or are there new/better kids on the block? thanks again.

So I'm thinking I might order (3) M1015 cards currently instead of using an expander. I'm not positive I will be adding another unRaid server in the future so I'd like to get the best performance possible and save a little money. If I wanted to add another unRaid guest in the future I could still go this route by using (2) of the M1015 cards that i buy now and buying (2) of the chenbro CK23061 (or similar), this way i only lose one of the M1015 cards (which i could use as a backup). How hard would it be to change my configuration in my first unRaid to support this new configuration down the road if I have a ton of drives with data in it? Also, will there be any issues with the 4x PCI-E limitation on the 3rd slot on the X9SCM-F-O for the 3rd M1015 card? Thanks for everyone's input so far.

ok, i'm gonna stick with the 4GB sticks then. How about the other parts, are there better replacements (with regards to performance and compatibility)? Or are these about as good as it gets for price/performance/compatibility?

About to order the parts in the next couple days. Would these still be the preferred MB & CPU?: SuperMicro X9SCM-F-O Intel Xeon 1240 Also, are there any supported 8GB RAM sticks available? If not, which 4GB sticks should i get?

On the master box couldn't you just run a cable outside the box to the external connector on the CK23601 to get 28 port capability internally? Also, just to verify...I shouldn't have any problem using the M1015 & CK23601 in the latest v5 beta build of unRaid?

Perfect, thanks guys. Couple more questions/comments: 1) Strange that this is the bulk version since it seems to cost more everywhere i look. Looking at a comparison on the Provantage site it showed the "B" version had SATA300 & SATA600 ports while the "O" version had SATA150 & SATA300 ports, but of course this could be a typo. 2) This makes sense and is what i thought. 3) So, if i was looking at virtualizing 2 unRAID servers: I would install (2) M1015's in the "master" unRAID box (4224) and then one CK23601 in the "master" box and one CK23601 in the "slave" box (another 4224)? And i'd only have to run one cable between them?

JohnM (and others), I'm about to copy your design for a new unRaid setup (i currently have an unRaid setup in a tower running without virtualization). I have a couple questions: 1) It looks like SuperMicro has another similar board: X9SCM-F-B. Are you familiar with this MB at all? Do you see any issues with using this instead of the: X9SCM-F-O? It looks like they might be identical except the "B" version has faster onboard SATA ports? This leads me to my next question: 2) As far as i can tell you're not using any of the onboard SATA ports. If this is the case can you explain why not? 3) I really want to future proof my design as much as possible. This includes adding on other virtualized unRaid servers when needed. What SATA cards / expanders do you recommend to make this happen and how would you configure them (with the assumption that I'd just buy another Norco 4224 box when needed)? Thanks in advance for your help & your wonderful & informative thread on this subject. KMan321