ATLAS My Virtualized unRAID server

[heredago]

What slot is that card in?  I've had no end of troubles running HBA's in slot #3 on an X9SCM.  From that screenshot, it appears you have nothing in any of the other slots?  I'd be trying it in both slot #1 and slot #4 and seeing if the result persists.

• According to the manual and what's written on the MB, the card is in the "Slot7 PCI-E 2.0 x8". It's the closest one to the CPU so I guess it's more commonly called Slot #4?
  
• I had read that people had trouble with any Bios but 1.0c so that's what I'm running.
  

I will use your suggestion and try the other slots tonight.

[dikkiedirk]

@Johnm, in the OP you mention a Usenet downloading workstation. How have you implemented this?

[ldasilva]

@Johnm, in the OP you mention a Usenet downloading workstation. How have you implemented this?

most likely a windows vm running a usenet client just downloading maybe downloaded local then auto move when complete to unraid

other tasks could be used on this vm to save on ram/disk since its only downloading

[BRiT]

Or it could just as likely be any OS running SABnzbd.

[dikkiedirk]

Would be nice to hear from "The Man" himself. We're just guessing now.

[Johnm]

@Johnm, in the OP you mention a Usenet downloading workstation. How have you implemented this?

 

It is a Win2k8 Guest running Newsbin.

It takes up massive resources.. or it used to, the newer versions of Newsbin are much more resource friendly.

 

I have 100Mb/s download ability. I needed a guest/PC that can keep up with it.

Pounding that much data on it can stress even a physical machine let alone a VM.

It is my most robust guest and a bit of a beast.

 

Newsbin Guest =

4CPUs and 8 GB of ram assigned. (overkill on the CPU and RAM, the older versions of news bin ate a lot more ram)

It has a 40 GB System VMDK on an SSD and a 500GB data target VMDK (Was on a 2tb data store single drive, is now on a NFS on my Raidz [on my NFS Guest])

 

It then uses par buddy (instead of the tools built into newbin) to do sorting and unpacking to various servers (media server, data server, music server, etc. [some things I want unpacked, other things I want fixed and then moved still as rar sets.])

It then runs daily cleanup scripts with things like robocopy to move photo based groups and to clean up what the par buddy scripts miss.

It also runs a daily backup script of the entire thing incase of total failure.

 

It hardly ever runs over 50% over any resource... but it can get pretty pegged

(it used to be slammed 24x7 with the older version of newsbin).. it can end up running several rar/par fixes while doing copy operations,  unraring operations and downloads all at once.

 

It is all pretty much automated and I can ignore it for days/weeks at a time. I have migrated it across several real PC's. it is a bit old school at this time but it has been running for years like this without failing me yet. don't fix what aint broke.

 

You could probably use 1/2 the assigned resources and get really good speed and performance.

you could also use things like SAB or you other favorite os/program combo.

 

Drive stats for system and data drives (ran test 3 times for an average.)

My transfer to the SSD Cache drive is about as fast.

 

[heredago]

What slot is that card in?  I've had no end of troubles running HBA's in slot #3 on an X9SCM.  From that screenshot, it appears you have nothing in any of the other slots?  I'd be trying it in both slot #1 and slot #4 and seeing if the result persists.

• According to the manual and what's written on the MB, the card is in the "Slot7 PCI-E 2.0 x8". It's the closest one to the CPU so I guess it's more commonly called Slot #4?
  
• I had read that people had trouble with any Bios but 1.0c so that's what I'm running.
  

I will use your suggestion and try the other slots tonight.

Just an update of what I did last week:

 

I realized that I had forgotten to disable the "INT 13h" setting in the MV8 bios card settings 

No more lock-ups!

[BetaQuasi]

Just an update of what I did last week:

 

I realized that I had forgotten to disable the "INT 13h" setting in the MV8 bios card settings 

Disks are now recognized, no more lock-ups.

 

Ahh, that old chestnut...

[marcusone]

I got the X9SCM-F with the 1240 v2 chip not knowing - luckily I had an i3 as well, so updated the BIOS to v2.  Working great with the 1240; except.

For some reason I can't get the second nic to work.  I've tried loading "Chilly"s driver - but that doesn't work.  In the pass-through section I notice that the second NIC shows up as an 82579V (instead of what most people post, 82579LM).

 

Anyone else have this and know how to fix?

 

Thanks,

[BetaQuasi]

You'll see mentioned elsewhere (and in this thread I think) that there are major issues with ESXi and the v2 BIOS.  It could well be the cause of your issue. 

 

As I understand it, Chilly's driver is a cut of the e1000e driver, which covers quite a few intel gigabit NICs, so it sounds like it is detecting your NIC incorrectly.  Sorry that I can't help further as I just gave up on that NIC (even using Chilly's driver, it misbehaved on occasion to the point where I didn't want to use it) and just added a physical NIC to the box instead.

 

[marcusone]

You'll see mentioned elsewhere (and in this thread I think) that there are major issues with ESXi and the v2 BIOS.  It could well be the cause of your issue. 

 

As I understand it, Chilly's driver is a cut of the e1000e driver, which covers quite a few intel gigabit NICs, so it sounds like it is detecting your NIC incorrectly.  Sorry that I can't help further as I just gave up on that NIC (even using Chilly's driver, it misbehaved on occasion to the point where I didn't want to use it) and just added a physical NIC to the box instead.

 

This is a huge thred... mind summing up the issues for me?

So far, fingers crossed, aside from the NIC issue, that's all I've see so far.

[Johnm]

Chillys driver has a few issues best i can tell ..

 

I have it loaded but i'm not using the second card at all. so far most of my traffic is internal to the server.

 

Best bet would be to go check chilly's thread on [H]ard under virtual computing.

[marcusone]

I just ordered a dual nic card to use instead. $60 on ebay delivered. So not bad. I've used the same in another esxi system for several months and works well. Ill post a link to the one I have if anyone is interested.

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

[tyrindor]

Johnm, any idea why my X9 doesn't have EFI Compatible ROM setting?

 

I don't have my SAS cards yet, so i'm just running the board to mess around and setting up the BIOs. I did everything else you recommended, but that setting wasn't there. Possible that it doesn't show up unless you have something in a PCI slot? Board came with BIOS at v2.0, and I hear they sometimes have issues. I'll be using unRAID only, not ESXi.

[dikkiedirk]

Johnm, any idea why my X9 doesn't have EFI Compatible ROM setting?

 

I don't have my SAS cards yet, so i'm just running the board to mess around and setting up the BIOs. I did everything else you recommended, but that setting wasn't there. Possible that it doesn't show up unless you have something in a PCI slot? Board came with BIOS at v2.0, and I hear they sometimes have issues. I'll be using unRAID only, not ESXi.

 

Did you look under Advanced-/PCIe/PCI/PNP Confuguration-/PCI ROM Priority? There it is for me. I have 1.0c BIOS.

[tyrindor]

Johnm, any idea why my X9 doesn't have EFI Compatible ROM setting?

 

I don't have my SAS cards yet, so i'm just running the board to mess around and setting up the BIOs. I did everything else you recommended, but that setting wasn't there. Possible that it doesn't show up unless you have something in a PCI slot? Board came with BIOS at v2.0, and I hear they sometimes have issues. I'll be using unRAID only, not ESXi.

 

Did you look under Advanced-/PCIe/PCI/PNP Confuguration-/PCI ROM Priority? There it is for me. I have 1.0c BIOS.

 

It's not in there, the other settings are but PCI Latency Timer is the top option. 2.0 BIOS, is this why people don't use them? I've heard they have issues but i've also heard a few people running 2.0 with no issues.

 

I'm not even sure what it does, or if I need to enable it. What issues would I experience if I don't change that setting?

[marcusone]

I've been running ESXi on X9SCM with v2 bios and a 1240 v2 Xeon without issue for a couple weeks now.  Running a few more tests before I put into production.

[BetaQuasi]

marcus, what HBA cards are you using?  I'd like to give 2.0 a crack, but am scared

[tyrindor]

marcus, what HBA cards are you using?  I'd like to give 2.0 a crack, but am scared

 

What exactly is the problem with 2.0 BIOS, and is it only issues with ESXi or unRAID too? I'm going to be hooking this up to 3x SAS2LP and 53TB of data so this post makes me worried.

 

Couple other questions:

- Should I disable INT 13h if I won't be using ESXi?

- Should I disable VT-d since my i3-2120 does not support it?

[dikkiedirk]

Johnm, any idea why my X9 doesn't have EFI Compatible ROM setting?

 

I don't have my SAS cards yet, so i'm just running the board to mess around and setting up the BIOs. I did everything else you recommended, but that setting wasn't there. Possible that it doesn't show up unless you have something in a PCI slot? Board came with BIOS at v2.0, and I hear they sometimes have issues. I'll be using unRAID only, not ESXi.

 

Did you look under Advanced-/PCIe/PCI/PNP Confuguration-/PCI ROM Priority? There it is for me. I have 1.0c BIOS.

 

It's not in there, the other settings are but PCI Latency Timer is the top option. 2.0 BIOS, is this why people don't use them? I've heard they have issues but i've also heard a few people running 2.0 with no issues.

 

I'm not even sure what it does, or if I need to enable it. What issues would I experience if I don't change that setting?

 

Better contact SuperMicro Customer Support. They have been very helpfull in the past. Or just revert back to an older BIOS. I had no need to update to 2.0 and I probably won't in the future.

[dikkiedirk]

I just ordered a dual nic card to use instead. $60 on ebay delivered. So not bad. I've used the same in another esxi system for several months and works well. Ill post a link to the one I have if anyone is interested.

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

 

What card did you get?

[marcusone]

marcus, what HBA cards are you using?  I'd like to give 2.0 a crack, but am scared

 

I have a M1015 passed through; and the Areca-1201 for a mirror raid for data stores on the ESXi.

[marcusone]

I just ordered a dual nic card to use instead. $60 on ebay delivered. So not bad. I've used the same in another esxi system for several months and works well. Ill post a link to the one I have if anyone is interested.

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

 

What card did you get?

 

 

HP NC360T 412651-001 412648-B21 Dual Gigabit PCIe Server

 

Works great!

 

[Johnm]

The issues i had heard reported with 2.0 was limited to ESXi 5. It was dropping HBA card in passthrough. i have never personally upgraded to 2.0. I dont think it will cause an issue in baremetal unraid.

 

I am pretty sure 2.0 is in EFI mode by default.

You must run 2.0 if you have a V2 E3 Xeon.

 

Sorry i have been a bit out of it the last few weeks. Movement in Detroit and the Spring Awakening in Chicago have drained me...

 

[tyrindor]

The issues i had heard reported with 2.0 was limited to ESXi 5. It was dropping HBA card in passthrough. i have never personally upgraded to 2.0. I dont think it will cause an issue in baremetal unraid.

 

I am pretty sure 2.0 is in EFI mode by default.

You must run 2.0 if you have a V2 E3 Xeon.

 

Sorry i have been a bit out of it the last few weeks. Movement in Detroit and the Spring Awakening in Chicago have drained me...

 

Thanks for the answers, and answering my PM. My 3x SAS2LP still haven't shipped (looks like it's going to take them over 30 days), wish Provantage would hurry up.

 

My new parts (received everything but the SAS cards):

Case: Norco 4224 with 120mm Bracket

Parity Drive: 1x 3TB Western Digital Green (WD30EZRX)

Cache Drive: 1x 1TB Western Digital Black (WD1002FAEX)

Data Drives: Going to be filling with 3+ TB drives over time

SAS Cards: 3x Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8

CPU: Intel i3-2120 (3.3GHz)

Motherboard: Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O

Memory: 8GB Kingston (DDR3 1333)

Power Supply: Corsair AX850

Fans: 3x Noctua NF-P12, 2x Noctua NF-R8

UPS: CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD

 

After the first server is up and running, I will be buying all the parts again and making a second server. Reason I didn't just buy two servers from the beginning is because I wanted to make sure everything plays nicely before building two servers that could have issues. I'm looking to have about 120TB between them using 40x 3TB drives (though I suspect by the time I fill the bays, 4+ TB drives will be more affordable). I currently have 53TB of data, and it's growing at about 1TB/month, this should last be awhile. Looks like you also have 2x 60TB servers, never thought i'd fill the first one.

 

Definitely not buying all the drives in one purchase though, or even 10 purchases, i'll buy drives as I need the space.