I'd like to convert my current RAID-5 array consisting of 6 PATA 300GB drives connected via a Promise SuperTrak SX6000 Pro card to an unRaid server.

 

Any idea if this legacy 6-channel PATA controller will work?  Here's the manufacturer's info:

 

http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?product_id=84

 

Thanks! -- John

In general, RAID cards do not work in unraid.

 

You should also check the wiki.

 

 

Bill

In general, RAID cards do not work in unraid.

 

You should also check the wiki.

 

 

Bill

But... the tech description of the card says it can be used for a JBOD set of disks, so it might work.

 

Easiest way to tell, is to boot up unRaid on the existing box and see if the individual disks are detected at all.

 

NOTICE... DO NOT START THE ARRAY... DO NOT ASSIGN ANY DISKS... JUST LOOK TO SEE IF THE SET OF DISKS SHOW UP IN THE DEVICES DROP DOWN LIST.... DOING ANYTHING ELSE WILL DESTROY YOUR EXISTING ARRAY CONTENTS.

 

Once you see if the disks are present, or not, press the shutdown button.

 

If the individual disks show up, the card will probably work, if not, it probably wont unless Tom adds driver support for it.

 

Joe L.

 

If the card can be seen as JBOD and the driver exists in the kernel already,

then chances are it could work with some customization/compliation of the kernel.

 

Easiest way to tell, is to boot up unRaid on the existing box and see if the individual disks are detected at all.

 

NOTICE... DO NOT START THE ARRAY... DO NOT ASSIGN ANY DISKS... JUST LOOK TO SEE IF THE SET OF DISKS SHOW UP IN THE DEVICES DROP DOWN LIST.... DOING ANYTHING ELSE WILL DESTROY YOUR EXISTING ARRAY CONTENTS.

 

Good advise Joe.  Even if you don't assign any disk to Parity, if you Start the array unRAID will consider the other drives to be "new", and it will proceed to write a new MBR (master boot record) upon start-up (even if you don't click Format).  This behavior is a bug and we'll fix it before 4.3 "final" is released.

If the card can be seen as JBOD and the driver exists in the kernel already,

then chances are it could work with some customization/compliation of the kernel.

 

Actually if the kernel sees all the individual drives, then it will probably just work.

Easiest way to tell, is to boot up unRaid on the existing box and see if the individual disks are detected at all.

 

NOTICE... DO NOT START THE ARRAY... DO NOT ASSIGN ANY DISKS... JUST LOOK TO SEE IF THE SET OF DISKS SHOW UP IN THE DEVICES DROP DOWN LIST.... DOING ANYTHING ELSE WILL DESTROY YOUR EXISTING ARRAY CONTENTS.

 

Good advise Joe.  Even if you don't assign any disk to Parity, if you Start the array unRAID will consider the other drives to be "new", and it will proceed to write a new MBR (master boot record) upon start-up (even if you don't click Format).  This behavior is a bug and we'll fix it before 4.3 "final" is released.

 

Thanks for all the responses.

 

So does this mean that there really isn't a safe way to just boot it up with unRaid to see if the drives are visibile?  Under Windows, the card is configurable right after the BOIS posts and is currently set as a RAID-5 array although JBOD is supported.

 

Actually, in re-reading, it sounds like as long as I don't START the array, I'll be okay.  Is the fact that the card under windows is set for RAID-5 likely to prevent a valid JBOD visibility test?

If it is currently set for RAID-5, you cannot perform any visibility tests until the card is set to JBOD.

 

SirWired

So, did everyone find out if the SX6000 is supported in JBOD mode or not?