Getting started

[Chriz]

About a week ago I came across a forum post mentioning the concept of unraid and I've been looking into it ever since. The more I saw, the more I loved the idea. I've already used the search function in order to do some more research before posting any stupid questions but the problem is that a lot of those posts were quite old and many compatibility issues seem to have changed with the latest betas.

 

Let's start with the system I'm going to build. Yesterday I bought an Asus P5B-E PLUS,  because it shows up on the compatibility list, has 8 sata ports and was quite cheap. You can find the specs here: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=307&model=1399&modelmenu=2

 

now to get to my first question... The esata port uses the JMB363 chipset. Is it true that it supports a sata multiplier that would let me add additional drives? I mean something like this: http://www.cooldrives.com/cosapomubrso.html

 

the other parts will be:

Intel Celeron 430 (cheap and low power consumption)

1GB PC800 RAM

550W PSU

Chieftec Big Tower (can take up to 18 hdds)

some cheap VGA

 

I'm currently using the same case together with 4 500gb drives which I want to move to the unraid server. I'm also gonna get a 1TB Samsung F1 as parity drive. Is it possible to build the array first and add the parity drive later? I'm on a low budget here and I'd have to transfer the old data to the 1TB hdd and then use two of the 500gb drives to build the array. Then I could transfer the data once again and add the 1TB for parity. It would be better to start with 2 new TB drives (1 parity, 1 data) but I can't afford that right now.

 

I think that's it for now. I'm getting the remaining parts over the next few weeks and if everything works out with those 2 or 3 drives, I'm definitely getting a pro license as well.

 

 

[Joe L.]

now to get to my first question... The esata port uses the JMB363 chipset. Is it true that it supports a sata multiplier that would let me add additional drives? I mean something like this: http://www.cooldrives.com/cosapomubrso.html

Port multiplier support in Linux is brand new.  Somebody else will need to help with this question about the JMB8363 chipset being supported. 

I'm currently using the same case together with 4 500gb drives which I want to move to the unraid server. I'm also gonna get a 1TB Samsung F1 as parity drive. Is it possible to build the array first and add the parity drive later? I'm on a low budget here and I'd have to transfer the old data to the 1TB hdd and then use two of the 500gb drives to build the array. Then I could transfer the data once again and add the 1TB for parity. It would be better to start with 2 new TB drives (1 parity, 1 data) but I can't afford that right now.

 

I think that's it for now. I'm getting the remaining parts over the next few weeks and if everything works out with those 2 or 3 drives, I'm definitely getting a pro license as well.

Yes, you can build the array incrementally with the 500 Gig drives all assigned as data drives and then at a later time add the parity drive.  The parity drive will need to be as big, or bigger than any of the data drives, but if you are going to add a 1TB parity drive, you will be fine.  One small issue you might encounter is that a subsequent 1TB drive you purchase for data use might be 1 or more blocks bigger than your parity drive.  If that occurs, you will need to use it for parity and then use the current parity drive for data.

 

Obviously, until you add a parity drive, your data will not be protected from a drive failure. (Of course, if you do not have a RAID array now, it is probably not much worse risk than you currently have of losing a drive)

 

I think you can use the three slots in the free version of unRaid to assign three data drives instead of parity and two data drives.  If you do that, then you must purchase a Plus or Pro registration key before you can assign a parity drive.

 

Keep track of the drive model/serial numbers.  As you add hardware, you will sometimes have to re-assign the drives on the drive assignment page because Linux has given the older drives new device designations if it detects newer hardware earlier in the boot sequence.  You can assign any data drive to any logical slot in the array, but once you define a parity drive you must always assign it to the parity role.  (If you accidentally assign a data drive as parity, the data on it will be overwritten and destroyed... in most cases, that would not be good)

 

Joe L.