I've been using WHS v1 for several years now with mixed success. Without getting into too much detail, I'm strongly considering migrating to unRaid. I would like to repurpose my WHS box, but I'm a little overwhelmed about where to start. I'm hoping someone can give me some pointers on where to start reading. It seems like every piece I decide to research sends me off onto several tangents.

 

Here are the specs of the system I would like to use.

 

Case - Norco 4020

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3HP

Processor - AMD Athlon 64 X2

Hard Drives -  I have various drives including Western Digital Green Drives and some Samsung drives

RAM - ADATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM

PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W (I believe this is a single rail supply)

Expansion Cards - SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA II

 

My first real questions have to do with compatibility of my hardware. From reading the compatibility list, I believe my motherboard should work, but I understand I need to check the HPA issue. I'm also not sure if the dual core processor will pose an issue based on the links in the compatibility chart. Is this still an issue with the latest version of unRaid?

 

Next, it looks like the EARS drives are compatible, but I need to make sure they are aligned properly. This shouldn't be an issue as I migrate my data, but it's just another issue that I need to make sure I understand completely.

 

Finally, the issue of actually copying my data from my existing drives. I understand there are some tools for this, but I'm not familiar with any of them.

 

I'm planning to make the leap some time in May, so I'm trying to do my research in advance. Any advice on what read and in what order would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I'm wasting my time just reading whichever threads I come across and following link after link.

 

 

Thanks in advance, and I'm looking forward to trying this out 

 

Oh, and since this is my first post, I hope I made it to the right sub forum.

Let me start right out saying I"m not sure about the processor. You can test your processor and MB by setting up a flash drive with the basic version of unRAID(available for download free). Just do not assign any drives to the array. I would recommend disconnecting your harddrives to make sure you do not accidentally assign anything and destroy your data.

 

Your PSU is indeed a single rail so it will work fine as well.

 

As for the EARS drives, do not install the jumper and make sure the default in unRAID is set for MBR: 4K Aligned. It is considered best practice to have the default set as this anyway. As you add drives to the array they will be reformatted accordingly.

 

For copying data over there are a few different options. Either using S.N.A.P. to mount them(community add-on), mounting them manually from the console and copying data over, or using a windows pc and teracopy to copy data over. Benefits of using teracopy is the ability to 1. Stress test your network and MB NIC, and teracopy has built in verification to ensure none of your files become corrupt during the transfer.

 

I'm sure some guru's will chime in, but I think that about covers it

My original unRAID ran on Athlon 64 X2 5200+. 

 

 

Case - Norco 4020

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3HP

Processor - AMD Athlon 64 X2

Hard Drives -  I have various drives including Western Digital Green Drives and some Samsung drives

RAM - ADATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM

PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W (I believe this is a single rail supply)

Expansion Cards - SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA II

 

My first real questions have to do with compatibility of my hardware. From reading the compatibility list, I believe my motherboard should work, but I understand I need to check the HPA issue. I'm also not sure if the dual core processor will pose an issue based on the links in the compatibility chart. Is this still an issue with the latest version of unRaid?

 

Next, it looks like the EARS drives are compatible.

 

 

 

I have a system that is working fine and is similar in many respects to yours.

 

CPU: I'm using the GA-M785G-UD3H motherboard. From the manual it appears to be part of the same family as yours but with a few key differences, that may matter.

 

First, yours doesn't have an integrated graphics card, so your x16 slot will need to be populated with a video card. As such you will only be able to support 16 drives from the motherboard and the PCI-e slots (6 from the motherboard, 8 from the Supermicro card in the x4 slot and one 2 port card in the x1 slot that will still be active after you populate the x4 slot. You have the ability to add more drives through PCI cards but I'll leave to others to highlight the limitations of PCI cards particularly if they control more than one drive each.

 

Second, my MB has HPA disabled by default. That is the way you would like it to be. Yours (Labeled Dual BIOS Recovery Source) can be set to recover either from the backup BIOS or from the HPA on a hard drive. Unfortunately recovering from HPA is the default. You should, of course, change that, but, as been highlighted elsewhere (don't have the link handy) you will still have the risk of what could happen if/when your cmos battery goes dead and your BIOS settings revert to the default settings (at least that the way I understand it.)

 

Most of our other components are very similar and have created no problems for me. I have an AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8 GHz processor which has caused me no problems. I have a Corsair 750-HX which is also single rail and has been working fine. Our memory sticks are exactly the same, again without problem.  My case is a Norco 4224, again similar to yours in some respects. Unlike you, I have 2 Supermicro cards since my board has a built-in video card but one card should work fine for you. I also have a single SIL3132 PCI-e x1 card to support two more drives, though I am a long way from needing it. Lastly most of my drives are 20EARS drives that were moved from a prior WHS build. Besides aligning them on 4k boundaries they had no jumpers on them either before or after.

 

Hope this helps.

Is there anything in particular I need to look for when testing my hardware? It sounds like I can just disconnect all of the hard drives and plug in a flash drive with unRaid and power it up and try to navigate to the management screen from a web browser. Is that sufficient to test everything for compatibility?

 

I'll have to look into teracopy. I would like to verify data integrity after copying if possible. That's a lot of data to have to check otherwise.

 

I'll have to double check my motherboard again, but I feel like it has a built in video output (both VGA and HDMI IIRC). It sounds like I really need to dig into that HPA issue. Unfortunately, I can't get into the BIOS until I get all of my stuff out storage in May. (My server is running headless, and my monitor is packed up  )

 

I realized today that my server hardware is 4 years old now, but I'd really rather not upgrade it if I don't have to as it's been working fine. I suppose I should be a little more concerned about the hard drives as I've had no failures so far, and it spent the first 3 years of its life running 24/7.

Basically for hardware compatibility you want to make sure everything boots up fine. For add-on cards if you have an extra harddrive you can assign and write to it would help, but given many users have success with that card, I find it highly unlikely that it wouldn't work.

 

Not sure what I'm seeing vs what hwilker see's but from a quick google the motherboard you listed indeed has integrated graphics, AMD HD 3200.

 

The hardware being old is not an issue, one of the good things about unRAID is it can run on old hardware. Yours, while being 4 years old, still exceeds the minimum requirements unRAID has.

 

The HPA issue is the big one that you need to check, everything else looks (and sounds from hwilker's post) like it will work perfectly fine.

 

As far as the old harddrives, run atleast one full preclear on them to check them for errors/problems. You'll get mixed suggestions on this as many users believe it is a must to run atleast 3 preclears, but for drives that have been in operation for 4 years I believe they have proved their reliability, so running one preclear will weed out any that are "close" to failing.

 

If buying new harddrives I would recommend preclearing 3 times to weed out early failures.

 

Not sure what I'm seeing vs what hwilker see's but from a quick google the motherboard you listed indeed has integrated graphics, AMD HD 3200.

 

 

 

I was looking at a downloaded manual, comparing it to mine, which is almost identical. The specifications in the manual made no mention at all regarding onboard graphics, unlike my manual, so I assumed that this model came without integrated graphics. After your comment I went back and looked. I was right regarding the specs and block diagram but a closer look indicates that the manual is inconsistent. First the back panel includes a VGA, DVI and HDMI port, clearly suggesting that there is an onboard graphics card. Also, looking at the section of the manual that describes BIOS settings there is a setting that "Allows you to determine whether to allocate the system memory for the onboard graphics controller"  so, it appears to be just an oversight in the manual. I stand corrected.

 

That means you should be able to use 2 Supermicro cards (I am) if your build requires it.

 

The info regarding HPA also came directly from the manual. So, unless that is also wrong info, that problem does remain.

I appreciate the feedback here guys, and thanks for taking the time to look up my equipment!

 

I dug up the manual and it looks like the BIOS defaults to HPA, which is not good. I'm not sure if any of the BIOS updates correct that or not.

 

I'd hate to have to replace my motherboard as that would really eat into the cost advantage that I was using to "justify" the upgrade here. But assuming that's the next step, do you guys have any recommendations on a motherboard that would play nicely with the rest of my equipment (i.e. my processor, memory, expansion cards, etc.)? I know I could use the compatibility list, but I'd like to keep the costs down, and sometimes parts work well separately but not together.

 

Thanks again!

I stand corrected.

 

That means you should be able to use 2 Supermicro cards (I am) if your build requires it.

 

The info regarding HPA also came directly from the manual. So, unless that is also wrong info, that problem does remain.

 

Wasn't trying to bash you if thats how it came across,  .

 

 

I stand corrected.

 

That means you should be able to use 2 Supermicro cards (I am) if your build requires it.

 

The info regarding HPA also came directly from the manual. So, unless that is also wrong info, that problem does remain.

 

Wasn't trying to bash you if thats how it came across,  .

 

Not at all. I'm sorry if that's how my response sounded :-) It certainly wasn't meant that way. I was just correcting the mistake I made. Anyway no harm done.

One thing to look into.

 

On the whs side, the directory structure can be a bit strange if you read the disk in another system. this is due to how drive extender worked. You will also have 2 copies of every file if duplication was enabled.

 

Make sure you have that part figured out and are comfortable.

 

Migration paths where you refresh the same server can always be tricky.

 

Ps. I would not bother with snap. I would just put the drives in a windows box.

 

 

 

 

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I think copying across the network is probably the best bet for me. I know it will be slower, but it will make me be a little more involved in the process. Fortunately, I'm at least a little familiar with the WHS directory structure. I've poked around in there in the past (probably more than I should have  )

 

I am having a hard time finding a replacement MB, though. And I'm not sure I want to spring for the cost of the MB and processor on the recommend configuration page. By the time I bought the MB, processor, and unRaid license, I'd be getting close to $500. Which is lot considering I was hoping to get into this for the cost of the license.

 

Thanks again for all the help. It's also refreshing to find a message board where everyone is courteous! I think I like it here 

 

EDIT: I think I'll start a new thread in the motherboard section to see if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks again for the help here!