May 3, 201214 yr I currently have a media server consisting of the following components: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Intel E4300 2x 1GB RAM (generic) OCZ Powerstream 520W PSU 1x Maxtor 250GB -- Debian (Lenny) OS Drive 1x Seagate 1.5TB (57% full) -- Media Drive (XFS file system) 1x WD Green 2TB (95% full) -- Media Drive (XFS file system) Now that it is relatively painless to install SABNZBD / sickbeard on an unRAID system, I have decided I want to switch from debian to unRAID. My movie drive is near capacity and I really would like the peace of mind knowing its protected in the event of a hard drive failure. I have read through a bit of the forums and I have checked out the official / unofficial install guides as well as the configuration tool and feel like I have a decent understanding of how unRAID works. I installed unRAID on a test USB stick just to see if my motherboard would like it and to make sure I could easily get SAB / sickbeard working and so far so good. I just have a few questions before I make the switch: 1. I plan to pickup a 3TB Hitachi drive to use for parity but i'm not sure if I can migrate all my data over to the array using just this drive. I have read that unRAID does not support the XFS file system so I would need to move data around in debian first but i'm not sure if I have the right method. I'm thinking of doing the following: Install the new 3TB drive in my Debian system and move the data from the 2TB and 1.5TB drives to it. Preclear the 2TB and 1.5TB drives and install them into the unRAID array (do not assign a parity drive yet) Copy the data from the 3TB drive onto the new array (can I mount the 3TB drive on the unRAID system and copy the data over to the array so long as I use a file system that unRAID recognizes on the 3TB drive?) Preclear the 3TB drive and add it to the unRAID array as the parity drive Add more hard drives as necessary Does this make sense? Is there a better / more efficient way of doing this? 2. Is my hardware ok for an unRAID system? Thanks!
May 3, 201214 yr Quick thoughts. If you can afford two 3TB drives, I would set up the array with parity and thoroughly test it out before committing data to it. I am uncomfortable with the thought of you moving data around that is not backed up to a system that is as yet untested with your new hardware and software config. If it were my data, I'd disconnect all your current drives, preclear the new 3TB drives for a couple cycles, set up the array with parity on 2 new drives, pound on it for a little bit. After you have it set up the way you want, THEN copy the existing data to it, using one of your desktop machines to hang the old drives on and checksumming the copy results to verify good copies. If you can't tell, I'm paranoid about my data integrity, and cringe when I see posts where people want to move data around without some sort of backup in place. My method outlined above would take much longer, and be more expensive, but I weigh that against the angst of lost data. Your call. As far as the rest of the system specs, I'd up the RAM if you want to get froggy with more third party add on programs. Also, make SURE your Gigabyte motherboard didn't HPA your disks, and won't HPA your new disks.
May 3, 201214 yr Author Thanks for the response. Given the current price of hard drives, I was really hoping to purchase one 3TB drive now, and another once the prices come back down to reasonable levels. I definitely see your point and it makes sense to take every precaution against data loss. Arg, this is something i'm really going to have to think about (buying 2 3TB drives). As for HPA. Here is the relevant output from dmesg: [ 6.832671] ata3.00: HPA detected: current 490232639, native 490234752 [ 6.832676] ata3.00: ATA-7: Maxtor 6B250S0, BANC1B70, max UDMA/133 [ 7.367541] ata4.00: HPA detected: current 2930277168, native 18446744072344861488 [ 7.367541] ata4.00: ATA-8: ST31500341AS, CC1H, max UDMA/133 [ 8.525358] ata5.00: HPA detected: current 3907029168, native 18446744073321613488 [ 8.525358] ata5.00: ATA-8: WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0, 50.0AB50, max UDMA/133 and from hdparm: /dev/sda: max sectors = 490232639/490234752, HPA is enabled /dev/sdb: max sectors = 18446744072344861488/2930277168, HPA setting seems invalid /dev/sdc: max sectors = 18446744073321613488/3907029168, HPA setting seems invalid So it does look like the board is creating a HPA on each of the drives. I've read about this briefly and apparently it is not a problem unless the parity drive has a HPA on it. Is this an easy issue to fix? Is it a bios thing? Thanks
May 3, 201214 yr So it does look like the board is creating a HPA on each of the drives. I've read about this briefly and apparently it is not a problem unless the parity drive has a HPA on it. Is this an easy issue to fix? Is it a bios thing? Different bios handle it differently, so you'll need to research it for your board and bios revision specifically. Ideally you need to find a bios revision that defaults to NOT enable HPA, otherwise you stand the risk of forgetting about the issue until it bites you. Turning it off in bios setup is a second best option, you just need a way to remind yourself to check the status if the cmos gets reset for any reason, like a failed battery. HPA needs to be removed after you get your data off of the drives, and before you preclear the old drives. You need to be sure it isn't going to infect the new drives before you install them.
May 3, 201214 yr Author Thanks for the info. I did a little more research and thoroughly checked the BIOS. It looks like Gigabyte has a separate program that you can launch from the bios called Qflash. This allows you to save the bios to disk but unfortunately the option is enabled by default. I tried to set it to disable but I couldn't get it to stick. When I reboot and re-entered Qflash it was stuck on enable. I am running the most recent bios so there's no help on that front. Arg... bad luck
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