limetech Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 This release addresses some bugs found by beta testers and includes numerous improvements. Main highlights are: Significant read performance increase. We've measured over 56MB/sec by having two Command windows open, each copying a file and writing to 'nul' (bit bucket) Better write performance. Modest improvement - still work to do in this area Finally! You can write without messing up a video read stream. (At least in the testing we've been able to do.) We're looking for a beta tester who can get multiple read streams and writes streams going to fully test this. MUCH improved method for device assignment. This will really benefit those building SATA systems. Read this. Here are the release notes: unRAID Server 3.0-beta2 Release Notes Upgrade Instructions -------------------- If you are currently running unRAID Server 3.0-beta1, it is only necessary to copy the two files: bzimage bzroot to the top directory of your Flash, replacing those files already on the Flash. There are two ways to do this: 1. Shut down your server, remove the Flash and plug it into your PC. Copy the two files from the new release, plug the Flash back into your server and reboot it. OR 2. If your server is running, simply copy the two new files to the 'flash' share, go to the Management Utility and reboot. If you are installing this release to a new Flash, please refer to instructions on our website at: http://www.lime-technology.com/wordpress/?page_id=19 Changes from 3.0-beta1 to 3.0-beta2 ----------------------------------- Improvement: increased both Read and Write performance. Give read streams priority over write streams. Improvement: added support for Realtek GigE and Broadcom GigE. Improvement: added "Flash vendor" and "Flash Model" to Devices page. Improvement: simplify hard drive assigment. Bug Fix: prevent superfluous logging messages from filling up syslog. Bug Fix: fix intermittant problem where configuration data in config/super.dat could get trashed if user types 'poweroff' from a telnet window. Bug Fix: fixed problem where sometimes SATA drivers wouldn't get loaded automatically. Bug Fix: fixed problem where sometimes system would think drives are spun-down, when actually they are spun-up. Quote Link to comment
erikatcuse Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Great news Tom.... Quote Link to comment
Hooked4Life Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Tom, I just upgraded from beta1 to beta2. I was unable to copy those to files to the server. XP said files in use. So I just shutdown and removed the flash. The upgrade went well and I am back online. I will do some stream testing this weekend. Thanks for the update! Quote Link to comment
limetech Posted September 21, 2006 Author Share Posted September 21, 2006 Interesting. If you delete the files from the flash first, and the drag over the new ones it works. Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Copied mine over no issues, didn't delete first. Will reboot in a moment. Tom, these are images that are uncompressed when the system is booted yes? We need not reboot right away I think - can you confirm? Quote Link to comment
limetech Posted September 21, 2006 Author Share Posted September 21, 2006 Copied mine over no issues, didn't delete first. Will reboot in a moment. Tom, these are images that are uncompressed when the system is booted yes? We need not reboot right away I think - can you confirm? Correct. Quote Link to comment
teamhood Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Just upgraded from 706 to 3.0beta2. Things went smooth and only 1 question, array is building parity.... I stopped the array, matched up the hard drives on the device page, started array and now rebuilding parity. Just want to make sure this is correct if I followed the directions perfectly (including the super.dat file) Quote Link to comment
teamhood Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Speed test: I wrote 1 4.7GB DVD to the array while watching another and I did not suffer ANY issues. It worked like a charm. I don't have any HD .TS files, so if anyone has any I would like to hear how you do!!! Note: I have Gigabit ethernet switch running between my PC and array with cat5e cables! Quote Link to comment
rharvey Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Speed Test Results - Previously I was not even able to stream an MP3 file off the tower while writing a DVD to a different drive. That now is fine given just 10 minutes of testing. Also I can rip a DVD to one drive and play a DVD on another drive, again with 10 minutes of testing no issues. Where I did have issues was using the same drive to both read and write, not a big surprise I guess. Major improvement Tom......! Quote Link to comment
teamhood Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Beta2 device bug? Tom, I was trying to figure out why the array built parity last night and I figured it out. When I assigned my drives on the devices page, I did it in the order that the hard drives are listed; a,b,c etc.... what happened is my disk4 and I think disk5 were flipped. I can't remember exactly and I will report back on Saturday, but I think that something is being linked incorrectly. Quote Link to comment
stchas Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Beta2 bug? Clicking "Clear Statistics" on the "Settings" tab spins up the array. I don't recall that happening before. Kevin Quote Link to comment
stchas Posted September 23, 2006 Share Posted September 23, 2006 Speed Test Results Simultaneously streamed two (2) DVD VOBs to two (2) PCs running WinDVD7 while streaming WAV file to SqueezBox and recording HD to TS file via D-VHS MPEG2 Transport Stream Capture for 30 minutes. Each operation running off a separate drive on the array. No evidence of stuttering. TS file looked clean upon review. unRaid didn't appear to be breaking a sweat. I think you're making progress, Tom!!! Haven't tried a R-W evolution on a single drive yet. Will report back results. Kevin Quote Link to comment
limetech Posted September 23, 2006 Author Share Posted September 23, 2006 Beta2 bug? Clicking "Clear Statistics" on the "Settings" tab spins up the array. I don't recall that happening before. Kevin Heh, nice find! (unRAID beta testers are the best). What I mean is, you found an undocumented feature Actually, yes a bug introduced when fixing the "sometimes disk shows as spun down when actually it's spun up" bug. But I've been thinking of adding a button somewhere that says, "spin all the drives up", because there are times I want to do this... all I have to do now is clear the statistics... Maybe we shouldn't fix this bug? I have to think about it... Quote Link to comment
X4n Posted September 23, 2006 Share Posted September 23, 2006 Some speed test results with HDTV content movie: MPEG2 1080i @ 1.5 mb\s; total size 10 gig was able to play it on 2 pc's from the same disk, and write to the disk @ 9.5mb\s. so 2 reads @ 1.5mb\s and 1 write @ 9.5mb\s all from/too the same disk at once video playback was crystal clear on both pc's, not a hickup. it's a shame that i dont have a 3e pc capable of playing hdtv. next test: currently dling 1080p movie Quote Link to comment
X4n Posted September 23, 2006 Share Posted September 23, 2006 found something odd, not sure if its normal or not. parity sync is off (manual stop because im writing a few 100 gig to it) im only writing to disk1, but i see the read disk2 and 3 increase. increase is about 1mb\s per disk, so thats not a text file its been a hour now and disk2 and 3 are still spin up. so something is reading disk2 and 3, but its not me (and im home alone) is this normal when writing? (with parity sync manual off) Quote Link to comment
lovingHDTV Posted September 23, 2006 Share Posted September 23, 2006 Some speed test results with HDTV content movie: MPEG2 1080i @ 1.5 mb\s; total size 10 gig was able to play it on 2 pc's from the same disk, and write to the disk @ 9.5mb\s. so 2 reads @ 1.5mb\s and 1 write @ 9.5mb\s all from/too the same disk at once video playback was crystal clear on both pc's, not a hickup. it's a shame that i dont have a 3e pc capable of playing hdtv. next test: currently dling 1080p movie I got a couple questions on you speeds here. My HDTV records at 19Mb/s and my SDTV at 6Mb/s. How did you get 1080i at 1.5Mb/s do you really mean 15Mb/s? I would think the picture quality would be horrible at that rate for MPEGII thanks, Quote Link to comment
limetech Posted September 23, 2006 Author Share Posted September 23, 2006 found something odd, not sure if its normal or not. parity sync is off (manual stop because im writing a few 100 gig to it) im only writing to disk1, but i see the read disk2 and 3 increase. ... is this normal when writing? (with parity sync manual off) Yes this is normal. There is an internal "state" flag kept for parity: parity can either be "valid" or "invalid". Valid means that the parity disk can be used to reconstruct data of a failed data disk. In a new array, parity state starts out "invalid". When a parity-sync completes without error, the state of the parity disk is changed to "valid". Now anytime you write to a data disk and parity is "invalid", the driver actually executes a "reconstruct-write". This means in addition to writing your data to the data disk, it reads all the other data disks, computes parity, and writes that to the parity disk. Since you cancelled parity-sync manually, the parity disk is still left in the 'invalid' state and all writes will be 'reconstruct writes'. I guess what you're trying to do is increase the write performance while you are preloading data to your server, correct? In this case, the best way to do this is to completely disable the parity disk; that way, all writes will just write your data disk. To disable the parity disk, go to the Devices page and "unassign" parity. After you have completed your preload, go back to Devices, assign the parity disk, go back to Main, and Start the array & it will also start parity-sync. Quote Link to comment
stchas Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 More Speed Test Results Simultaneously streamed two (2) DVD VOBs to two (2) PCs while recording HD to TS file at 25 Mb/sec ... all reads/writes to a single drive. No evidence of stuttering. TS file looked clean upon review. Kevin Quote Link to comment
teamhood Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Tom added 2 new hard drives and after an hour the utility is making it seem that all hard drive are spun down... (all lights are blinking) but I see that the two new disks are up and spinning... Quote Link to comment
limetech Posted September 24, 2006 Author Share Posted September 24, 2006 Tom added 2 new hard drives and after an hour the utility is making it seem that all hard drive are spun down... (all lights are blinking) but I see that the two new disks are up and spinning... Are these IDE or SATA drives? Quote Link to comment
teamhood Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 The two new ones that were added were IDE. Also; I just replace parity 400gb IDE with a 500GB IDE. Let it run through the night... no problem at all. When I woke up, all drive were spun down except parity (the management utility was accurate as well, had parity on and I touched it and it was still spun up, but with no activity... Quote Link to comment
X4n Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 I got a couple questions on you speeds here. My HDTV records at 19Mb/s and my SDTV at 6Mb/s. How did you get 1080i at 1.5Mb/s do you really mean 15Mb/s? I would think the picture quality would be horrible at that rate for MPEGII thanks, well i seriously doubt your 19MB\s, cause if u would record a 2 hour movie with that it would require 140 gig of space for 1 movie. i guess u mean Mbit\s 1,5 MB\s = 1,5 x 8 = 12 Mbit\s HDTV 1080i now 1080p have twice as much frames as 1080i, so naturally 1080p would be 12 x 2 = 24 Mbit\s HDTV 1080p so i ment it in MB\s, and u ment Mbit\s Quote Link to comment
dschur Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Tom, that bug in the size and free space of the user share (where Windows thinks it's the size/free of the RAM drive, AKA 113MB/49.7MB) is still there. I know I said I didn't car before, but more and more I'm running into Windows programs (explorer, etc) that error and abort when trying to copy/move to the user shares saying "not enough space". I can alays write to the \\tower\diskX\... shares, of course, but it gets to be an annoyance after a while in an otherwise greeat system (user shares). Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 Is beta 2 FSCK on a reboot? I had a lockup with Beta 2 this morning and had to power cycle - first lockup. Upon bootup it was taking FOREVER to become available again. Panicknig a bit I put a monitor on it and saw filenames for my MP3 collection flying past with messages stating that the record already existed. Swallowing hard I waited for that to end and saw it do several other drives before becoming available. It SEEMs fine now, was it doing a FSCK? What was up as this is the first I've seen this and it was a little scary because it wasn't available at all until this was done.... Quote Link to comment
smeehrrr Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 Any chance we can move this discussion to the Beta board? Every time I see Announcements light up I get all excited and then I'm disappointed that there's no real news. Quote Link to comment
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