Finally... Unraid on ESXi (AMD Build)


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Thanks Ford for your interest to help!  :)

I don't want to digress this topic, so feel free to poit where should be the correct place to deal with my doubts...

 

My actual serve is:

 

MB: ASUS M5A78L-MLX

Processor: Athlon II X2 250

Mem: 4 GB (one slot)

 

Unraid: Plus version 5.0 RC12a

Storage: 6 drivers (2TB parity + 5 other total 8.5TB)

Unmenu + Airvideo +  DMIdecode + HDparm + iStat + Jre + lsof + nfs 3G + PCIutils + reiserfs + rsync + SMART tools

 

Onboard GigE connected to a Apple Airport Extreme

 

At this moment my problem is related to access to my media files... Everything I tried showed up problems, for instance:

 

- Samba file access from Egreat media center (samba): playing FLAC files from server get stuttering...

- Playing FLAC files (high res) from Unraid, accessed via NFS by Voyage MPD server gets stutterin (more intermitent).

- No way to mount BD ISO files from Unraid on my HTPC (I know maybe this requires a GigE instead of wifi).

 

All these were tested via wifi (n/5Ghz) connection...

 

So I'm thinking of trying to process the video/audio at the server and stream to the final client (mainly video)...

 

Look, all these are very new to me and apologise y if I'm having some stupid wishes... ;)

 

Regards,

 

Adriano

 

personnally i have tried to stream video and i have had many issues though wifi... some of my files are 6gigs+ but i was also have issues streaming 1gig files... but after i installed something like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KIT-AV500-Powerline-Adapter/dp/B0084Y9N3O/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1380015675&sr=1-1 i have not experianced any shuttering...

 

Good luck...

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Thanks everybody for the ideas...

 

Amazing the coincidence as I've just ordered a 500mbps powerline (PA511 from tplink). Hope this reduces the problem for videos...

 

Anyway, I'll do all suggested actions... Memory test, check airport config and test the speed isolating unraid from other local connections...

 

Another thing I decided to do is upgrade to the final version 5.0...

 

As per your feedbacks there should be no speed problems qith this cofig, I'll try to debug prior to make a step into virtualization...

 

PS.: When I said mount BD, was because I have BD stored as ISO images (25 to 45 GB) and they should be mounted in a virtual drive (virtual clone drive in Windows HTPC) before playing with Totalmedia Theather... Is an old solution I have (the ISO is ripped with Any DVD HD) and maybe I have to change all this to MKV... Any suggestion is welcome!  ;)

 

Regards

 

 

 

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Explaining, I love music and try to keep my collection in high resolution media (FLAC 24 bits / 192 Khz) this makes the file size bigger and these are the files that causes stuttering... As I'm planning to introduce DSD files (384Khz resolution) that requires even more throughput thats why I'm worried about speed...  :-\

 

rgds

 

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Explaining, I love music and try to keep my collection in high resolution media (FLAC 24 bits / 192 Khz) this makes the file size bigger and these are the files that causes stuttering... As I'm planning to introduce DSD files (384Khz resolution) that requires even more throughput thats why I'm worried about speed...  :-\

 

rgds

 

well as long as the backbone(network) can withstand the thoughput i dont see why it wouldnt be able to keep up... dont hold my feet to the fire... but i think that you would be limited by your network long before you would be touching the limits of unraid... and the limits of unraid are HDs... since your reading from a single HD and not from a RAID(more then one hd)...

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well as long as the backbone(network) can withstand the thoughput i dont see why it wouldnt be able to keep up... dont hold my feet to the fire... but i think that you would be limited by your network long before you would be touching the limits of unraid... and the limits of unraid are HDs... since your reading from a single HD and not from a RAID(more then one hd)...

 

Thanks! That´s one interesting point I was not aware about... I thought that maybe Unraid could eventually not keep the data "flowing" due to some ressources limitation, as it dealing with the pool management, simultaneous access, plugins, etc... So I was worried about how to "calibrate" this part of the system...

 

Last night I ran the memory tests (successfully) and migrate to 5.0... Also did some tests with my wi-fi connection (choosing best chanel)...

 

Now I plan to test the throughput. Any suggestions of software/process to test my system performance?

Also, what results should be acceptable?

 

I was writing some files from a notebook to Unraid (via wi-fi n/5GHz) and, by the win8 progress screen, the speed was about 850KB/s... Is it ok?

 

Regards

 

 

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I was writing some files from a notebook to Unraid (via wi-fi n/5GHz) and, by the win8 progress screen, the speed was about 850KB/s... Is it ok?

 

...try a cable...with that, you should get 20-30MByte/sec for write/read with GBit NIC ---at minimum...just do copy an ISO (rename on the client before copying it back ;)

With N-mode wifi, you should at least get 2-6 MBytes/sec...your YMMV but what you report as 850kbytes/sec is way toooooooo low.

 

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Well... did a crossover ethernet conection from my macmini (gigabit) and Unraid server.

 

Here is the results with an ISO image tranfer (47GB):

 

- Read: ~56MB/s

- Write: ~27MB/s

 

So, maybe it's everything OK with my server... Agree?

 

Now... Time to make some tests involvin the Airport...

 

BTW, what should be acceptable values for a 10Mbps (*edit: 10/100) ethernet connection (my notebook)? I'll test this wired to airport, n/wifi and with a Powerline (500mbps)...

 

Thanks and regards!

 

Adriano

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Well... did a crossover ethernet conection from my macmini (gigabit) and Unraid server.

 

Here is the results with an ISO image tranfer (47GB):

 

- Read: ~56MB/s

- Write: ~27MB/s

 

So, maybe it's everything OK with my server... Agree?

 

...definitely agree ...your unRAID box is in healthy condition and performs in a range as expected.

Your problems lie elsewhere.

Either WiFi or on the client side.

 

BTW, what should be acceptable values for a 10Mbps ethernet connection (my notebook)? I'll test this wired to airport, n/wifi and with a Powerline (500mbps)...

 

10?  ::) well, I *heard* that these still exist and I've seen them in my much younger days  ;D

I'd say, the best you could expect is around 800kbyte/sec (100 times less than that of a 1GBit NIC - which is around 80MBytes/sec)...less more likely, around 512kbytes/sec maybe..

 

Note that the 500mbps Powerline is the max. bandwidth "inside" ...I gather the NIC on the module only has 10/100, not GBit....real bandwidth/trough-put will depend on your power cabling...maybe not more than 50-200mbps.

If you have one with USB (to connect to your notebook) it'll depend but even with USB2.0 physically, I'd expect a 100mbps stream at max.on that side of the adapter

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...definitely agree ...your unRAID box is in healthy condition and performs in a range as expected.

Your problems lie elsewhere.

Either WiFi or on the client side.

Thanks, now it's time to the more difficult work... For wifi, I will experiment using another router as a repeater (after checking wifi speed near to AirPort)...

 

10?  ::) well, I *heard* that these still exist and I've seen them in my much younger days  ;D

I'd say, the best you could expect is around 800kbyte/sec (100 times less than that of a 1GBit NIC - which is around 80MBytes/sec)...less more likely, around 512kbytes/sec maybe..

My fault, it's a 10/100... But I got the rule of thumb from your comment! ;)

 

Note that the 500mbps Powerline is the max. bandwidth "inside" ...I gather the NIC on the module only has 10/100, not GBit....real bandwidth/trough-put will depend on your power cabling...maybe not more than 50-200mbps.

Hummm, so I should have problems plugging it to a gigabit port as this could reduce the whole speed of the network... I read somewhere that the router leverages the speed by the slower attached gadged (wired connection). Is this true?

 

If you have one with USB (to connect to your notebook) it'll depend but even with USB2.0 physically, I'd expect a 100mbps stream at max.on that side of the adapter

Mine is a ethernet only... ;)

 

Rgd,

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Thanks, now it's time to the more difficult work... For wifi, I will experiment using another router as a repeater (after checking wifi speed near to AirPort)...

....a repeater can cut your wireless bandwidth.available to clients.

AFAIU your unRAId and AirPort is wired directly.

I'd check the connection-speed between AirPort and Client...then, maybe replace the AirPort with your router, using that in AP-Mode.

Hummm, so I should have problems plugging it to a gigabit port as this could reduce the whole speed of the network...

The powerline modules are not like a Point-To-Point cable...they basically form a switch out of your power-cabling in the house.

All Adapters share that bandwidth of that said "switch".

I read somewhere that the router leverages the speed by the slower attached gadged (wired connection). Is this true?

A router  will only route IP-traffic between different (IP-)networks (IPs of a different subnet).

If all your devices are in the same subnet, the router will not do anything (like routing) or adding any lag. The router normally offers a real L2 switch, so all ports are independant and equal.

If your setup is connected in a way, that all traffic has to travel trough one port that has a bottleneck somewhere in its path (like a 100mBit switch), this is where the limit is.

Nevertheess, if you put one 10/100 device on one port of the GBit switch (being that of a router or not), all other ports can connect at gBit speed. That is what a swicth is for...it is not a hub.

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Thanks Ford for the valuable explanation!

 

Yes, my Unraid Server is directly connected to the Airport...

 

The other wired connections were a Macmini (gigabit) and a HP Net Printer (suppose 10/100... and is almost always idle)... All other stuff were used by wifi and not simultaneously (appleTV, ipad, iphone, PS3, Egreat R300 and a Linux Music Server)...

 

I'll some tests during the weekend and report the results here!

 

Regards,

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hey guys, sorry to barge in on ya

 

I have a Phenom II x4 965 I want to build an ESXi box with (currently running straight unRAID)

 

Will the ASRock 970 Extreme4 work for me? I'm not sure if my cpu has all the AMD-V/IOMMU that you need for the proper virtualization.

 

What do you guys think?

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