September 6, 201312 yr Was just price shopping for 3TB hard drives for my server and came across a 4TB drive, guess I have not looked for a while and didn't know 4TB were on the market Western Digital WD WD40EFRX 4TB Red SATA3 6GB/S Cache 64MB 3.5in Hard Drive I was curious if unraid has made support for 4TB drives, I wouldn't mind getting one for parity for now. I didn't see anything in the release notes so I ASSUME they are not supported, but doesn't hurt to ask or if it is being looked into for future support. I only saw this in release notes for --Changes from 5.0-beta6b to 5.0-beta7-- - added GPT support for drives larger than 2TB everything larger then 2TB ? Just want to confirm specifics Let me know if any of you know, Thank you ! :-)
September 6, 201312 yr 4TB drives are supported. They use GPT Many of the folks are using 4TB Drives. I'm slowly replacing my 2TB drives with 4TB drives as my need for addition storage increases or if the 2TB drive shows any signs of issues.
September 6, 201312 yr Author Awesome thank you, so just preclear the drive as per normal ?? This is the command I used for 4.7 when I ran 4.7 ... is it the same for 5.0? preclear_disk.sh -A /dev/sdX (where X is the drive) and I will be good to go ?
September 6, 201312 yr the -A parameter isn't necessary, but otherwise that's the right command. Note that the issue with large drive support was at 2TB. Once the > 2TB support was added, there's no practical limit on the size of the drives now ... 3TB, 4TB, the new 5TB WD Reds due in December, etc. will all work fine.
September 6, 201312 yr Author Right on good to know, I always used -A on my drives that are in my system now (This will result in a starting sector of 64 for the resulting partition that will be used for unRAID's file system. ) Why is this not needed anymore with version 5? As well any preclear'ed (unraid) disk I take out of my system not going to be used in my UnRaid system anymore, can I just simply format it NTFS (quick) or do I have to low level format the drive ?
September 6, 201312 yr Right on good to know, I always used -A on my drives that are in my system now (This will result in a starting sector of 64 for the resulting partition that will be used for unRAID's file system. ) Why is this not needed anymore with version 5? Drives larger than 2.2TB use GPT partitioning, they always are 4k alligned, and will have a "protective" partition defined in the MBR to cause older utilities to think they are entirely utilized. (to them it will look like the partition starts on sectr 1) The -A option is simply ignored on those drives > 2.2TG. It is never required, but there was ONE model of disk drive WD EARS, that did not perform as well in somoe tests if formatted starting on sectr 63. It was never proven to be any better on any other make or model drive, but starting on sectr 64 works on ANY drive except a WD EARS that had a hardware jumper installed n it to electrically add one to the requested sectr. As well any preclear'ed (unraid) disk I take out of my system not going to be used in my UnRaid system anymore, can I just simply format it NTFS (quick) or do I have to low level format the drive ? "Low level formatting has not been possible on drives once IDE drives were implemented in 1985. (over 25 years) If you mean re-partitioning, then you can if you like, but the partition used by unRAID is compatible with anything in Microsoft. You can simply format them with NTFS.
September 6, 201312 yr Author You rock thank you, sorry my old school brain kicked in, low level format. I just was not sure about preclear / reiserfs back to NTFS. I am probably going to pick up a 4TB WD RED when I get home in a few weeks add that as parity and work on expanding my array over time moving forward. Being I just upgraded my motherboard + RAM + server version, unraid is back to working well like it did when I started, I ran into kernel faults and it was the mobo. I am looking forward to everything to come. I am tempted to move from Rc16c to the '5.0i386 stable' but I have not encountered any issues thus far, so I don't know if it would be even worth it. That 'stable' version just posted approx 1 day after I upgraded my hardware.
September 6, 201312 yr I am tempted to move from Rc16c to the '5.0i386 stable' but I have not encountered any issues thus far, so I don't know if it would be even worth it. That 'stable' version just posted approx 1 day after I upgraded my hardware. You should definitely do the upgrade. There weren't many changes, but there were a few. And in the future, if you need any help the first thing you're going to be told to do is upgrade to the current stable release From RC16c it's a trivial upgrade -- just copy bzroot, bzimage, and readme.txt from the v5.0 distribution to your flash drive [do it over the network]. Next time you boot, you'll be running v5.0
September 6, 201312 yr Author Right on, sounds simple enough, I am not home for a few weeks still but it will be first thing to do update to the current build, as well as go grab 1 or 2 new hard drives ! Time to expand. I need to consider a new case now. I don't mind mine, but considering maybe something better, sleeker, nicer looking. Must do some research, I don't really need hot-swap drive bays but something that can fit 14 - 20 drives. My current setup now I can support 14 drives MAX, (6 on-board 8 supermicro SAS) perhaps that is enough as drives are getting lager, but from memory not looking at my case right now, I think I can do a max of 12 drives. I have a Coolermaster full tower case, it has to be approx 4 years old.
September 7, 201312 yr It's certainly true that with 4TB (and 5TB on the way) drives, you don't need nearly as many drives as you did in the past to get to some pretty significant capacities Not to mention that the performance of these newer drives is FAR better than older drives, as they are virtually all 1TB/platter drives, and the increased areal density = notably faster transfer rates.
September 7, 201312 yr since i see that you come from 4.7... Please be sure to have the last preclear script version... very old versions of preclear might have issues with GPT...
September 7, 201312 yr Author Hey thanks for that with the preclear script, I will look it up shortly here .... http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2817.0 Thanks again, looking forward to expanding my array
September 28, 201312 yr Author I pulled it from here http://code.google.com/p/unraid-scripts/downloads/detail?name=preclear_disk-1.13.sh&can=2&q= Looked here, but the .sh file had a date of 2011 http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2817.0 Just noting that
September 28, 201312 yr One quick question about the -A parameter. With out the -A parameter I get the following warning: ################################################################## 1.13 Device Model: ST3000DM001-1CH166 Serial Number: W1F12655 Firmware Version: CC43 User Capacity: 3,000,592,982,016 bytes Disk /dev/sde: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders, total 5860533168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sde1 1 4294967295 2147483647+ 0 Empty Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary. ######################################################################## invoked as ./preclear_disk /dev/sde ######################################################################## (partition starting on sector 63) (it will not be 4k-aligned) Are you absolutely sure you want to clear this drive? (Answer Yes to continue. Capital 'Y', lower case 'es'): As you can see, "Partition starting on Sector 63" and "it will not be 4k-aligned" but if I issue the -A command then you see the following: Pre-Clear unRAID Disk /dev/sde ################################################################## 1.13 Device Model: ST3000DM001-1CH166 Serial Number: W1F12655 Firmware Version: CC43 User Capacity: 3,000,592,982,016 bytes Disk /dev/sde: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders, total 5860533168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sde1 1 4294967295 2147483647+ 0 Empty Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary. ######################################################################## invoked as ./preclear_disk -A /dev/sde ######################################################################## (-A option elected, partition will start on sector 64) Are you absolutely sure you want to clear this drive? (Answer Yes to continue. Capital 'Y', lower case 'es'): In this example, you see "-A option elected, partition will start on sector 64" so according to your statement, with out issuing the -A (as its not required) the partition starts on 63 not 64, and is not 4K aligned as according to the script. but IF I specify the -A command it appears its 4K aligned and starting on 64. Could you clarify why the script is telling me this? This can be very confusing. I am running RC-16. Moving up to 5.0 release as soon as my drive is finished pre-clearing. Oh and remember "1:1 interleave on RLL drives" but I digress. Thank you for your advise, Sincerely, Sideband Samurai
September 28, 201312 yr Author I had the same thing you did, but as per Joe L. I did not use the -A as they said ignore it, crossing my fingers because I am pre-clearing a 4TB drive right now, and that will take 24-48 hours.
September 29, 201312 yr You do NOT need the -A parameter with v5.0 Be SURE, however, that you're using the current version of the preclear script.
September 29, 201312 yr Author I am trying to pull (save) a logfile (as above) for preclear from console (local) to my flash, can't seem to figure command, any ideas ? cp /var/log/syslog /boot will this capture my preclear session, my thoughts are it may not. I just have a question about a preclear result since the drive just finished , I don't think it is something to worry about but I wanted to post it to be sure. Thanks.
September 29, 201312 yr Look in /tmp/preclear* I am trying to pull (save) a logfile (as above) for preclear from console (local) to my flash, can't seem to figure command, any ideas ?
September 29, 201312 yr Pretty much, In my case, I had /tmp/preclear_report_sdc. But there are a bunch of files and smart reports there that you may or may not want to keep. So you can: cd /tmp cp preclear* /boot/logs/ cp smart* /boot/logs/ I'm not sure where your /logs is but it should be something like /boot/logs/
September 29, 201312 yr Author Thanks, here is the report, anything to be worried about. I see it says something about temp, mind you it ran at 28C whole time. If everything looks fine, I am going to start my 3TB next. 1.13 == invoked as: ./preclear_disk.sh /dev/sdb == WDC WD40EFRX == Disk /dev/sdb has been successfully precleared == with a starting sector of 1 == Ran 1 cycle == == Using :Read block size = 8225280 Bytes == Last Cycle's Pre Read Time : 11:25:13 (97 MB/s) == Last Cycle's Zeroing time : 10:00:48 (110 MB/s) == Last Cycle's Post Read Time : 23:32:50 (47 MB/s) == Last Cycle's Total Time : 44:59:53 == == Total Elapsed Time 44:59:53 == == Disk Start Temperature: 25C == == Current Disk Temperature: 28C, == ============================================================================ ** Changed attributes in files: /tmp/smart_start_sdb /tmp/smart_finish_sdb ATTRIBUTE NEW_VAL OLD_VAL FAILURE_THRESHOLD STATUS RAW_VALUE Temperature_Celsius = 124 127 0 ok 28 No SMART attributes are FAILING_NOW 0 sectors were pending re-allocation before the start of the preclear. 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after pre-read in cycle 1 of 1. 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after zero of disk in cycle 1 of 1. 0 sectors are pending re-allocation at the end of the preclear, the number of sectors pending re-allocation did not change. 0 sectors had been re-allocated before the start of the preclear. 0 sectors are re-allocated at the end of the preclear, the number of sectors re-allocated did not change. ============================================================================
September 30, 201312 yr Looks good -- no parameters changed (except the temp, which is normal), and there are no reallocated sectors. That's exactly what you're hoping to see
September 30, 201312 yr Author Perfect thanks, I thought all looked good but doesn't hurt to be sure.
September 30, 201312 yr Author Wanted to ask, when expanding your array, it is always best to do a parity sync before changing any hardware, right ? (I usually do anyways). As well, I am changing my parity (2TB for 4TB) but I am going to use that 2TB replacing a 500GB disk. And I am also adding a 3TB, for a 2TB, and using that 2TB to replace another 500GB. I am thinking it is wise just to do the drives one by one. ie. Swap Parity, Boot, Rebuild/Sync, Shutdown, replace disk in array, rebuild/sync, etc.
September 30, 201312 yr Yes, do the drives one-at-a-time, and do a parity check in-between each one. This takes time, but it ensures you'll catch anything that doesn't happen to go completely right.
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