Looks like this Venus RAID box does not quite follow NTFS specifications. When I'm attaching this RAID box to a Windows laptop, there is their proprietary JMRaidSetup.exe (outstandingly ugly piece of software, by the way) process waiting in memory, which probably takes care of mounting.

 

Well, anyways, I'm back to "option one" - copying from it piece by piece.

Sounds like it is using a software layer in between the drive and the OS - good that you can at least copy it piece by piece.  I'm currently transferring about 9TB across the network myself.

I'm almost done with it. The RAID box is empty and waiting for being stripped off of HDDs, the last two chunks are now copied to the unRAID, ETA in about 7-8 hours.

 

I'm observing a very unpleasant bug, though. How to put it... OK, the source drive has directories, at root level, like this:

/mnt/__27000_sdj__/disc-27301-27313/

with subdirs inside like this:

disc-27301/

disc-27302/

disc-27303/

disc-27304/

disc-27305/

disc-27306/

disc-27307/

...

disc-27312/

disc-27313/

 

Actual data files are inside those disc-NNNNN dirs.

 

I'm copying it all from root level using Midnight Commander (copy, not move).

After copying (reportedly successfully) completed, destination drive has directories like this:

/mnt/disk8/disc-27301-27313/

with subdirs inside like this:

disc-27306/

disc-27307/

...

disc-27312/

disc-27313/

 

Directories from disc-27301 thru disc-27305 are missing! This is accordingly to mc and to ls command.

 

However, the FileBrowser from UnMENU shows that these directories (from disc-27301 thru disc-27305) are present, and actual data files are present inside them, I can download it, at least smaller ones, UnMENU wouldn't allow the bigger.

 

I've got this problem in two different copying session, with both source and destination being different drives. Both times - exactly first five directories. Weird.

 

Don't know what to think, I'm only hoping that this is a temporary glitch. Maybe because I was, for half of the day, doing hot-swapping drives, mounting and unmounting manually, sometimes without stopping the array, just stopping samba (old unRAID version 4.7 procedure although I'm running 5.0), all without rebooting the server.

 

I don't want to reboot right now, but will do in the morning when copying finished. Hopefully it will go away.

Does the BIOS allow you to enable/disable the "Safely Remove" option shown in Windows?

 

If so, that's effectively the same as enabling/disabling hot-swap.

I'm pretty sure there was no such an option, but I will double check in the morning while rebooting.

 

...and just a thought... I was planning 18-19 (including parity and cache) drives for the first server (I changed my mind from NORCO RPC-4224 and ordered two NORCO RPC-4020, could not resist the deal, plus some other thoughts).

 

And 3 drives (probably with, for now, free Basic unRAID version - I was idiot enough to refuse the second key when I was buying Server Pro version) for the second server.

 

Both servers will be run on X7SBE mobo, and I have four AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards for them. So even if there is no hot-plug in motherboard, I can put three AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards in the first server and have all HDDs hot-pluggable. Second server will live with just one AOC-SAT2-MV8 card until later.

 

Than again... do I really need all drives to be hot-pluggable?

 

Form this ongoing transfers I've learned that I definitely want to have at least one unoccupied hot-plugging port (and slot in the case) for connecting "transfer-dedicated" drive. The array itself... it's no big deal to reboot it in the (supposedly rare) occasion of need to swap/add/remove a drive.

 

Are there some advantages of having all drives  hot-pluggable which I'm missing?

..reading through this thread, some 2 cents as a side note:

 

- who is positive that latest unRAID 5.x does *not* support USB3?

As I've seen syslogs from other unRAIDers around here, where the system loads a xhci driver...which *is* the driver for usb3 support.

 

- hot-swap needs support in hardware *and* software....AFAIK, unRAID md driver does *not* support that.

  ...or did this change since this statement: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=10053.0

...Directories from disc-27301 thru disc-27305 are missing! This is accordingly to mc and to ls command.

 

However, the FileBrowser from UnMENU shows that these directories (from disc-27301 thru disc-27305) are present, and actual data files are present inside them, I can download it, at least smaller ones, UnMENU wouldn't allow the bigger.

 

I've got this problem in two different copying session, with both source and destination being different drives. Both times - exactly first five directories. Weird.

 

Don't know what to think, I'm only hoping that this is a temporary glitch. Maybe because I was, for half of the day, doing hot-swapping drives, mounting and unmounting manually, sometimes without stopping the array, just stopping samba (old unRAID version 4.7 procedure although I'm running 5.0), all without rebooting the server.

 

I don't want to reboot right now, but will do in the morning when copying finished. Hopefully it will go away.

Sounds like you need to run "New Permissions" on your drives.  You probably copied them using MC but you didn't enter "sudo -u nobody mc" which would run MC under the NOBODY user which is what is necessary to get the correct permissions to browse on the network.

Both servers will be run on X7SBE mobo, and I have four AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards for them. So even if there is no hot-plug in motherboard, I can put three AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards in the first server and have all HDDs hot-pluggable. Second server will live with just one AOC-SAT2-MV8 card until later.

 

Than again... do I really need all drives to be hot-pluggable?

 

Form this ongoing transfers I've learned that I definitely want to have at least one unoccupied hot-plugging port (and slot in the case) for connecting "transfer-dedicated" drive. The array itself... it's no big deal to reboot it in the (supposedly rare) occasion of need to swap/add/remove a drive.

 

Are there some advantages of having all drives  hot-pluggable which I'm missing?

You can put three in your X7SBE but if you do you will reduce the speed of your parity checks some - don't remember how much and it may not be a problem since regular use probably won't be affected.  You want to only use 2 of the 4 PCI-X slots and you also want to use a 133Mhz slot and a 100Mhz slot.  If you don't do it that way you will find you are running two of the AOC-SAT2-MV8's off the same bus path to the PHX chip (it has two paths 100 & 133).  Having HOT plug is not real useful to unRAID array drives as unRAID itself cannot handle that while the array is up.  It would work well for any drives outside the array but most people would have a single slot or two for that not large number of drives.  So using MB ports and not having hot swap probably isn't going to be a big a deal as you think it is and it would only limit you to 6 drives that require the PC to be rebooted and when I had mine it was just a couple/few minutes to have everything back up and running.

...Directories from disc-27301 thru disc-27305 are missing! This is accordingly to mc and to ls command.

 

However, the FileBrowser from UnMENU shows that these directories (from disc-27301 thru disc-27305) are present, and actual data files are present inside them, I can download it, at least smaller ones, UnMENU wouldn't allow the bigger.

 

I've got this problem in two different copying session, with both source and destination being different drives. Both times - exactly first five directories. Weird.

 

Don't know what to think, I'm only hoping that this is a temporary glitch. Maybe because I was, for half of the day, doing hot-swapping drives, mounting and unmounting manually, sometimes without stopping the array, just stopping samba (old unRAID version 4.7 procedure although I'm running 5.0), all without rebooting the server.

 

I don't want to reboot right now, but will do in the morning when copying finished. Hopefully it will go away.

Sounds like you need to run "New Permissions" on your drives.  You probably copied them using MC but you didn't enter "sudo -u nobody mc" which would run MC under the NOBODY user which is what is necessary to get the correct permissions to browse on the network.

 

Well, it's kinda the other way around. I do see the "invisible" subdirectories via UnMENU File Browser, as well as via samba "mount network drive" on Windows laptop. I can not see them when logged in unRAID server console as root.

 

Rebooted few times and confirmed - they are invisible from console. Seven subdirs: disc-26101 thru disc-26105, plus disc-2625 and disc-2645 (what is it with this even-five number?). All visible dirs and files belong to root with permission 777. They all were copied in one session so I assume the invisible ones have same ownership-permissions. 

 

The good news is that it happens on one drive only - I was wrong about having them on two different drives. So I'm assuming that I screwed up the filesystem a little with my activity yesterday. It's very possible that I unplugged this drive without even unmounting it first.

 

So, as manual recommends, I started the array in maintenance mode and am now running reiserfsck --check on the drive. Will see what it says.

 

 

You can put three in your X7SBE but if you do you will reduce the speed of your parity checks some - don't remember how much and it may not be a problem since regular use probably won't be affected.  You want to only use 2 of the 4 PCI-X slots and you also want to use a 133Mhz slot and a 100Mhz slot.  If you don't do it that way you will find you are running two of the AOC-SAT2-MV8's off the same bus path to the PHX chip (it has two paths 100 & 133). 

Got it, thanks for the advice.

 

Having HOT plug is not real useful to unRAID array drives as unRAID itself cannot handle that while the array is up.  It would work well for any drives outside the array but most people would have a single slot or two for that not large number of drives.  So using MB ports and not having hot swap probably isn't going to be a big a deal as you think it is and it would only limit you to 6 drives that require the PC to be rebooted and when I had mine it was just a couple/few minutes to have everything back up and running.

Very well, than it will not be all-hot-pluggable, no biggie, I don't expect too many users complaining about sudden shutdowns

... and am now running reiserfsck --check on the drive. Will see what it says.

Just to finish... reiserfsck said "no corruption", however after the check all 7 invisible subdirs suddenly became visible. I'm sure it's a gremlin living in my old Lian Li case - everything I ever put in this case acted weird.

 

Luckily, the brownie trackkie finally brought me my RPC-4020s today, and I'm now moving the server to it's permanent home. Marking not to forget to leave a small plate with milk in the Lian Li later in the night. For the gremlin... 

...not to forget to leave a small plate with milk in the Lian Li later in the night. For the gremlin... 

Just make sure you remove it before midnight!  Never feed a gremlin after midnight!

Hot swap is supported and can be used for upgrades or installing new drives.

 

New drive - stab it into the server and then stop the array to assign it.

 

Upgrading a drive - Stop the array and then swap the drive for the new one. Assign it and start the array to start the rebuild.

 

Saves a re-boot.

 

As for your server config. I'd put the motherboard ports at the start of the server and put the 3T drives on them. All but the parity will likely not be upgrades until the other 2T drives have been upgraded at some time down the road. So, use the motherboard ports for drives that will stay the same for a few years and worry about it later on if you're still running the same hardware.

 

 

Hot swap is supported and can be used for upgrades or installing new drives.

 

New drive - stab it into the server and then stop the array to assign it.

 

Upgrading a drive - Stop the array and then swap the drive for the new one. Assign it and start the array to start the rebuild.

 

Saves a re-boot.

 

As for your server config. I'd put the motherboard ports at the start of the server and put the 3T drives on them. All but the parity will likely not be upgrades until the other 2T drives have been upgraded at some time down the road. So, use the motherboard ports for drives that will stay the same for a few years and worry about it later on if you're still running the same hardware.

Good idea, thanks, will do.