pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 I just installed a cache drive. I rip directly from my Bluray drive to the server over a gigabit LAN. Before the cache drive I was getting 9-10 MB/s. 20% into my first rip and I"m getting a large fluctuation of speed, but mostly topping out at ~8 MB/s. From what I read I should be flying, no? It's a 7200 1TB drive, connected to one of the four SATA 3 ports on my board. I precleared the drive, 3 cycles, and it passed with no errors. If you need more info let me know. Quote Link to comment
bonienl Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 I just installed a cache drive. I rip directly from my Bluray drive to the server over a gigabit LAN. Before the cache drive I was getting 9-10 MB/s. 20% into my first rip and I"m getting a large fluctuation of speed, but mostly topping out at ~8 MB/s. From what I read I should be flying, no? It's a 7200 1TB drive, connected to one of the four SATA 3 ports on my board. I precleared the drive, 3 cycles, and it passed with no errors. If you need more info let me know. It sounds to me as a network issue. Is your speed really negotiated to 1000Mbps ? Check or replace cabling - if needed. Quote Link to comment
DaleWilliams Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Agree with bonienl's suggestion on network troubleshooting. On Gigabit LAN, a speed (without cache) of 20-30 MB is more typical, and 2x with cache. -Note that if you have an older ethernet switch, it may not 'auto negotiate' on the device speeds. (so that if you have, for example, 5 devices plugged in, and one of them can only do ethernet at 10 MB, then the entire ethernet is constrained to the speed of the slowest device (10MB in this case). "Auto negotiation" of speeds is used by many recent devices to connect each Pair of Devices at the maximum speed they can both achieve. If its not the network, then How fast does the rip go if you save it locally to your PC? If its not faster, then its running at the speed of your CPU/memory. If its much faster, then test the write speed of a simple COPY of the ripped file to unRAID. Also, Describe how you rip directly from your BluRay player to unRAID, is there no PC in the middle? Quote Link to comment
xamindar Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Usually it's the speed of the bluray drive (about 2x speed) that is the bottleneck. Is it much faster when you rip directly to your local hard drive? Sent from my A510 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment
dirtysanchez Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Also, have you set cache to enabled for the share you are ripping to? Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I've gone through them. First - here's my chain. .... - USB 3.0 Bluray Drive> USB 3.0 Laptop > Giga Laptop > Giga Switch > Giga Router > unRaid Box I have-- Verified that all network points are connected at giga speeds via the router interface and via test transfers from PC to unRraid. Did a test rip from drive to PC - starts at ~ 14 MB/s and within a few minutes was already up to ~16 MB/s. Canceled that rip- no need to go further Took a 2.5 GB movie file from the PC and started a copy onto the 1) Movie share - 96 MB/s 2) Cache drive - 96 MB/s Yes- cache drive is enabled for all shares I always had a very steady write speed before the latest addition of the cache drive and disk two, and I've always gone straight from bluray drive to unRaid through the PC and over the network. Now, since I added the cache drive and disk 2 I am getting slower speeds and on top of that they jump around. They'll drop all the way down to 1 MB/s, then up to 5MB/s then to 8 MB/s and so on. Here's some more info- I noticed my movies share is orange (see picture). First time it's been orange was last night after adding the cache drive and the disk 2. It also reads 1 TB bigger than the rest of the shares. My cache drive is 1 TB. This morning the movies share was back to green, and reading the correct free space. After I started the test rip (IOW spun up drives) to the movies share it went orange again and the free space jumped 1 TB. Other things I did last night when adding the disk 2 and cache drive - - dropped down from split level 2 to 1 on most shares. Increased min. free space from 0 to 60000000 (60GB) on the movie share. Added a movies 2 share for testing only after I started having slow txfr speeds. Quote Link to comment
jevans04 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 The share will show orange when there is data on the cache drive for that share that has not been moved yet. The free space is including your cache drive size in the calc for total size. After the cache mover runs overnight, the share will then show green after the data is moved to the array drive. All of this is normal when using a cache drive. Quote Link to comment
JonathanM Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Here's some more info- I noticed my movies share is orange (see picture). First time it's been orange was last night after adding the cache drive and the disk 2. It also reads 1 TB bigger than the rest of the shares. My cache drive is 1 TB. This morning the movies share was back to green, and reading the correct free space. After I started the test rip (IOW spun up drives) to the movies share it went orange again and the free space jumped 1 TB. That specific behaviour (orange drive) is on purpose. It indicates there is content in the share that is currently on the cache drive, and therefore not protected by parity. When the mover script runs overnight, it cleared out the cache and put the files on the protected array, and the indicator turned green. The free space thing is something that Tom has been dealing with on and off, it's showing the protected share size + the cache drive, until the cache drive is cleared off by the mover. That is by design, and it's been debated whether or not it's the best way to handle the space available on the cache drive. (ninja'd by jevans04) Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Gotcha.... well hmm... what the heck? I also, just now, turned the cache drive off on the movies share and tried another transfer with the same results. I would think it's something that has to do with the split level changes, but the fact I can transfer from PC to unRaid at normal speeds rules that out. AHA! USB TO COMPUTER..... ! Got ahead of myself - it rips just fine from drive to computer, so It's not the USB connection. Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Do you guys think using a combination of both SATA ports is a problem? My motherboard has 2 SATA 3 ports that are 'ASMedia' and six that are 'H77'. ASMedia is the maker of the motherboard- H77 is .... the chip set I think. Quote Link to comment
JonathanM Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 It may be the process of ripping utilizes the network differently than a straight copy. Possibly a latency issue? You could test by sending to another host on your network if one is available. Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 If that was the case then I would have seen the same behavior before I added these latest drives to the unRAID box. Unfortunately I don't have another box I can rip these to over the network. Quote Link to comment
bonienl Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 If that was the case then I would have seen the same behavior before I added these latest drives to the unRAID box. Unfortunately I don't have another box I can rip these to over the network. If I understood your testing, then copying a file straight from your laptop to the cache drive (unRAID) goes with 96 MBps, this proves it is using your 1Gbps link as much as possible. I guess it is the interaction of your laptop at one side ripping the disk via USB and at the other side copying it to unRAID. Have you tried different ripping software ? Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Thanks for all your guys support. I have no clue what is going on..... but I seem to be on the right track. I turned off cache storage on the movie share (share I'm writing to). I turned off the entire array. Clean power downed the box. Powered it back up. Turned on the array and it works as it did but at 18% into the rip it was already at 20 MB/s. My pre-cache drive max speed was ~10-14 MB/s I almost forgot I had turned the cache drive off for that share. Which should have given me my old max speed, right? Not my new and improved cache drive max speed. Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Thanks for all your guys support. I have no clue what is going on..... but I seem to be on the right track. I turned off cache storage on the movie share (share I'm writing to). I turned off the entire array. Clean power downed the box. Powered it back up. Turned on the array and it works as it did but at 18% into the rip it was already at 20 MB/s. My pre-cache drive max speed was ~10-14 MB/s I almost forgot I had turned the cache drive off for that share. Which should have given me my old max speed, right? Not my new and improved cache drive max speed. Quote Link to comment
dirtysanchez Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 I almost forgot I had turned the cache drive off for that share. Which should have given me my old max speed, right? Correct. If you have the cache disabled for the share you are writing to, you are writing directly to the array. It would be the same as before you installed a cache drive. Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Yep.... that would only make sense. I just got faster write speeds than I ever had before, but cache was off for the share I was writing to. So.,... I turned the cache on, shut the array down, powered off and then back on. I'm now back to funky write behavior and speeds. Next check I guess would be the SATA cables? Or... I wonder if the motherboard SATA ports aren't jiving with the chipset SATA ports. Out curiosity I think I'll take the motherboard SATA ports out of the loop and see what happens. Do I need to do anything special to re-arrange the drives on the SATA ports? Quote Link to comment
dirtysanchez Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Do I need to do anything special to re-arrange the drives on the SATA ports? As long as you are running v5, no. unRAID maps drive assignments based on drive serial number, so even if you switch ports around it will assign drives to the correct drive slot on boot. Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Thx. Going to try it now Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 I took the two drives off the Mothboard SATA ports and put them on the chipset SATA ports. I have Cache on SATA 3 port 0, and parity on SATA 3 port 1. Disk 1 is on SATA 2 port 2 and disk 3 SATA 2 port 3. I'm now running at max speed the drive will put out to unRAID box, which is confirmed by running a test burn from same drive to laptop SSD. 20 MB/s at 20% into a BD 1:1 rip. In the manual it states that boot drives should be placed on the chipset SATA ports to avoid a boot delay. It also states the motherboard SATA ports are not RAID or SMART compatible. Not sure if that gives you enough info to answer this next question. Can I put the data drives on the motherboard SATA 3 ports, and leave the cache and parity on the chipset SATA 3 ports? Quote Link to comment
dirtysanchez Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 First we need to clarify the terminology. There are two sets of SATA ports on your motherboard. There are most likely 6 of one type and 2 of another (hard to say as you haven't said what mobo you have). The group of 6 will be from the Intel H77 chipset. The other two will be from the ASMedia chipset. They are generally different colors. In general the Intel chipset SATA ports work flawlessly. SATA ports from added controllers such as ASMedia, Marvell, etc do work, but generally not as well as the Intel ports. Most times the added controllers are not near as fast as the Intel controllers, although you generally will only see this difference with fast SSD's. That said, you should be able to hook any drives to any ports you wish and it should all work. You will need to be sure that the ASMedia controller is set to AHCI mode in the BIOS though. The Intel controller shoud be set to AHCI as well, but I'm assuming it already is. You state that the manual says the "motherboard SATA ports" are not capable of RAID or SMART. Based on that I'm going to assume that the manual/you mean the ASMedia ports. The Intel ports are very much capable of RAID and SMART. I would avoid using the ASMedia ports if they are not capable of SMART. In general, I always use the Intel chipset SATA ports first and foremost. Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 First we need to clarify the terminology. There are two sets of SATA ports on your motherboard. There are most likely 6 of one type and 2 of another (hard to say as you haven't said what mobo you have). The group of 6 will be from the Intel H77 chipset. The other two will be from the ASMedia chipset. They are generally different colors. In general the Intel chipset SATA ports work flawlessly. SATA ports from added controllers such as ASMedia, Marvell, etc do work, but generally not as well as the Intel ports. Most times the added controllers are not near as fast as the Intel controllers, although you generally will only see this difference with fast SSD's. That said, you should be able to hook any drives to any ports you wish and it should all work. You will need to be sure that the ASMedia controller is set to AHCI mode in the BIOS though. The Intel controller shoud be set to AHCI as well, but I'm assuming it already is. You state that the manual says the "motherboard SATA ports" are not capable of RAID or SMART. Based on that I'm going to assume that the manual/you mean the ASMedia ports. The Intel ports are very much capable of RAID and SMART. I would avoid using the ASMedia ports if they are not capable of SMART. In general, I always use the Intel chipset SATA ports first and foremost. Correct - 2 SATA 3.0 ports from ASMedia and 6 intel ports- 2 3.0 and 4 2.0. Thanks. Just got out of the BIOS. All was as you said it should be. I did enable SATA boot ROM for the ASmedia SATA ports. Default was disabled. I thought maybe it would help with the issues I'm having. My board is an ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP. It states in the manual that that the Intel SATA ports have RAID mode, while the ASmedia ports do not. Seems the SMART mode is a global setting for all the ports...* I got confused on that, sorry. Anyways.... both were already set on AHCI mode. I also enabled SMART mode, it was disabled. Not sure what affect if any this will have in other areas. But none the less I did it as I can't see it being a bad thing. Wouldn't it be better to utilize the ASMedia ports now while I have less total drives? They are SATA 3, as are two of the Intel ports. Speed advantage a side it's two more ports. Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 I think I had a bad cable connection at the cache drive. I put it in one of those thin sheet metal drive holders that I added rubber feet to and put on the power supply (so I didn't waste a space in the drive slots) and when swapping out the cables for testing I noticed the drive end wasn't seating all the way. I'm now consistently getting 20+ MB/s. I'm also getting those speeds with the original configuration of cache / drive 2 plugged into the ASMedia SATA ports. After researching the ASMedia ports though, I think I will re-arrange the SATA to drive configuration like this: H77 SATA 0 and 1 (SATA 3) - Cache and parity respectively ASMedia SATA 0 and 1 d(also SATA 3) drives 1 and 2. H77 SATA 2-6 (SATA 2) rest of the storage drives in the array. From what I read the disc based hard drives can't exceed the SATA 3 spec anyways...... Does this all sound good ? Man... I appreciate the help greatly! Quote Link to comment
pdxrealtor1 Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 I must have used up all my help credits. I'll mark this as solved. Problem was an unseated cable. Thanks all! Quote Link to comment
dirtysanchez Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Sorry, was busy last night. Yes, the way you have them setup should be fine. Sounds like it was a bad SATA cable anyway, which makes sense as all of the ports should work fine unless the port itself was bad. SATA2 vs SATA3 makes no difference at all. Even the fastest current gen spinners can barely saturate a SATA1 interface (1.5Gbit/s which equals 187.5Mbyte/s) and that's only on the very outer cylinders where the drives are at their fastest. Spinners don't even come close to saturating a SATA2 interface (3.0Gbit/s), let alone a SATA3 interface (6.0Gbit/s). SSD's are a different story and should be on a SATA3 interface, but for spinners SATA2 is plenty. Quote Link to comment
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