20 Bay Server needs changing for unRAID setup (Solved)


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I currently have a 20 Bay server with 10 x 3TB WD red drives, a super micro X9SCM-iF motherboard with Intel Xeon 1240v2 CPU and Im using an Adaptec 71605h HBA. I have been using WHS 2011 and Transparent Raid for the last 6 months and originally I built the system to run unRAID but was worried about the single parity option so went to Flexraid and the Transparent Raid. While my system runs okay I really want to get away from the constant windows updates and stability problems altogether. Im generally happy with Transparent Raid but do feel that even though I registered and paid for it, that I have been beta testing it for the last 6 months and its still not 100% stable and every time an update is available, very little information about the various settings and changes are handed out, which has made running it very confusing. I feel the help I originally got from the unRAID community when building the server is more important to me so I can better understand the workings of the system settings but in general I just need a headless NAS with Raid parity to serve my two Intel NUC openelec boxes with my MKV movie files.

 

But Im stuck on a few things and need advise please.

Should I sell my Adaptec 71605h HBA and buy a LSI 9201-16i, this would mean changing the card and cables but I will do this if need be.

If I buy the USB key pre loaded from Tom or use one of the 3 new Kingston G2 USB card readers I have, I understand the USB key that Tom sells is faster on boot times but Im worried about the USB key problems users have had.

I found a good web article on how to migrate my NTFS hard drive movies over to the unRAID server and cannot find it, I know I will leave the parity until it is all moved over but Im only going to be able to start with 2 x 3TB WD red drives to begin with until all my data is moved over to the unRAID server, and how do I do this as I use only Mac OS x and after getting rid of WHS 2011 I will have no more windows PC's, just openelec boxes and a mac laptop thank god.

Does unRAID run better being built on Linux with Openelec and should I use NFS or Samba to connect them to the unRAID box.

 

Thanks

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am not sure about your adaptec card, but it is easy to test things with unraid.

 

1. Take any usb flash drive. Fyi there is an issue with kingston 3 reader, I believe it works only with microsd card, the v2 worked with rrgular sd card. What I mean is when using this feader the previose version was booting only from sd slot, and v3 boots only from microsd slot.

 

But back to main issue. Get any flash. Prep and load unraid on it. Un hook all drives from your system. Except one, or if yoy have a spare hook the spaire to your adaptec card.  Boot the system. If all boots ok, go to the webgui on other pc , that is browse to the Web gui

And see if your drive availabel to assignment to a slot. If the drive in the list then the card ia working fine. If not check the forum here with specific model.yoy might need a bios update, for the card if possible.

 

You can even try the unraid with basic setup, as it is a fully functional free setup with limit of 3 drives, that is 2 data and 1 parity.

 

If all is ok, you can slowly migrate your data by earher mount whe data drives using snap plugin in unraid or connecting them to other pc and copy data that way.  And you dont have to do all that with out parity. Bulid a seup with one parity 1 data, move full data drive worth , clear the old one and add to array. Repeat as needed.

 

 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

 

 

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Thank you for your reply. I will try what you suggested. I do have 3 x Kingston G2 readers but various users suggested they are slow on boot times and sometimes they fail like the sandisk USB key does so I may just buy a few sandisk USB keys the same as Tom uses. I will then try the free version as you suggested and log onto the tower GUI to check the HBA card out. It has the latest BIOS on it but is not as fast on boot as the LSi 9211 or 9201 HBA card with the management console removed from the bios. Although it does use less power and run cooler. Am I correct in thinking that the snap plugin you are referring to will allow me to connect an external USB dock to my unRAID server and read a NTFS formatted drive in it?

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I am  not sure about external dock, but snap allows you to mount a drive out of array and use it in unraid cli. As for g2 slow on boot, well how often do you reboot your server?

I have been running with g2 for 3 years now.

 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

 

 

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I am  not sure about external dock, but snap allows you to mount a drive out of array and use it in unraid cli. As for g2 slow on boot, well how often do you reboot your server?

I have been running with g2 for 3 years now.

 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

Ditto.  I have 3 of them in 3 unRAID servers and will have a 4th when I get another license for the new one I just got.
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I am  not sure about external dock, but snap allows you to mount a drive out of array and use it in unraid cli. As for g2 slow on boot, well how often do you reboot your server?

I have been running with g2 for 3 years now.

 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

Ditto.  I have 3 of them in 3 unRAID servers and will have a 4th when I get another license for the new one I just got.

 

good luck finding the 4th.  kingstone moved to v3 now and v2 is very difficult to find.

however it seams that the major difference with v3 is that they flip the primary boot slot to microSD when in v2 it was regular SD.

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I am  not sure about external dock, but snap allows you to mount a drive out of array and use it in unraid cli. As for g2 slow on boot, well how often do you reboot your server?

I have been running with g2 for 3 years now.

 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

Ditto.  I have 3 of them in 3 unRAID servers and will have a 4th when I get another license for the new one I just got.

 

good luck finding the 4th.  kingstone moved to v3 now and v2 is very difficult to find.

however it seams that the major difference with v3 is that they flip the primary boot slot to microSD when in v2 it was regular SD.

Correct.  That last one (4th) that I just got a couple of days ago was expensive at $20.  Just need to get it licensed now.
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Well I have 3 x G2's sitting here so maybe I should give them a go, I did read about them getting extremely hot but I presume if you are all using them then they must be fine. It should just fit into the internal USB port on my motherboard. Any recommendations on size and speed of the SD card I should buy.

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