I just put my unraid server together, I tested my board, just for stability-wise, first by loading vista, and after a few fails and bios tweaks, passed a 25 hour torture test with P95.  I set my bios and booted up no prob with pre-configured unraid usb drive, but then it gets to the tower login, and i believe the default name for the server is tower, i was able to find that, and then it asks for password.  what is the default for this?

thanks

rlr

 

edit:  ok, i found something else that said enter "root" for tower name, and it will skip password.  mine skipped password, but then it asked for rootserver#, or something like that.  is this where i should be going?  what do i enter at this point?

 

thx a lot,

rlr

You need not log in at all via telnet.  (it is a good sign that you can, but nearly all configuration is done via the web-management-console)

 

Instead, use your web-browser to browse to

 

http://tower

 

(or whatever you named it, if you changed the default name)  Note: that is two forward slashes "//", not back slashes "\\".

 

Joe L.

You need not log in at all via telnet.  (it is a good sign that you can, but nearly all configuration is done via the web-management-console)

 

Instead, use your web-browser to browse to

 

http://tower

 

(or whatever you named it, if you changed the default name)  Note: that is two forward slashes "//", not back slashes "\\".

 

Joe L.

 

thanks, yeah i figured out that i was actually just in the cmd prompt for tower.  i logged into server from browser, that's all good.  i didn't assign parity yet, but assigned 3 other hard drives.  now they're showing up and there's a flashing blue dot by them.  how do i format them for the array before i assign parity?  i want to fill them up first so it will be faster.  or does it automatically do it?

 

thx

 

also- does it matter when i assign shares, do i do that as soon as i format drives?

I just hit start to start the array and see if it would give me more options.  it says "mounting" for all 3 drives now.  i'm assuming it's preparing them to receive data, is that correct?  can i set up shares when it's done, and start transferring?

 

thx again,

rlr

I just hit start to start the array and see if it would give me more options.  it says "mounting" for all 3 drives now.  i'm assuming it's preparing them to receive data, is that correct?  can i set up shares when it's done, and start transferring?

 

thx again,

rlr

If you refresh your browser, you will probably see the disks marked as "unformatted" and a button available to "Format" them.  (The browser does not refresh itself, you will need to use the "Refresh" button to see the current status)

 

If you had set up a parity drive, the data drives would first be cleared, then formatted.  For large drives, the clearing step can take many hours.  you skipped that, since they do not need to be pre-cleared if they are being added to an array that has no parity drive.

 

Joe L.

I just hit start to start the array and see if it would give me more options.  it says "mounting" for all 3 drives now.  i'm assuming it's preparing them to receive data, is that correct?  can i set up shares when it's done, and start transferring?

 

thx again,

rlr

If you refresh your browser, you will probably see the disks marked as "unformatted" and a button available to "Format" them.  (The browser does not refresh itself, you will need to use the "Refresh" button to see the current status)

 

If you had set up a parity drive, the data drives would first be cleared, then formatted.  For large drives, the clearing step can take many hours.  you skipped that, since they do not need to be pre-cleared if they are being added to an array that has no parity drive.

 

Joe L.

 

I will add the parity drive though, as soon as I fill these drives up, is that still ok?

 

I refreshed, and didn't see anything for pre-clear, but "format", is that what you mean?.  I selected to format drives, will they be ready to add parity after that, after i add data?

I just hit start to start the array and see if it would give me more options.  it says "mounting" for all 3 drives now.  i'm assuming it's preparing them to receive data, is that correct?  can i set up shares when it's done, and start transferring?

 

thx again,

rlr

If you refresh your browser, you will probably see the disks marked as "unformatted" and a button available to "Format" them.  (The browser does not refresh itself, you will need to use the "Refresh" button to see the current status)

 

If you had set up a parity drive, the data drives would first be cleared, then formatted.  For large drives, the clearing step can take many hours.  you skipped that, since they do not need to be pre-cleared if they are being added to an array that has no parity drive.

 

Joe L.

 

I will add the parity drive though, as soon as I fill these drives up, is that still ok?

Yes, no problem at all.  Having a parity drive assigned will slow down the initial load of data to the array.  As long as you are copying it from other disks, you do not need the additional protection that parity provides.  You probably will want to define it prior to re-using any of the old disks on the unRAID server. (Before unRAID reformats the drive that had the original copy of your data)

 

I refreshed, and didn't see anything for pre-clear,

I said, because you do not have a parity drive defined, that step is skipped.  Once you define a parity drive any additional data drives will go through a clearing step of the new drive, during which your server will not be usable to get to your other data.  A way to avoid this clearing down-time is to pre-clear the disk.  (It still takes the same time, but it is done with your array on-line)

, but "format", is that what you mean?. 

No, clearing is a different operation, prior to formatting, if you have a parity drive defined.

I selected to format drives, will they be ready to add parity after that, after i add data?

Formatting takes a minute or so with most drives.  Once it is done, you can add your data.  You can assign the parity drive at any time... Once you do, parity will automatically be maintained.  You should run periodic parity checks, but mainly to test your disks and identify issues before they become disk failures.

 

I recommend you use the preclear_disk.sh script to test, verify, and exercise your disks before adding them to your array.  It will give you some confidence the disks will work long-term, as many fail in the first few hours.  It is described here

 

You might look here in the wiki for some good information for new unRAID array users: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Best_of_the_Forums

 

Joe L.

I said, because you do not have a parity drive defined, that step is skipped.  Once you define a parity drive any additional data drives will go through a clearing step of the new drive, during which your server will not be usable to get to your other data.  A way to avoid this clearing down-time is to pre-clear the disk.  (It still takes the same time, but it is done with your array on-line)

, but "format", is that what you mean?. 

No, clearing is a different operation, prior to formatting, if you have a parity drive defined.

I selected to format drives, will they be ready to add parity after that, after i add data?

Formatting takes a minute or so with most drives.  Once it is done, you can add your data.  You can assign the parity drive at any time... Once you do, parity will automatically be maintained.   You should run periodic parity checks, but mainly to test your disks and identify issues before they become disk failures.

 

I recommend you use the preclear_disk.sh script to test, verify, and exercise your disks before adding them to your array.  It will give you some confidence the disks will work long-term, as many fail in the first few hours.   It is described here

 

You might look here in the wiki for some good information for new unRAID array users: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Best_of_the_Forums

 

Joe L.

 

thanks so much that's perfect,

one last question- so then once the parity drive is established, then is "pre-clear" an option that's available when you add a drive, or do you have to enter that command at root level?  wouldn't i need to assign a drive to that script?

 

rlr

I said, because you do not have a parity drive defined, that step is skipped.  Once you define a parity drive any additional data drives will go through a clearing step of the new drive, during which your server will not be usable to get to your other data.  A way to avoid this clearing down-time is to pre-clear the disk.  (It still takes the same time, but it is done with your array on-line)

, but "format", is that what you mean?. 

No, clearing is a different operation, prior to formatting, if you have a parity drive defined.

I selected to format drives, will they be ready to add parity after that, after i add data?

Formatting takes a minute or so with most drives.  Once it is done, you can add your data.  You can assign the parity drive at any time... Once you do, parity will automatically be maintained.   You should run periodic parity checks, but mainly to test your disks and identify issues before they become disk failures.

 

I recommend you use the preclear_disk.sh script to test, verify, and exercise your disks before adding them to your array.  It will give you some confidence the disks will work long-term, as many fail in the first few hours.   It is described here

 

You might look here in the wiki for some good information for new unRAID array users: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Best_of_the_Forums

 

Joe L.

 

thanks so much that's perfect,

one last question- so then once the parity drive is established, then is "pre-clear" an option that's available when you add a drive, or do you have to enter that command at root level?  wouldn't i need to assign a drive to that script?

 

rlr

Once a drive has been assigned to the array, the pre-clear script will not allow you to use it on it.  It is only for those drives that are physically attached, but not yet assigned to the array in any way.   It is only available at the linux command-line.  If you use the web-management console, it will clear the drive, but it will do it with the rest of the array off-line while the clearing proceeds.  On a 1.5TB drive, the clearing step can take 4 or more hours.   

 

When pre-clearing, the preclear_disk.sh script actually first pre-reads every block on the disk, then partitions it and writes zeros to all the blocks on the disk, and finally post-reads all the blocks on the disk.  For a 1.5TB drive this takes about 11 or 12 hours on most newer SATA based controllers.  (about 3 times the "clearing" duration, since it reads, then writes, then reads again.)  The pre and post-reads are to allow the SMART firmware on the disk to identify and re-map any defective cylinders. (They are identified on reads, and re-mapped when the same sector is subsequently written to)

The last thing the preclear_disk.sh script does is to write a special signature to the disk marking it as "pre-cleared" to unRAID so it knows it can skip that step when adding a disk to an array.  The down-time on an array when assigning a pre_cleared drive is only the few minutes needed to format the drive.

 

I recommend you preclear all new drives.  Yes, it may take many hours to pre-clear, but it is a LOT easier to deal with a failing drive before you put your precious data on it. 

 

Edit: Fixed link to preclear topic is here

 

Joe L.

 

@Joe L.

 

that's great, thanks a lot for the help!