SomeWhatLost Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 so, many years ago, I upgraded my perfectly stable 4.5 unraid system to a very early 5.0 beta, and have been perfectly happy ever since... but I keep reading about all the coolness that is unraid v6.x.... now I am starting to think it is time to upgrade... I blame Limetech... now, I have read the various upgrade guides/FAQ/etc... so no real question there as such... some very good points were brought up in those... reformat HDD's, and flash, clean start and all that, makes perfect sense I think... but, I do have a bit of a conundrum... my existing d525 based system wont cut it for what I plan on using v6 for... but I do plan on reusing much of the existing parts in the new... but I also can't bring the existing array down until I have the new system up... not sure how I will accomplish this upgrade? how does one rebuild an old server without taking it offline? as for a new motherboard/cpu goes anyone use the supermicro x11ssl-cf mb? 8x SAS3 on board sounds nice for an unraid box... but I am not 100% sure what SAS3 is? is it still 1 SAS = 4 SATA? and will the on board sas controller work with unraid? it lists a bunch of raid it supports, but no mention of JBOD? (or "IT" mode) if it worksm seems like the perfect unraid solution? Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 I would not recommend upgrading a D525-based system to v6. While it WILL work, the CPU demands of v6 are a bit much of this little workhorse. I really like my little D525 server, but it's purely used as a NAS, and it's the one system I'm still running v5 on. I WOULD upgrade to the final v5 release instead of your old Beta ... but I'd build a new server with much more capable hardware for v6. The D525 server would make an excellent backup server to keep backups of your data on ... I'd simply leave it as is and build an entirely new system ... then just copy your data from one server to the other. Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 ...now, I have read the various upgrade guides/FAQ/etc... so no real question there as such... some very good points were brought up in those... reformat HDD's... Never seen that in any documentation and don't know anyone who did it that way. After upgrade many people changed the filesystem they used and that required them to move files around so they could reformat a disk to a new filesystem. But there is no reason to start over with all your data. Quote Link to comment
SomeWhatLost Posted June 11, 2016 Author Share Posted June 11, 2016 ...now, I have read the various upgrade guides/FAQ/etc... so no real question there as such... some very good points were brought up in those... reformat HDD's... Never seen that in any documentation and don't know anyone who did it that way. After upgrade many people changed the filesystem they used and that required them to move files around so they could reformat a disk to a new filesystem. But there is no reason to start over with all your data. yes, the exact wording was to change over to the new filesystem... which if I am not mistaken would require the HDD to be re-formatted... of course there would be a lot of moving files off/ then refilling as needed... not going to reformat with all my data on the HDD, that would be a bit extreme... that said, the more I think about it, garycase does make a very good point... while I do have a a little safety net (ie the parity drive) having an actual redundant backup would be much better... hmm... it is a very compelling plan... now it is just a matter of finding some pennies laying under cushions and such to see if I can afford it.. I suspect it will take a lot of pennies to do it right... Quote Link to comment
SomeWhatLost Posted June 11, 2016 Author Share Posted June 11, 2016 also, my really big question is still about the SuperMicro X11SSL-CF board... http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSL-CF.cfm unless I am missing something, it supports 30HDD's right out of the box, seems perfect? but does unraid support the LSI3008 that they are using? Quote Link to comment
itimpi Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 also, my really big question is still about the SuperMicro X11SSL-CF board... http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSL-CF.cfm unless I am missing something, it supports 30HDD's right out of the box, seems perfect? but does unraid support the LSI3008 that they are using? i think you have misread ir± I make it 14 drives of which 6 are available via SATA connectors and 8 via SAS connector. If you want to use SATA drives on the SAS connectors you will need appropriate breakout cables. Quote Link to comment
SomeWhatLost Posted June 12, 2016 Author Share Posted June 12, 2016 i think you have misread ir± I make it 14 drives of which 6 are available via SATA connectors and 8 via SAS connector. If you want to use SATA drives on the SAS connectors you will need appropriate breakout cables. I think you are correct, I was reading it as 8 sas connectors... my bad... 2 connectors/8drives is correct... still, 14 drives seems pretty good to me? I am currently getting by with 6... I just currently have no cache drives... Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Several folks on this forum are using that board, and it works very nicely with UnRAID. It's an excellent board, with support for 14 drives and ECC memory. You can build a VERY nice server with it that will be a huge upgrade from what you have and will easily support any of the newer features or high-demand processes (e.g. Plex) that you might want to toss at it. Quote Link to comment
EdgarWallace Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 Old topic but I was trying to upgrade my server over the weeks and bought this board. All is working ok, all LED's are indicating proper operation and memory test (24h) was also 100% fine. Today I was trying to attach 5 HDD's to the LSI controller but other than the 2 SSD's attached to the normal SATA ports on unRAID I can't recognize any HDD attached. I am using two older Chenbro 4-Port SAS / SATA-II Backplane 80H102209-010. The breakout cable was ordered by Amazon ... that is the one: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01I0VGPCM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I checked the manual but can't see anything that would resolve the issue. Maybe I have overlooked something simple I would appreciate any help. Thanks a lot. tower-diagnostics-20170106-1949.zip Quote Link to comment
Frank1940 Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 Old topic but I was trying to upgrade my server over the weeks and bought this board. All is working ok, all LED's are indicating proper operation and memory test (24h) was also 100% fine. Today I was trying to attach 5 HDD's to the LSI controller but other than the 2 SSD's attached to the normal SATA ports on unRAID I can't recognize any HDD attached. I am using two older Chenbro 4-Port SAS / SATA-II Backplane 80H102209-010. The breakout cable was ordered by Amazon ... that is the one: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01I0VGPCM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I checked the manual but can't see anything that would resolve the issue. Maybe I have overlooked something simple I would appreciate any help. Thanks a lot. You need the forward breakout cable. This cable is used to connect a controller to individual four SATA Drives. A reverse breakout cable is used to connect four on-board SATA ports (on a motherboard) to a backplane. You do not want this cable! (My German is not good enough to be able to tell which connector you have and the terms 'forward breakout' and 'reverse breakout' probably do not translate directly into German.) This is the cable you want on the Amazon US English site: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-SFF-8643-Breakout/dp/B01BW1U2L2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1483736322&sr=8-3&keywords=forward+breakout+connector EDIT: Using the information from the post below, here is a link to a forward breakout cable: https://www.amazon.de/CableCreation-Internal-Mini-SFF-8643-Host/dp/B01B1IVEM2/ref=pd_sim_147_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01B1IVEM2&pd_rd_r=PKCXHDGX1A0JA8935DBW&pd_rd_w=N1HNp&pd_rd_wg=SIM36&psc=1&refRID=PKCXHDGX1A0JA8935DBW Quote Link to comment
DoeBoye Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 Old topic but I was trying to upgrade my server over the weeks and bought this board. All is working ok, all LED's are indicating proper operation and memory test (24h) was also 100% fine. Today I was trying to attach 5 HDD's to the LSI controller but other than the 2 SSD's attached to the normal SATA ports on unRAID I can't recognize any HDD attached. I am using two older Chenbro 4-Port SAS / SATA-II Backplane 80H102209-010. The breakout cable was ordered by Amazon ... that is the one: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01I0VGPCM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I checked the manual but can't see anything that would resolve the issue. Maybe I have overlooked something simple I would appreciate any help. Thanks a lot. You need the forward breakout cable. This cable is used to connect a controller to individual four SATA Drives. A reverse breakout cable is used to connect four on-board SATA ports (on a motherboard) to a backplane. You do not want this cable! (My German is not good enough to be able to tell which connector you have and the terms 'forward breakout' and 'reverse breakout' probably do not translate directly into German.) This is the cable you want on the Amazon US English site: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-SFF-8643-Breakout/dp/B01BW1U2L2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1483736322&sr=8-3&keywords=forward+breakout+connector Pro Tip: Often, all you need to do is change the tld in the amazon url to get the localized version of what you're looking for. (So change .de for .com and if Amazon US has it, it will give you the amazon.com listing) Quote Link to comment
EdgarWallace Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 Thanks a lot for the clarification. This is the cable that is shown by changing the tld: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I0VGPCM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Should be the right one no? I don't have to change the IR/IT mode? Wasn't needed for my actual Asus board maybe for this one? Quote Link to comment
Frank1940 Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 Thanks a lot for the clarification. This is the cable that is shown by changing the tld: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I0VGPCM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Should be the right one no? I think this is the wrong cable. As I read it, the four SATA connectors on this cable would plug into the MB SATA ports and the other end would connect to a backplane into which the hard drives would then be inserted into. I read 'host' as the device supplying the signals. In your case, the 'host' is the motherboard. Quote Link to comment
DoeBoye Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 Thanks a lot for the clarification. This is the cable that is shown by changing the tld: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I0VGPCM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Should be the right one no? I think this is the wrong cable. As I read it, the four SATA connectors on this cable would plug into the MB SATA ports and the other end would connect to a backplane into which the hard drives would then be inserted into. I read 'host' as the device supplying the signals. In your case, the 'host' is the motherboard. +1. The cable you bought and just linked to is a reverse breakout cable. The one Frank 1940 linked to in his edit is the one you want. They look identical, but transfer in opposite directions Quote Link to comment
EdgarWallace Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 Thanks a lot guy's. Cable is ordered and should arrive on Monday. Quote Link to comment
DoeBoye Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Excellent! Keep us posted! :-) Quote Link to comment
EdgarWallace Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 The cable arrived and it was doing as you guy's promised All working well now thanks a lot for your help. Quote Link to comment
DoeBoye Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Great news! Glad to hear it was a relatively easy fix! Quote Link to comment
SomeWhatLost Posted February 17, 2017 Author Share Posted February 17, 2017 why would a passive cable matter? oh wait, never mind, that was a stupid question, they probably swap TX/RX being as it is all serial an all... it is Friday, I get a pass on stupid questions on Friday... as for Edgar, glad you got it working... nothing worse that a shiny new box that just sits there an blinks at you while not working... one quick question though, its been about a month, you have had time to "kick the tires" so to speak, how do you actually like this mother board? when I started this thread the plan was to upgrade my old unraid v5 d525 atom based server... I ended up keeping it as a backup and building a new one with a slightly older supermicro board that I got fairly cheap... but now that I am used to V6, every time I need to do something on the old atom D525 v5 server I get the urge to upgrade it... I guess it is true, the urge to upgrade never ends... Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 ... but now that I am used to V6, every time I need to do something on the old atom D525 v5 server I get the urge to upgrade it... I guess it is true, the urge to upgrade never ends... FWIW, the D525 will run v6 "okay" => I upgraded mine and played with it for a couple days; but decided to revert it to v5 for the higher performance and faster parity check speeds. But it DOES work just fine functionally, and if you don't care about the slight performance hit it will work fine. My experience with the upgrade is detailed here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=55794.msg531895#msg531895 Quote Link to comment
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