hello --

 

i'll skip the 'omg, how come i never heard of this before?' (but, really, how can you keep such a low profile with this?) schtick and bluntly get to the point:

 

my nas has a second nic that unraid 4.5 is currently not using.  it is using the 1st nic, the 100mbps one, and file transfers are taking longer than they should.  to state the obvious, things would go faster if i could use my gigabit segment to transfer files...

 

so:

(1) can unraid 4.5 make use of more than just one nic?

(2) if so, how do i do this?

 

thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

Basically, no it cannot use more than one on a LAN.

 

Go into your BIOS, disable the first (slow) NIC, leave the (fast) second enabled. 

Move the LAN cable to the other connector, reboot.

 

Joe L.

unraid cannot make use of more than 1 nic?

ouch.

i guess i'll add my vote for this requested feature.  and if no one has requested it, i will.

 

i have two segments in my house.  the slowest one is for 'everything', including the htpc (the real client of the nas).

the fast segment is for the main boxes, including this nas.  this is what i used to slosh files around and onto the nas (in its previous incarnation).

 

there are two wires going into the nas, connected to different switches.

 

so if i want to serve my htpc (or my wireless devices), i can't go through the gigabit switch.

 

thanks for the answer.  i guess i'll have to be patient... (for now).

 

 

unraid cannot make use of more than 1 nic?

ouch.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5076.msg47615#msg47615

 

You can always enable your second NIC by issuing the appropriate ifconfig command.

(by telnet to the server, or in your 'go' script)

 

 

i have two segments in my house.. 

 

Just so I don't mislead you, what do you mean by segments?

 

Are those two different networks (different IP address ranges)?

Or are those two bridged networks?

Or is everything on the same network?

 

If it's the latter (by what you describe) then, as Joe pointed out, you won't benefit any by enabling both LANs on your unRAID.

 

Your best strategy in that case is to link all your Gigabit devices to your Gigabit switch,

link all 100Mb/s devices to the 100Mb/s switch, and then uplink the two switches together.

 

 

 

 

Your best strategy in that case is to link all your Gigabit devices to your Gigabit switch,

link all 100Mb/s devices to the 100Mb/s switch, and then uplink the two switches together.

 

That is a recipe for disaster.  What you described creates a circular, single collision domain.  Very, very bad.  One NIC can end up causing collisions with itself.

 

Never provide Ethernet packets a circular link w/o a real router in the loop.

bubbaQ, you misunderstood me. In the post above I meant that he should not enable that second NIC on his unRAID, as he won't benefit anything. So, no circular links here. His unRAID will only be connected through its Gigabit NIC.

 

 

Go into your BIOS, disable the first (slow) NIC, leave the (fast) second enabled.   

Move the LAN cable to the other connector, reboot.

Having unraid connected to two different networks with two different cards wont cause any issues. (assuming of course that both networks are different subnets).

unraid cannot make use of more than 1 nic?

ouch.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5076.msg47615#msg47615

 

You can always enable your second NIC by issuing the appropriate ifconfig command.

(by telnet to the server, or in your 'go' script)

 

 

 

well, since unraid is based on linux and that you can log in at the console, i sort of guessed that it could be done.  question is: once i enable the 2nd nic and assign it a static address (the second segment does not have a dhcp server), could the gui front-end manage of the 2nd interface?

 

cheers.

 

i have two segments in my house.. 

 

Just so I don't mislead you, what do you mean by segments?

 

Are those two different networks (different IP address ranges)?

Or are those two bridged networks?

Or is everything on the same network?

 

If it's the latter (by what you describe) then, as Joe pointed out, you won't benefit any by enabling both LANs on your unRAID.

 

Your best strategy in that case is to link all your Gigabit devices to your Gigabit switch,

link all 100Mb/s devices to the 100Mb/s switch, and then uplink the two switches together.

 

 

yes, those are two different networks, one with addresses dished out by my internet router, the other one using static addresses in a different range.

they are using different cabling and two different switches, a 100mbps smc, the other a 1gpbs d-link.

the faster 'inter-server' segment is not connected to the router.

all servers have a 2nd lan connection to slosh big files between them.

the 'client' machines (esp. the htpc) have just one connection, the 'slow' one.

 

for the nas (unraid server) to use only the 100mbps link is not optimal, to say the least.  this is why i want to enable the faster link.

 

cheers.

 

yes, those are two different networks, one with addresses dished out by my internet router, the other one using static addresses in a different range.

they are using different cabling and two different switches, a 100mbps smc, the other a 1gpbs d-link.

the faster 'inter-server' segment is not connected to the router.

all servers have a 2nd lan connection to slosh big files between them.

the 'client' machines (esp. the htpc) have just one connection, the 'slow' one.

 

Well in that case it makes perfect sense to enable the second NIC.

(That's what I have on my unRAID, for somewhat different reasons)

Yout first NIC is called eth0.  The second one is eth1.  So the command is:

ifconfig eth1 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  netmask 255.255.255.0  up

Replace that  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  with the IP address that you want to assign.

That's all.

 

 

Well in that case it makes perfect sense to enable the second NIC.

(That's what I have on my unRAID, for somewhat different reasons)

Yout first NIC is called eth0.  The second one is eth1.  So the command is:

ifconfig eth1 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  netmask 255.255.255.0  up

Replace that  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  with the IP address that you want to assign.

That's all.

 

 

thanks for the answer.

i already knew how to enable the interface on the fly (used to manage ultrix servers and other vax-based *nixes back in the day -- whoa, flashback to dealing with dec field service), i just didn't knew where Tom ("mr. unraid", right?) put his startup script, in case he went "non-standard".

and i still don't know if the gui front-end will make use of that interface...  will eth1 show in the web-based gui or will it be a "submarine" interface?

 

cheers.

 

p.s.: silly question, but, um, ah, well, is there a secret handhake to turn off an unraid server, or will a simple "shutdown" command at the console do the trick?

Well in that case it makes perfect sense to enable the second NIC.

(That's what I have on my unRAID, for somewhat different reasons)

Yout first NIC is called eth0.  The second one is eth1.  So the command is:

ifconfig eth1 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  netmask 255.255.255.0  up

Replace that  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  with the IP address that you want to assign.

That's all.

 

 

thanks for the answer.

i already knew how to enable the interface on the fly (used to manage ultrix servers and other vax-based *nixes back in the day -- whoa, flashback to dealing with dec field service), i just didn't knew where Tom ("mr. unraid", right?) put his startup script, in case he went "non-standard".

and i still don't know if the gui front-end will make use of that interface...  will eth1 show in the web-based gui or will it be a "submarine" interface?

 

cheers.

 

p.s.: silly question, but, um, ah, well, is there a secret handhake to turn off an unraid server, or will a simple "shutdown" command at the console do the trick?

Shutdown will not do it cleanly.  You'll be faced with a parity check upon reboot.

 

eth1 will not show up in the web-interfaace.

 

You can add lines to the end of config/go for your additional initialization commands.

 

There is a "powerdown" add-on that will shut the server down cleanly.  It installs in /sbin/powerdown.

several releases of unRAID ago, Tom added a /usr/local/sbin/powerdown.  It invokes the web-interface via a "wget" command to press the powerdown button.  It has reported it does not stop the array first, so it too might result in a non-clean shutdown and a parity calc on reboot.  It is before /sbin in the PATH, so if you install the powerdown script WeeboTech wrote, type

/sbin/powerdown

to invoke it by its full path else you invoke the wrong version.

Shutdown will not do it cleanly.  You'll be faced with a parity check upon reboot.

 

eth1 will not show up in the web-interfaace.

 

You can add lines to the end of config/go for your additional initialization commands.

 

There is a "powerdown" add-on that will shut the server down cleanly.  It installs in /sbin/powerdown.

several releases of unRAID ago, Tom added a /usr/local/sbin/powerdown.  It invokes the web-interface via a "wget" command to press the powerdown button.  It has reported it does not stop the array first, so it too might result in a non-clean shutdown and a parity calc on reboot.  It is before /sbin in the PATH, so if you install the powerdown script WeeboTech wrote, type

/sbin/powerdown

to invoke it by its full path else you invoke the wrong version.

 

definitively, having unraid "5.0" be able to deal with 2 nics should go on the "top 10 requested features" list.  i'll just have to find it to add my suggestion...

 

so unraid 4.5 will not deal with a 2nd nic through the gui: there goes an easy/lazy way to specify an smb workgroup for it.  anyone knows how to through the cli? (trying to finish my basement renos whilst i am configuring the nas, not enough time to do everything at the same time)

 

and btw, can i use an ftp server (bound to the 2nd nic) like i would in other linux distros?  there is an "ftpd" in /usr/sbin, but i don't know how it was "set up" by Tom.

 

i don't think i would be able to use ms-style networking with my ipod touch (and other mobile devices me+my semi-geekette s.o. are using), so using ftp to transfer files to the nas seems to be the only solution for now.

 

cheers.

 

p.s.: where do i get this "powerdown" add-on?  how do i install it?

 

definitively, having unraid "5.0" be able to deal with 2 nics should go on the "top 10 requested features" list.

 

The thing is, it's not really among the "top 10 requested features".

 

...so unraid 4.5 will not deal with a 2nd nic through the gui.

 

What do you really want to "deal" with the NICs through the gui? One line in your 'go' script and you're done.

The web management interface mostly deals with your disk shares, user shares, and stuff.

 

there goes an easy/lazy way to specify an smb workgroup for it.  anyone knows how to through the cli?

 

Now that's tricky. But the way you describe it, your two networks are totally independent from each other, and there's no routing between them. So why do then you bother giving different workgroup names?

 

p.s.: where do i get this "powerdown" add-on?  how do i install it?

 

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=UnRAID_Add_Ons

 

 

@purko:

 

having a gui front-end to manage all the nics, shares, workgroups is the "lazy/easy" way of doing things.  yes, the cli is _faster_ at times, but for some quick-and-dirty management, a gui is a "nice to have".

 

from what i assume of your experience serving your home and your (nice) neighbour's through two nics on your unraid server, am i wrong to think that the same workgroup is used on the two nics?  (ouch, badly said, that)  and is she (the aforementionned neighbour) seeing the same shares you are?

 

assuming there is nothing more to it, i should simply activate my second nic through an ifconfig command placed in a startup script and voilà, i should be able to use the same shares than i would through the slower interface?

 

cheers.

from what i assume of your experience serving your home and your (nice) neighbour's through two nics on your unraid server, am i wrong to think that the same workgroup is used on the two nics?  (ouch, badly said, that)  and is she (the aforementionned neighbour) seeing the same shares you are?

 

Yes.

 

assuming there is nothing more to it, i should simply activate my second nic through an ifconfig command placed in a startup script and voilà, i should be able to use the same shares than i would through the slower interface?

 

Yes.

 

I bring the second nic up early in my 'go' scrit, before emhttp.

(not sure if that matters)

 

 

 

I bring the second nic up early in my 'go' scrit, before emhttp.

(not sure if that matters)

 

 

emhttp?

 

google was inconclusive -- i'm assuming this is unraid's flavour of httpd?

 

btw, thanks for all the help, much appreciated.  once my current mass transfer is completed (xxcopy is a godsend), i'll load my 'plus' registration to make use of this 2nd 500mb hd, install this 'unmenu' web interface _and_ install that powerdown add-on you mentioned.

 

come to think of it, does 'powerdown' (? going from memory here) handle reboots too, or does it only deal with graceful, huh, powerdowns?

 

cheers.

 

 

I bring the second nic up early in my 'go' scrit, before emhttp.

(not sure if that matters)

 

 

emhttp?

 

 

Have you looked at your 'go' script?

It's located in the 'config' folder on your flash key.

It's executed every time your server boots up.

 

 

thanks for all the help.

 

the 2nd nic is working just fine, i'm able to "mass load" my unraid server at a better clip now (i never thought i'd say that 100mbps would be slow -- and back in the day we thought our 10mbits coax snake was fast!).

 

i just need to activate my 'plus' license, install the 'powerdown' & 'unmenu' add-ons, get the apc ups daemon configured & running (oops, apcupsd is not standard with unraid) and add hard drives.

 

a bit more work to get to a "final" configuration, but all in all, i am somewhat impressed by this product.

 

i am also stunned at how much a low profile unraid has.

i mean, i'm no computer newbie, had networks & servers running in my house before, though i knew "what was out there" and yet, until a colleague at work mentioned unraid a week and a half ago, i never heard about unread before, that i remember.

 

i think unraid's future is looking promising, to say the least.

 

cheers.

get the apc ups daemon configured & running (oops, apcupsd is not standard with unraid)

Apcupsd is installable from a button within the unMenu environment 

 

And yes - incredibly well kept secret this system. Lets hope word-of-mouth eventually scales (tell 10 friends that will tell ten friends  )...

 

 

Apcupsd is installable from a button within the unMenu environment 

 

And yes - incredibly well kept secret this system. Lets hope word-of-mouth eventually scales (tell 10 friends that will tell ten friends  )...

 

!!

if 'unmenu' brings apcupsd with it, does this mean it could bring 'powerdown' (the script previously mentioned to ensure a proper & _clean_ shutdown of an unraid server) also for the ride?

 

i hope so, it would then mean one less thing to hunt for...

 

and whilst i didn't mention it to 10 friends, i did broach the subject with a fellow propellerhead at work...  hey, doing my part!

 

cheers.

 

 

Apcupsd is installable from a button within the unMenu environment 

 

And yes - incredibly well kept secret this system. Lets hope word-of-mouth eventually scales (tell 10 friends that will tell ten friends  )...

 

!!

if 'unmenu' brings apcupsd with it, does this mean it could bring 'powerdown' (the script previously mentioned to ensure a proper & _clean_ shutdown of an unraid server) also for the ride?

Yes, you can install "powerdown" and "apcupsd" both with just a few clicks of a button from within the package-manager plug-in in unMENU.

 

i hope so, it would then mean one less thing to hunt for...

 

and whilst i didn't mention it to 10 friends, i did broach the subject with a fellow propellerhead at work...  hey, doing my part!

 

cheers.

 

 

one last thing:

 

i've shut down my unraid server because i'll be doing some surgery on it asap (adding two more sata drives, swapping sata optical for ide(*), etc.) and discovered that i'm apparently missing a mail program (what is listed in the 'apcupsd' dependencies)... and a 'zip' one to shrink log files.  i've looked in the unmenu package manager page to no avail.

 

help?

 

(*) all my on-board sata ports will be used for the array when i'm done.

 

 

...and another:

 

i know the parity drive must be as big as the biggest data drive, but is there some rule of thumb saying "beyond this amount of data, your parity drive should be (size of biggest drive) + xx%"?

 

i am about to have 6 drives in my unraid server (2x1 terabyte data + 3x500 megabyte data + 1 terabyte parity) and am starting to wonder if the parity drive will be enough to do its magic.

 

opinion?

 

 

p.s.: up to now i am very happy to have discovered unraid, via this thread on "redflagdeals.com" (http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/nas-alternative-my-unraid-server-build-553514/)... again, kudos to Tom & co! (and i do owe a bottle of something to this colleague who e-mailed me a link to the thread, methinks...)