There was indeed a lot of discussion about limiting the attached devices ... and as Rob noted, the way it ended up is with the 3 (trial), 6 (Basic), and 12 (Plus) device limits.    Limetech did eliminate the 25 device limit for Pro ... so folks with maxed out systems who have a few spare ports for other uses (e.g. pre-clears and/or occasional attached drives that are "outside" of the array) won't encounter any limits.

 

It can be an occasional nuisance, but it's easily avoided by just upgrading to a Pro key 

Well it is was it is now..  I have a pro license so I wouldn't have noticed.  But it's probably good to know. I used to have a spare machine I used for pre-clears. but now I just do them on the array (it has enough HP now)  Looks like others with less of a license will have to use a second machine if they are maxed out on devices.

 

Jim

Is it feasible to port the preclear functionality to other platforms? Mainly other Linux distributions, but MacOS and Windows would be nice too!

I think you could always set up a Trial USB key, install preclear and run it on another machine, even if you were not going to run that machine permanently as another unraid array. Kinda like building a preclear "stick" on a spare USB. You could preclear 3 drives at once on that setup.

I think you could always set up a Trial USB key, install preclear and run it on another machine, even if you were not going to run that machine permanently as another unraid array. Kinda like building a preclear "stick" on a spare USB. You could preclear 3 drives at once on that setup.

The device limit ONLY APPLIES TO STARTING THE ARRAY, not booting unraid. You can have as many drives hooked up as you want, as long as you don't need to actually start the array. Preclear does NOT need the array to be started, and works fine with any number of drives installed. You don't even need to apply for a trial key for preclear use.

... The device limit ONLY APPLIES TO STARTING THE ARRAY, not booting unraid. You can have as many drives hooked up as you want, as long as you don't need to actually start the array. Preclear does NOT need the array to be started, and works fine with any number of drives installed. You don't even need to apply for a trial key for preclear use.

 

This is true of course ... but that effectively shuts down the array for the duration of your pre-clears => which, with modern drives (and 2-3 passes) could easily be several days.      Not, in most cases, a very desirable way to go.  One of the key benefits of pre-clearing is you don't have an unavailable array during a clear operation.

 

 

... The device limit ONLY APPLIES TO STARTING THE ARRAY, not booting unraid. You can have as many drives hooked up as you want, as long as you don't need to actually start the array. Preclear does NOT need the array to be started, and works fine with any number of drives installed. You don't even need to apply for a trial key for preclear use.

 

This is true of course ... but that effectively shuts down the array for the duration of your pre-clears => which, with modern drives (and 2-3 passes) could easily be several days.      Not, in most cases, a very desirable way to go.  One of the key benefits of pre-clearing is you don't have an unavailable array during a clear operation.

I think he was implying you could setup a free version on another PC to preclear the drives then transfer them to the server - not doing the preclears on the server the drives will eventually be attached to.

Gold Star for BobPhoenix.

 

I know my situation is that I am a cheapskate and on top of that, I have a bad situation (motherboard with only 4 SATA ports and no expansion), but this is the dilemma shared by most newbs to unraid. If you purchase a Basic level license and you run single parity, 2-3 data drives and a cache (and/or application) drive, you're pretty much full. It would be nice to "standby" a hot spare or have a way to test these large (and getting larger) disc volumes since they take a while to prep and we're seeing many more fail out of the box... not starting my array while I do this is undesirable when I have other old computers lying around and I can easily let them preclear my drives.

Hey, I just loaded up your plugin on a backup machine to preclear some drives using a trial key.  When I go to the PreClear plugin page, It says this at the top and I am unable to use the plugin:

 

Warning: parse_ini_file(/boot/config/disk.cfg): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/preclear.disk/Preclear.php on line 84 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/preclear.disk/Preclear.php on line 84

 

Edit - disregard, I hit new config in the tools section and I am good now.

I am wanting to preclear a disk that I used to have mounted via unassigned devices. I unmounted that drive and then clicked on the preclear icon next to the disk. The preclear screen is stuck showing me "Please wait... retrieving information!". I have tried restarting my server and different web browsers but it stays stuck with that message. Any ideas on how to get past this screen?

 

Any ideas? Would really like to start a few tests with this GUI. I ended up doing one with screen and ssh and it just finished fine.

I installed the plug in and almost done with my first preclear..

So far it works great except for a discrepancy in the MB/s between the web GUI and the Preclear log window.

The web GUI shows 74 MB/s and the Preclear Log shows 123 MB/s.

This difference has been consistent no matter what the speed is.

I've got the plugin installed and the script is located in \\tower\flash\config\plugins\preclear.disk but the plugin still tells me the script is missing.

 

What am I doing wrong?

What is the script called?  Are the permissions set correctly? (if they need to change at all?)

 

I installed the plug in and almost done with my first preclear..

So far it works great except for a discrepancy in the MB/s between the web GUI and the Preclear log window.

The web GUI shows 74 MB/s and the Preclear Log shows 123 MB/s.

This difference has been consistent no matter what the speed is.

You mean the e-mailed reports and such?  the e-mailed reports will calculate based on time elapsed and bytes done. the gui uses the instantaneous value, iirc...

What is the script called?  Are the permissions set correctly? (if they need to change at all?)

 

-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  85224 Apr  5  2014 preclear_disk.sh*

 

ok...  now some dumb questions..  did you refresh the browser?  Did you try to reboot the system?

The script name looks right if in fact it really is in the correct directory like you say it is... I would just double check that.  after that, I'm out of ideas..

 

Jim

ok...  now some dumb questions..  did you refresh the browser?  Did you try to reboot the system?

The script name looks right if in fact it really is in the correct directory like you say it is... I would just double check that.  after that, I'm out of ideas..

 

Jim

 

I just tried removing and re-adding the plugin and now the icon looks different and it doesn't show up under Settings.  Do I need to reboot after installing this plugin?  If so I'll have to do that late.

 

 

And yes I've confirmed the directory location is correct and I've reloading my browser.

 

EDIT: Hmmmm, wonder if this is an issue with VMware.  The script seem to install properly and work fine on my backup server which is baremetal.

ok...  now some dumb questions..  did you refresh the browser?  Did you try to reboot the system?

The script name looks right if in fact it really is in the correct directory like you say it is... I would just double check that.  after that, I'm out of ideas..

 

Jim

 

I just tried removing and re-adding the plugin and now the icon looks different and it doesn't show up under Settings.  Do I need to reboot after installing this plugin?  If so I'll have to do that late.

 

 

And yes I've confirmed the directory location is correct and I've reloading my browser.

 

EDIT: Hmmmm, wonder if this is an issue with VMware.  The script seem to install properly and work fine on my backup server which is baremetal.

 

Mine did the same thing when I tried to uninstall and reinstall. A restart seemed to fix it; although it still gets stuck on the "Please wait... retrieving information!" window for me. I am running unRAID on bare metal. Not really sure what to do next but I have been running some manual preclears for the last couple of days  :'(

I installed the plug in and almost done with my first preclear..

So far it works great except for a discrepancy in the MB/s between the web GUI and the Preclear log window.

The web GUI shows 74 MB/s and the Preclear Log shows 123 MB/s.

This difference has been consistent no matter what the speed is.

You mean the e-mailed reports and such?  the e-mailed reports will calculate based on time elapsed and bytes done. the gui uses the instantaneous value, iirc...

No, both are from the web GUI, no e-mails involved. One on the preclear web page that come up when you click on the plugin icon from the plugins page and the other from the log window on the web GUI that opens when you click on the "eye" icon on preclear plugin page.

You mean these two values?  I could just be how often one refreshes vs the other..  The plugin author will have to comment on that.

 

Jim

You mean these two values?  I could just be how often one refreshes vs the other..  The plugin author will have to comment on that.

 

Jim

Yes, that's it. They both update/refresh often and I would think that over a 28 hour period that sooner or later they will match fairly close.

Yes, that's it. They both update/refresh often and I would think that over a 28 hour period that sooner or later they will match fairly close.

Maybe the web keeps a running average where the script window is an instantaneous??

Yes, that's it. They both update/refresh often and I would think that over a 28 hour period that sooner or later they will match fairly close.

Maybe the web keeps a running average where the script window is an instantaneous??

 

Both speeds are calculated by the preclear script.

 

The one displayed in the window is the average speed between two screen updates, while the one displayed in the GUI is the overall average speed since the start of the operation.

Hi could anyone tell me what the icon is on the top drive - thanks :-)

 

Hi could anyone tell me what the icon is on the top drive - thanks :-)

I think it lets you expand the "tree" at that point. Have you tried clicking on it?