I have needed to finally utilise my SATA controller that i put in my NAS some years ago. I believe the one i purchased was listed as compatible but i font appear to be picking up drives in unraid (but that was back in version 4).

 

I couldnt see anything in the syslog but hopefully someone can assist as im not sure where to start

 

The model is: fg-sa3114-4ir-01-sk01

unraid-syslog-20170322-2006.zip

Edited July 3, 20224 yr by kingy444

Isn't this disk using it?
 

Mar 22 20:01:43 unRAID kernel: ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Mar 22 20:01:43 unRAID kernel: ata3.00: ATA-10: WDC WD2003FZEX-00SRLA0,      WD-WMC6N0H9MZL6, 01.01A01, max UDMA/133

Other 3 ports have nothing connected.

Your right, thats the drive.

 

It wasnt appearing as an unassigned device in the main screen, then i started the array and its there now.

Now to start a pre-clear.

 

I'm curious, what is performance like utilising a sata card rather than onboard ports. This drive will be a cache drive so i assume better to connect to a onboard controller? With that in mind i assume these are generally fine for any other type of usage?

 

I also noted as part of this my server can hold 12 disks but i only have sata ports up to 10, any recommendations on a compatible 2 port card? I can pick up another on of these cards for 45$ knowing they are compatable, but i havent checked what PCI port requirements are yet

That's an older PCI controller, speed will be reasonable with a single disk, any more than that and your parity checks/rebuilds will slowdown considerably, also adding another PCI controller will also cause slowdowns since they all share the same bus, if you need more ports get a PCI express controller instead.

 

 

you have any recommendations?

2 ports: any Asmedia 1601 based controller

4 ports: Adaptec 1430SA (not recommended for SSDs)

8 ports: LSI 2008 based controller, Dell H310, IBM 1015, etc

 

I'm probably looking for something that supports the most SATA connections as I havent looked at SAS drives previously. It appears that most of these come with at least 2 SAS ports, I assume any i find on google using LSI 2008 should be ok, or should i check back here first?

 

I've also just noticed that I appear to be running my NIC out of the PCIx16 port. I had forgotton that the onboard controller was incompatible with unraid (GA-Z77-D3H running a Atheros GbE LAN chip)

 

Assume im best to run an 8 port out of there and move my nic to the PCIEX4 port. Always been a software guy so can use some guidance on hardware

The SAS controllers are downward compatible to SATA.

We have a hardware list in our wiki, but as johnnie already mentioned, one of those LSI based cards are probably the best choice.

Availability depends on your location though.

 

Did you test the onboard NIC with a newer version of unRAID?

Maybe it's working now.

Edited March 22, 20179 yr by Fireball3

21 minutes ago, kingy444 said:

Assume im best to run an 8 port out of there and move my nic to the PCIEX4 port.

 

Yes, that would be best, but like Fireball3 mentioned, you should try the onboard with current unRAID, it may work now.