Hi ya'll...long time no read.

 

my trusty unRaid system that i had configured with 15 drives, has finally gone belly up...i thought it was the power supply, because the system would just turn on for a split-second, then die again, but it turns out the mobo went bad...probably during our last Laurel Canyon power outage/spike.

 

anyway, not to get too personal and bum anyone out, but i've been in Germany since Christmas, where i wanted to spend the holidays with my family...instead i collapsed while in my Berlin apartment, was rushed to a hospital, diagnosed with a severer brain-cancer, 4 hour emergency operation by an amazing professor, and have been fighting the results of the removed Glioblastoma Grade IV operation ever since...things are going well so far, but it's a big surprise, as you can probably imagine.

 

anyway, since i can't be in California right now to oversee the repair of my unRaid system, and desperately need my data over here in Europe, where i am likely to have to stay for the next 2-3 years to undergo treatment, i need a few pointers as to what to tell the guys at Central Computer in San Francisco.

 

first things first...i finally got a hold of someone there via email, after i asked my brother to drop off the dead system there...they diagnosed the problem as a bad motherboard, and without asking me (they didn't know that this is an unRaid system, or what that would even be), they replaced the standard mobo from 4 years ago with an ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo and an ASUS en8400gs silent graphics card (since they couldn't figure why i would want a mobo with crappy onboard video).

 

so, first of all:

 

- does that mobo work for unRaid...the labor so far is $90, and i could probably get them to do a mobo switch without charging me, since they didn't check with me first...if i do that, what mobo should i have them pick for a 15 disk (all 2TB WD Green Drives) system?

 

- my old mobo didn't do great on parity checks...i really want a FAST system in that regard, which probably means using PCI-X or PCI-e based SATA controllers...which ones are supported, are there 8-port ones that are known to perform well without costing an arm and a leg, and would you recommend two 8-port or three 4-port controllers (depending on mobo and what SATA connectors are on your recommended mobo)?

 

- once the controllers have been picked, which drives should be hooked up to which ports (mobo and controllers)? do certain boards prefer the controllers in certain slots (because of shared bandwidth and that sort of stuff)?

 

- since i can pick pretty much any replacement parts i want, and i am sure much has happened since i first jumped on the unRaid bandwagon in 2005, what can you recommend as reasonable upgrades...my processor is (if i remember correctly) a dual core E-class proc...but i remember that processor type/speed are pretty much near the bottom of the performance enhancing components list...but is there some morsel of wisdom as far as proc/memory combo, that is worth investigating/ordering?

 

in closing (for now) i just want to add this: i have the deepest respect for unRaid and its community...if you look at my old posts, you will find that i have always been helpful and tried to do my research first, before asking for help from you beautiful people...but in this case, i have to have an answer for them in the morning, as not to incur extra costs and waste their time (and mine)...and time is very precious from where i am sitting

 

so, with the most humble attitude: may someone out there please fill me in as detailed as possible, as to what a good/great combo of components would be? i obviously don't have the time to go back and forth about this a lot, so a proven and fast system config/components list will suit me perfectly...i know nothing in this realm is perfect on all levels, so i would be super grateful for a combo that just works great.

 

oh, one more thing...my brother retrieved this system from my studio in LA and brought it to the shop in SF...in the process the USB stick with the unRaid OS appears to have been misplaced...if it is lost, am i in deep trouble as far as the config of the array goes, or is there a way to rebuild it without losing any data? i originally purchased the "two for one" license, so i could always use my second license...so money is not the primary concern here...it's just the data i am worried about...what will they have to do to get it up and running with everything where i left it?  

 

can't wait to get my beloved unRaid system, or more importantly, my 20TB of data, back into action...please help me accomplish this!

 

If you go with a new motherboard, what is your budget?

Do you require remote administration.

 

The Supermicro X7SBE these days is very popular, Albeit expensive.  With the right addition, it has full remote administration up to the bios level.

Yet when you add the cost of 2 AOC-SATA-MV8's with the capability for 20 drives, it starts to balance out.

 

Two of the AOC-SASLP-MV8 could be used in the X7SBE also at an additional cost for the cables.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SASLP-MV8.cfm

 

 

if you  could go with a system with slightly less drives,  Let's say 14 drives.

Then you can go for the Supermicro X7SPA-HF

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/ICH9/X7SPA.cfm

and a

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SASLP-MV8.cfm

 

This would yield 14 drives with power savings and remote management.

 

 

As far as drive slots and loss of data.

If it were me, I would start with a brand new parity drive that I know was not in the array before.

 

This way I can be sure I do not accidentally assign parity to a used drive.

As far as drive slots and loss of data.

If it were me, I would start with a brand new parity drive that I know was not in the array before.

 

This way I can be sure I do not accidentally assign parity to a used drive.

Or, do not assign any parity drive initially.  If you can assign all of your assigned data drives, and none of them show as "un-formatted" then the remaining drive is the parity drive.

 

Warning.. Do not press the "Format" button if you see it.  There should be no un-formatted drives.  If you are using 4.5.3 there is a bug in the display of an initially booted array for some users.  It sometimes shows drives that have not yet mounted as un-formatted.  Simply stop and re-start the array to get the display in sync.  Do not press the format button. 

- does that mobo work for unRaid...the labor so far is $90, and i could probably get them to do a mobo switch without charging me, since they didn't check with me first...if i do that, what mobo should i have them pick for a 15 disk (all 2TB WD Green Drives) system?

That board should work fine.

 

- my old mobo didn't do great on parity checks...i really want a FAST system in that regard, which probably means using PCI-X or PCI-e based SATA controllers...which ones are supported, are there 8-port ones that are known to perform well without costing an arm and a leg, and would you recommend two 8-port or three 4-port controllers (depending on mobo and what SATA connectors are on your recommended mobo)?

This can get complicated very quickly.  If you want to stick with the board they already have in there then you might need to do some "fancy stuff" to get to the 15 drives and keep everything on the PCI-e bus. You may not have to do fancy stuff but I do not know if the PCI-e x16 slots will allow for a SATA card to be installed in them.  Some motherboards do not allow anything but a video card to work in them. If you want to stay with that board you can use 3 of these in the PCI-e x1 slots for 6 more drives (that gets you to 13 drives on the PCI-e bus). From there you can use 1 of these in the PCI slot.  This is a 4 port card and on the PCI bus but as long as you only put two drives on there it should not slow it down a whole lot.  I picked the 4 port card just in case you ever wanted to put more drives in the server at a later time.  Also, i would have them take that video card out and put a PCI video card in.  The PCI card will draw less power and make less heat, plus it leave the PCI-e x16 slots open IF a SATA controller card does work in them.

 

NOW: with the above said you could keep that board and try to get 1 of these cards to work in the PCI-e x16 slots.  Like i mentioned about it is usually hit and miss if it will work.  NOTE: you will need to upgrade your unraid software to the latest version (4.5.3) to get this card to work.  You will also need some special cables to hook the drives up from the drives to the card. If you get one of these card to work plus the 7 on board you will be to your 15 drive you need.

 

There is also the option of switching motherboards to something like this.  This board has a lot of PCI-e and PCI-X slots on it.  It would be trivial to use 1 of these in a PCI-X slot and then one of the PCI-e x1 cards in one of the PCI-e slots. That combo you get you to the 15 drives you need and is known to work with unraid.  Again, updating to the latest version of unRAID (4.5.3) is recommended. Another good thing about this motherboard is that it has onboard video so you don't have to waste a slot for a video card.

 

- once the controllers have been picked, which drives should be hooked up to which ports (mobo and controllers)? do certain boards prefer the controllers in certain slots (because of shared bandwidth and that sort of stuff)?

It will not really matter, so long as you stay away from using the PCI bus on the motherboard (except for the video card if you need one).

 

- since i can pick pretty much any replacement parts i want, and i am sure much has happened since i first jumped on the unRaid bandwagon in 2005, what can you recommend as reasonable upgrades...my processor is (if i remember correctly) a dual core E-class proc...but i remember that processor type/speed are pretty much near the bottom of the performance enhancing components list...but is there some morsel of wisdom as far as proc/memory combo, that is worth investigating/ordering?

Don't worry about upgrading the processor unless you have to because of the new motherboard. More RAM will usually help more than a processor will.

 

oh, one more thing...my brother retrieved this system from my studio in LA and brought it to the shop in SF...in the process the USB stick with the unRaid OS appears to have been misplaced...if it is lost, am i in deep trouble as far as the config of the array goes, or is there a way to rebuild it without losing any data? i originally purchased the "two for one" license, so i could always use my second license...so money is not the primary concern here...it's just the data i am worried about...what will they have to do to get it up and running with everything where i left it?

You will not lose your data, unless something else fried also (i.e. a HDD or 2).  You can use your second key but you will need to reassign all your disks.  AS long as the disks are formatted still (which they should be) you can reassign them one by one to get the server back up.  The key is figuring out which drive is the parity drive.  you can do this by assigning a drive on the devices page, letting it refresh, going back to the main page, and seeing if the drive you assigned was able to be mounted.  If it pops up normal and does not asked to be formatted then it is most likely your parity drive.  I would then make a note of that drive and do the exact same thing for all the other drives.  All the others should mount just fine and you should be good to go to assign the parity drive.  If you mistakenly assign a data drive as parity and start the array, you will more than likely lose the data on that drive.

thanks for all those thoughtful pieces of advice!

 

for the moment, i asked the shop to change the mobo over to the Supermicro C2SEA, and to put two Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 in the there...i figured that since i was pretty happy with the official Lime-Technology mobo/SATA-card combo of the past 5 years, which has been superceded by the above in the flagship MD-1510 system, it wouldn't be the worst of choices.

 

is that a combo that you could recommend, even in the light of everything else that is out there? i guess i'll end up with over 20 SATA ports this way, so that i could maybe even add an internal cache drive, which is something i've been missing (performance wise), as i routinely back up directories and/or drives that are 1TB+...i do a lot of timelapse photography in 4k+ resolutions, and shoot/edit HD video as part of my profession...so copy and parity speeds are something that i direly need.

 

don't mean to ignore your advice, but i had to make a quick decision, as the shop had to get the order in...hope i made a right one.

You should be fine with those components!

alrighty then...those parts are ordered, and they should be putting the system back together next week...can't wait for the results!

will report back after i'm back in the States, and have had time to test the new unRaid setup.

 

thanks!!