Hello all,

I recently completed the build of my first unraid server. It's been working great but my lack of knowledge in the Linux department is limiting me! I decided to setup a 10gb connection between my workstation, HTPC and NAS. These will have to be P2P connections until I am able to buy a 10gb switch.

 

Clients:

HTPC - HP 10GB MELLANOX CONNECTX-2 PCIe 10GB (part 671798-001)

Workstation - HP 10GB MELLANOX CONNECTX-2 PCIe 10GB (part 671798-001)

 

Nas:

Unraid - HP Dual Port 10Gb Ethernet PCIe Card for Proliant (part 468349-001 468330-002)

 

Other:

2x "Fiber Optic" LC UPC to LC UPC Duplex 98ft and 33ft cables (from fs.com)

4x HPE BladeSystem 10GBase-SR SFP+ 300m Transceiver (part 455883-B21 from fs.com)

 

I installed all of the above hardware and everything seems to be detected

 

The client computers (Windows 10 x64) both seem to detect the 10gb NIC just fine. In fact, they can ping each other if I do a Peer2Peer connection with them. Notice the speed @ 10.0Gbps.

 

The unRaid server can detect the card (see image below). But I don't know how to configure it.

 

I read somewhere that the following directory contains a "network.cfg" file that I need to edit. It looks like this:

"\\server\flash\config\network.cfg"

 

# Generated network settings
USE_DHCP="yes"
IPADDR=
NETMASK=
GATEWAY=
BONDING="yes"
BRIDGING="yes"
 

I think that I am in the right place but I do not understand what to do. How do I specify "eth2" in this config file?

I got was able to do the following:

 

Run in a Putty Session on the Unraid server:

"ifconfig eth2 192.168.50.5 netmask 255.255.255.0"

 

then set 10gb connection on windows 10 client to:

192.168.50.4, 255.255.255.0

 

I am able to ping the windows computer from unraid using putty, but I cannot ping the unraid server from windows.

You can configure eth2 on Settings -> Network Settings

 

You other NIC must be on a different IP other than 192.168.50.x

On 11/23/2017 at 2:09 AM, johnnie.black said:

You can configure eth2 on Settings -> Network Settings

 

You other NIC must be on a different IP other than 192.168.50.x

 

For some reason "eth2" and "eth3" were apart of the bonding group. Did the following:

- stopped the array

- removed them from the bonding group

- assigned a static IP address in the 192.168.50.* range

- started the array

 

both hosts can now ping unraid.

Edited February 25, 20197 yr by smaka510

FYI - for the next person looking to do this here is the process.

 

Windows 10:

 

1. install the 10gb NIC and give it a static IP address in a different subnet (if your other NIC's IP is 192.168.0.6 - change the value of the 3rd octet to any unused number 1-254, such as 192.168.66.6)

 

2. turn on network discovery (without this your computer will not respond to pings or any other kinds of remote requests). Simply open a windows explorer window and click the "network option". it will attempt to find computers and devices on your network, if network discovery has not been enabled you will be prompted to do so.

 

3. Your done for now, but you will need to force windows to use the 10gb NIC for connections to unraid (keep reading)

 

 

Unraid:

 

1. install your 10gb NIC and make sure you can see it in the "system info". Make note of the "eth#" shown

 

2. go to "settings > network settings" and scroll down to the "eth#" from the previous step. If it is in a "bond group", the array must be stopped and the "eth#" removed.

 

3. assign the "eth#" a static IP address. this address must be in the same subnet/netmask as your windows PC (in other words, 192.168.66.* - see windows sample from above).

 

4. hit apply

 

5. use Putty or something similar to connect to your unraid server. Ping the windows PC's 10gb NIC using it's address (our sample is 192.168.66.6). Because you have multiiple NIC's you must specify what NIC to use for ping.

 

ping -I eth# 192.168.66.6 (the -i switch allows you to ping using a spcific NIC. replace the # with your NIC id).

 

if the windows 10 computer responds all is well. Go back to windows to complete the configuration.

if the windows 10 computer does not respond, you missed one of the above steps or have some other issue.

 

Back to Win 10 Again (rhymes right?)

 

There are 2 ways to force windows to use the 10gb connection. For the purposes of documentation (keeping all info in 1 place) I have both listed, but in no way would I ever recommend using method 2.

 

Method 1: add unraid server to your "host" file

go to "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc" and open the "hosts" file with notepad

scroll all the way to the bottom and on a blank line enter the unraid servers 10gb NIC address followed by a space then an alias (I like to use the Hostname)

 

192.168.66.6 Hostname

 

now save the file and attempt to ping "Hostname". You should find that "Hostname" now resolves to the IP address you have specified in the "host" file.

If you ever have need to access the unraid server from this PC but do NOT want to use the 10gb NIC you can simply enter another line in your "host" file.

 

192.168.66.6 Hostname-10g

192.168.0.6 Hostname

 

line 1: will resolve the alias "Hostname-10g" to the servers 10gb NIC address

line 2: will resolve the alias "Hostname" to the servers 1gb NIC address

 

Method 2: NOT RECOMMENDED

Windows 10 now has more than 1 NIC that can connect to the unraid server. How will it know what one to use?

You would normally go in and change the NIC priority, but this is no good in windows 10. for some reason they kept the interface and all it's options, but they don't work. Change the settings all you want and they will just revert back. You are expected to manually change the "metric" (although it's not well documented).

 

go to the "network connections" in the control panel and select the properties of the 10gb connection.

now select the IPv4 option in the "networking" tab, then select the "advanced" button in the new window.

You should now see the "advanced TCP/IP settings" window. At the bottom of this window uncheck the "automatic metric" button and set a value.

 

keep in mind that lower numbers have a lower priority. I manually set a value of "10" for the 10gb NIC and "20" for my wireless NIC so the priority for one is higher than the other. This method uses one connection as a "failover" for the other. It will always try the 10gb connection first and use the other if 10gb fails. The problem with this is that it uses 10gb for everything and does so at the expense of giving your other NIC a lower priority.