USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 unRaid direct attached to PC?


Geffa

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Hi guys, I was looking here in the forums, but I couldn't find info on this.

 

I want to know if with unraid is possible to create something like a Dobro mini, or Dobro 5D3, 5C.

So, basically a box that will keep my files safe in case of driver failure that I can use directly attached to the PC via USB-C, or Thunderbolt 3.

 

All I know is that unraid is great over networks, but couldn't find nothing on using unraid via USB or TB. Is it possible?

 

Thank you.

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1 hour ago, pwm said:

I haven't looked closer at limitations of thunderbolt etc, but it should be possible to create a docker or VM that mounts the unRAID shares and delivers them using some other sharing method than Samba networking.

 

well, as far as I understand, on Windows to do this, you need to use this special USB cable. USB Data Transfer Cable. I was wondering if unraid would have some sort of solution for this. But yeah... I might go with the Drobo... =/

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8 minutes ago, Geffa said:

 

well, as far as I understand, on Windows to do this, you need to use this special USB cable. USB Data Transfer Cable. I was wondering if unraid would have some sort of solution for this. But yeah... I might go with the Drobo... =/

 

For USB-2, you most definitely needs a special cable. I'm pretty sure the same is true for USB-C - a cable with a gateway chip that looks like a device to both computers so the two computers can each be in host mode.

 

But I'm pretty sure you should be able to insert a Thunderbolt card in unRAID and have a VM serve this Thunderbolt card and perform fast networking with your MAC - basically doing what is described in the following link. Just that the software in the unRAID VM drags the file data from file system shares.

https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/07/intel-expands-thunderbolt-networking/

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2 minutes ago, pwm said:

 

For USB-2, you most definitely needs a special cable. I'm pretty sure the same is true for USB-C - a cable with a gateway chip that looks like a device to both computers so the two computers can each be in host mode.

 

But I'm pretty sure you should be able to insert a Thunderbolt card in unRAID and have a VM serve this Thunderbolt card and perform fast networking with your MAC - basically doing what is described in the following link. Just that the software in the unRAID VM drags the file data from file system shares.

https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/07/intel-expands-thunderbolt-networking/

mmm

 

this is looking interesting. Still I wonder... TB3 is USB-C compatible... would this work if the guest computer have only USB-C (yes, I'm trying to get ready for the future of all things USB--C)?

 

I guess not, but damn... The problem is that I can't test this out without buying the components... Or maybe I can put unraid in a VM on my Mac, and try from there...
damn, work :D

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  • 4 months later...

I am searching for thunderbolt 3 support recently in the forums and found most of the answers are "No", except this case:

The poster used a thunderbolt 2 enclosure for the drives and it is working properly with unraid release before (except the booting issue he addressed).

Wondering if anybody tried any thunderbolt 3 external drive enclosure with TB3 device (e.g. intel NUC) actually?

 

I found the following information in egpu.io:

since in unraid 6.5.2 we are already at Linux Kernel 4.14, and should include the following patch for TB3 security control:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/5/26/432

 

does it mean unraid support eGPU already by:

$sudo sh -c 'echo 1 > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-1/authorized'

 

like this topic:

https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/egpu-in-linux-has-anyone-here-gotten-it-to-work/

 

does anyone ever test it?

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  • 5 months later...

Below are a few articles on the approach that it seems people are beginning to play with to use thunderbolt to transfer data between computers. They are instantiating the ports as Ethernet devices, so that as far as the computers that are connected are concerned the thunderbolt connection behaves as a regular (Although very fast) network connection. Some of the sample speeds seem to leave something to be desired, however since this is just recently supported (THUNDERBOLT_NET) in the Linux, I am guessing there is still some room for improvement. The first article seems to imply 40G Ethernet speeds between a Mac and a Windows machine, however having not attempted this, I can not speak to actual results. Just thought I'd share...

 

https://gtrusted.com/how-to-connect-a-mac-and-windows-pc-over-a-10gb-ethernet-network-and-transfer-files-using-thunderbolt-3

https://superuser.com/questions/1244779/network-connection-over-thunderbolt-bridge-between-linux-and-mac

https://christian.kellner.me/2018/05/24/thunderbolt-networking-on-linux/

 

-bP

 

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There's not a lot of support for Thunderbolt 3 YET...

 

But I would say this is the way to go if investing in hardware right now. Plenty of future-proofing that way.

 

Look up Linus Sebastian's home setup (Linus Tech Tips guy). He uses UnRaid to host VMs KVM-connected with TB3 card in server to TB3 docks via long optical cables. Rather expensive right now (100 foot optical TB3 cable is well over $200), but very elegant way to hook up a few KVM setups on the other side of the house. By the time you get cables & docks you're talking $500+ per connection. A few cheaper alternatives out there right now, if not using 4K. I hope to get into this type of thing at some point in my UnRaid adventures.

 

I'll be acquiring a decent TB3 card for the server in not too distant future; can be used for all sorts of nifty USB connections for VMs. Sometime down the road I'll get a pcie extension/expansion card for more TB3 cards.

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