Cables should have enough slack in them so there is nothing pulling on the connection. The connector should be able to rest squarely on the connection. Have you tried a different cable? Also, some locking connectors are reported to have issues with some drives.

I recommend hot-swap bays so that drives can be freely exchanged and added without disturbing the delicate cabling, which has proven to be the Achilles heel of many server upgrades.

 

I recommend the SuperMicro CSE-M35T-1B units for tower setups, or a SuperMicro / Norco if doing a rack mount.

3 hours ago, trurl said:

Cables should have enough slack in them so there is nothing pulling on the connection. The connector should be able to rest squarely on the connection. Have you tried a different cable? Also, some locking connectors are reported to have issues with some drives.

Thanks, I will double check the cables. Strange thing is the computer has not been touched since the drives were installed for UnRaid.

3 hours ago, SSD said:

I recommend hot-swap bays so that drives can be freely exchanged and added without disturbing the delicate cabling, which has proven to be the Achilles heel of many server upgrades.

 

I recommend the SuperMicro CSE-M35T-1B units for tower setups, or a SuperMicro / Norco if doing a rack mount.

Thanks, I had hot swap bays in my last setup...not sure if they will work in the new tower or not.

How about this card for my setup?

https://www.amazon.com/Sixteen-port-Half-length-Lsi-9201-16E-Port/dp/B00487AYQQ/ref=cm_wl_huc_item

Would I need any special cables or anything else to use it? Also...is there a max size of hdd with these? I read somewhere else that the firmware needed to be upgraded to use with 3tb hdd, and I am using 6tb, and planning to eventually moving to 8 or 10tb hdds.

Edited March 18, 20188 yr by Ron

I ordered a full set of new power cables, and some more new sata cables. If this doesn't solve the problem... I will order a new card for the sata hdds. Is the one I listed on Amazon a good one for internal expansion? 

The one u listed is external, did you know that? You have to go with the cables from outside the case inside again... 

If u want intern then u have to get the "16i"

Edited March 20, 20188 yr by nuhll

 

3 hours ago, nuhll said:

The one u listed is external, did you know that? You have to go with the cables from outside the case inside again... 

If u want intern then u have to get the "16i"

No I didnt know that, I will look for the 16i.

Installed the new cables, and my 4tb (unknown boot capable), and my 6tb (old working parity hdd), will not mount....so I am looking for another card now.

 

I found one for 8 hdds... Would this be a good one to get? I sent a message to the seller to find out  if  it needs to be flashed for use with Unraid, as I do not have a PC with PCI slots... I have. Nuc (I do have pci slots...just only on my new UnRaid setup).

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/UNRAID-IT-Mode-LSI-9210-8i-SAS-SATA-8-port-PCI-E-6Gb-s-Controller-Card-FREENAS/142716276926?epid=605618021&hash=item213a8d90be:g:MKAAAOSwaDZaosbb

 

Here is another one which was refurbished, but is flashed.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-LSI-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-Low-Profile-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/162953220514?hash=item25f0c4d1a2:g:34YAAOSwKNharvFl

 

 

 

Suggestions?

Edited April 11, 20188 yr by Ron

I ordered the card, and should have it soon.

 

I have a few other questions...

 

1: I would like to change my hdds from span ing a file over all hdds to having files on specific hdds to minimize power consumption. I have about 20tb in files. Would I just install enough hdds to be able to move the files over, and then copy the files over? Then after this was done change the designation for each of the old drive to not span? 

 

2:  I have a lot of HD movies ripped, and was wondering how others deal with storing them to the hdds. Do you do A-G on one hdd, and so on, or?

33 minutes ago, Ron said:

span ing a file over all hdds

Each disk is an independent filesystem and no file ever spans drives. Folders can span drives, and that is what User shares are all about. Each user share has settings that let you control how disks are used. Turn on help on a User share settings page for more.

If I want to not have it span the hdds... I would still need to have extra hdds equal or greater than my current setup, correct? I ask this because when I set a playlist up for music or videos, they could be on different hdds since I have it set to span.

9 hours ago, Ron said:

If I want to not have it span the hdds... I would still need to have extra hdds equal or greater than my current setup, correct? I ask this because when I set a playlist up for music or videos, they could be on different hdds since I have it set to span.

 

Did you read the Help I mentioned?

20 hours ago, trurl said:

Turn on help on a User share settings page for more.

 

There are a lot of things you can set there. A very simple one is to set a share to only include a specific disk. Then files for that share won't get written to other disks.

 

A more advanced setting is Split Level, and that is typically used, for example, to insure that all the songs from an album (or even an artist), wind up on the same disk, for example. Keeping TV series files together is another common use of split level.

 

I don't really understand this part of your question though:

9 hours ago, Ron said:

I would still need to have extra hdds equal or greater than my current setup, correct?

 

Think about user share settings some more and see if that will help you ask better questions. Here are some links with more:

 

https://lime-technology.com/network-attached-storage/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=g-0PGwcHrOw

 

https://lime-technology.com/wiki/UnRAID_6/Overview#User_Shares

 

 

4 hours ago, trurl said:

 

Did you read the Help I mentioned?

 

There are a lot of things you can set there. A very simple one is to set a share to only include a specific disk. Then files for that share won't get written to other disks.

 

A more advanced setting is Split Level, and that is typically used, for example, to insure that all the songs from an album (or even an artist), wind up on the same disk, for example. Keeping TV series files together is another common use of split level.

 

I don't really understand this part of your question though:

 

Think about user share settings some more and see if that will help you ask better questions. Here are some links with more:

 

https://lime-technology.com/network-attached-storage/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=g-0PGwcHrOw

 

https://lime-technology.com/wiki/UnRAID_6/Overview#User_Shares

 

 

What I meant by the last part was assuming you cannot make share changes on the fly... I was thinking I would have to copy the files to a new hdd in order to change the share settings. Is this necessary or can i do it on the fly? I read it earlier when I set it all up. I will reread it.

 

Thank you for assistance.

31 minutes ago, Ron said:

What I meant by the last part was assuming you cannot make share changes on the fly... I was thinking I would have to copy the files to a new hdd in order to change the share settings. Is this necessary or can i do it on the fly? I read it earlier when I set it all up. I will reread it.

 

Thank you for assistance.

 

You can make share settings on-the-fly. It's just that already existing files will not move because you change settings. But new files added to the system will be added based on the new share policies you specify.

10 minutes ago, pwm said:

 

You can make share settings on-the-fly. It's just that already existing files will not move because you change settings. But new files added to the system will be added based on the new share policies you specify.

 

And in fact, all user share settings only apply to new files (except for the Use cache setting).

 

So for example, if you change it so only some disks are included in the share, that won't do anything about the files for that share that are already on other disks. All disks are always included when reading files from a share (unless a disk is excluded from all user shares in Global Share Settings), so you will still be able to read files for the share even on disks that are no longer written by the share.

 

User shares are just the top level folders on cache and array with the same name as the share. This is how User Shares span disks, by having those folders on the disks.

 

The Use cache setting still controls where new files get written, but it has the additional feature of possibly moving files from cache to array or array to cache. Here is another link for you which goes into more detail on this setting:

 

https://lime-technology.com/forums/topic/46802-faq-for-unraid-v6/?page=2#comment-537383

 

Thank you very much, I did not realize that you could make on the fly changes. I will add my new hdds to the NAS, and move my files over as I go so I will not span any of my music that is already on the hdds too.

Update... I just got the new SAS card installed with new cables. I have 4 more cables from the new card left, should I move 4 of motherboard hdds to the new card, Ieaving 2 hdds controlled by the motherboard? Or if he the motherboard maxed, and just run 4hdds on the new card?

Edited May 8, 20188 yr by Ron

6 hours ago, Ron said:

Update... I just got the new SAS card installed with new cables. I have 4 more cables from the new card left, should I move 4 of motherboard hdds to the new card, Ieaving 2 hdds controlled by the motherboard? Or if he the motherboard maxed, and just run 4hdds on the new card?

It doens't matter, either way.

While running parity 2 setup(parity sync), I am getting an error. The error is: Fail... array has 7 discs including parity. I am hoping this will go away after sync is completed...or is this another problem? I have the pro version of Unraid.

Edited May 8, 20188 yr by Ron

19 minutes ago, Ron said:

I am hoping this will go away after sync is completed...

It should.

Thanks the light has turned green with 40 minutes to go, and notifications say completed data rebuild. Next I will try my new 6t Helium hdd.

Thank you very much! I now have my NAS up and working like it should again, except for my SSD. I will pull the setup down again, and check the cables. I have to say it appears to be faster than my old lan card was too.

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by Ron

Today I woke up to the sound of my subwoofer turning on and realized we had a power outage. When I got back into unraid I saw 2 hdds were un mountable.  I do not know what to do now to get these 2 back up. I have 2 parity drives so I hope no data was lost. I have attached the diagnostics file.

 

thank you

tower-diagnostics-20180622-1933.zip

You should really make a topic per question.