Hi all...i am in a bit of a bind...i was diagnosed and emergency operated with Glio IV brain cancer while visiting my family in Germany over New Year's...long story short, i've been here since, in treatment and trying to get my life back together...my brother boxed up all my belongings in Los Angeles back in January, and i returned to LA in June to pack it all into a container for shipment to Germany...i just received my life's belongings 3 weeks ago, and am desperately trying to get my unRAID server back to life...the problem is as follows:

 

> when my brother boxed everything up, the USB stick was put into some little metal container which he doesn't remember where it was packed into...so i am stuck with the server, but without an OS...i have a second license, which i still haven't used, so this in itself is not the end of the world (i am sure the old stick will turn up eventually).

 

> even before that (in LA) the server wouldn't start up, and bringing it to my computer store in San Francisco, which put the original server together, it was determined that the mobo was fried (not a surprise with all the power outages/surges i experienced in Laurel Canyon)...so they replaced the original mobo (it was the original, standard unRAID system that everyone used from the start...forgot which) with a new one (SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SEA-O), which i purchased open-box from NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182161R&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Motherboards+-+Intel-_-SuperMicro-_-13182161R)

 

> while i had them change everything around, they also added new RAM (since the old DDR2 RAM wouldn't work), and replaced the original PCI SATA controllers, with two PCI-E controllers (SupermicroAOC-SASLP-MV8)...but i think those are the only major changes the system underwent since it was repaired.

 

now here is my question: how do i go about getting back into unRAID? where do i start? i have to get a new USB stick, obviously, and activate my second license...but how do i configure it initially to be able to boot into unRAID? where to start?!

 

please could somebody give me a 1...2...3...4... kind of explanation of how i access my monster to get back into my digital life?

your time and help is - as always - greatly appreciated!

 

thank you in advance,

till

 

ok, i read through some of the "Getting Started" posts, and have put an unRAID 5 beta 2 install on a 4GB USB stick i just purchased...however, i have failed, so far, to boot with it...does anyone have the "magic" BIOS settings for the Supermicro C2SEA-O i am using, to get it to boot off the USB stick?

Ok, one step at a time:

 

- in the BIOS setting "USB Mass Storage Device Configuration", what does the emulation type have to be? (Auto, Floppy, Forced FDD, Hard Disk, CD ROM)...I can't seem to get it to work with any of these.

 

- in the "Boot" section, I have three more sections (Boot Device Priority, Hard Disk Drives, Removable Drives)...depending on my choice in the above (USB Mass Storage Device Configuration), my options vary here, but again, I have tried about a dozen varying combos, without being able to boot. Does anyone use this MoBo successfully, and if so how?

 

my goodness, i feel like a bloody newbie...after hours of scouring all the online documentation, i found my error to be in how i prepped (or didn't prep) the USB Flash drive...i hadn't executed the syslinux.exe utility, hence no boot file on the USB stick...once i did that, back into the BIOS, select the USB device to emulate a HDD, select the Mass Storage Device as the first boot device, and bingo!

 

boy do i feel stupid...but it's been over a 4 years that i last built an unRAID USB stick, so i hope i can be forgiven

That motherboard and controllers should work fine.  So, here are two questions for you:

 

1) Did you follow the directions correctly here:

http://lime-technology.com/support/unraid-server-installation

 

In particular there are two crucial steps:

a) to set the volume label to UNRAID when you format the Flash device, and

b) to run syslinux specifying the -ma option.  This is necessary to make the device bootable.  You can tell if this is correct if the file 'ldlinux.sys' is created on the Flash.  It will be necessary to enable viewing "hidden and system" files in windows in order to see this file however.

 

2) Assuming the flash device is bootable, on that motherboard it can appear as either a 'hard drive' or as a 'removable' drive - this depends on the make/model of the flash device.  If on the Boot bios menu you see a selection for 'removable' drives, then probably the flash is in this list.  You need to ensure that the boot order is set to boot from the flash first.  I will be able to look at the boot sequence on that motherboard later today.  What happens why you try to boot, do you get a message on the monitor?

 

Another question is this: how many total  hard drives do you have, and how many max do you expect to grow to?

 

my goodness, i feel like a bloody newbie...after hours of scouring all the online documentation, i found my error to be in how i prepped (or didn't prep) the USB Flash drive...i hadn't executed the syslinux.exe utility, hence no boot file on the USB stick...once i did that, back into the BIOS, select the USB device to emulate a HDD, select the Mass Storage Device as the first boot device, and bingo!

 

boy do i feel stupid...but it's been over a 4 years that i last built an unRAID USB stick, so i hope i can be forgiven

 

Ok I see you beat me clicking the 'Post' button

 

Send me the GUID of your new flash (via email) & I'll replace  your key.

thanks again, Tom, for your gracious help last night...i had thought and worried about my dead unRAID for over a year (you know how it is when you just can't find the time to spend a couple of intense days reviving "old", broken hardware), and when it most mattered, you came through...my hat, as so many times, goes off to you.

 

i have since brought the server back online and populated most assignments to the physical drives (i have 15 physical drives in there)...but i do have questions about this process now:

 

- since i don't have my old configuration file, i don't know anymore which of the disks is my parity? i suspect it's the first or last physical drive in the three 5-in-3 cases (as a matter of fact i am sure it is either one of those)...is there a way for me to check which is which?

 

- once i find the parity drive, which was active when i last had the server running before the mobo went dead, will it likely still be healthy, or will i need to recalculate parity again once i assign it to the array? i am currently at 22TB, so calculating parity anew is not unsubstantial.

 

- i have one disk that shows as "unformatted"...i don't remember having had an unformatted disk in my array before it died, so i am reluctant to format that disk...is there something i can do to forst check whether this is simply a glitch in my hardware/software setup, or truly an empty disk?

 

btw, i am running the unRAID v.5 beta 2.

thanks again, Tom, for your gracious help last night...i had thought and worried about my dead unRAID for over a year (you know how it is when you just can't find the time to spend a couple of intense days reviving "old", broken hardware), and when it most mattered, you came through...my hat, as so many times, goes off to you.

 

i have since brought the server back online and populated most assignments to the physical drives (i have 15 physical drives in there)...but i do have questions about this process now:

 

- since i don't have my old configuration file, i don't know anymore which of the disks is my parity? i suspect it's the first or last physical drive in the three 5-in-3 cases (as a matter of fact i am sure it is either one of those)...is there a way for me to check which is which?

 

- once i find the parity drive, which was active when i last had the server running before the mobo went dead, will it likely still be healthy, or will i need to recalculate parity again once i assign it to the array? i am currently at 22TB, so calculating parity anew is not unsubstantial.

 

- i have one disk that shows as "unformatted"...i don't remember having had an unformatted disk in my array before it died, so i am reluctant to format that disk...is there something i can do to forst check whether this is simply a glitch in my hardware/software setup, or truly an empty disk?

 

btw, i am running the unRAID v.5 beta 2.

The one disk that shows as "unformatted" is probably the parity disk.  The parity disk does not have a file-system on it.  It should never be formatted.  (so do not push the "Format" button.)

 

The basic method to find out which disk is the parity disk is to initially NOT assign any parity disk and try to assign them all as data disks.  The one that shows as unformatted is parity. (and it should only be one of the disks that shows that way) 

 

Yes, you'll need to do a full parity calculation.  you have no way of knowing how it was last shut down and the old flash drive had the record of it regardless.

 

Joe L.

i think you're exactly right, Joe (as so often)...i just sat down with paper and pencil, noted down the last 4 digits of each disks serial number, shuffled them around physically a bit to have a mental order of them as well, and tried to bring the array back online with this new order now, but now it won't appear in my browser anymore...the attached screen on the unRaid shows the "unRaid:" login prompt, but i have lost access to its web GUI...the flash share still shows up on my network, but nothing else...i probably didn't stop the array properly before shuffling disks around and confused the config file, or something? which config file do i need to delete or edit to get it back up?

 

i know i'm close, but i still have a few steps to take, i guess...although it is fun to be unRaid'ing again

went into my router's network device listings log, found the unRAID assigned IP number, and reached it that way...changed its IP number to static, changed the hosts file on my mac, flushed the cache, and now i can reach its web GUI via "//unraid" again...so far so good.

 

but even after re-assigning all the drives in the drop-down menus, the array shows as having "Too many wrong and/or missing disks!"...hence, i can't Start it or do anything else, really...trying a few more things...if i have to, i just overwrite all my config files with the original install ones, and start from scratch.

From the console or telnet session type this:

 

initconfig

 

Then refresh the 'Main' page and then click Start.  Caution: this will start a parity sync as well, so make sure you have the correct drive assigned to parity.

aha! i suspected that there was some sort of "secret" command to start afresh...i'll try that next time i do a major change in the physical distribution of the drives, as this time i winged my way through it by putting everything back the way unRaid wanted me to put it in, until it was happy...which made me happy too.

 

next time, though.