Hi all,

 

Unraid/Unix novice here. Built a server in 2016 to house media and (for a while) all was well. Server ran well and met my needs for plex and data storage. 

 

Recently needed to expand so I bought some new hardware to help. My current build is as follows:

ASUS Prime H270M Plus LGA1151 motherboard. Has 6x SATA 6 4 PCI-E

i7-6700k 

32GB DDR4 RAM

single parity drive WD RED 8TB

4 data drives WD RED 8TB

2 cache drives in cache pool (identical samsung EVO 850 500GB)

A simple Blu Ray Writer

 

Haven't fiddled with much of the Motherboard settings other than turning on virtualization technology

 

Had to expand in June as I was running out of SATA ports. Ended up purchasing an Ableconn PEX10-SAT 10 Port SATA 6G PCI Express Host Adapter Card - AHCI 6 Gbps SATA III Low Profile PCIe 2.0 Expansion Card.

 

 

Have noticed that recently, my parity checks and mover speeds have been SUPER SUPER SLOW (talking days to move 100GB). I fill up my cache drive usually to 200GB, sometimes 500 if I'm ripping alot of old movies and backing up games. It usually does not move this slow. Checked the log and noticed I keep on getting this repeated error and warning combo.

 

Nov 3 23:16:58 LinkedN kernel: ata18.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
Nov 3 23:16:58 LinkedN kernel: ata18.00: failed command: READ DMA EXT
Nov 3 23:16:58 LinkedN kernel: ata18.00: cmd 25/00:10:e0:fe:46/00:00:5b:01:00/e0 tag 7 dma 8192 in
Nov 3 23:16:58 LinkedN kernel: res 40/00:01:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Nov 3 23:16:58 LinkedN kernel: ata18.00: status: { DRDY }
Nov 3 23:16:58 LinkedN kernel: ata18: hard resetting link
Nov 3 23:16:58 LinkedN kernel: ata18: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Nov 3 23:16:58 LinkedN kernel: ata18.00: configured for UDMA/33
Nov 3 23:16:58 LinkedN kernel: ata18: EH complete
Nov 3 23:18:05 LinkedN kernel: ata17.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
Nov 3 23:18:05 LinkedN kernel: ata17.00: failed command: READ DMA EXT
Nov 3 23:18:05 LinkedN kernel: ata17.00: cmd 25/00:10:68:55:67/00:00:5b:01:00/e0 tag 3 dma 8192 in
Nov 3 23:18:05 LinkedN kernel: res 40/00:ff:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Nov 3 23:18:05 LinkedN kernel: ata17.00: status: { DRDY }
Nov 3 23:18:05 LinkedN kernel: ata17: hard resetting link
Nov 3 23:18:05 LinkedN kernel: ata17: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Nov 3 23:18:05 LinkedN kernel: ata17.00: configured for UDMA/33
Nov 3 23:18:05 LinkedN kernel: ata17: EH complete

 

Sadly, this is not my first issue with this. Back in July noticed this issue and just kind of dealt with it. Now with me able to spend more time on it, I ended up buying a brand new ASUS motherboard (prior board was an AS-Rock H170M Pro4) as I read somewhere that the MARVELL SATA controllers were a problem with the AS-Rock. I bought this new board thinking it would solve my problems but sadly no dice. In fact, I think the new board is slower! 

 

My drives are connected the following way:

 

Cache 1 and 2 are connected directly to the board

Parity to the board

Blu Ray to the board

All the data 8tb WD reds directly to the ABLECONN sata expansion card. They are are connected to ports nearby each other in an attempt to stay organized

 

Did some background investigation by searching forums. Have found out it could be the ABLECONN card, an issue with the parity drive itself, an issue with virtualization, perhaps bad cables or shielding issue, or an issue with something else entirely that I'm missing. Maybe I'm expecting too much as well; back when I only had 3 data drives I had no problem connecting them all to the motherboard and getting good performance. When I got the 4th one, I had to get the expansion card and this is when I started having the issue. Its enough scientific proof to show me that the ABLECONN card is the likely suspect but im hesitant to just outright ditch it and spend more money without getting some input from the experts here. Wondering if you all have any clue/advice/reccs on what to do? I'm not looking for lightning fast speeds, I just dont think it should take days to move 100GB and have parity checks run at barely 30mb/second (was running at 170+ on my old board).

 

Thanks everyone!

 

 

Edited November 4, 20187 yr by nlink0714
grammar

2 hours ago, nlink0714 said:

Ableconn PEX10-SAT 10 Port SATA 6G PCI Express Host Adapter

This is a 2 port SATA controller using 2 port multipliers to get the 10 ports and definitely not recommended for Unraid, get an LSI HBA instead.

13 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

This is a 2 port SATA controller using 2 port multipliers to get the 10 ports and definitely not recommended for Unraid, get an LSI HBA instead.

Thanks for the feedback! That’s what I’ve been reading. Looks like the card is a bust   

 

do you have any reccs on solid LSI sata expansion cards? I’m looking for a larger number of ports for future scalability (mainly for Blu Ray backups). Ideally something with 8 points but I am looking for reliable speed. Quick search on Newegg shows LSI sata and SAS (which I’m not sure I need nor do I have drives that use this? Are sas and Sata ports identical and compatible?) for 280 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118217). 

 

Thanks much for the guidance Johnnie.Black!

 

Any LSI with a SAS2008/2308/3008 chipset in IT mode, e.g., 9201-8i, 9211-8i, 9207-8i, 9300-8i, etc and clones, like the Dell H200/H310 and IBM M1015, these latter ones need to be crossflashed.

 

SAS controllers can use SATA devices, and if you buy say an eight port controller now and need more ports in the future you can also use a SAS expander, that unlike SATA ports multipliers are reliable.

7 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Any LSI with a SAS2008/2308/3008 chipset in IT mode, e.g., 9201-8i, 9211-8i, 9207-8i, 9300-8i, etc and clones, like the Dell H200/H310 and IBM M1015, these latter ones need to be crossflashed.

 

SAS controllers can use SATA devices, and if you buy say an eight port controller now and need more ports in the future you can also use a SAS expander, that unlike SATA ports multipliers are reliable.

Great! You've pretty much sold me. Will lean towards the 9211 or the 9300. 

 

Have been searching around on newegg and ebay...huge price differential on the eBay ones (hundred bucks!). But I'm hesitant on that price...thats what lead me into this mess to begin with. 280 from amazon or newegg vs 105...I don't know. Any thoughts on this? Thanks for answering my questions so late (4 am for the EST folks) and let me know if I'm being too much of a newb :P. 

On ebay you need to be careful about fakes from China, either by a new one at regular price or if you want to same some money buy an used server pull, those are usually trustworthy if buying from a reputable vendor, I bough all of mine used and never had issues.

Thanks! Ordered it. Will let you know how it turns out. Really appreciate the guidance!

Got the card and cables today. Installed, up and runnin without issue!

 

Special thanks Johnnie.Black. You saved tons of hours (and $$$). Really appreciate it