(SOLVED) Controller Card Hardware and unRAID Software Questions


Drogon

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I've been having tons of trouble with my Marvell controller (surprise, surprise) and am replacing it with: https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-SAS-9207-8i-PCI-E-3-0-Adapter-LSI00301-IT-Mode-Card-Host-Bus-Adapter-US/392420602090?hash=item5b5e1730ea:g:cZoAAOSw9FldeJZI. I also grabbed these cables: https://www.amazon.com/CABLEDECONN-SFF-8087-Degrees-Target-Cable/dp/B00XBE4DGO?th=1. Do I need to get a fan for the card? I've seen https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NQLT0M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pldnSite=1 recommended in other threads but it doesn't seem like everyone is using one and I'm not sure why this is inconsistent.

 

My other question is a little more involved... Because I'm just setting up this server for the first time, almost all of my existing drives are full and I only have 1 "free" drive. I can only add 1 empty drive to the array before copying data from an existing drive over so that the existing drive can then be cleared and added to the array. This means that I won't have my parity drive until I've copied all of my data over. That being said, is it possible for me to "hide" the drives that are plugged into my Marvell controller? My server keeps crashing because the controller is crashing.

 

The drives currently attached to the controller are already full so I don't need them plugged in until I set up my parity drive. unRAID won't just let me unplug them though. In the share I'm copying to, I tried only including the drive connected directly to my motherboard so that unRAID wouldn't try to use the drives connected to the controller. That didn't work though and it still crashes. I don't know why the drives on the controller are being used and I want them to be ignored. I'm hoping that because I don't have a parity drive yet that there's something I can do other than just wait for my new card to arrive.

Edited by Drogon
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are you trying to build a new system around the LSI card and then "shuffle" disks to the new system one at a time as you can clean them off in the old system?  Just trying to understand your workflow.

 

I don't think there's a definitive right/wrong answer to your fan question.  As long as there's decent airflow through your case it's probably fine without a fan, but adding one wouldn't hurt anything.

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Thanks for the fan info!

 

I just have a bunch of drives with data on them, not an old system. The system I currently have is the new server that I'm trying to add the drives to. The Marvell card is part of the new sever and is just going to get replaced with the LSI card. I'd like to be able to continue adding drives to the array while I wait for the LSI card to arrive.

Edited by Drogon
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Someone more familiar with the platform than me will ultimately need to weigh in on the technical side of adding in a parity drive once you've got a bunch of data drives added, no idea if that's possible.

 

I personally wouldn't do it even if possible though, that's a lot of eggs in one basket without parity.

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It's definitely possible to add the parity drive last but that shouldn't be relevant to the question I have about "hiding" drives on the controller or starting my array with the drives unplugged. 

 

Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Without losing my data, can I remove the drives connected to the controller from the array and then add them back later as if they were never gone?

Edited by Drogon
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1 hour ago, Drogon said:

Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Without losing my data, can I remove the drives connected to the controller from the array and then add them back later as if they were never gone?

Edited 58 minutes ago by Drogon

If disk attach to Marvell which not in RAID mode, just direct attach to LSI should be fine, no need copy in out.

 

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Right... I don't have the LSI card yet though and want to continue to move disks into my array while I wait for it to get here. I thought more information in my initial post would be better but it looks like I shouldn't have included as much because everyone is focusing on the wrong issue. Let me try this again.

 

Right now I have disks connected to a Marvell controller and to my motherboard. The controller keeps crashing. I want to copy new data into my array but can't because the array stops when the controller crashes. I don't care how I accomplish this. Can I remove the drives from the array and add them back when I get the LSI card (without losing data)? Can I make unRAID completely ignore everything plugged into the controller?

Edited by Drogon
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My array is disk-A, disk-B, disk-C, disk-D, disk-E.

Unassigned devices include disk-F, disk-G, disk-H.

disk-A, disk-B, disk-C, disk-D are all plugged into my controller.

disk-E, disk-F, disk-G, disk-H, are plugged into my motherboard.

I want to copy data from disk-F to disk-E, neither of which are plugged into the controller. The controller is crashing so I can't.

I want unRAID to ignore the disks plugged into the controller or I want to remove those disks from my array (temporarily until the LSI card arrives.) Parity doesn't matter because there is no parity yet.

I do not have the LSI card yet.

 

Is that more clear?

 

Edited by Drogon
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