Thunderbolt 3


Dtrain

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Since Thunderbolt 3 is Key changer for Home User in Backup strategies, i would love to see an implementation into Unraid.

As all necessary Tools are available for it TB3 Linux Bolt

As this will save not only save a complete computer, speed up the procedure and make Backups more secure as those devices a also available as portable

 

without TB3

Unraid with a bigger array => no direct attached way to make a decent Backup

                                           / Second PC or a super fast Online Connection is needed

 

with TB3

Unraid Array => TB3 + unassigend Devices perfect plug and "go" Backup

 

 

Edited by Dtrain
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What about just plain old USB?

  • Thunderbolt external enclosure is a pretty niche (and expensive) solution. Few devices, especially external storage devices, can saturate 10Gbps (current USB top speed), let alone TB3 40Gbps.
  • TB3 cuts off AMD users.
  • USB 4 - that is coming in the next few years - will incorporate Thunderbolt 3 spec. Any effort to incorporate TB3 will be immediately wasted once USB 4 driver is out for Linux - and given the prevalence of USB devices would be the top priority.
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within TB3 u can easily adopt external Storage, or any other Device ( Sound, TV , etc) witch is rock solid.

I use for example TB3 to SAS  witch give me endless possibilities on Storage

USB .. how many rock solid controllers do u know ?

 

ähm ... i use TB3 on AMD

since Titan Ridge Controller is out, the TB§ Protocol is open and free to use ( Tian Ridge also works with MAC)

 

 

Edited by Dtrain
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  • 2 months later...

AMD + thunderbolt works fine.

Not implementing compatibility for currently existing technology forces everyone out from using Unraid to the fullest. Planning to code only for the future is planning for failure. Coding support only for USB4 leaves everyone with older technology in the dust to fend for themselves. This is not what Unraid and Linux were made for.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 month later...

+1; did this ever get implemented? Would love to be able to direct-attach my Mac to my Unraid server over TB3 (or even TB2 with the adapter). Anything is going to be better than my current 1Gbe, and I don't want to go the route of paying for all the hardware I need for 10Gbe (switch, NIC for the server, adapter for the Mac).

 

I would rather just buy a TB2 / TB3 NIC for the Unraid server and direct attach to that... Is this possible since the latest Linux kernels supposedly support Thunderbolt?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/8/2020 at 1:56 AM, jonathanm said:

Are you running an all SSD array including parity?

Why would you need that, when all you have to do, is to get a M.2 drive as cache? I already have a 10GbE card installed in a ASUS PRIME Z390M-PLUS and 64GB of RAM, with a 512GB M.2 cache drive. I can transfer a 40GB file to my UR with a speed of >1GB/s without droping speed.

 

I would also like to have a TB3 support, since I already have a QNAP QNA-T310G1S Thunderbolt 3 to 10GbE Adaptor, and would like to setup a new NAS built on a ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac.

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It's not just speed that make TB3 useful.  I'd really like to be able to use a cheap SFF computer and attach a portable disk array such as one of these next to it.  There are not many elegant case designs around with proper hot swap capability, drive status indicators at the front.  Most seem to top out at about 4-6 bays, have plastic drive bays, no status lights, poor cooling and such and on top of that be quite expensive.  This would be a great addition for unraid.

 

I also like the idea of being able to run one cable from my Unraid box in the cupboard, to my screen, keyboard, monitor and headphones.  On top of that, it's a cheap 10G network card from my Mac, except it's 40G not 10!

 

Thunderbolt gives the advantage of not having to use the long standing always poor cousin of transports (USB) so that you can support ALL the protocols required by the storage.  Anyone ever tried to get trim support running over USB?  Also, did you see the speed of transfer you can get in that link above?  Pretty awesome.

 

When  USB4 does come along, I suspect, the thunderbolt driver will still need to exist separately anyway.  Now that the Licencing of thunderbolt is open and it's based on a standard port, I very much believe TB will become the standard in a few years.

  • Like 1
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Just a information for you guys:

 

I already looked into this (with my Unraid Kernel Helper and made also a version with 'boltd' but it doesn't work and without the hardware I can't do anything about it or troubleshoot it) but it is very complicated since Linux is not a real good friend of Thunderbolt and since I got no hardware that is capable of Thunderbolt I can't help any further.

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Nice, thanks for the info.  It's a bit of a catch-22, nobody wants to buy the hardware unless they know it's supported and will work as it's still quite expensive.  I've just purchased a second machine (may or may not be unraid), it's a ThinkStation P700 dual xeon.  It happens to have thunderbolt built in, but being IBM, it's some kind of add on cable to buy.  And it's thunderbolt 1 - even that's better than USB though.

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/25/2020 at 5:57 PM, ich777 said:

Just a information for you guys:

 

I already looked into this (with my Unraid Kernel Helper and made also a version with 'boltd' but it doesn't work and without the hardware I can't do anything about it or troubleshoot it) but it is very complicated since Linux is not a real good friend of Thunderbolt and since I got no hardware that is capable of Thunderbolt I can't help any further.

Ubuntu have a full TB3 suport with Dell "sputnik" devices like Dell XPS 13 or 15 that have TB3 connector.  Maybe you can look their kernel sources:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-oem-osp1/5.0.0-1052.57

Not sure if they are using proprietary drivers.

Edited by Kanashii
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2 minutes ago, Kanashii said:

Ubuntu have a full TB3 suport with Dell "sputnik" devices like Dell XPS 13 or 15 that have TB3 connector.  Maybe you can look their kernel sources:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-oem-osp1/5.0.0-1052.57

Not sure if they are using proprietary drivers.

Since I'm not one device that is capable of Thunderbolt I will not investigate further...

Sorry...

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On 9/25/2020 at 5:57 PM, ich777 said:

Just a information for you guys:

 

I already looked into this (with my Unraid Kernel Helper and made also a version with 'boltd' but it doesn't work and without the hardware I can't do anything about it or troubleshoot it) but it is very complicated since Linux is not a real good friend of Thunderbolt and since I got no hardware that is capable of Thunderbolt I can't help any further.

I can also test it with my gaming PC asrock x570 mini-itx TB3 and my laptop Dell XPS 13 and send you the logs you need.

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1 minute ago, Kanashii said:

Sorry to hear it but thanks for trying. 

Not that I don't want this but it's really difficult to do something when you don't got the hardware on hand, I've tried it I think a few months ago with a user here on the forum and it is really time consuming to do it like this...

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6 minutes ago, ich777 said:

Not that I don't want this but it's really difficult to do something when you don't got the hardware on hand, I've tried it I think a few months ago with a user here on the forum and it is really time consuming to do it like this...

I know I know, it wasn't a complain. I perfectly understand your points. Debugging without the hardware in your hands is really a headache. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Here is what I know

- I plug the device into Windows it works

- I plug it into macOS it works

- I plug it into unRAID - NOTHING

 

Bought three different devices all with the same results.

This is a deal breaker for unRAID.

 

And do not try to tell me it is an authorization thing.

"Those users who just want to connect any device without any sort of manual work can add following line to /etc/udev/rules.d/99-local.rules:"

ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="thunderbolt", ATTR{authorized}=="0", ATTR{authorized}="1"

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/thunderbolt.html

 

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