December 25, 201015 yr Hi , I'm installing my hardware right now... but before continuing i got some questions 1) I got 2 brandnew 2TB WD 20ears harddisks ready to install, one for parity , second one for data both brandnew. I got another wd 20ears 2TB in my dune mediaplayer which is completely full with data How should i copy all this to the array? (when copying is done, im gonna put this disk into my unraid raid, so i have 1 for parity and 2 for data) Over the network? or should i/am i able to? install it right away, copy it, then add it to the array? will this be faster than over network? Cause my case (centurion 590) comes with a 4in3 device, it would be nice to install it right away, so i dont have to open it up twice. 2) Do i need a cache drive? if i do, i would leave some space in the 4in3 device for the cache.. so first would be parity, the space for the cache, then disk 1 and 2 for data 4in3 device would be full then), if i dont need a cache.. then im installing 1. parity 2.disk2 3.disk3 3) I've been reading the manuals...a lot but have a few questions.. First thing it says to copy the files to the flash for preclear and unmenu. But shouldnt there be other unraid files on the flash too? cause otherwise i wont be able to boot right? so if im right, i need the unraid version on the flash + preclear_disk.sj + unmenu_install right? 4) Do i really need to preclear the first two disks (1. parity 2. data 1) ?? cause i've read it takes 24hours for 1x2tb, so that would mean 2 days ! Also unraid itself cleans the disk anyway when adding drives to the array (and then it only takes 5hours or bit more for 2tb, thats a big difference!) Again with the third drive (data2) 5) Do i really need unmenu? if im correct, i only need it to be able to install screen, and screen is necessary for the preclear... or do i need it for something else? Also "screen" is not the fact that it repaces a monitor right? i mean preclearing without screen do i take this lliterarely? (i dunno if its written correct) Thx !
December 25, 201015 yr 1) I got 2 brandnew 2TB WD 20ears harddisks ready to install, one for parity , second one for data both brandnew. I got another wd 20ears 2TB in my dune mediaplayer which is completely full with data How should i copy all this to the array? (when copying is done, im gonna put this disk into my unraid raid, so i have 1 for parity and 2 for data) Over the network? or should i/am i able to? install it right away, copy it, then add it to the array? will this be faster than over network? Cause my case (centurion 590) comes with a 4in3 device, it would be nice to install it right away, so i dont have to open it up twice. First, before you do anything, make sure you have pins 7 & 8 jumpered on those drives. Set up the first data drive, or both the first and second data drives. Don't set up parity yet. Copy the data over the network from your Dune to either one or both drives. Then, when you've verified the data, you can use the drive from the Dune as your parity. Parity calcs will slow down your copies, so do that step after you have your data set up. 2) Do i need a cache drive? if i do, i would leave some space in the 4in3 device for the cache.. so first would be parity, the space for the cache, then disk 1 and 2 for data 4in3 device would be full then), if i dont need a cache.. then im installing 1. parity 2.disk2 3.disk3 Need? No. Lots of users don't use a cache drive at all. I'm one of them. I may add one later, as a warm spare. Your disks will be "parity", "disk1", and "disk2". 3) I've been reading the manuals...a lot but have a few questions.. First thing it says to copy the files to the flash for preclear and unmenu. But shouldnt there be other unraid files on the flash too? cause otherwise i wont be able to boot right? so if im right, i need the unraid version on the flash + preclear_disk.sj + unmenu_install right? You have to install unRAID onto your flash drive. Once you do that, you'll be fine. Adding other files won't overwrite the existing files. Preclear is just a shell script command. You put it in the boot directory, and then call it when you want to pre-clear a disk. Basically, you write "preclear_disk.sh /dev/sdx" where x is the disk you want to pre-clear, and it calls the command "preclear_disk.sh". If you don't have it there, it will tell you that it doesn't know that command. UnMenu is a bit more complicated, but it's using existing protocols to do jobs that help you as the user/administrator. It's a REALLY nice collection of tools. Just follow the instructions for installation, and you'll be fine. 4) Do i really need to preclear the first two disks (1. parity 2. data 1) ?? cause i've read it takes 24hours for 1x2tb, so that would mean 2 days ! Also unraid itself cleans the disk anyway when adding drives to the array (and then it only takes 5hours or bit more for 2tb, thats a big difference!) Again with the third drive (data2) You only have to pre-clear a disk AFTER you have parity established. That's why for initial setup, you create the parity disk last. You pre-clear a disk because in order to maintain parity, unRAID has to clear any new disk. Any 0 on a drive doesn't change the parity calculation, so can be ignored. That's why you clear a drive in order to remove it from the array as well. If it's all 0s, it's invisible to parity. The difference between pre-clearing a drive and allowing unRAID to clear it, is that with pre-clearing, you don't have your array out of commission. When unRAID clears a drive, the array is stopped. So for that 5-6 hours, you don't have access to your files. Also, the pre-clear script runs new drives through the wringer, so that a defective drive has a good chance to fail before you put it into your array and find out the hard way. That's why it takes so much longer than simply writing 0s. 5) Do i really need unmenu? if im correct, i only need it to be able to install screen, and screen is necessary for the preclear... or do i need it for something else? Also "screen" is not the fact that it repaces a monitor right? i mean preclearing without screen do i take this lliterarely? (i dunno if its written correct) You don't need Unmenu to run a pre-clear. They're completely independent. They just both happen to be written by Joe L. You don't need screen to run pre-clear either. Screen just lets you run telnet sessions that are independent of the connection. In other words, you start a telnet session from your PC, and can end the session and/or turn it off without killing the pre-clear process. Without screen, you have to leave that PC and telnet session on and connected throughout the process. All you NEED for pre-clear is a telnet client (like Putty). Unmenu has a lot of other tools that are really helpful, but it's not necessary to use them. You can always install it later if you find you want something that Unmenu offers. That's why it's an add-on.
December 25, 201015 yr Author 1) I got 2 brandnew 2TB WD 20ears harddisks ready to install, one for parity , second one for data both brandnew. I got another wd 20ears 2TB in my dune mediaplayer which is completely full with data How should i copy all this to the array? (when copying is done, im gonna put this disk into my unraid raid, so i have 1 for parity and 2 for data) Over the network? or should i/am i able to? install it right away, copy it, then add it to the array? will this be faster than over network? Cause my case (centurion 590) comes with a 4in3 device, it would be nice to install it right away, so i dont have to open it up twice. First, before you do anything, make sure you have pins 7 & 8 jumpered on those drives. Set up the first data drive, or both the first and second data drives. Don't set up parity yet. Copy the data over the network from your Dune to either one or both drives. Then, when you've verified the data, you can use the drive from the Dune as your parity. Parity calcs will slow down your copies, so do that step after you have your data set up. Great ! I've already read about that jumper, thx for reminding! So i just install my 2 new discs and make it for data 1 & 2 Then copy over the network from my dune to those disks (how do i check the data then?) then after it i take the one from the dune, and put it in as parity? Both data disks are safe then? its not cause i installed parity afterwards... it doenst count for data 1&2? 2) Do i need a cache drive? if i do, i would leave some space in the 4in3 device for the cache.. so first would be parity, the space for the cache, then disk 1 and 2 for data 4in3 device would be full then), if i dont need a cache.. then im installing 1. parity 2.disk2 3.disk3 Need? No. Lots of users don't use a cache drive at all. I'm one of them. I may add one later, as a warm spare. Your disks will be "parity", "disk1", and "disk2". ok no cache then thx 4) Do i really need to preclear the first two disks (1. parity 2. data 1) ?? cause i've read it takes 24hours for 1x2tb, so that would mean 2 days ! Also unraid itself cleans the disk anyway when adding drives to the array (and then it only takes 5hours or bit more for 2tb, thats a big difference!) Again with the third drive (data2) You only have to pre-clear a disk AFTER you have parity established. That's why for initial setup, you create the parity disk last. You pre-clear a disk because in order to maintain parity, unRAID has to clear any new disk. Any 0 on a drive doesn't change the parity calculation, so can be ignored. That's why you clear a drive in order to remove it from the array as well. If it's all 0s, it's invisible to parity. The difference between pre-clearing a drive and allowing unRAID to clear it, is that with pre-clearing, you don't have your array out of commission. When unRAID clears a drive, the array is stopped. So for that 5-6 hours, you don't have access to your files. Also, the pre-clear script runs new drives through the wringer, so that a defective drive has a good chance to fail before you put it into your array and find out the hard way. That's why it takes so much longer than simply writing 0s. Nice to know ! So for me, i dont have to preclear since im installing 2 new disks as data first, then parity But later when i should add a third data disk then i do need to preclear ! or should i remove one... Correct? 5) Do i really need unmenu? if im correct, i only need it to be able to install screen, and screen is necessary for the preclear... or do i need it for something else? Also "screen" is not the fact that it repaces a monitor right? i mean preclearing without screen do i take this lliterarely? (i dunno if its written correct) You don't need Unmenu to run a pre-clear. They're completely independent. They just both happen to be written by Joe L. You don't need screen to run pre-clear either. Screen just lets you run telnet sessions that are independent of the connection. In other words, you start a telnet session from your PC, and can end the session and/or turn it off without killing the pre-clear process. Without screen, you have to leave that PC and telnet session on and connected throughout the process. All you NEED for pre-clear is a telnet client (like Putty). Unmenu has a lot of other tools that are really helpful, but it's not necessary to use them. You can always install it later if you find you want something that Unmenu offers. That's why it's an add-on. think i will install unmenu anyway.. Thx for all your recommendations ! its really helpful Writing "for new users, build your data disks first, then parity" in the config tutorial would be very useful!
December 25, 201015 yr Once you install parity, it will protect both data drives, and any subsequent drives you add. You can check your data by trying to run whatever it is. Assuming it's media files, try to play them. If you want to be really thorough, use a copying program that gives you checksum data back, like Teracopy. I don't know if there is such a utility for us with the Dune, because I'm not familiar with that. If you can use your Windows PC, then you can install Teracopy and copy from the Dune to your unRAID server. It's still advisable to run pre-clear on your new disks, because you'll be burning them in and testing them prior to putting your precious data on them. There is a small risk once you use your existing Dune drive as parity. During the initial parity calculation, if one of your data drives dies, then you're SOL. It's up to you as to whether or not it's worth the extra time. Once you have parity in place, then you'll want to pre-clear any new data drive. This will forestall unRAID from running its clear command and leaving you without your media for several hours. And again, it will help prevent the frustration of copying data to a brand new disk only to have it fail. I think the process of writing data prior to parity calculation is in the wiki.
December 25, 201015 yr Most of us experienced users preclear EVERY drive..., even if for other PCs. It is an opportunity to learn of hardware issues BEFORE you load them with your data. From what we've seen, probably 1 out of 20 drive has some kind of issue. Do you feel lucky? Do you think you'll be one of the 19? Yes, it takes time, but it all depends on how valuable your data is to you. If you do not pre-clear the disks using the pre-clear script the first time you learn of an un-readable sector will be AFTER you load your data on a disk and attempt to read that file. Based on your migration proposal, you do not have a backup to resort to, since you'll be re-using your drive. To me, that is a mistake unless you know absolutely for sure the data was transferred properly AND that you already have parity protection. For that reason I suggest: preclear the disks you'll be using for parity and the first data disk. Assign only the data disk and migrate using Terracopy your first set of files from the dune-mediaplayer diskl to it so you can free the drive from the Dune-mediaplayer. Assign the parity drive and calculate parity on the first data drive. Press the "Check" button to ensure you can read the parity you've just written. (until that time you've not read anything but zeros from the parity drive) After you've gotten a clean parity check, and only then, you can use the pre-clear script on the drive you'll be removing from the dune-media-player. At that time you have had the hardware running for a few days, you can look at the system log for errors and can finally pre-clear the drive you remove from the dune-mediaplayer, stop the unRAID array, and assign it as the second data drive. Joe L.
December 26, 201015 yr I will echo what Joe L put above. I preclear any disk, even ones not bound for use in unRAID. I recently had a room mate purchase a new disk for his desktop machine and I ran it through 2 cycles of preclear to make sure it was good.
December 26, 201015 yr 4) Do i really need to preclear the first two disks (1. parity 2. data 1) ?? cause i've read it takes 24hours for 1x2tb, so that would mean 2 days ! You can preclear both drives at the same time.
December 26, 201015 yr Author Most of us experienced users preclear EVERY drive..., even if for other PCs. It is an opportunity to learn of hardware issues BEFORE you load them with your data. From what we've seen, probably 1 out of 20 drive has some kind of issue. Do you feel lucky? Do you think you'll be one of the 19? Yes, it takes time, but it all depends on how valuable your data is to you. If you do not pre-clear the disks using the pre-clear script the first time you learn of an un-readable sector will be AFTER you load your data on a disk and attempt to read that file. Based on your migration proposal, you do not have a backup to resort to, since you'll be re-using your drive. To me, that is a mistake unless you know absolutely for sure the data was transferred properly AND that you already have parity protection. For that reason I suggest: preclear the disks you'll be using for parity and the first data disk. Assign only the data disk and migrate using Terracopy your first set of files from the dune-mediaplayer diskl to it so you can free the drive from the Dune-mediaplayer. Assign the parity drive and calculate parity on the first data drive. Press the "Check" button to ensure you can read the parity you've just written. (until that time you've not read anything but zeros from the parity drive) After you've gotten a clean parity check, and only then, you can use the pre-clear script on the drive you'll be removing from the dune-media-player. At that time you have had the hardware running for a few days, you can look at the system log for errors and can finally pre-clear the drive you remove from the dune-mediaplayer, stop the unRAID array, and assign it as the second data drive. Joe L. so bit of a change then i install the 2 brand new disks into my hardware install everything else + unraid to the usb stick start everything up preclear the 2 new drives (one for parity + one for data) Then i only add the data disc (in my server) to the array (leave the second brand new one for parity but dont add it yet, the same for the dune internal hdd) After that, i install terracopy to my windows pc Using terracopy on windows pc, i copy and paste from my dune internal hdd tot the data 1 disk in my server (which is in the array) after that i add the second brand new drive to my array as parity.. i calculate parity on the first drive press check button after that remove the hdd in the dune add it to the server preclear that drive stop the array;, and add the second data drive (from my dune) to the array is this the way i should do it? Its true i got no backup of the data on the dune drive but if i do it like this, then all data is on the first data drive? and not devided between the two data....
December 26, 201015 yr is this the way i should do it? Its true i got no backup of the data on the dune drive but if i do it like this, then all data is on the first data drive? and not divided between the two data.... Many people would prefer to only have to spin up one disk, but if you want to move some after you have parity established and have the second data disk installed, then you can move it as you desire to re-distribute it between the two data disks.
December 26, 201015 yr Author its up & running first time i build hardware on my own and first time server i'm proud of myself
December 26, 201015 yr Author how do i get to the command line, from my pc upstairs? if i press \\unraid, it takes me to the seerver management page
December 26, 201015 yr how do i get to the command line, from my pc upstairs? if i press \\unraid, it takes me to the seerver management page You use "telnet" or a program you install on your PC that knows the telnet protocol. Most of us like "putty" as it enables the function keys and some mouse capabilities in "mc" Download from here: http://www.putty.org/ Look here in the wiki for a lot of help for the newcomer: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Configuration_Tutorial and here too: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ Joe L.
December 26, 201015 yr Author setting up mail worked, i tested but get following error what setting might be the problem?
December 26, 201015 yr setting up mail worked, i tested but get following error what setting might be the problem? Your mail host as you've specified it does not recognize TLS protocol. Perhaps it is supported, but on a port other than 25.
December 27, 201015 yr Author if i set TLS to off, i get the same message if i set it to on, he automatically adds 25, i dont type this (when i look into my email account in windows mail, it says i have incoming mail (pop3) : mail-in.pandora.be outgoing mail (smtp): mail-out.pandora.be if i look into advanced it says: portnumbers of the server: outgoing (smtp) 25 (he does this automatically) incoming (pop3) 110 also theres no check with both "for this server i need a secure connection (ssl) needed" so what should i do?
December 27, 201015 yr Author i've put in: [email protected] mail-out.pandora.be No blank blank pandora.be no blank now i get:
December 27, 201015 yr only one person can help here? You posted at about 4:30 AM eastern Standard Time in the US. Most of us are not even up at that point, nor are we aware of what we are doing. Not all of Lime-Techs members are in the US, but I would hazard a guess that most are. Your 2 posts were about 2 hours apart and before most of the East Coast of the US was awake. Now... The above error you were having is because you are trying to send as [email protected] and most companies have a root account that can send mail. They of course do not want there users doing this as it would completely screw with there mail system they have set up. I am not near my unRAID server right now but will try to help when I get home after work today.
December 27, 201015 yr if i set TLS to off, i get the same message if i set it to on, he automatically adds 25, i dont type this (when i look into my email account in windows mail, it says i have incoming mail (pop3) : mail-in.pandora.be outgoing mail (smtp): mail-out.pandora.be if i look into advanced it says: portnumbers of the server: outgoing (smtp) 25 (he does this automatically) incoming (pop3) 110 also theres no check with both "for this server i need a secure connection (ssl) needed" so what should i do? After you changed the STARTTLS option to NO and saved the new value, did you then click on the re-install with new values button? To verify what you've currently set, you can type: cat /usr/local/etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf It sounds like you can use port 25 (and it is the standard port for ssmtp mail, so that it is why it is used if you do not specify an alternative port)
December 27, 201015 yr Author only one person can help here? You posted at about 4:30 AM eastern Standard Time in the US. Most of us are not even up at that point, nor are we aware of what we are doing. Not all of Lime-Techs members are in the US, but I would hazard a guess that most are. Your 2 posts were about 2 hours apart and before most of the East Coast of the US was awake. Now... The above error you were having is because you are trying to send as [email protected] and most companies have a root account that can send mail. They of course do not want there users doing this as it would completely screw with there mail system they have set up. I am not near my unRAID server right now but will try to help when I get home after work today. superb ! thx
December 27, 201015 yr Author if i set TLS to off, i get the same message if i set it to on, he automatically adds 25, i dont type this (when i look into my email account in windows mail, it says i have incoming mail (pop3) : mail-in.pandora.be outgoing mail (smtp): mail-out.pandora.be if i look into advanced it says: portnumbers of the server: outgoing (smtp) 25 (he does this automatically) incoming (pop3) 110 also theres no check with both "for this server i need a secure connection (ssl) needed" so what should i do? After you changed the STARTTLS option to NO and saved the new value, did you then click on the re-install with new values button? To verify what you've currently set, you can type: cat /usr/local/etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf It sounds like you can use port 25 (and it is the standard port for ssmtp mail, so that it is why it is used if you do not specify an alternative port) yes everytime i cahnge something to test, i save the value, and click the re-install button with the new values anyway, i started preclearing the drives without the mail notifications.. i couldnt wait any longer. however i still want that mail thing working, for future preclearings before i started preclearing i changed some stuff this result: [email protected] mail-out.pandora.be NO blank blank pandora.be YES blank i get this result: changed mail domain to [email protected] so: [email protected] mail-out.pandora.be NO blank blank [email protected] YES blank i got this result:
December 27, 201015 yr Author i just wanted to look at my preclearing again (i followed manual for this, and detached the screen, and closed the telnet session) According to the manula, i have to log in useing telnet again, as root there i should type "screen -r" and i would automatically return to the first screen, where i can cycle however when i do that i get following message
December 27, 201015 yr i just wanted to look at my preclearing again (i followed manual for this, and detached the screen, and closed the telnet session) According to the manula, i have to log in useing telnet again, as root there i should type "screen -r" and i would automatically return to the first screen, where i can cycle however when i do that i get following message You have 2 different screen sessions going. type: screen -r 8244 to attach to the one session type: screen -r 8229 to attach to the second session
December 27, 201015 yr Author i just wanted to look at my preclearing again (i followed manual for this, and detached the screen, and closed the telnet session) According to the manula, i have to log in useing telnet again, as root there i should type "screen -r" and i would automatically return to the first screen, where i can cycle however when i do that i get following message You have 2 different screen sessions going. type: screen -r 8244 to attach to the one session type: screen -r 8229 to attach to the second session oh ok, will try i did screen -r cause the manual said this, then i would (according to the manual, be able to switch between by using "ctrl-a p" edit: ok this works, thx, i can now look at both preclearings... they are both at 33% in 2 hours time (2tb drive) , thats kind of fast, i thought 2tb would take 24h.. will see... thx for this now the mail thing..
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