bombz Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Hello all, I am currently sick of, what I believe is the hardware with my current setup. First time through me was using: Intel GZIS Motherboard (micro ATX) Core 2 Duo (E****) 1GB DDR2 Ram 1 Promise TX4 Sata Card and on that motherboard which is only 10/100 (on board LAN) I used an Intel 1000mbps pci ethernet card. With this setup everything seemed ok, but I did not have much room for expansion (room for only 8 drives) So I decided to go with a different setup (another cheap method) Currently I am using: Biostar A760G 1GB ram AMD X2 athlon What seem to be happening are REALLY SLOW transfers, when sending data to my server or disks (500kb/sec -- 6/10mb/sec) When I copy from my server I get approx 10mb-15mb/sec and when I move data around, copy data from disk1 to disk 8, the data transfer is REALLY SLOW again as stated above. I am not getting frustrated with what seems to be a hardware bottleneck, so any assistance would be great. I almost want to try to toss my Intel core 2 dual motherboard and CPU back in the system, but I now have 10 disks, and that hardware will only do me for 8disks Thanks. Link to comment
Rajahal Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 I used that motherboard for a good while and never had any performance issues. If you have 10 HDDs, then I'm guessing you are using all of the boards 6 SATA ports as well as all 4 ports on the Promise card. First of all, check that your BIOS settings are all correct. Lucky for you, this guide I wrote relates to your board exactly: First Time Configuration Second - the Promise card is bottlenecked by the PCI bus. When all 4 drives are accessed simultaneously (such as during a parity check), you will see slow speeds. There's nothing you can do about that with your current setup. However, during normal use (when only one or two drives is accessed at a time), the speeds should be acceptable (in the range of 15 - 25 mb/s writes, and even faster reads). If you are still unhappy with your speeds, then you will likely have to replace your Promise card. I recommend the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 and appropriate breakout cables. That card and your A760G mobo would allow you up to 14 drives. You could then add another cheap PCIe x1 card to round it out to 15 drives (technically 16, but most cases max out at 15). See here for links to both those cards. You could also just reuse your Promise card, for one or two drives the bottleneck won't matter. Finally, are you sure that the rest of your network is properly gigabit capable? Gigabit LAN on your client computer, router, Cat5e or better cables, etc? If any part of your network is megabit, then the speeds you are seeing would make sense. Link to comment
bombz Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 I was just reading around, I have a 2tb WD EARS drive as my parity, and as I move data, parity is always writing. Is there a chance an EARS as parity is not a good drive ? Should I be using a WD Black as parity ? As well, I have NO jumpers set on the drives --- all my drives have data on them , if I jumper the drive, will that cause any issues ? Link to comment
Rajahal Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 bombz and I gchatted about this issue: Raj hey bombz: hey buddy, thanks so much for accepting ! Raj no worries bombz: so basically im trying to tweek my unraid This BioStar board I thought would be the issue but now im turning to the WD EARS --- being an issue Raj yep, seems likely since you have no jumpers bombz: I never really had these issues on my older Intel board with WD Blues now since i have no jumpers --- can i jumper the drives with data on them? Raj WD EARS are different from older WD models the EARS are advanced format bombz: so do i have to 'advance format' them (ie erases all data) ? Raj what the jumper does is to put the drive in compatibility mode, so that the server thinks it is a non-advanced format drive one sec you'll want to very carefully read this page: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Advanced_Format_Drives one part of it walks you through the process of adding jumpers bombz: I did go through that page --- im almost considering taking out all my EARS and just putting WD blues / Blacks in Raj ah, I see bombz: another thing with this BioStar board is it never saves bios settings Raj well, if you have that many spare drives that's not a bad plan. However, if you are going to buy new drives, then there's another way. bombz: always reverts to default , so annoying Raj Oh? Could be a dead CMOS battery bombz: ive swapped out 3 different batteries Raj hmmm maybe defective then I never had that problem bombz: Im thinkin changing my parity to a WD black for starters i think thats where i ran into probs --- these are the drives i have ... sec Raj k bombz: parity ata-WDC_WD20EARS disk1 ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS disk2 ata-WDC_WD15EADS disk3 ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS disk4 ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS disk5 ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS disk6 ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS disk7 ata-WDC_WD15EADS disk8 ata-WDC_WD20EARS disk9 ata-WDC_WD20EARS thats it Raj k bombz: all sata onboard + TX4 (promise) being used Raj so 3 EARS drives bombz: ya Raj how many spare drives to you have, if any? bombz: i was also looking into a cache drive, but wasnt sure about that Raj also, how much free space total on the server? bombz: spares, in the array ? right now disk 9 is basically empty Raj any drives besides the 10 above that you could use? bombz: 1.8 tb available Raj ok bombz: oh no, no spares, but i can always go buy one Raj understood bombz: but all my sata ports are used Raj i know ok, here's the plan that comes to mind - let me preface by saying that this is quite a bit of work, but it saves you from buying 3 new drives right now bombz: k Raj step one is to use the trust my array procedure to remove disk9 without losing parity protection bombz: i dont evene need disk 9 i was just moving data too it f rom the 500gb's which was SLLLOW i just added last nite Raj I understand bombz: k sorry to inntrupt Raj but you can't remove it without losing parity protection unless you use the 'trust my array' procedure and I always prefer the safe and slow method when available bombz: forsure Raj has disk9 been used for anything before you installed it in the server? bombz: nothing at all, like i said iwas moving some media to it from the 500gb's so i could soon swap them out for 2TB's tryin to get rid of my 500s Raj cool bombz: disk9 i dont care about the data on it, i just stopped the xfer now Raj that's good, so disk9 is likely fine. Once disk9 is safely removed from the array, then you would need to install a jumper on pins 7/8 and then run preclear on it preclear will erase all the data on it you can then use the newly jumpered disk9 to replace your parity drive. Let unRAID do that for you (just like if the parity drive had failed) there's a slight risk at that stage, since disk10 is still unjumpered. so if you want to play it safe, then buy a new disk. Still, buying one new disk is better than buy 3. And if you want to replace all your 500 GB drives anyway, then it shouldn't be a big deal bombz: so your saying pre clear disk9 now ---- add jumpters 7+8 then replace as parity? Raj almost. first, run 'trust my array' to safely remove disk9. This is crucial. Your array will now be down to 9 disks (parity + 8 data) then add jumper to 7/8 then preclear bombz: hm i see Raj then replace parity bombz: here was my thought process before talking to you Raj k bombz: run a parity sync, for good practice take my parity out, and replace with a WD black Raj you would buy the WD black new? bombz: yah Raj that's an option, but it doesn't address the other two WD EARS data drives that you have unjumpered bombz: id prob go buy yet another CMOS battery too true but , since they need a pre-clear before i can jumper them doesnt that screw me into losing all my data? Raj no, since if you do them one at a time unRAID can reconstruct the data onto each one bombz: i was confused with the pre-clear thing, i thought for a sec i could power down the sever, toss jumpers on , and boot up Raj just like as if the drive had failed bombz: but i dont think thats the case Raj correct, it isn't that simple unfortunately bombz: im always afraid im going to do something wrong and kill alot of data Raj the other complication is that there's a good chance that your EARS drives that have been used quite a bit already (parity and disk10) may not work correctly even after the adding the jumper bombz: guess cause i havent used this preclear before i dont use my unraid from command base Raj no problem I rarely do bombz: bottom line, EARS not very recommended from what i can see i started with all WD blues Raj actually, they are my #1 recommendation for 2 TB green drives at the moment, lol bombz: then with sales and shit i fig the WD greens would be ok, but i guess not. Raj you just have to remember to jumper them before you use them in your server or anywhere else you can definitely do this without losing data bombz: so blues / blacks do not need the pre-clear / jumper steps ? Raj it is just a pain and will take a while no, currently no blue/black drives are advanced format preclear is still recommended for all drives but no jumper needed bombz: im almost wondering since i have added my green as parity i have been having performance issues Raj it is because it is unjumpered, not because it is green if it were jumpered, your performance would be much better bombz: everytime i write to my server, say a 8gb bluray --- goes 500kb ---10mb - pauses, writes a bit more, pauses Raj I've used WD EARS as parity quite a bit bombz: thenn... as well, last nite, when i was moving my 500GB to my new 2TB EARS id lose drive connectivity (as per taracopy) xfer would just stop Raj that sounds like an unjumpered EARS issue. bombz: hmmmm Raj however, the 10mb speed sounds suspiciously like a megabit network you may have more than one thing going on are you sure that your whole network is gigabit? bombz: switches and router yes Raj cables? bombz: Cat5e Raj k client computer? bombz: mine here win XP i have other pc's with win7 on them over the house Raj the OS doesn't matter bombz: but this is the main box i send data to and from others just stream Raj what matters is the physical port bombz: from unraid Raj in winxp, go to control panel > network (i think, it has been a while since I've used winxp) bombz: you want adapter settings ? Raj right click 'network connections' and choose properties I'm looking for the NIC properties it should say if it handles 10/100 or 100/1000 Sent at 12:13 PM on Monday bombz: NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet i also have .... Intel® PRO/1000 GT Desktop Adapter that i used in my older unraid build where i didnt have any of these issues Raj ok, looks good then bombz: its disabled. is 1GB of ram plenty ? as well Raj why are both installed? bombz: i just tossed this other PCI gb card in for these issues, maybe my onboard was being crappy. Raj yeah, 1 GB is plenty for most things. It shouldn't affect transfer speeds. ah but you get the same problems with both cards? bombz: so my XP goes from ...... desktop --- to switch ---- to router --- back out to switch --- to unraid Raj all cat5e, right? bombz: yes Raj k well then let's focus on the EARS drives bombz: i could always make new cables too i have 1000ft box here ok Raj sounds like your network is solid did you make the cables you are currently using? bombz: man thanks for helping a ton !! Raj no prob bombz: im sorta noob, but not really too just if i could tweek the performance on this id be golden Raj did you make your own network cables? bombz: i have yes Raj are you sure you used the ethernet wiring diagram and not the telephone one? bombz: used my tester / crimper yes i used.... Raj ok back to the drives then bombz: http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.aspx that, 568-B i did my CCNA in shool and whatnot Raj if you don't mind buying a single new drive, that would make the process a bit safer. It can even be another WD EARS. bombz: well yah i was thinkin of going to to store shortly and grabbing a black for some reason having a black for parity might be wise Raj sounds good. If you trust the cables then I do too. I just brought it up because I've heard about improperly made cables giving megabit speeds instead of gigabit bombz: yah fair enough and if it even comes to it, i might get cat6 for my run Raj here's my thoughts on the black drive: bombz: but that might be down the line if performance is still an issue Raj it will only help your speeds when writing to other 7200 rpm drives in your array. When writing to a green drive, it will make no difference. Considering that you seem to be replacing all your 7200rpm drives with green drives, I don't see much point in having a 7200 rpm parity drive. It is just a waste of power and money. Personally I would get another WD EARS, a WD EADS, or maybe a Seagate LP (though they require a firmware update that is a total pain) If you don't have jumpers already, buy some of them too bombz: yah so ill grab a WD blue Raj still not much point the blue is also 7200rpm bombz: my first thought when buying greens was, oh well my Unraid isnt always spinning i access it to stream media mainly and my brothers come over and leech shit from it thats about it but writing to it, is fukin annoying and it seem'd to be like this since i tossed in BioStar / Green parity then again i didnt know about the pre-clear / jumpers Raj right I'm 95% sure that is the issue bombz: sweet, so should i go to the store grab a 2TB now and a cmod batt to make it 'easier' cause i mean i can Raj sure get a 2 TB EARS, some jumpers, and a CMOS battery bombz: ok, your around for most part / dont mind helping me with this so i dont mess it up i mean time is money in some pplz lives :-s Raj though if you have already tried 3 batteries, I'm not sure a 4th will fix it bombz: well the batteries i did get , didnt come in a seal'd pack lol got from my buddy at his shop so maybe ill buy new this time lol Raj ok, well, worth a shot for a buck or two I guess bombz: exactly Raj here's what you are going to do when you get home: bombz: fukin annoyes me too, power down raid, like last nite added 2tb power on, didnt wanna power --- off then on, powerd, then default bios settings was like ARG !!! hate u biostar !! lol Raj If you get a new EARS drive, install the jumper on pins 7/8 immediately after taking it out of the packaging. If you get a new EADS drive, no jumper needed. Step two, preclear the new drive. I know command line is scary, but it is worth it in this case I can walk you through that part, or you can follow the guide in the wiki. bombz: yah ill do both read guide / ask questions Raj k bombz: so the pre-clear is from the unraid box ie, add the drive to my unraid Raj right bombz: oh another thing Raj well, doesn't have to be bombz: im runing server 4.4 issue ? Raj but I generally do it on my server ah possibly. might as well upgrade to 4.6 while you are at it bombz: fak, lol, last time i tried to mess with my flash drive it wouldnt boot yah im down for the cause man im so thankful there is someone like you man really thanks a ton Raj no worries bombz: it might be a few day progression but i have this whole week off Raj not might, will bombz: so i wanna bang this out still worth it Raj agreed bombz: ok well im gonna get rdy ti jet and go get a drive Raj cool I'm going to lunch bombz: i really apprecaite the help, nice ppl in the world exist !! Raj I'll be here (at work) until about 5:30 or 6 pm my time so another 5 to 5.5 hours bombz: i installed gchat just to chat you Raj ha bombz: well worth it Raj glad to help do you mind if I post this chat transcript in your thread, so that it may help others? bombz: yah unraid community is cool man lots of nice ppl Raj indeed ok, catch you later Link to comment
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