unRAID Server Release 4.7-beta1 Available

[SSD]

Just use the one that has been pre-cleared as is. Let unRAID add it to the array and start using it. The drive will work just as well with the jumper as without.

 

Peter

 

Works fine - just slower (especially with small files).  I'd recommend getting it repartitioned before you put data on it, but that's just me.

[lionelhutz]

Works fine - just slower (especially with small files).  I'd recommend getting it repartitioned before you put data on it, but that's just me.

 

I'm referring to smakovits' post where he stated he had a jumpered and pre-cleaded EARS drive. I recommended he just install that drive as is and use it. It will be partitioned at sector 63 and it will be aligned via the jumper which shifts the partition at sector 63 so it is really at sector 64. It's ready to go and removing the jumper and pre-clearing it again has no benefits other than being able to sleep at night not worrying about that stray jumper being left on the disk. In other words, removing the jumper is nothing but a waste of time for no gains.

 

Peter

 

[jaj08]

So I added my first Advanced Format drive to the array. Its an EARS drive that I had previously forgotten to jumper. 

 

 

 

 

 

[SSD]

Works fine - just slower (especially with small files).  I'd recommend getting it repartitioned before you put data on it, but that's just me.

 

I'm referring to smakovits' post where he stated he had a jumpered and pre-cleaded EARS drive. I recommended he just install that drive as is and use it. It will be partitioned at sector 63 and it will be aligned via the jumper which shifts the partition at sector 63 so it is really at sector 64. It's ready to go and removing the jumper and pre-clearing it again has no benefits other than being able to sleep at night not worrying about that stray jumper being left on the disk. In other words, removing the jumper is nothing but a waste of time for no gains.

 

Peter

 

 

I was thinking he had precleared with the 4K alignment AND the jumper on.  If the original preclear was done with the 63 sector alignment AND the jumper on, you're right, there would be no need to re-preclear it.

[smakovits]

Works fine - just slower (especially with small files).  I'd recommend getting it repartitioned before you put data on it, but that's just me.

 

I'm referring to smakovits' post where he stated he had a jumpered and pre-cleaded EARS drive. I recommended he just install that drive as is and use it. It will be partitioned at sector 63 and it will be aligned via the jumper which shifts the partition at sector 63 so it is really at sector 64. It's ready to go and removing the jumper and pre-clearing it again has no benefits other than being able to sleep at night not worrying about that stray jumper being left on the disk. In other words, removing the jumper is nothing but a waste of time for no gains.

 

Peter

 

 

I was thinking he had precleared with the 4K alignment AND the jumper on.  If the original preclear was done with the 63 sector alignment AND the jumper on, you're right, there would be no need to re-preclear it.

 

Yes guys, I want to clarify.  I have 2 new disks and one existing in array with data.  All 3 have jumper currently in place.  The one with the data was precleared regular, with the older preclear when the -A didnt even exist.  One of the 2 new drives was also precleared without the -A, but with the jumper.  This disk is not in the array yet.  The third disk also has the jumper on it, but nothing has been done to it in the way of preclear. 

 

The talk about the small files, then is that even relevant, or was that because somebody was misunderstanding my setup?  I mean if there is truly no gain, then I guess I should just leave the disk already in the array alone.  However, the other 2 not yet in the array, I guess maybe remove the jumper and format or is that just dumb because it is a complete waste of time and I should just leave things running and worry about it the next time I need to add disk and just power things down then.

[lionelhutz]

Leave the first drive which is precleared alone. It's ready to go so I would not bother messing with it any further.

 

You can either remove the jumper and pre-clear the second new drive with the -A option or leave the jumper and pre-clear the second new drive without the -A option. Your choice. Either way will achieve the same final goal. So, pick which way you want to try and preclear the second drive.

 

You have posted that you have a 3rd existing data drive which is not properly aligned so I suggest the following path.

 

Replace the 3rd existing data drive with one of your new drives. Both should be precleared by now so either one will work. Start the array and allow unRAID to rebuild the data onto the new drive. Keep the old drive until the rebuild is complete because it's your backup copy in case something goes wrong during the process. I'd suggest a rebuild and a parity check to confirm.

 

100% BE POSITIVE you match the 4k aligned setting to having no jumper. Only use the 4k aligned setting if the drive does not have a jumper. You can only use either the 4k aligned setting OR the jumper to align a WD drive, NOT both together. Use both together and the drive will be misaligned.

 

Next step is to use the pre-clear script on the removed 3rd data drive with the -A option to clear it and get it ready for a properly aligned partition.

 

At this point, you have 2 drives ready to install to expand your array. Both will have properly aligned partitions.

 

Peter

 

[smakovits]

Thanks peter.  Maybe I did a bad job explaining.  The third drive with data has the jumper and it was pre-cleared so it should be aligned properly, just like the newest drive I formatted most recently that is still not in the array.

 

I am most worried about performance between the 2methods.  Jumper in place vs no jumper and 4k alignment with -A formatting.

[SSD]

Thanks peter.  Maybe I did a bad job explaining.  The third drive with data has the jumper and it was pre-cleared so it should be aligned properly, just like the newest drive I formatted most recently that is still not in the array.

 

I am most worried about performance between the 2methods.  Jumper in place vs no jumper and 4k alignment with -A formatting.

 

The following situations will yield best performance with WD EARS 2T drives:

- Jumper ON with sector 63 partition offset (old preclear or new preclear with default / "-a" option)

- Jumper OFF with sector 64 partition offset (new preclear with "-A" option)

 

The following situations will yield reduced performance with WD EARS 2T drives

- Jumper ON with sector 64 partition offset (new preclear with "-A" option)

- Jumper OFF with sector 63 partition offset (old preclear or new preclear with default / "-a" option)

 

If all of your drives have the jumper and were precleared with either the old version of preclear or the new version without the "-A" option, you are fine.  But if you used the "-A" option with a jumpered drive, or didn't use the "-A" option with an unjumpered drive, you will get reduced performance, particularly with small files.

 

 

[lionelhutz]

Jumper in place vs no jumper and 4k alignment with -A formatting.

 

Both are the same. There is no reason to believe either would be better anyways. Both align the partition to sector 64 on the drive. Both require the drive logic to convert the 512b sectors on the SATA interface to 4k sectors internally on the platters.

 

Peter

 

[hawihoney]

I've read most if not all threads regarding new 2TB or higher disks - but I'm not sure if I have to change old SATA cards?

 

We use two 15-drive machines from Limetech. A newer MD1510/LL and an older MD1500/LL. The later is from 2006 I think. At least in this old machine there are old SATA cards. Will those old SATA cards work with these new drives or do I have to change BIOS on machines/SATA cards?

 

Thanks in advance.

Harald

 

[Nightstalk3rs]

Okay so I am running UnRAID 4.6 and have one 2TB WD EARS drive in my UnRAID server currently.  It was formatted with the old Preclear script and had the jumper in place so it is fine from what I understand.  I also have two untouched 2TB WD EARS drives that I am looking to add to my server as soon as I can.  I just wanted to confirm the process before adding them.

 

• 1. Install UnRAID 4.7-beta1 and run it for a while without changing any settings or adding any new drives.
  
• 2. Once I'm happy with how things are running with the current setup, go to the Settings page and set "Default partition format" to "MBR: 4K-aligned", and leave it that way.
  
• 3. Install the two brand new 2TB WD EARS drives into my server WITHOUT the jumpers installed and run Joe L.'s preclear_disk.sh script with the -A switch on each drive.
  
• 4. Once preclear is finished, add the two new 2TB WD EARS drives to my array and begin using them.
  

 

If this is correct, then I'll be doing it right away.  Also, how long would you suggest to wait until switching the "Default partition format" to "MBR: 4K-aligned" after upgrading to 4.7-beta1?

 

Thanks and I appreciate the advice in advance!

[lionelhutz]

Those steps sound about right. If you pre-clear with the -A then then  4k Aligned setting doesn't really matter. As for making the switch. Well, run the array a bunch to ensure everything works. Make the 4k aligned switch and add the drives when you are comfortable you don't have any issues with the 4.7b1 release.

 

Peter

 

[SSD]

Those steps sound about right. If you pre-clear with the -A then then  4k Aligned setting doesn't really matter. As for making the switch. Well, run the array a bunch to ensure everything works. Make the 4k aligned switch and add the drives when you are comfortable you don't have any issues with the 4.7b1 release.

 

Peter

 

 

Agreed.

 

The only times that the alignment settings matter are if unRAID is doing the partitioning.  

 

The situations below make unRAID ignore the setting ...

 

1 - The disk was precleared

2 - The disk already contains a single partition, starting at sector 63 or 64, taking up the entire disk

 

An example of a time (maybe the most common) where the setting IS used is if you are adding a brand new disk to an array without preclearing it.

 

Becuase unRAID doesn't warn you if a disk is already partitioned contrary to the setting, you need to really pay attention to the TRUE partition alignment, and NOT THE UNRAID SETTING.

 

You can run myMain and look at the inventory view to see the partition offsets of all of your disks.  Or you can run the "fisk -lu /dev/sdX" (where sdX is you device).

[jaj08]

So I have Unraid 4.7b1 running on both my Office and Home Unraid servers with each server having 1 AF drive in the array. For testing purposes I filled up the new AF drive and all is seeming well. No stability issues with Unraid, and no write issues to the AF drive...  So in my testing this build seems solid.

 

 

 

[umax]

First timer here, just about to switch from whs to unraid pro.. I have been playing all day on my test machine with basic version and I really like everything so far. Already achived the goal with hardware, nfs sharing, user share, etc

 

BUT I have one more question that is holding me back atm, my WHS consist of various 1TB-2TB drives, all are non AF drives and since this are almost impossible to get anymore, I dont understand if I can mix non AF and AF drives in array? How should I proceed migrating my WHS stuff over to unraid? First make array of non AF drives with "Default partition format: MBR unaligned" and after all are migrated, change the setting to 4k-aligned? Or I can set this from start and non AF will be added as unaligned? Sorry for newbie question, but this is the only thing I am unsure atm and holding me back to make a switch.

[Joe L.]

First timer here, just about to switch from whs to unraid pro.. I have been playing all day on my test machine with basic version and I really like everything so far. Already achived the goal with hardware, nfs sharing, user share, etc

 

BUT I have one more question that is holding me back atm, my WHS consist of various 1TB-2TB drives, all are non AF drives and since this are almost impossible to get anymore, I dont understand if I can mix non AF and AF drives in array? How should I proceed migrating my WHS stuff over to unraid? First make array of non AF drives with "Default partition format: MBR unaligned" and after all are migrated, change the setting to 4k-aligned? Or I can set this from start and non AF will be added as unaligned? Sorry for newbie question, but this is the only thing I am unsure atm and holding me back to make a switch.

Use the MBR-4k alignment for everything.  A disk that is aligned at a 4096 byte boundary is automatically also aligned at a 512 byte boundary.

 

Set the the MBR-4k alignment setting in the "Settings" screen. 

Use

preclear_disk.sh -A /dev/sdX

to preclear all your disks to ensure they have no glaring defects and to request they be partitioned with a 4k alignment.

("-A" request 4k alignment)

It is available here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2817.0

attached to the first post in the thread.

 

Joe L.

[ClawSS]

I just had 4.7 Beta 1 lock on bootup at Starting sysklogd daemons -m0

 

I am attempting upgrade to 4.7 Final to see if it "fixes" it.  Odd that it just stopped booting up.

 

EDIT--  Nope, 4.7 Final did not help..not sure how it would.  I have only a home network so is it still a WINS issue?

 

EDIT 2 -- Yep, corrupted file ident.cfg and I took out my password.  never did a bad shutdown, but I know what to look for.  Sorry for sounding my alarm....terribly sorry.

[Joe L.]

I just had 4.7 Beta 1 lock on bootup at Starting sysklogd daemons -m0

 

I am attempting upgrade to 4.7 Final to see if it "fixes" it.  Odd that it just stopped booting up.

 

EDIT--  Nope, 4.7 Final did not help..not sure how it would.  I have only a home network so is it still a WINS issue?

First step, perform a memory test.  newer version of unRAID probably will use more/different memory than the older versions.

 

Joe L.