New User Desperately Needs Help!!

[Mistress_Mistie]

I just finished building my new server which I will use for Plex, cloud storage, some minor gaming, and possible DVR for home security. I installed Windows 10 Pro 64 onto one of the 2 PCie Nvme m.2 500GB drives and can boot to Windows with no problem. When I created (both with the automatic and manual ways) the Unraid USB drive, I hoped I could plug it in, change a few minor things in BIOS and get started. This is not the case. I have spent hours tweaking the Bios, remaking the USB drive using multiple different USB sitcks, Used custimization for UEFI, tried without UEFI option, Enabled Fast Boot and gave USB for initialization in BIOS, set USB as 1st boot device (it is the only thing that shows up in BIOS when it is plugged in, the M.2 does not show up at all). I have tried both USB 3 and USB 2, front USB ports, Motherboard rear ports, and the internal motherboard USB port. Nothing works. It shows the POST screen options like BIOS, Boot Menu, System Info, etc. If I do nothing, it will boot to Windows, unless I have boot order in Bios set to Fast Boot and 1st boot device is USB, in which case it just goes to Post screen, goes black, then returns to the Post screen over and over. I am using the 30 day free trial version until I get it to work but will buy the lifetime pass when things are working and I can see that it is worth doing so. The system is: 

 

Gigabyte W480 Vision W version 1 workstation/server board with BIOS Version F3 (Up to date)

Intel Xeon W-1290P 10 core/20 thread CPU

2x Pcie M.2 500 GB drives (One was going to be a Windows boot drive and one for Array cache)

5x 4TB HGST Enterprise hard drives

2x 6 TB HGST Enterprose hard drives (for dual parity)

32GB Kingston Unbuffered ECC RAM 

RTX 20270 GPU

Non-raid 8 port PCIe SATA controller card

HP Bluray DVD Writter 

 

When creating the USB drive using the automatic method on a PNY USB 3 drive, it shows up as UEFI (see attached image) If I do nothin at the POST screen it will either reloop back around to the POST screen or boot into Windows 10 instead. If I choose BOOT ORDER (F9) it will only show me the USB drive, that is the first image below. I choose it and it goes right back into the same loop. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. I really need help getting this issue resolved. I am posting images of the BIOS options for the Gigabyte W480 Vision W so that someone might see something I am missing. Also, I use Run as Administrator to create the bootble option for the drive with the .bat file. I did this on my laptop, my workstation and even on the server I am using while booted into Windows. I still get the same exact problem. If I can resolve the problems and magage to actually get into Unraid, will it be a big deal to change whatever needs to be changed when I switch from the free trial to the paid license? I just hate spending money on something that may or may not work. A big reason I want to use Unraid is for Plex. I have never used Plex or Unraid, this is all new to me. I ended up choosing to use Unraid due to the high number of recomendations from the Plex forums. I am very familiar with Windows and would like to use Windows as much as possible. How do I use Unraid and Windows together. Do I have to run Windows in a VM in Unraid or can Unraid work with Windows? I need someone to hold my hand and walk me through this process as I am extremly frustrated by everything so far. I really appreciate the help. 

 

Thank You,

Mistie Moss

 

[Energen]

2 hours ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

will it be a big deal to change whatever needs to be changed when I switch from the free trial to the paid license?

No, it's just a license file added to the usb.

2 hours ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

How do I use Unraid and Windows together. Do I have to run Windows in a VM in Unraid or can Unraid work with Windows?

1) Hmm... you don't use Unraid and Windows "together".  You can dual boot Windows and Unraid so that either one is running at a time, but not both at the same time. 2) Yes you can run Windows in a VM on Unraid and therefore both are running at the same time.

 

As for the BIOS, probably makes no difference but where it said you're using the USB as a Forced FDD (floppy), see if you can change that to USB/HDD.  And in the second to last image where it says CSM Support, set that to Enabled and then see if there's any new options to change.  CSM Support is related to UEFI booting.

[Mistress_Mistie]

 

    I was finally able to get Unraid to boot…YAY!!!...and then…………. “ACHI Controller Unavailable” See 1st image below. I went back into BIOS and tried making changes that I found on various websites talking about this issue. Nothing has worked so far. I disabled VT-d Virtualization as recommended, this did not change anything.

    I disabled IOMMU, see image below. Again, this did not help. I am not using the onboard SATA ports, for any drives, except for the DVD writer. I set the SATA Mode Selection to ACHI, as seen in the next image.

    I tried changing the Fast Boot options and enabled CSM support, same issue. Other PCI Devices and Storage Boot Option Controller set to UEFI. Same issue. I have attached the images of the BIOS Options and the screen shots of what is occurring. IT does not matter if I try with or without GUI, Safe Mode etc. The hardware I am using is:

 

Gigabyte W480 Vision W version 1 workstation/server board with BIOS Version F3 (Up to date)

 

Intel Xeon W-1290P 10 core/20 thread CPU

 

2x PCIe M.2 500 GB drives (One was going to be a Windows boot drive and one for Array cache)

 

5x 4TB HGST Enterprise hard drives

 

2x 6 TB HGST Enterprise hard drives (for dual parity)

 

32GB Kingston Unbuffered ECC RAM 

 

RTX 20270 GPU

 

Non-raid 8 port PCIe SATA controller card- MZHOU PCIe SATA Card

https://www.amazon.com/MZHOU-Controller-Expansion-Marvell-88SE9215/dp/B082D6XSZN/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=MZHOU+PCIe+SATA+Card+8+Port&qid=1598804764&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFLUFQ0WkU2Nzk2MUUmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAxNDY4MjUyVU9DUjBRVEczQlIwJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA4NTkyMDMxREU1RzdBQjk0N0RKJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

 

HP Blu-ray DVD Writer 

 

     The PCIe card uses the Marvell 88SE9215 + JMicron JMB5xx chip and all the hard drives show up in Windows. This is a non-raid card that I was told would work with Unraid and there are reviews on Amazon where people have used this card for Unraid. It does Support AHCI1.0 mode and IDE mode Could the card be the problem or is there something else that is causing these issues? I am going to try to move it to a different PCIe slot on my motherboard, but I don’t have high hopes. If you have any advice, please let me know.

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Mistress_Mistie

[JorgeB]

14 hours ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

This is a non-raid card that I was told would work with Unraid

It might work but it's not recommended, we don't recommend using Marvell controllers and same goes for SATA port multipliers, that one has both.

[Mistress_Mistie]

What PCIe Sata card is recomended? 

[JorgeB]

Any LSI with a SAS2008/2308/3008/3408 chipset in IT mode, e.g., 9201-8i, 9211-8i, 9207-8i, 9300-8i, 9400-8i, etc and clones, like the Dell H200/H310 and IBM M1015, these latter ones need to be crossflashed.

 

Note that it's not clear to me that the controller is what's causing the boot problem, but still not recommended.

[Mistress_Mistie]

I can try a new controller, but like you said, it may not be the problem. I have tried so many different things in BIOS that I am about to just get a new controller card and try it anyway. I found a Dell H310 LSI 9211-8i P20 that is already flashed to IT Mode for $59.00. Perhaps it is best to just go for it at this point. This is a SAS controller so will it work on SATA drives? What cables do I use to conntect SATA drives to a SAS controller card? 

I found these cables: Cable Matters Internal Mini SAS to SATA Cable (SFF-8087 to SATA Forward Breakout) 

They are SAS to 4 SATA data (not the power type)

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Mistress_Mistie
I think I found the proper cables.

[JorgeB]

7 minutes ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

This is a SAS controller so will it work on SATA drives?

Yep.

 

7 minutes ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

What cables do I use to conntect SATA drives to a SAS controller card?

miniSAS to SATA forward breakout cables, make sure forward is mentioned since reverse cables look the same but won't work for this case.

[Mistress_Mistie]

So after going back over the book for my motherboard, I realized that the Blu-ray drive was connected to a SATA port controlled by Asmedia controller I figured out that the ACHI issue was conntected to Asmedia chipset. I have managed to get past that issue, now the probem is that after trying to boot to Unraid with GUI, and it goes through the whole process of showing all the initalization info, I end up with a simple single cursor on a black screen. When using Unraid in Safe Mode with GUI, same problem. When using Unraid without GUI, it seems to show some issues with IPV6 and IPV4 but does eventualy end up on a line showing Unraid Login. I have not created any log in info. This is a free trial version, at least until I get everything working properly. Any advice on getting into GUI mode? I have an RTX 2070 in system, but also have the Xeon W-1290P which has P630 graphics and the motherboard does support onboard graphics. I have diabled VT-d and IOMMU is disabled. I will try removing the 2070 gpu and see if onboard graphics will work, though I hate having to do this, as I really wanted to use the 2070 for Plex hardware transcoding. The Xeon will certainly handle everything on its own I think, but not what I intended to have happen. What doesnt make sense to me, is that I can see everything on the screen with the GPU in place. I also read that "root" was the username and password is left blank. On the server itself, using root does as it shoud, as it changes the directory to root@plexmediaserver:~# This does not help to log in. I did run ifconfig to find an IP but only see the loopback address. I changed to the slower enthernet plug on the mobo, tried rebooting and still find no IP. I checked my network and that particular plug, everything is good. I did not assign a static IP address. I currently don't have any static address assigned on my network. I think the main thing I am confused about right now, is loging into the server. Should I already have a login and password set up  before using the USB to boot Unraid?    

Edited August 31, 2020 by Mistress_Mistie
More infomation

[Energen]

2 hours ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

Unraid?    

So this is a case of you not fully understanding what Unraid is and how to use it. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just pointing out this obvious fact.  You need to read some of the docs to get an idea of how to use it.  https://wiki.unraid.net/Official_Documentation

 

2 hours ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

Any advice on getting into GUI mode?

 

Unraid isn't actually a GUI, not like Windows.

 

When you have booted Unraid (you're at that Unraid login prompt) you then open your web browser (on another computer) and go to the IP of the Unraid server.  <<< This is your GUI.  A website.  Basically.  At that point your Unraid server is done doing all it's going to be doing, until you do stuff from the Unraid WebUI on another computer.

 

Quote

 

Unraid OS (Headless)

The standard boot mode for Unraid Server OS, headless mode utilizes less memory than desktop mode, but relies on the use of another device capable of running a web browser to access the webGui for management.

If a monitor is attached then a console login will be displayed that can be used to access the Linux command line on the server.

Unraid OS GUI Mode

Loads a lightweight desktop interface on a directly attached monitor with a quick-launch menu for accessing the webGui, product documentation, and useful Linux utilities including a bash shell, midnight commander, and htop. This mode may be helpful for users trying to diagnose network connectivity problems or for users that don't have a separate device to use for connecting to the webGui.

The management interface presented in this mode is the same one that is displayed when running the system in headless mode and accessing the server remotely using a web browser.

Unraid OS Safe Mode (no plugins, no GUI)

In this mode Unraid suppresses loading any plugins that the user may have installed. Use this boot mode to diagnose if plugins are causing stability issues on your system.

Unraid OS GUI Safe Mode (no plugins)

In this mode Unraid suppresses loading any plugins that the user may have installed. Use this boot mode to diagnose if plugins are causing stability issues on your system.
 

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/UnRAID_6/Getting_Started#Getting_Started

Edited August 31, 2020 by Energen

[trurl]

I think this is the relevant point

2 hours ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

I did run ifconfig to find an IP but only see the loopback address.

Enter

diagnostics

at the command line, wait for it to complete, then enter

shutdown

Then put your flash in your PC, get the diagnostics zip file from it, and attach it to your NEXT post in this thread.

[Mistress_Mistie]

 

On 8/31/2020 at 4:13 PM, trurl said:

I think this is the relevant point

Enter

diagnostics

at the command line, wait for it to complete, then enter

shutdown

Then put your flash in your PC, get the diagnostics zip file from it, and attach it to your NEXT post in this thread.

Diagnostic Data attached 

plexmediaserver-diagnostics-20200901-0826.zip

[trurl]

From system/ethtool in those:

	Link detected: no

Check ethernet connection. Does the port light? Tried another cable? Another port on the switch/router?

[ChatNoir]

I see that your board has a 1Gb and a 2.5Gb Intel NICs.

 

Since you are running 6.8.3, the 2.5Gb will probably not work, try the 1Gb port (I think it is the black one).

[JorgeB]

50 minutes ago, ChatNoir said:

Since you are running 6.8.3, the 2.5Gb will probably not work, try the 1Gb port (I think it is the black one).

No driver is being loaded for either NIC, @Mistress_Mistietry the latest beta, it should have the driver for both.

[MikeGNola]

16 hours ago, ChatNoir said:

I see that your board has a 1Gb and a 2.5Gb Intel NICs.

 

Since you are running 6.8.3, the 2.5Gb will probably not work, try the 1Gb port (I think it is the black one).

Thanks for posting this. Have been tearing my hair out most of the day with my first unraid install. Could never find it on my network and even tried setting an IP for it to no avail. Built a new server with an I5-10500 and Asus Z490 Strix Gaming A. Not an expensive board but it had an I225V_Intel_Gigabit built in which impressed and worked fine in Windows. Finally thought of a driver issue and found this. Never worried about it since everyone supports Intel 😆

Fortunately had a spare Intel NIC I had bought for a old home server I was going to try FreeNAS on and it was said that doesn't like the Realtek NIC built into that one. Once I installed the spare, it worked fine am about to get my trial USB Key.

[ChatNoir]

As mentionned above by JorgeB, you should try 6.9 beta since it does have the drivers for your onboard NICs.

[MikeGNola]

Thanks. Since I've got it running now with the spare 1GB Intel card and am a noob, may just wait til it comes out of beta to change it.

[Mistress_Mistie]

I have verified the port, cable works. I tried reseting my equipment and it didn't work. 

I will definitely try 6.9 beta today. I really really appreciate all the help. I will post the results of using the beta version today. 

 

EDIT- UPDATE: 

Switching to 6.9 beta made all the difference. After dealing with a few more issues I reset CMOS, tweaked a few more things in the BIOS, created a new USB boot device with 6.9, and disabling Network Stack, everything worked. I am able to boot to GUI mode if I want to work from the machine and it showed up on my network with all drives showing up properly. I am excited!!! I am certain I will run into other problems along the way, but the main issues of getting started, are at least resolved. 

Edited September 4, 2020 by Mistress_Mistie
UPDATE:

[Mistress_Mistie]

I am setting up my initial library folder structure and following the guide at https://blog.harveydelaney.com/setting-up-plex-media-server-on-your-unraid-server/. Everything is fairly easy but I have some confusion at the part about setting up the files before installing Plex Media Server. It says: 

 

Before we install Plex on our server, we need to create an Unraid "Share" that is dedicated to holding our media content that we want Plex to catalogue.

Open up Unraid, click on the Shares tab then click Add Share:

On the Share Settings page, fill out Share name and Comments and click Add Share:

Once this share has been created, I recommend creating folders that separate the type of media content you wish to store. To do this, open Unraid in your file browser (\\{UNRAID_IP}) on Windows.            (<<<<<<<<< I am using the WebGUI to access Unraid server, so where do I go to find this?) It says that these folders will be in Data 

For example, I created folders called Photos and Videos. So I now have the two directories:

\\{UNRAID_IP}\Media\Photos

\\{UNRAID_IP}\Media\Videos

 

In the side menu, under your new server click Library. Then click Add Library.

First, let's setup a Plex library for Videos. In the popup, select the TV programmes library type, enter a name for your library then go to Add folders:

Click Browse for Media Folder and under data, you'll find the two folders we created in our Media share. Click Videos and click Add.

Then click Add Library:

The reason why it's a bit tricky to find these folders is because we've mapped the data directory in Plex to our Media share if you look at the Docker container settings.

 

Would I just navigate to appData/Media and put my Folders there? 

[Energen]

For the Plex docker you will map /data to the Media share, so from within plex when you add a media source it will be under /data

 

/data -- > /mnt/user/Media/

[trurl]

Before you dive into setting up plex or other dockers, it might be worthwhile to consider how you have docker itself setup on your server.

 

Do you have cache?

 

[Mistress_Mistie]

19 hours ago, Energen said:

For the Plex docker you will map /data to the Media share, so from within plex when you add a media source it will be under /data

 

/data -- > /mnt/user/Media/

I have looked all over but I can not seem to find the /data folder Is this something I create and if so, where do I create it. I am on a Windows PC and using the WebGUI to access my sever. 

[Mistress_Mistie]

19 hours ago, trurl said:

Before you dive into setting up plex or other dockers, it might be worthwhile to consider how you have docker itself setup on your server.

 

Do you have cache?

 

The system is: 

 

Gigabyte W480 Vision W version 1 workstation/server board with BIOS Version F3 (Up to date)

Intel Xeon W-1290P 10 core/20 thread CPU

2x Pcie M.2 500 GB drives (One was going to be a Windows boot drive and one for cache)

5x 4TB HGST Enterprise hard drives

2x 6 TB HGST Enterprose hard drives (for dual parity)

32GB Kingston Unbuffered ECC RAM 

RTX 20270 GPU

Non-raid 8 port PCIe SATA controller card

HP Bluray DVD Writter 

 

Should there be a cache specifically for Docker? I can easily add an SSD or repurpose the other 500GB nvme M.2. 

I am open to any advice to help set everything up in the best manner possible.  

[trurl]

1 hour ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

I have looked all over but I can not seem to find the /data folder Is this something I create and if so, where do I create it. I am on a Windows PC and using the WebGUI to access my sever. 

Post your docker run command for plex as explained at this very first link in the Docker FAQ:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/57181-docker-faq/?do=findComment&comment=564345

 

1 hour ago, Mistress_Mistie said:

Should there be a cache specifically for Docker?

Not necessarily, and unless you are running the latest beta you can't have multiple pools anyway. If you installed cache before enabling dockers or VMs then things may be already setup by default. The easiest way to get us the information we need to look at this is to

 

Go to Tools - Diagnostics and attach the complete Diagnostics ZIP file to your NEXT post in this thread.