6.8.3 MULTIPLE QUESTIONS (Rails, Cache, GPU, KVM)

[nerbonne]

I figured I'd just make one big post, hoping for some advice and figured this would be better than a bunch of posts. 

 

[Rails]

I got a Supermicro 846 chassis about a year ago.  It came with some cheap rails. Besides the fact that the max length on the rails is 29.5 inches, and my server rack is 30 inches, the rails don't seem to fit.  Please see the pics.  The rack I have has a second set of cage nut inserts that face inward and seem to get in the way of the rails.  Are there thinner rails that I can use?  I've looked online and I'm confused and I don't want to buy the wrong product.  First pic is of the rails not lining up to include showing the inward facing securing point.  The second pic is of the side of the 846 chassis, for reference.  The rack is a Daewon TMT DW-S1200 if that matters.  22U, 1200mm high, 1000mm deep, 600mm wide.

 

[Cache]

I have a Kingston 480GB A400 SATA 3 2.5" Internal SSD SA400S37/480G SSD that I'm using for a cache drive.  I've had the drive for about two years.  It has no SMART errors and has 48% life left.  For the first year or so it worked fine.  For the last year, I've had to start managing how much data is being written to the drive.  After sustained writes of 20mb or more per sec for over a a minute or so, the drive gets super slow and eventually makes the system unusable.  I read posts how this drive is problematic and can be fixed with a firmware update.  So I pulled it out and updated the firmware using my Windows PC.  Put it back in, seemed to work better initially but then started having problems again.  So, the question:  Is this just this SSD or is this a problem with all SSD's?  Someone on a different thread recommended some 960 Gb Sandisk Ultra II SSD's.  Said they weren't the fastest but they just work.  I don't care about FAST so much as the JUST WORK.  Also, would two SSD's work better?  What about two 7200 RPM drives?  Thoughts?  I am at my wits end with this Kingston SSD.  I had a 500 Gb 4500 RPM drive in and it was slower but never made the system hang.

 

[GPU]

I have a 1050 ti installed, but I don't think it's doing anything.  The server is headless, so I don't use it for a monitor.  How do I test to see if GPU transcoding is working.  Someone mentioned there would be a checkbox in the Plex settings if it were supported?  If it's not doing anything, I should take it out to save power that it uses to keep the card on at idle.

 

[KVM]

I'd like to have a Keyboard/Monitor installed in the rack but all the items I look at are like over $1000.  Is that real?  Is there no budget options anywhere?  I don't need to be able to switch between multiple inputs although two inputs wouldn't be terrible (I could connect it to unRaid and then a raspy as well).  Any thoughts on some budget rackmount Keyboard/Monitor options?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  Your opinions are appreciated.

[nerbonne]

0 replies.  It's hard to be patient when all other posts in this forum get a reply...   Did I do something wrong in my post?

[ken-ji]

On 9/27/2020 at 1:36 PM, nerbonne said:

[Cache]

I have a Kingston 480GB A400 SATA 3 2.5" Internal SSD SA400S37/480G SSD that I'm using for a cache drive.  I've had the drive for about two years.  It has no SMART errors and has 48% life left.  For the first year or so it worked fine.  For the last year, I've had to start managing how much data is being written to the drive.  After sustained writes of 20mb or more per sec for over a a minute or so, the drive gets super slow and eventually makes the system unusable.  I read posts how this drive is problematic and can be fixed with a firmware update.  So I pulled it out and updated the firmware using my Windows PC.  Put it back in, seemed to work better initially but then started having problems again.  So, the question:  Is this just this SSD or is this a problem with all SSD's?  Someone on a different thread recommended some 960 Gb Sandisk Ultra II SSD's.  Said they weren't the fastest but they just work.  I don't care about FAST so much as the JUST WORK.  Also, would two SSD's work better?  What about two 7200 RPM drives?  Thoughts?  I am at my wits end with this Kingston SSD.  I had a 500 Gb 4500 RPM drive in and it was slower but never made the system hang.

 

[GPU]

I have a 1050 ti installed, but I don't think it's doing anything.  The server is headless, so I don't use it for a monitor.  How do I test to see if GPU transcoding is working.  Someone mentioned there would be a checkbox in the Plex settings if it were supported?  If it's not doing anything, I should take it out to save power that it uses to keep the card on at idle.

Like any forum, one reason you didn't get a response is because there's nobody with anything to contribute or they just missed your post.

But in any case about the SSD. just about any SSD should be ok. a possible cause of the slowdown is that your SSD is currently out of free/empty blocks and now the drive has to do a block erase before being able to write anything - causing a massive slowdown. Are you TRIMming the SSD? and is the SSD connected to something other than an HBA? - this is because some HBAs do not support running TRIM. There's the Dynamix TRIM plugin for this.

 

As for the GPU and docker passthrough, you'll need to have the NVIDIA drivers installed via the linuxserver.io plugin or another that lets you rebuild the kernel as you need. In a nutshell, for a docker container to use host hardware, the host needs to be able to use it via host drivers, which is then passed to the container so that container apps can interact with the device. I believe there's more on the specific thread for Plex container you have installed.

[nerbonne]

Hi ken-ji, thanks for your info. 

 

I have Dynamic SSD trim installed, and it was set to run Daily, so it's feeling like this SSD has serious problems.  The SSD was connected to the same HBA that the other drives are connected to (BPN-SAS2-846EL1).  Do you have any recommendations on decent SSDs?  

 

As far as the GPU, I guess since I haven't configured it, then it's not working so I'll just take it out.  I prefer to have the CPUs do the transcoding anyways.

[ken-ji]

Try keeping the SSD on the motherboard ports, not the HBA - I don't have the links but I remember there was discussion about TRIM not being supported on most HBAs, only standard AHCI controllers.

[nerbonne]

Thanks ken-ji!  It took me awhile to get to hooking it up, but I have connected the SSD to the motherboard and I've been running it for about a week with no issues!  Previously I would have seen issues after the first few days.