dirrtyjoe Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 I'm a little confused about jumpers. I just setup my system, added two EARS drive, precleared both, set one as parity and other to the array and I am now in the process of transferring data... should I have put jumpers on them first? Should I stop my transfer, start over and put jumpers on or are they not 100% necessary? Quote Link to comment
Spectrum Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 If you are using V4.7b1 and you used the new preclear script with the -A option then you are all set. For any other version you may suffer from some performance degradation. Your data will not be at risk, but you won't get the max available performance out of your system. Whether you want to stop now and restart the process is up to you. Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Today, I would upgrade to 4.7b1 and then re-format the drives with the new advanced formatting option. Set the "Default partition format" option to "MBR: 4K-aligned". You have to clear the MBR so that unRAID will create a new partition with the correct starting sector. Type this at the console (keyboard and monitor) or via a telnet session after you have stopped the array. dd if=/dev/zero count=8 of=/dev/sdX X is the device number. Probably a and b since you have just 2 drives. This can be easily check with unMENU if you have it installed. There's a command line to find out too but I don't recall at the moment. You have 2 options. Do each drive one at a time. Allow unRAID to rebuild the data as if you'd just replaced the drive due to a failure. Do both drives at once. Then use the initconfig command to reset the array and start over. Peter Quote Link to comment
dirrtyjoe Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 I'm running mostly macs (HTPC, others), would I benefit from going to 5b? Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Not yet, wait until the newer versions come out with AFP support. At this time, you're best to go to 4.7b1 for the advanced drive support. Peter Quote Link to comment
dirrtyjoe Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 Ok so if I were to take option 2 that you listed, how would I proceed? Should I follow the process here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=10326.0 ? Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Not really. My 2nd option was to just start again and that thread is about saving the data. Am I correct in believing you only have 2 drives? Stop the array. Go to the settings page and set the partition format to MBR 4k aligned. Go to the devices page and take note of the drive assignment - the sda or sdb etc shown for these 2 WD drives. Unassign the drives. Use the before listed dd command on both drives, using the drive assignment you noted above. Re-assign the data drive. Use the initconfig command. Restart the blank array and format the new data drive. Transfer your data - this will be much faster. Stop the array. Assign the parity drive. Start the array again. Peter Quote Link to comment
dirrtyjoe Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 I ended up messing up my unRAID install on my flash drive so I scrapped it all and started 100% from the beginning. Will I need to do the dd command still? How does the process differ if I basically just started over? I installed 4.7b1 and I have started the preclear with -A I'm assuming I can pretty much follow the configuration tutorial (http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Configuration_Tutorial) from there? Do things change since I used the -A option? Thanks for the help, Peter et al. I really appreciate it. Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 You have already done a pre-clear so you could use the dd command instead to more quickly get the drives ready to use. Basically, use the dd command and set the array up again (with 4.7b1 and the 4k option) instead of spending 30 hours preclearing the drives again. Otherwise, just do all the steps again the same as you did the first time but use the -A option. The drives will be used with the proper partition when you add them. In all honestly, the pre-clear will only do one thing in your case (a new array). It gives the drives a burn-in. You can clear the master boot record and add them. A new array always needs to build parity so having the drives cleared really does not matter. Peter Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Joe L was working on a preclear enhancement that would do a partition change on an already precleared disk in just a few seconds. Might want to reach out to him. He might appreciated someone offering to help him test it out. Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Joe L was working on a preclear enhancement that would do a partition change on an already precleared disk in just a few seconds. Might want to reach out to him. He might appreciated someone offering to help him test it out. Won't help here. The drives have been added to the array and data was written. They are no longer pre-cleared. There is a switch, -n I believe, to just do the clearing without the reading steps which would make it take about 1/3 the time. I'm sure the preclear thread would confirm this. Or just let them run. They'll probably be done tomorrow afternoon. Peter Quote Link to comment
dirrtyjoe Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 Is there a way to confirm the dd or preclear -A worked properly? Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 preclear -t /dev/sd# preclear -V /dev/sd# Quote Link to comment
dirrtyjoe Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 What kind of output should be expected? Quote Link to comment
Tijuana Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Ugh, I am stuck in the same situation. How would this sound. So i don't have to preclear fully again, if i already precleared using v 4.6? I am thinking of just moving my data(luckily only 1tb) to an external hd, and doing an advanced pre clear on my 2 other 2tb hds. Do I need to preclear fully again, or is there another way I can do it? Woudl this onyl benefit me on the newest version? So do I need jumpers or wil the advanced format make it so I dont need the jumpers? Where do I buy them, are they the same ones found on IDE drives? I looked at my sata drive but I cant figure out where it would go... Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 The EARS drives will work the best with one of the following; Jumper and unRAID 4.6 or older. Also, jumper and unraid 4.7b1 without the 4k sector option set. No jumper and unRAID 4.7b1 with the 4k sector option set. You can do the following after you copy your data to another drive; Set to 4k Aligned on the options page. Stop the array. Unassign the parity drive. On the deviced page make note of the device ID, it will appear as sda or sdb or hda etc. Run the command "dd if=/dev/zero count=8 of=/dev/sdX" - replace sdX with the device ID from the last step. Reassign the parity drive. Go back to the main page and it should indicate it will build parity so start the array and let it complete. Perform a parity check and ensure the check completes without errors. Repeat the above with the data drive. Peter Quote Link to comment
Tijuana Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 The EARS drives will work the best with one of the following; Jumper and unRAID 4.6 or older. Also, jumper and unraid 4.7b1 without the 4k sector option set. No jumper and unRAID 4.7b1 with the 4k sector option set. You can do the following after you copy your data to another drive; Set to 4k Aligned on the options page. Stop the array. Unassign the parity drive. On the deviced page make note of the device ID, it will appear as sda or sdb or hda etc. Run the command "dd if=/dev/zero count=8 of=/dev/sdX" - replace sdX with the device ID from the last step. Reassign the parity drive. Go back to the main page and it should indicate it will build parity so start the array and let it complete. Perform a parity check and ensure the check completes without errors. Repeat the above with the data drive. Peter So since I probably wont want to jumper, I basically backup my data, and do exactly what you just mentioned. So this is the same as doing an advanced format of my hard drives? If I get a new hd, when I preclear it, I just do the advanced pre clear and it will do the exact same thing as the above steps? Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Yes, it'll be the same thing. The problem is that unRAID will recognize a properly partioned drive and just use it. So, you have to use the dd command to clear the master boot record and then unRAID sees a blank drive and it will format it according to the 4k Aligned setting. A future drive precleared with the -A option will be added as a 4k aligned drive regardless of the setting. Just make sure you understand 4.7b1 is a beta release. It's getting a lot of use (I have it running but no new drives yet) though and no issues have appeared yet. Peter Quote Link to comment
Tijuana Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Yes, it'll be the same thing. The problem is that unRAID will recognize a properly partioned drive and just use it. So, you have to use the dd command to clear the master boot record and then unRAID sees a blank drive and it will format it according to the 4k Aligned setting. A future drive precleared with the -A option will be added as a 4k aligned drive regardless of the setting. Just make sure you understand 4.7b1 is a beta release. It's getting a lot of use (I have it running but no new drives yet) though and no issues have appeared yet. Peter the 4k sector option is only on the 4.7b release right? If I am using 4.6 then my only option is to use the -a while preclearing? Also, if you could help me out, this woudl be great: 1. Say I have 2 drives that are not advanced formatted. If I add a new drive, do an advanced format, move all data over to that, can I stop the array, pre-clear my parity drive and 2nd drive using the advanced format, and then re-assign the drives as parity and 2nd drive? 2. If I buy a license, how do I keep all my current "free" settings/shares/users etc 3. If I want to use a different USB key, can I just copy all the files over from my current usb? 4. If I change hardware, ie new mobo, do I just move all my hard drives over and no changes need to be made? If my parity drive was in SATA 1, and my 2nd drive was in the SATA 2 port, do I need to keep the same order? Thanks alot! I wil probably just stay with 4.6 for now, and re-preclear all my drives. Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 The advanced formatting only exists in 4.7b1. You have to use jumpers for every other version of unRAID. 1. Yes 2. You put a key file on the USB everything else stays the same. 3. Only for the free version. You would need a new key file for the pay versions. 4. No, you just go to the devices page and match up the drives like they were before the move and press Start. unRAID will even list which drives should be where on the main page so you know how to match them up. Peter Quote Link to comment
Joe L. Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Ugh, I am stuck in the same situation. How would this sound. So i don't have to preclear fully again, if i already precleared using v 4.6? I am thinking of just moving my data(luckily only 1tb) to an external hd, and doing an advanced pre clear on my 2 other 2tb hds. Do I need to preclear fully again, or is there another way I can do it? Woudl this onyl benefit me on the newest version? So do I need jumpers or wil the advanced format make it so I dont need the jumpers? Where do I buy them, are they the same ones found on IDE drives? I looked at my sata drive but I cant figure out where it would go... If the disk is already precleared, the new "-C 64" option will do it. Type: preclear_disk.sh -C 64 /dev/sdX and it would would convert a sector 63 precleared disk to a sector 64 precleared disk in a few seconds. This will not work if the drive has already been assigned to the unrAID array or formatted, since it is not then precleared any longer.) The version of preclear_disk.sh with the "-C" option is new as of a few days ago, so download the new version. If you use unRAID 4.7 and clear EARS drive with the -A option you do not need a jumper. (the 4k-align setting on the uRAID settings page is not used if the disk is pre-cleared) If you use unRAID 4.7 and let unRAID clear the drive EARS for you, then you do not need a jumper if you select the MBR-4k-align setting before assigning the drive to the array. Quote Link to comment
dirrtyjoe Posted January 24, 2011 Author Share Posted January 24, 2011 preclear -t /dev/sd# preclear -V /dev/sd# Its telling me the preclear command is not found. Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 You need to execute whatever you named it as, most likely preclear_disk.sh and most likely you'll need to make sure it's executable and you fully qualify the path to where you have it installed at. If you're completely new to Linux, then in a hypothetical situation you might need to do the following after unzipping preclear_disk.zip to /boot/packages directory. Of course your situation may be different, so change the commands as suitable. Also you obviously need to replace /dev/sd# with the appropriate disk designator. chmod 755 /boot/packages/preclear_dish.sh /boot/packages/preclear_disk.sh -t /dev/sd# Quote Link to comment
Joe L. Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 preclear -t /dev/sd# preclear -V /dev/sd# Its telling me the preclear command is not found. it is named "preclear_disk.sh" It will exist on your flash drive only after you download it to your PC and then un-zip it, and then move it to your flash drive. Joe L. Quote Link to comment
dirrtyjoe Posted January 24, 2011 Author Share Posted January 24, 2011 Thanks, Joe L. and BRiT. Will give that shot. What output should be expected from those commands? Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.