Can not set up 5GbE network between Unraid and Windows PC


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I originally followed this video by SpaceInvaderOne.

 

I then tried to follow the two tutorials in a post found elsewhere on this forum.

 

But I just cannot seem to get it up and running correctly.

 

Windows 10 PC has an Asus Maximus XII Hero with a built-in 5GbE ethernet port on the back. Unraid server has an ASUS XG-C100C 10GbE PCI-E card (& is running version 6.9.0-beta30). They are connected via Cat 7 ethernet cable. Both Windows and Unraid can see they're connected by 5GbE in the Ethernet Status window on Windows and on the Dashboard in Unraid. 

 

I am able to access the shares on Windows via 192.168.1.13 but not via 192.168.2.13 which should be connecting to the Unraid server using the 5GbE network. Windows will just hang if I try to Add Network Location before eventually saying "The folder that you entered does not appear to be valid. Please choose another." 

 

If I try to ping from Windows it works fine for 192.168.1.13 but will time out and fail for 192.168.2.13. If I try to ping from Unraid using the 10GbE NIC (eth1, as detailed in the written tutorial on the 2nd link) I get a single line result saying "PING 192.168.1.83 (192.168.1.83) from 192.168.1.13 eth1: 56(84) bytes of data." - To be honest I'm not sure if this is all that should show up or if there's anything more. 

 

I am totally new to Unraid and I am now totally lost & confused as to what on earth I have to do to get this working correctly. These tutorials make out like it's oh so simple, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what on earth is going wrong. Please can somebody help?

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31 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

You can't have the same IP on both 5GbE NICs.

 

Sorry, what? All of the stuff I've seen says that you need to set the same IP on both of the 10/5GbE NICs.

 

So you're saying I need to change one to, say, Windows to 192.168.2.13 and Unraid to 192.168.2.14? Either I've totally misunderstood the tutorials, which very well might be true, or that can't be right...

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6 minutes ago, VisualHudson said:

Sorry, what? All of the stuff I've seen says that you need to set the same IP on both of the 10/5GbE NICs.

 

So you're saying I need to change one to, say, Windows to 192.168.2.13 and Unraid to 192.168.2.14? Either I've totally misunderstood the tutorials, which very well might be true, or that can't be right...

You can never have two devices with the same IP address in the same subnet.  How could things be properly routed between them or from other devices if they have the same address?  Which one does the router pick as the destination for the traffic?

 

It is possible that devices can share an IP address in certain link aggregation or hot failover configurations, but, neither is a case of the two devices needing to communicate with each other or separate devices independently.

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20 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

You can never have two devices with the same IP address in the same subnet.  How could things be properly routed between them or from other devices if they have the same address?  Which one does the router pick as the destination for the traffic?

 

It is possible that devices can share an IP address in certain link aggregation or hot failover configurations, but, neither is a case of the two devices needing to communicate with each other or separate devices independently.

 

6 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

Curious where you saw that...

 

Okay so this is a good example of where, as I said, I might have got something wrong.

 

So I've just gone back to SpaceInvaderOne's video and at 10:30 he puts the Unraid server as 192.168.11.199. Then at 16:49 he sets setting in Windows to be 192.168.11.197

 

Clearly I was not paying enough attention both auditory and visually as I thought he put .199 for both. 

 

So I've just gone in to the 5GbE adapter properties on Windows and changed that to 192.168.2.12 and you know what... that appears to have worked! haha

 

Atleast to an extent. I can add a network share, it asks me to log in, I can then map the share to a drive letter and access my files as you would expect. However some quick tests I've just done copying a movie from Unraid to Windows via 1GbE and then via 5GbE, then copying a movie from Windows to Unraid by 5GbE then via 1GbE all seem to get very similar results of approximately high 80s - 110ish MB/s. 

 

But then it gets werider. If I copy say Movie A from Windows to Unraid using 5GbE it'll transfer at the above approximate speed. I then delete Movie A. I then copy Movie A again, the 2nd time it will transfer at 335MB/s. If I delete and copy across again, Movie A will again transfer at about 335MB/s. But then if I go to copy across Movie B, the transfer speed drops back down again to appoximately 90 - 110MB/s. What gives with that?

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7 minutes ago, VisualHudson said:

But then it gets werider. If I copy say Movie A from Windows to Unraid using 5GbE it'll transfer at the above approximate speed. I then delete Movie A. I then copy Movie A again, the 2nd time it will transfer at 335MB/s

This suggest RAM cache interfering, what are the devices in use, both source and dest, e.g. SSD to SSD, disk to array, other?

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Just now, JorgeB said:

This suggest RAM cache interfering, what are the devices in use, both source and dest, e.g. SSD to SSD, disk to array, other?

When transferring from Windows to the Unraid share the source was a HDD and the destination is a HDD array which has an SSD cache. If that makes sense?

I would be interested to setup RAM disk to RAM disk as the Windows PC has 128GB of RAM and the Unraid server has 32GB of RAM, but I'm not sure how to set that up on the Unraid side of things and thought that might have been something to do after I've got all this 5GbE business working as it should.

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Just now, JorgeB said:

Then this is mostly likely the bottleneck, you should get better speeds from SSD to SSD (an note that contrary to popular belief not all SSDs are capable of 500MB/s+, especial for sustained writes).

I understand the HDD would be a bottleneck. But it wouldn't explain why the first time I transfer a file it goes across slowly, but the 2nd time I transfer the exact same file it goes across at the kind of speed you would expect. At the slower speed it's not much / if any better than just using 1GbE.

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Just now, JorgeB said:

File is cached to RAM during first transfer, then the next transfer(s) are done from RAM, so faster.

 

Okay I can understand that. 

 

But it seems almost like my 5GbE is wasted if it's only going to transfer at such slow speeds. It's not often I'm going to be transferring the same file more than once? 

So I've just done some further testing.

 

I had a MKV I ripped a week ago on my NVME boot drive on Windows. I copied that across using 5GbE to the array and it went across first time at approximately 335MB/s. I deleted it from the array. I copied it across to the HDD on Windows, then copied it across to the array and it went at approximately 335MB/s again.

 

But then, as before, I transferred another movie that was saved on the HDD to the array and it would transfer again at the slow speeds. I then copied 2 different movies from the HDD to the NVME boot drive and copied them across to the array for the first time and they both went over at the much higher speed. 

 

So basically any time I copy something off the HDD to the array, atleast for the first time, it's going to transfer at a much slower rate. Now I understand the HDD is the bottleneck and being a WD Black 2TB (and an old one at that) it has read and write speeds around 150MB/s but we on average seem to be getting speeds quite a bit below that approximate 150MB/s figure. But I guess that can be attributed to the fact it's an "up to" figure and because the drive is quite full it's naturally going to be slower? 

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1 minute ago, Hoopster said:

As JorgeB mentioned, the speed advantage with 5-10 GbE cards is really only realized when transferring between SSDs.  Anytime an HDD is involved it will be slower and caching is more noticeable.  Of course, if writing to the HDD array directly and with parity, it will be even slower.

I should maybe point out that whenever I previously said array, I did mean a share that is using a SSD for a cache. 

But okay, I think I understand all what's going on now.

 

Whilst I've got you guys here, is it possible to get your assistance in using setting up to use some of the 32GB of RAM on my server as a RAM disk? And this might be totally wrong, but could that RAM disk maybe be pooled with the SSD cache?

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6 minutes ago, VisualHudson said:

And this might be totally wrong, but could that RAM disk maybe be pooled with the SSD cache?

I don't think this is possible.  I have a RAM disk set up that I use as a Plex transcoding location because it can be referenced as a host path in a docker container volume mapping.

 

The cache drives/pool are managed by unRAID and have to be physical disks defined as cache devices.  I don't think there is any way for you to specify that a RAM disk is a cache "device." 

 

Maybe someone will prove me wrong, but, I have never seen it done.

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10 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

I don't think this is possible.  I have a RAM disk set up that I use as a Plex transcoding location because it can be referenced as a host path in a docker container volume mapping.

Are you talking about having the transcode set to /tmp? 

 

That's currently how I've got my Plex Docker set up.

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2 minutes ago, VisualHudson said:

Are you talking about having the transcode set to /tmp? 

No, I take it a step further and setup a RAM disk within /tmp with a limited size (16GB) in RAM.  I could make it smaller.  This forces the deletion of "old"  transcode session files when approaching the limit to make space for new ones instead of letting it keep going and eating more RAM up to the server max RAM. 

 

This would likely only be an issue with multiple simultaneous transcodes.

 

Plex /trancode points to /tmp/PlexRamScratch

 

mkdir /tmp/PlexRamScratch
chmod -R 777 /tmp/PlexRamScratch
mount -t tmpfs -o size=16g tmpfs /tmp/PlexRamScratch

 

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16 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

 


mkdir /tmp/PlexRamScratch
chmod -R 777 /tmp/PlexRamScratch
mount -t tmpfs -o size=16g tmpfs /tmp/PlexRamScratch

 

Is what I would have to copy and paste into terminal to achieve the same result as you?

 

You do mention it could become an issue with multiple simultaneous transcodes. Do you not ever have more than one transcode at a time? Have you never experienced what happens if you reach your limit?

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12 minutes ago, VisualHudson said:

Is what I would have to copy and paste into terminal to achieve the same result as you?

Yes, enter at the command line in terminal for initial setup and enter those lines in the 'go' file so it is recreated at reboot.  Since it is in RAM it disappears on a reboot.

 

If you don't have the Plex DVR setup and recording, a 4g Ramdisk size is probably plenty.

 

12 minutes ago, VisualHudson said:

Do you not ever have more than one transcode at a time?

I quite frequently have several transcodes going on simultaneously, as well as Plex DVR records which also use the RAM disk.  If you have the Plex DVR setup you will want to set the "Convert Video While Recording" to Transcode.

 

Fortunately, I never hit the RAM limit and experienced a server crash, but, others have, so better safe than sorry.

 

I have a recording going on right now and 5% of the RAMdisk is being used:

 

image.png.465792612919221f44331a24b1e62ebd.png

Edited by Hoopster
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3 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

Yes, enter at the command line in terminal for initial setup and enter those line in the 'go' file so it is recreated at reboot.  Since it is in RAM it disappears on a reboot.

 

I fyou dont have the Plex DVR setup and recording, a 4g Ramdisk size is probably plenty.

 

I quite frequently have several transcodes going on simlultaneously, as well as Plex DVR records which also use the RAM disk.  If you have the Plex DVR setup you will want to set the "Convert Video While Recording" to Transcode.

 

Fortunately, I never hit the RAM limit and experienced a server crash, but, others have, so better safe than sorry.

 

I have a recording going on right now and 5% of the RAMdisk is being used:

 

image.png.465792612919221f44331a24b1e62ebd.png

I do have Plex DVR set up through a HD HomeRun Quatro that's connected elsewhere within the network. 

 

I do not understand what you mean by "enter those lines in the 'go' file" (what "go" file and how?) and where would I then set "Convert Video While Recording" to Transcode? Although, to be fair, it's not very often we use Plex DVR to actually record, mainly just use it for Live TV. It's usually easier to source from elsewhere than to record, cut the commercials, and then re-encode down to a decent file size, etc. 

 

Also, I was going to open a separate thread but maybe you can help me with this, since doing all of what we've discussed today I'm now getting a share show up in Windows called "cache" which appears to me as though the cache drive has for some reason now become it's own share? All of the folders within / shares on the cache drive (ie domain, appdata, system) are all set to "Yes (Hidden)" so none of them should be visible, and they're not when you open the IP in explorer and view the possible shares, but if you open the cache folder there they are. If you can understand what I mean? This definitely wasn't there earlier. How I hide it again? 

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15 minutes ago, VisualHudson said:

where would I then set "Convert Video While Recording" to Transcode?

image.png.19b410759154d1950e5e7f373934e0b3.png

 

I have the remove commercials setting enabled in the Plex DVR as well so after recording it post-processes and removes commercials.  The above setting also creates smaller files than the raw .mt2s from an OTA record.

 

The 'go' file is on your unRAID flash drive in the /config folder.

 

Here is mine for reference (the SSH stuff is for the rsync bacup between unRAID servers):

 

#Setup drivers for hardware transcoding in Plex
modprobe i915
sleep 4
chown -R nobody:users /dev/dri
chmod -R 777 /dev/dri

mkdir /tmp/PlexRamScratch
chmod -R 777 /tmp/PlexRamScratch
mount -t tmpfs -o size=16g tmpfs /tmp/PlexRamScratch

# Copy SSH files back to /root/.ssh folder and set permissions for files
mkdir -p /root/.ssh
cp /boot/config/ssh/medianas_key /root/.ssh/id_rsa
cp /boot/config/ssh/known_hosts /root/.ssh/known_hosts
cat /boot/config/ssh/backupnas_key.pub > /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod g-rwx,o-rwx -R /root/.ssh

#!/bin/bash
# Start the Management Utility
/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &

 

We are way off topic now but you started the thread and no one else is participating so take it where you want to.

Edited by Hoopster
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2 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

image.png.19b410759154d1950e5e7f373934e0b3.png

 

I have the remove commercials setting enabled in the Plex DVR as well so after recording it post-processes and removes commercials.  The above setting also creates smaller files than the raw .mt2s from an OTA record.

 

The 'go' file is on your unRAID flash drive in the /config folder.

 

Here is mine for reference (the SSH stuff is for the rsync bacup between unRAID servers):

 


#Setup drivers for hardware transcoding in Plex
modprobe i915
sleep 4
chown -R nobody:users /dev/dri
chmod -R 777 /dev/dri

mkdir /tmp/PlexRamScratch
chmod -R 777 /tmp/PlexRamScratch
mount -t tmpfs -o size=16g tmpfs /tmp/PlexRamScratch

# Copy SSH files back to /root/.ssh folder and set permissions for files
mkdir -p /root/.ssh
cp /boot/config/ssh/medianas_key /root/.ssh/id_rsa
cp /boot/config/ssh/known_hosts /root/.ssh/known_hosts
cat /boot/config/ssh/backupnas_key.pub > /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod g-rwx,o-rwx -R /root/.ssh

#!/bin/bash
# Start the Management Utility
/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &

 

We are way off topic now but you started the thread and no one else is participating so take it where you want to.

Okay yeah I see that you mean within the DVR settings in Plex itself. See I'm a little bit hesitant with trying to get Plex to cut out commercials. It never did a very good job whenever I tried it in the past on my previous Windows set up. 

 

It is certainly a very interesting idea that I think I'd like to try. 

 

To edit the 'go' file I assume I'd just have to view the flash drive as a share in Windows, go to config, then open and edit the file using notepad then just save it. Right? Would I need to include:

#Setup drivers for hardware transcoding in Plex
modprobe i915
sleep 4
chown -R nobody:users /dev/dri
chmod -R 777 /dev/dri

I assume that is for something else as it's not what you have previously told me to do?

You wouldn't have an idea about why that cache drive is showing up as a share, would you?

 

And yeah I'm aware that we're very very off topic now, but I do very much appreciate having you here to help me today and so quick with your responses too. If I could show you my gratitude I would!! It's very nice to have someone a lot more knowledgeable than I helping me to get along and learn this whole new world of Unraid haha

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3 minutes ago, VisualHudson said:

To edit the 'go' file I assume I'd just have to view the flash drive as a share in Windows, go to config, then open and edit the file using notepad then just save it. Right? Would I need to include:


#Setup drivers for hardware transcoding in Plex
modprobe i915
sleep 4
chown -R nobody:users /dev/dri
chmod -R 777 /dev/dri

Yes, that's how you edit the go file.  The lines above in the go file are because my CPU has an integrated GPU and I am using that for hardware transcoding in Plex and this sets up the drivers for doing that.  If you do not have an Intel CPU with iGPU, those lines are of no use to you.

 

Your cache drive is showing up as a share because you have disk shares enabled and you are exporting the cache disk.  I am doing this intentionally because I want direct access to the cache share as I store some temporary downloads there.

 

image.thumb.png.7da3ddb415bf93e8090d30589077a536.png

 

image.png.070b80919bf586ab3e5e79b978ed8002.png

 

image.png.ac97e3520370e5b9644c1e5a44d677dc.png

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