I setup a small 1.5TB 3 drive RAID5 using some old 750GB drives I had laying around on an 1880 to use as a server root drive for a project I have but have since decided that 1.5TB is very unlikely to cut it after all and would like to expand but don't want to waste money and bay space on more 750's when 2TBs are so cheap, so I was wanting to do an inplace upgrade. Problem is looking around the web GUI I don't really see a graceful way to do this other than set 3 2TB drives as hot spares, crank up background priority, yank a 750, wait for rebuild, yank a 750, wait for rebuild, yank a 750, wait for rebuild, expand the volume. Pretty sure this will get me the desired results even if it takes a bit, just wondering if I've missed a bit more graceful way of doing this.
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ARECA Owner's Thread (SAS/SATA RAID Cards)
- Thread starter odditory
- Start date
Put the 2TB in as a new array (In this example Linux detect this as sdy).
Boot from the Gparted bootable cd
dd bs=4096 if=/dev/sdx of=/dev/sdy
Then use the GParted gui to expand the partition on sdy
DONE
The above works for Linux or Windows partitions, bootable or not.
what is a good size disk stripe? I have a number of drives 10 x 500GB, 4 x 1TB and 2 x 2TB that I'm planning to put together. I'm thinking of striping the 1TB and 2TB disks into a 6 drive R5 stripe for performance. Is that enough? I have a 10 drive R5 stripe today with the 500GB and it's not all that fast, but bearable (200MB/s). Thoughts?
And yes...they gouge us on the BBU. I have to go buy one...and I'm not looking forward to it.
And yes...they gouge us on the BBU. I have to go buy one...and I'm not looking forward to it.
randomlychosen
n00b
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- Mar 26, 2010
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How essential is the BBU? I haven't ever ran one on any of my arecas, but perhaps I should? Does it really only protect against data corruption caused by sudden power failure?
I'm already running a decent ups. (Tripp Lite SmartPro 3kVA Line Sine Wave) so my servers won't have a sudden power failure if my house goes out.
Then i'd say PSU failure, but the server has 3, so all 3 would have to fail at the same time.
What events are left that the BBU defends against?
I'm already running a decent ups. (Tripp Lite SmartPro 3kVA Line Sine Wave) so my servers won't have a sudden power failure if my house goes out.
Then i'd say PSU failure, but the server has 3, so all 3 would have to fail at the same time.
What events are left that the BBU defends against?
If you can live without write caching, then you won't need the BBU. Unfortunately a UPS isn't a replacement for it, but it certainly does help quite a lot. You are correct about it only protecting about data loss from power failure (only if write caching is enabled) though.
UPS > BBU in almost all scenario.
BBU can only help you restore anything thats stored in the RAID card cache. (assuming you restore power within 24hr)
However, UPS will probably let you live long enough to let the RAID card finish doing any write to the drives and also gracefully shutdown the server before the UPS run out of juice. And you don't have to rush back to restore the main power.
BBU can only help you restore anything thats stored in the RAID card cache. (assuming you restore power within 24hr)
However, UPS will probably let you live long enough to let the RAID card finish doing any write to the drives and also gracefully shutdown the server before the UPS run out of juice. And you don't have to rush back to restore the main power.
Shaggy8675
n00b
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- Dec 28, 2010
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First of all, Thank you very much Krobar for the great help.
As of now, i have my machine up and running perfectly. Had a few problems, but all is working correctly now.
Here is a couple of pics from my new setup, if i may
Thanks all, for the great help. Couldn't have done it without you
First of all, Thank you very much Krobar for the great help.
As of now, i have my machine up and running perfectly. Had a few problems, but all is working correctly now.
Here is a couple of pics from my new setup, if i may
Thanks all, for the great help. Couldn't have done it without you
Thanks for letting us all know, glad it worked well. For those wondering this confirms the 7K1000.C drives are good for Areca 1680/12XX.
Those Atto results look more consistent than the RR4320 card I used, would you mind posting some HDTach results?
Shaggy8675
n00b
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I wouldn't mind at all, here you go:
My system is running an Intel Core2 Duo 6400 and 3gb DDR2 @ 6400 and Windows 7 64bitt
HD Tach was run in compatible mode Windows XP-SP3
First run 8mb
Second running 32mb
ATTO 2GB
CrystalDisk 2Gb
Looking good i think hehe.
Not bad for a computer used for photography and some gaming
My system is running an Intel Core2 Duo 6400 and 3gb DDR2 @ 6400 and Windows 7 64bitt
HD Tach was run in compatible mode Windows XP-SP3
First run 8mb
Second running 32mb
ATTO 2GB
CrystalDisk 2Gb
Looking good i think hehe.
Not bad for a computer used for photography and some gaming
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I wouldn't mind at all, here you go:
My system is running an Intel Core2 Duo 6400 and 3gb DDR2 @ 6400 and Windows 7 64bitt
HD Tach was run in compatible mode Windows XP-SP3
Looking good i think hehe.
Not bad for a computer used for photography and some gaming
Thanks, nice smooth and consistent performance.
My 4320 with 4 7Ks was pretty close as I would expect. An expected 20% less for most although 512K write was better and 4k write was worse than the 1 drive disadvantage would suggest. It wasnt a clean install and the array is used for boot so I'm guessing the 2 or 3 dropouts I see in HDTach are probably some other program interfering rather than an issue with compatability.
wkearney99
Limp Gawd
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- Sep 8, 2010
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- 370
What motherboard would be the best fit for a 1280 controller, along with a dual-port PCI-E intel NIC and a PCI-E video card?
Rather than hijack this thread I've started another one over in the motherboard forum:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036663362#post1036663362
But since the Areca card may be a special case item I figured it would be best to ask here too.
Thanks!
Rather than hijack this thread I've started another one over in the motherboard forum:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036663362#post1036663362
But since the Areca card may be a special case item I figured it would be best to ask here too.
Thanks!
Just suggested the near identical STE version in the motherboard thread.
Anything else is more expensive and more liekly to be slower or less comptible due to NVidia bridges.
Shaggy8675
n00b
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Just a quick little question. I'm very happy with my old trusted 1220, but say the card dies, i need more slots, faster connection ( SATA-6gb, SAS ) etc. etc.
How do i handle this? Can i buy any newer model Areca and plug in the existing array and work happily into the future, or am i going to have large issues when getting a new controller?
How do i handle this? Can i buy any newer model Areca and plug in the existing array and work happily into the future, or am i going to have large issues when getting a new controller?
Shaggy8675
n00b
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- Dec 28, 2010
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Great, thnx for the quick answer.
wkearney99
Limp Gawd
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I moved my arrays from a 1220 to a 1280 and had no trouble at all. But I don't know how well they'd move to a card with more advanced features. I'd assume you'd run into the array drives being the limiting factor, you wouldn't get 6gb sata performance out of them unless they were actual 6gb drives. I don't know how mixing/matching 3gb/6gb drives would impact performance.
Hello, first time post, long time listener reader!
Just got some new servers and teamed them up with 8 x Seagate 15k.7 300gb's and a Areca ARC-1880i controller! Installed Windows 7, just for some benchmarking, and was bursting up to 1.6gb on RAID10! Good times.
So now I need to install my Linux distro... in this case Ubuntu Server x64 10.04. Problem is, the 1880i is not supported by the standard arcmsr driver! So Areca gives us the "linux driver" to compile and install... but the problem is that I am installing ON the RAID, not next to it. Their drivers say to compile on the same machine as your installing on... but obviously that's not going to happen.
I have tried installing on an SSD on that system's SATA controller, but when I go to do my insmod during install of the server on the array, the install of the driver module then reports as an invalid module type.... AAAAAAAAAAAAH
Any guidance from the obviously more experienced crew here would be so amazingly appreciated!
Just got some new servers and teamed them up with 8 x Seagate 15k.7 300gb's and a Areca ARC-1880i controller! Installed Windows 7, just for some benchmarking, and was bursting up to 1.6gb on RAID10! Good times.
So now I need to install my Linux distro... in this case Ubuntu Server x64 10.04. Problem is, the 1880i is not supported by the standard arcmsr driver! So Areca gives us the "linux driver" to compile and install... but the problem is that I am installing ON the RAID, not next to it. Their drivers say to compile on the same machine as your installing on... but obviously that's not going to happen.
I have tried installing on an SSD on that system's SATA controller, but when I go to do my insmod during install of the server on the array, the install of the driver module then reports as an invalid module type.... AAAAAAAAAAAAH
Any guidance from the obviously more experienced crew here would be so amazingly appreciated!
No advice for Linux but that's one reason why I keep boot volumes and storage volumes separated. I don't like booting off the storage array, instead one fast SSD for boot, backup-imaged at least once a week in case it dies, and that way the storage array is independent of the O/S and can be freely moved around between servers (which I often do).
Ok, so I installed an SLC SSD from one of my other servers and installed the OS. No problems as it's on the SATA channel of course.
Now when I am following the driver read-me from Areca, it states this line:
mkinitrd is not apart of Ubuntu and it is not available from the repos. Supposedly others are using initramfs but I do not know what I am doing at this point. Very frustrating this learning curve I tell you!
UPDATE: I don't know why but after trying AGAIN on another machine, I was able to correctly (as far as I can tell at the moment) compile the kernel driver module. Off to the races...
Now when I am following the driver read-me from Areca, it states this line:
Code:
2.3 if you need the driver being inserted automatically after every reboot,
make a new initrd image with the driver as following steps.
Example:
#cp arcmsr.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/scsi/arcmsr/
#vi /etc/modprobe.conf, and add "alias scsi_hostadapter arcmsr"
#mkinitrd -f -v /boot/initrd-2.6.18-8.el5.custom.img 2.6.18-8.el5mkinitrd is not apart of Ubuntu and it is not available from the repos. Supposedly others are using initramfs but I do not know what I am doing at this point. Very frustrating this learning curve I tell you!
UPDATE: I don't know why but after trying AGAIN on another machine, I was able to correctly (as far as I can tell at the moment) compile the kernel driver module. Off to the races...
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You aren't really providing enough information for anyone to help you. I have some experience with RAID on linux (and others here do, too), but I'm not sure if this is the thread to go into details. Maybe the linux forum on servethehome.com?
In the meantime, a few quick notes in case you can solve things yourself with some pointers. I tend to use grub2, and set it up to locate and boot drives by label. For installing arcmsr kernel modules in Ubuntu, the general procedure is to remove or rename the old arcmsr.ko, copy the new one into its place, depmod -a, update-initramfs -u, update-grub, and then be sure that your kernel module does not get replaced by an apt kernel upgrade.
In the meantime, a few quick notes in case you can solve things yourself with some pointers. I tend to use grub2, and set it up to locate and boot drives by label. For installing arcmsr kernel modules in Ubuntu, the general procedure is to remove or rename the old arcmsr.ko, copy the new one into its place, depmod -a, update-initramfs -u, update-grub, and then be sure that your kernel module does not get replaced by an apt kernel upgrade.
I purchased a brand new hp sas expander (not from a reseller) to first verify that my sas expander was fine. The brand new one I received works the same way so I know it wasn't my sas expander.
Then I ended up purchasing a lsi 9211-8i (install notes). With my hp sas expander, 9 seagate 1.5tb drives, 1 samsung 1.5tb drive, and 2 wd green 2tb drives everything works great and all drives are recognized.
I do not understand why I cannot get my areca 1880i to boot up recognizing all these drives just as the lsi did. I wish the areca would work so that I could use the power management functionality on this card. The lsi lacks that and I hardly use any of these drives so I wanted them spun down most of the time. If anyone has any additional ideas before I give up please let me know.
I did email arecas tech support. Not too helpful...
"it is not really possible a motherboard related problem. because hardware raid controller works with hard drive independent from host. you had provided needed information but we have no such ability to reproduce problem in our lab because we have no desktop drives and hard drive vendors have no such willing to assist us to analyze desktop drive in array issues. by the way, will disable SES2 support from controller helps ?"
I tried the SES2 disabled but it made no difference. Seems it has to be something with the areca card. Any other ideas are welcome.
Has anyone ever tried downgrading a card? I have two machines, one with a 1680 and one with an 1880. I would like to swap the cards between the two machines so I can have dual links to the HP SAS expander, but not sure how the RAID on the current 1880 would behave.
The issue was that I was compiling the drivers on Intel based machines even though I was using the same distro and version on both the kernel module compiling machine and the target server. I switched to an AMD based machine and the compiling was recognized by the server and would let me install onto the RAID array.
The next problem was that the system upon boot would be trying to find the USB drive that I installed from (USB dvd-rom, thumb drive etc) and not the array. For some reason during installation, it sets Grub to look for the USB instead of the array. I had to basically run the installer in "rescue mode," mount the boot drive, recompile the driver on the host system, update Grub and update initramfs. After reboot, everything came up as normal!
During all of this I found this post which became my life saver: http://www.3dinfluence.com/blog/installing-ubuntu-server-unsupported-raid-controller
I took a few tries to fully understand what he was trying to accomplish, but in the end it all made sense and I owe that fellow a beer and pizza!
I don't know how you are setting up your drives (raid volumes or etc) but I know that there is a "pass through" assignment that you have to give per drive if you are trying to do them independent from an array assignment. I tried this out during troubleshooting of my own issues with drivers. Also I believe you have to make sure to have the SATA channels enabled on the motherboard (I had these disabled).
I don't know if that helps, but just an idea.
You can move arrays back and forth between 1680 and 1880 series cards, I have done it often. They are both SAS cards and use the same on-disk format.
You can also move an array from a 1280 -> 1680/1880, but not the other way around.
I don't know how you are setting up your drives (raid volumes or etc) but I know that there is a "pass through" assignment that you have to give per drive if you are trying to do them independent from an array assignment. I tried this out during troubleshooting of my own issues with drivers. Also I believe you have to make sure to have the SATA channels enabled on the motherboard (I had these disabled).
I don't know if that helps, but just an idea.
I think you are talking about the JBOD setting which I did set. Sata is enabled as I am running the OS disc and another off the mobo sata connections.
Hello Everyone,
I purchased an ARC-1880ix-24-4G and thus far it has not worked correctly. It installed and booted fine the first time, and the related apps loaded fine, but the trouble began when I tried to create an array. I had 5 2TB drives set to a RAID 6 array, and set it to foreground initialization. After 2 hours and 40%+ of progress, it failed. The log stated that all 5 drives were removed from the system at the same moment, even though of course none were. The log also showed the were "inserted" immediately. These drives are spread across two backplanes.
I then tried to do this again, and got the same results after 64%+. At this point, I decided to try and upgrade the firmware of the device, which seemed to work correctly. I was given success messages for all four files. However, after booting, the card hasn't worked since.
Now, when it boots, it only shows 8 channels available, not 24, does not recognize any drives, even though they are plugged in, and has lost any record of the raidset or volume.
I have tried reflashing the 1.48 and 1.49 firmware sets repeatedly with no luck. I also have tried the NFLASH utility, but when using that it immediately reboots rather than flashes. The ARCHTTP tool works to flash, at least it claims.
The other things of note are that it used to single beep on power on, but now it double beeps. Also, the blue LED in the back just blinks non-stop. It didn't do that before.
Is there something I am doing wrong, or is this card defective/DOA?
Thanks in advance for your advice,
Chris
I purchased an ARC-1880ix-24-4G and thus far it has not worked correctly. It installed and booted fine the first time, and the related apps loaded fine, but the trouble began when I tried to create an array. I had 5 2TB drives set to a RAID 6 array, and set it to foreground initialization. After 2 hours and 40%+ of progress, it failed. The log stated that all 5 drives were removed from the system at the same moment, even though of course none were. The log also showed the were "inserted" immediately. These drives are spread across two backplanes.
I then tried to do this again, and got the same results after 64%+. At this point, I decided to try and upgrade the firmware of the device, which seemed to work correctly. I was given success messages for all four files. However, after booting, the card hasn't worked since.
Now, when it boots, it only shows 8 channels available, not 24, does not recognize any drives, even though they are plugged in, and has lost any record of the raidset or volume.
I have tried reflashing the 1.48 and 1.49 firmware sets repeatedly with no luck. I also have tried the NFLASH utility, but when using that it immediately reboots rather than flashes. The ARCHTTP tool works to flash, at least it claims.
The other things of note are that it used to single beep on power on, but now it double beeps. Also, the blue LED in the back just blinks non-stop. It didn't do that before.
Is there something I am doing wrong, or is this card defective/DOA?
Thanks in advance for your advice,
Chris
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Which backplanes/chassis make & model?
BBU present?
Which harddisks make &model?
Which motherboard?
What kind of cables and how are they connected to backplane?
Also I recommend firmware flashing through the ethernet management port rather than ArcHTTP but I don't think your problems are firmware related. Also try unplugging power from PSU, wait 10 seconds, plug back in and see if any diff. Change PCIe slot, see if any diff. But answer the above questions first.
BBU present?
Which harddisks make &model?
Which motherboard?
What kind of cables and how are they connected to backplane?
Also I recommend firmware flashing through the ethernet management port rather than ArcHTTP but I don't think your problems are firmware related. Also try unplugging power from PSU, wait 10 seconds, plug back in and see if any diff. Change PCIe slot, see if any diff. But answer the above questions first.
Norco RPC-4224 with the built-in backplanes. No BBU yet. 4x WD 2TB EARS and 4x Samsung F4. It never had issue seeing the drives, but now it not only sees no drives it sees only 8 slots...
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Motherboard is ASUS P6T WS Professional, Xeon CPU, Mushkin 12GB ECC. Cables are the Norco SFF-8087 to SFF-8087.
I've tried the cold boot, power drain, several times, no success. Always greeted by double beep and blinking blue LED.
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