ARECA Owner's Thread (SAS/SATA RAID Cards)

[Fred.]

I'm using 1.49 since it was released.

 

[peeteemac]

I flashed my Gigabyte x99-ud4 motherboard bios a couple of days ago and since then my system wont boot with the Areca 1260 plugged in. It wont display any output to monitor and is non responsive to any keystroke.

Ive tried:
Rolling back to the origonal BIOS (F6)
Upgrading to the latest BIOS (F12)
And everything in between (F6-12)
Clearing the CMOS
Tried swapping the raid card to the first PCI-e slot (in case it had issues on a x4 slot)
Removed the BBU
Im looking for another stick of RAM to test with and another system but am starting to get desperate (16tb offline until I can fix this)

Any help would be much appreciated

System
Gigabyte x99-ud4 rev1 (Current BIOS F11)
WIn 8.1pro (installed on revo 256gb pci ssd)
areca 1260 6x4tb in RAID6

 

[mikeblas]

If I have multiple Areca controllers, is it possible to make a volume that spans boards?

 

[Blue Fox]

No, not possible.

 

[fritzman]

If I have multiple Areca controllers, is it possible to make a volume that spans boards?

Sadly no... (having ended up with a pair of 9260i cards myself thinking it might work), but you can add a SAS expander, which will allow you to feed the pair of ports from your card to the expander, which in turn, multiplies it from 2 ports (in my case) to 6 ports (so maximum goes from 8 drives to 24 drives).

I haven't done it yet, but have the card ready and waiting until I get the drives, but believe there is minimal difference in performance because of the bandwidth of the mini-SAS ports.

There is an awesome thread here http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1484614&highlight=hp+sas+expander that is dedicated to the SAS expanders.

 

[fritzman]

If I have multiple Areca controllers, is it possible to make a volume that spans boards?

What did you end up doing?

 

[frenetic_ferret]

No, not possible.

Depends what he means by "spans".

Two HBAs can share a SAS target. They can even trade off the target (usually done as a LUN, but RAID volumes can work as well) if one is having problems. Most high end SANs pack multiple SAS HBA/RAID devices that share all the LUNs dynamically as needed. In fact, it's required for redundancy and performance issues.

The key is, that only one HBA can control a target at a time. So no matter how many volumes you have, and which card has them, only one card is running a volume at the time. And even if one of the cards flat out dies, the other card will pick up the volume.

In a nut shell, a volume can be used by multiple boards, targeted by multiple boards, and swapped between boards. However it can't be managed by multiple boards at the same time.

Keep in mind that HBAs and volumes don't play by the same rules at the iSCSI, SAN, or other levels as they do with local RAID.

 

[fritzman]

Depends what he means by "spans".

Two HBAs can share a SAS target. They can even trade off the target (usually done as a LUN, but RAID volumes can work as well) if one is having problems. Most high end SANs pack multiple SAS HBA/RAID devices that share all the LUNs dynamically as needed. In fact, it's required for redundancy and performance issues.

The key is, that only one HBA can control a target at a time. So no matter how many volumes you have, and which card has them, only one card is running a volume at the time. And even if one of the cards flat out dies, the other card will pick up the volume.

In a nut shell, a volume can be used by multiple boards, targeted by multiple boards, and swapped between boards. However it can't be managed by multiple boards at the same time.

Keep in mind that HBAs and volumes don't play by the same rules at the iSCSI, SAN, or other levels as they do with local RAID.

Cheers...

I think he (certainly I) was trying to suss out whether two 9260i cards could (working together) run a Raid6 array for instance, with a total of 16 drives in the (single) array.

AFAIK they cannot.

 

[mikeblas]

What did you end up doing?

I was hoping to buy two cards with fewer ports, but I need to buy one card with larger ports. So, I'm trolling eBay still ... tho I might end up with an expander.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

Hello!

I have a question (already contacted Areca support, but just hours ago, so no reply yet) about the Areca Ethernet port and also the in-band management.

So, I'm preparing a new workstation with direct-attached storage using this brand-new ARC-1883ix-12 here. Currently, I only have two Seagate Cheetah 15k.6 on it for testing.

Yesterday, everything worked fine. I shut the machine down, and as I booted it up today, everything "seemed" fine. Firmware posts, detects the PCIe link, detects my test RAID, all ok. However, the Ethernet port which I use to control the system stayed dead! The LEDs? Dark. So I thought, let's try the Web proxy on the OS itself, right? It's Windows by the way. But the in-band management (http://127.0.0.1:81) says it can't connect either, no server there.

So I tried accessing SMART data via smartmontools, which works just fine. The Areca CLI (and the BIOS btw.) also work just fine. And of course, the disk array is there and usable in the OS. Both devices (the StorPort driven controller and this "Virtual SCSI RAID Device" for SMART access and other things) are there in device manager and appear to be ok. There are NO errors logged whatsoever, not in the Areca firmware log, nor in Windows system or MCRAID logs.

It seems to me that there are two "access channels" to the boards management interface, one seems to be RS232, the other Ethernet, with both being accessible via some means over the PCIe interface too. The CLI seems to be accessing the RS232 subsystem of the board, which still works (i might be wrong, but so the tray tools report it), and the web proxy gets to the onboard LAN?

It appears the LAN on the card is broken?! Is there anything I should/could do? I mean, this is pretty much a brand-new board. Maybe somebody has encountered this before and knows how to fix it.

Temps by the way were 35°C for the board, 65-70°C for the PowerPC CPU and 55-58°C for that other chip... SAS expander maybe I'm guessing. And the flash backup module sat nicely at 32°C. Should be within acceptable parameters I presume.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Hammer8]

Hi, I have an 1882 card...would some mind explaining to me what the setting PCIE Link Down Reset does? Thanks, Hammer

 

[WangChung]

PSA: It's still worth it to upgrade the RAID controller heatsink.

Doing final prep on my hardware upgrades, noticed that the controller's CPU temp was ~60-65*C just sitting on my work table. Not in a case, no HDDs attached, no workload, and in a 22*C room. THIS WILL NOT STAND!

Full installed with MX-4 paste

Original HS w/ thermal pad. Had no idea they used LSI silicon, you can still see the imprint in the pad.

Comparison 1

Comparison 2, significant height/mass difference

Installed w/ battery

Sacrifices a PCIe slot, but not in use anyway

I'm glad I was able to get the OEM fan to fit. The only other 40mm fan I had on hand was being a noisy little POS. Temps are down to ~40*C, seems to change up or down a few degrees based on the battery charging and possibly the thermal paste settling. Letting it sit overnight to charge the battery so I'll see what the final result is in the A.M., but a 25 degree drop in just idle temps is impressive. I'm glad I held on to these old Zalman heatsinks.

 

[thule]

hi everyone..I bought my areca 1880ix raid controller card 5 years ago from newegg.And I have been using it without any problem for 5 years.Im cooling my raid controller with one 120 mm fan.Last week I cleaned inside of my computer and I removed the fan.Then i forgot to put it again.Now my raid controller doesnt see my raid 0 array.There is a blue led behind of my card which is blinking continously..I disconnected sff-8087 cables and re-flash all four lates firmwares then reboot it.SES2 setting is enabled.Changed pci slot.but nothing changed.I can enter bios, try to delete raid array but it doesnt see anything.I checked my SSD's that i used with areca raid controller, they are also ok.I think I have problem with overheating. Anybody faced this problem before? My system is;

Asus rampage extreme 3 motherboard
2 X Ocz vertex 3 max iops 120 gb
1000 watt enermax psu


2015-06-11 00:02:50 Proxy Or Inband HTTP Log In
2015-06-11 00:02:13 SW API Interface API Log In
2015-06-10 23:56:38 Battery Module Added
2015-06-10 23:56:38 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 23:55:15 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-10 23:55:04 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 23:51:25 Proxy Or Inband HTTP Log In
2015-06-10 23:33:32 Proxy Or Inband HTTP Log In
2015-06-10 23:31:05 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 23:23:40 Proxy Or Inband HTTP Log In
2015-06-10 23:22:39 SW API Interface API Log In
2015-06-10 21:15:03 Proxy Or Inband HTTP Log In
2015-06-10 21:13:30 SW API Interface API Log In
2015-06-10 20:53:49 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 20:49:24 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-10 20:49:11 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 20:31:55 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 21:21:28 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 21:19:46 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 21:14:26 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 21:10:01 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-10 00:17:10 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-10 00:06:35 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:50:27 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-09 23:47:50 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:46:47 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:42:37 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:41:32 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:33:02 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:23:55 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-09 23:23:39 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:20:22 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:16:29 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-09 23:16:17 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:14:27 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 23:09:32 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-09 23:09:18 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 22:45:08 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 22:39:35 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 22:37:46 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-09 22:37:29 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 22:17:48 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 22:15:46 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 00:51:22 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 00:48:29 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 00:36:48 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 00:30:43 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 00:26:55 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 00:23:55 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 00:12:20 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-09 00:08:35 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-08 22:27:34 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-08 22:23:37 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 15:51:31 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 15:45:33 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 15:44:26 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 15:42:05 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-07 15:41:51 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 15:39:46 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 15:38:17 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2015-06-07 15:36:48 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 15:35:21 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 14:34:34 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 14:22:22 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 14:19:38 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 14:16:04 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 14:15:04 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 14:11:08 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 14:08:35 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:55:58 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:53:29 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:34:31 Ctrl Board Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:34:31 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:34:29 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:31:04 Ctrl Board Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:31:04 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:31:02 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:29:20 Ctrl Board Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:29:20 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:29:18 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:27:27 Ctrl Board Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:27:27 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:27:25 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:24:39 Ctrl Board Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:19:39 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:19:37 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:17:04 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:17:02 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:15:32 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:15:30 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:13:03 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 12:08:31 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 12:01:06 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 11:56:37 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 11:53:44 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 08:35:32 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 08:35:30 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 08:29:46 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 08:29:44 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 08:27:13 Ctrl CPU Temp. Over Temp.
2015-06-07 08:17:41 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-07 08:08:55 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:57:01 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:47:57 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:44:11 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:43:00 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:28:32 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:26:51 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:16:18 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:07:28 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:05:45 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 23:02:08 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:59:56 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:57:37 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:56:25 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:54:21 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:52:27 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:51:12 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:48:40 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:47:22 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:46:11 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:41:47 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:12:42 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 22:10:46 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 21:19:03 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2015-06-06 00:25:49 Ctrl 3.3V Recovered
2015-06-06 00:25:19 Ctrl 3.3V Under Voltage
2015-06-06 00:13:19 Ctrl 3.3V Recovered
2015-06-06 00:12:49 Ctrl 3.3V Under Voltage
2015-06-05 23:44:49 Ctrl 3.3V Recovered
2015-06-05 23:44:19 Ctrl 3.3V Under Voltage

 

[pmackinney]

Possible to run 1680X as low profile?

I want to move my pair of 1680X cards into 2U servers. The Ethernet module detaches and the card is low enough, but I'd need a low profile end plate with holes for the two 8088-SFF connectors, a second plate for the ethernet socket and a 2x4 pin extender to hook up the ethernet. (Or sacrifice the ethenet and use SNMP bleah.) Anyone done this? Otherwise it's time to buy new cards.

 

[vr.]

The first search I did in Google shows a tweak town article with a low profile bracket so it appears they are out there.

 

[pmackinney]

Thanks vr. Yep, I found a 1680X product page that shows box contents including the low profile bracket. Of course, I arrived here after the two cards were installed, feel lucky to have one manual & one CD. Plan to manufacture an end plate from a blank, shouldn't be too hard although I'll be counting on a friction fit around the SFF-8088 sockets instead of a screw.

Side issue: One of my Habey DS-1280s is intermittently beeping and showing red FAN light. I will replace the three fans and hope that does it. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[mikeblas]

Yes: in my experience, replacing failed fans makes fan failure lights go away. If the fans aren't actually failed, then there's another problem that needs investigation.

 

[pmackinney]

Habey DS-1280 is done, what to replace with? The verdict from Habey tech support is that the backplane is failing. Symptoms: Fan light on although fans are good, a recent drive disconnect trigging a RAID & filesystem rebuild.

What to replace it with? I've invested in 3T HGST and plan to start replacing them with the 8T He models. I'm leary of Habey, NORCO & Sans Digital based on various reviews. Not looking to abandon the SuperServer 5026T-T server that runs the array, but will be glad to upgrade the Areca 1680X to a SATA III card. Ideas?

 

[mikeblas]

Depends on your criteria. Anything from NetApp to Promise.

 

[alamone]

I really like those Rackable Systems SE3016s that you can find for cheap on ebay.
Half depth so it doesn't take much room, and it's plug and play with Areca.
Just replace the internal fans and the PSU fan with quieter ones and it's suitable for home use.

 

[danswartz]

One gotcha I discovered. If the power fails and comes back, they do NOT power up by themselves. If the site is unattended, bad news (discovered this the hard way myself...) I've seen posts for HW mods to address that though...

 

[mwroobel]

Habey DS-1280 is done, what to replace with? The verdict from Habey tech support is that the backplane is failing. Symptoms: Fan light on although fans are good, a recent drive disconnect trigging a RAID & filesystem rebuild.

What to replace it with? I've invested in 3T HGST and plan to start replacing them with the 8T He models. I'm leary of Habey, NORCO & Sans Digital based on various reviews. Not looking to abandon the SuperServer 5026T-T server that runs the array, but will be glad to upgrade the Areca 1680X to a SATA III card. Ideas?

You can't go wrong with Supermicro chassis.

 

[bekax5]

I am trying to set email notifications on an Areca 1880i, am I incorrect to assume the card does not know how to work with SSL/TLS ?

I was trying to set it up with Gmail but I guess it only works with encryption.

 

[Blue Fox]

Yeah, Gmail is a bit of a pain with that. Google has a number of restrictions in place. I have a tiny VM (64mb of RAM) set to be a mail relay for mine.

 

[bekax5]

Yeah, Gmail is a bit of a pain with that. Google has a number of restrictions in place. I have a tiny VM (64mb of RAM) set to be a mail relay for mine.

Do you use an Appliance?
Perhaps could you tell me which it is, last resource I might have to do the same for monitoring emails to be retrieved.

 

[mikeblas]

There's some instructions for gmail notifications earlier in this thread.

 

[Blue Fox]

Do you use an Appliance?
Perhaps could you tell me which it is, last resource I might have to do the same for monitoring emails to be retrieved.

No, just a minimal Debian installation with Exim. 64mb of RAM and 1-2gb disk space is all it needs.

 

[bekax5]

There's some instructions for gmail notifications earlier in this thread.

The issue I believe it's not actually with Gmail, it's more with the Areca's mail authentication (lack off) methods.

No, just a minimal Debian installation with Exim. 64mb of RAM and 1-2gb disk space is all it needs.

Do I need to have MX Records and domain control or it's just literally a relay to another authenticated mail server ?

 

[Blue Fox]

Relay to another mail server. I have it currently using an account on basic shared hosting with 1&1 sending an email to my Gmail account since I gave up having my Gmail account mail itself in the end.

 

[odditory]

stunnel is the easiest solution I found for getting notification emails from the Areca card. Don't have time to write a step by step but I'll post my config file (stunnel.conf) which assumes gmail. I'm using the Windows version, on one of my VM's I have stunnel.exe in windows startup folder. This program listens on port 25 and then tunnels to a secure connection on smtp.gmail.com:465. So you configure the notification page in the Areca web admin for the IP of the machine running stunnel, along with your gmail username and password.

cert = stunnel.pem
socket = l:TCP_NODELAY=1
socket = r:TCP_NODELAY=1
client = yes

[pop3s]
accept = 110
connect = pop.gmail.com:995

[imaps]
accept = 143
connect = imap.gmail.com:993

[ssmtp]
accept = 25
connect = smtp.gmail.com:465

 

[bekax5]

Besides this, I have a quick question.
Do you have Fan RPM available in Hardware Monitor?



I am trying to monitor via SNMP. I am able to catch CPU temp, Board Temp, but no Fan RPM...

 

[Blue Fox]

Yes, CPU fan RPM is present on my 1882i.

Anyone know how to get rid of this annoying thing? http://faq.areca.com.tw/index.php?solution_id=1071

I get ~50 alerts daily from this and their solution doesn't work. This is with one of the Supermicro SAS2 backplanes and an 1882i.

 

[bekax5]

Yes, CPU fan RPM is present on my 1882i.

Anyone know how to get rid of this annoying thing? http://faq.areca.com.tw/index.php?solution_id=1071

I get ~50 alerts daily from this and their solution doesn't work. This is with one of the Supermicro SAS2 backplanes and an 1882i.

How do ou think I can add the RPM value to the card? I had 1.49FW and no RPM, and yesterday I updated to 1.52FW and still no RPM.

By the way, do you return values from the backplanes via the Areca?
I have a chenbro expander which I also wanted to monitor (temps & rpms) but I have no idea how to do it. It seems that the SNMP MIBs from Areca website are not completely up to date.

Edit: Blue Fox, It's stated in the exact same link you gave that you should disable SES2 H/W Monitor in the Areca... Did you try that?

 

[Blue Fox]

I checked my 1880i and no RPM on it either, so guess not. If the Chenbro expander doesn't pass temperatures, you might be out of luck. My LSI ones do.

Yes, I did try the solution they posted (with many reboots).

 

[bekax5]

I checked my 1880i and no RPM on it either, so guess not. If the Chenbro expander doesn't pass temperatures, you might be out of luck. My LSI ones do.

Yes, I did try the solution they posted (with many reboots).

It's really strange this card being the one that does not report RPM values

This Chenbro it's actually a LSI SASIIX36 chip.

It might pass the temperatures (I am actually not sure), I was just asking how do you check them.
Did you set some SNMP or how are you viewing these alerts?

 

[Blue Fox]

They're displayed on the hardware monitor page in the web interface for me.

 

[TinoD]

Hi folks, I'm running an Areca 1882IX-12 with 12x3TB drives in Raid 10.

Right now its still stock with the 1gb ram, will upgrading to 4gb be a worthwhile investment? Where will I see an improvement, during rebuilds or with actual data transfer rates/performance?


thanks in advance!

 

[mikeblas]

Rebuild performance probably won't be improved. Your sequential data transfer rates won't go up. If you're doing random access, you'll get an improvement proportional to the number of cache hits you get. If you have a BBU, you can enable write-back and get some improvement on random and bursty sequential writes; the amount of improvement you see will be dependent on your workload.

 

[TinoD]

Rebuild performance probably won't be improved. Your sequential data transfer rates won't go up. If you're doing random access, you'll get an improvement proportional to the number of cache hits you get. If you have a BBU, you can enable write-back and get some improvement on random and bursty sequential writes; the amount of improvement you see will be dependent on your workload.

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, I'm not that familiar with what you're referring to.

Just to keep it simple, will I see any improvement for what I use it for primarily, video editing? I have a bbu with write-back enabled.

 

[knopflerbruce]

Anyone tried current Areca drivers on win 10?