Storage Spaces seriously slow (6-10mb write speed)

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#2261527 20-Jun-2019 15:33

CokemonZ:

Unraid is $89 USD?

davidcole did you reckon there was a free version?

I see there is a 30 day trial...….

I never knew it had a cost, maybe I was confusing it with freenas.

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Handle9

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#2261709 20-Jun-2019 22:45

davidcole:

Following along because it's interesting, and was something I'd considered quite a bit also. How easy is it to get unraid to run a windows virtual machine? I don't actually own a computer I can sit at, I RDP from a work laptop that I have to take home. THe linux stuff I'm happy with, I run enough with VMs and odroids and raspberry pis, but I still have the odd need for windows machines (hd home run drivers, my main "developer" machine etc)

Do you run vmware on unraid? And I assume with unraid you can run a suite of docker-compose.yml files for your various services? I'd hate to have to redo it all in some proprietary gui.

There is a VM manager and templates as part of the OS. You can passthrough hardware (USBs and video cards etc) very easily. I'm using a VM with a passed through graphics card now as my desktop daily driver. It took me about half an hour to get a usable windows VM running.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD6OWYJOIzU

You use the unraid VM manager rather than VMware. I'm not sure on the docker side, @michaelmurfy is better qualified than me to comment.

Handle9

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#2261711 20-Jun-2019 22:51

davidcole:

CokemonZ:

Unraid is $89 USD?

davidcole did you reckon there was a free version?

I see there is a 30 day trial...….

I never knew it had a cost, maybe I was confusing it with freenas.

The pricing is stacked with the number of drives - up to 6 is $59, up to 12 is $89 unlimited is $129.

There is a 30 day trial so you don't need to make an instant decision. I tried it and found it well worth the money (I built a brand new machine at the same time) so I just bought it.

The thing that made it excellent value for money was the youtube tutorials from spaceinvader one. They make it very simple to do almost anything you want to do. The forums and reddit are pretty decent as well.

The license is tied to the USB stick, not the hardware, so it can move easily as you upgrade. They will also let you replace the USB stick at least once a year.

CokemonZ

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#2261736 21-Jun-2019 08:01

Handle9:

davidcole:

CokemonZ:

Unraid is $89 USD?

davidcole did you reckon there was a free version?

I see there is a 30 day trial...….

I never knew it had a cost, maybe I was confusing it with freenas.

The pricing is stacked with the number of drives - up to 6 is $59, up to 12 is $89 unlimited is $129.

There is a 30 day trial so you don't need to make an instant decision. I tried it and found it well worth the money (I built a brand new machine at the same time) so I just bought it.

The thing that made it excellent value for money was the youtube tutorials from spaceinvader one. They make it very simple to do almost anything you want to do. The forums and reddit are pretty decent as well.

The license is tied to the USB stick, not the hardware, so it can move easily as you upgrade. They will also let you replace the USB stick at least once a year.

Yeah I downloaded the 30 day trial, looks like it would be super easy if I was standing up a new machine. IT looks good - and like what I need - no arguments here!

But I am replacing the engine while the plane is in the air.

Not enough storage to be able to have data on both on windows and unraid (for transfer issues) requiring a complex move
Limited amount of time it can be down for (as in if i don't get it done in a day it might take me a week to finish it), and the collateral impact will be very high.

Ideally to do this I need another machine, with storage - migrate to, and decommission, or spend money on external drives which I don't need except for this one use case.

Yoban

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#2261791 21-Jun-2019 09:12

CokemonZ:

In this case - Could I create the array in unraid, boot into windows, load xfs driver, copy data, remove partitions from now empty drives, boot back into unraid, expand array, rinse and repeat?

Or I see I could create a windows VM, and I think assign the ntfs drives to it, then use that to copy...….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miYUGWq6l24

I am currently on this journey at present and happy with my call on Unraid. I have started with a small 2 disk+parity array and moving stuff via mapped drives over LAN from Win10 box. I had 4 drives in Win10 box freed up 2 using USB drives to get initial array, move data from remaining 2 drives in PC, to then add in to array and finally pull from USB drive.

Out of interest Amazon has WD Red 6TB (5400rpm) on sale for $179USD and also Toshiba X300 6TB (7200rpm) $152USD (a GZer recommended in another post).

Yoban

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#2261841 21-Jun-2019 11:17

michaelmurfy:

...You need to ensure the biggest (and fastest of the biggest - would recommend a 3.5" 7200rpm spinner) drive is the Parity (or use 2x parity drives if you want to be extra safe) but otherwise you can mix and match drives a little like Storage Spaces.....

@michaelmurfy, got the SSD cache drive, but 5400rpm spinner for Parity with plan on having 7200rpm for array - will the slower parity be that much of an issue?

michaelmurfy

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#2261842 21-Jun-2019 11:19

Yoban:

got the SSD cache drive, but 5400rpm spinner for Parity with plan on having 7200rpm for array - will the slower parity be that much of an issue?

Yes! As everything that gets written also gets parity written. A slow parity drive will slow your array. I am however using 5400RPM NAS drives in my server (and get ~120mb/sec sustained transfer) but when my Parity drive was failing it pulled my entire array down to sub 50mb/sec speeds.

Fastest and biggest drive always for your Parity.

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michaelmurfy

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#2261843 21-Jun-2019 11:25

As for disks I am using WD 8tb drives shucked from the following: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQQHLGC/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_itbdDbBXKV49W?tag=geekzone-20

The drives inside these enclosures are "white label" helium filled drives with the same firmware and specifications as WD Reds but at almost half the price. Apart from the label, they're really WD Red drives. There are many Reddit posts on https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/ about the WD white label drives.

If you go the white label route then depending on your power supply you may have to do the "3.3v hack" to get them to power up: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Fix-the-33V-Pin-Issue-in-White-Label-Disks-/

Yoban

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#2261864 21-Jun-2019 11:37

michaelmurfy:

Yoban:

got the SSD cache drive, but 5400rpm spinner for Parity with plan on having 7200rpm for array - will the slower parity be that much of an issue?

Yes! As everything that gets written also gets parity written. A slow parity drive will slow your array. I am however using 5400RPM NAS drives in my server (and get ~120mb/sec sustained transfer) but when my Parity drive was failing it pulled my entire array down to sub 50mb/sec speeds.

Fastest and biggest drive always for your Parity.

Cheers....back to the drawing board and saving some pennies for different disks. The disk want be wasted in the short term as it will get my box up and running, but I should have thought a bit more about it before hitting buy...duuuh. Box will be 1x1Tb SSD Cache, 2x2TB array, 1x6TB Parity with a spare slot.

CokemonZ

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#2261872 21-Jun-2019 11:59

So after shuffling a couple of drives around I have found the issue with storage spaces behaving weirdly.

One of the new sata cables I put in was dodgy, which was causing drive write failure attempts on one drive.

Who would have thought.

Anyway - thanks for everyones help - today - storage spaces, tomorrow (or when I get a couple of days off and want a project) Unraid.

Yoban

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#2261926 21-Jun-2019 12:30

michaelmurfy:

As for disks I am using WD 8tb drives shucked from the following: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQQHLGC/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_itbdDbBXKV49W?tag=geekzone-20 ....

Now that would have been a smarter move in my part for the array+parity...future goal now...

@cokemonz look forward to your updates...

billgates

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#2261947 21-Jun-2019 13:23

CokemonZ:

So after shuffling a couple of drives around I have found the issue with storage spaces behaving weirdly.

One of the new sata cables I put in was dodgy, which was causing drive write failure attempts on one drive.

Who would have thought.

Anyway - thanks for everyones help - today - storage spaces, tomorrow (or when I get a couple of days off and want a project) Unraid.

So it was not storage spaces ;)

If you do buy new drives in future, just make sure you buy native 4K drives.

Do whatever you want to do man.

CokemonZ

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#2261948 21-Jun-2019 13:26

billgates:

CokemonZ:

So after shuffling a couple of drives around I have found the issue with storage spaces behaving weirdly.

One of the new sata cables I put in was dodgy, which was causing drive write failure attempts on one drive.

Who would have thought.

Anyway - thanks for everyones help - today - storage spaces, tomorrow (or when I get a couple of days off and want a project) Unraid.

So it was not storage spaces ;)

If you do buy new drives in future, just make sure you buy native 4K drives.

Yes - not storage spaces. I am a little frustrated that nothing warned me about this. I guess it wasn't a smart issue either.

Wasn't till I tried HDD Sentinel that I figured it out.

I would look at 4k drives, but actually shelling cheap external drives is my Jam at the moment, so sticking with that. Get no control over what they are.

thorax

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#2263155 24-Jun-2019 08:16

ohh shucks!

driller2000

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#2263157 24-Jun-2019 08:29

Good to see you sorted your issue.

+1 for UnRAID - have been running mine for 7 years now and I am VERY happy with it.

So I fully recommend unRAID.

So if you do go down this path - suggest you set up a new unRAID server when you have the time/HW/cash - with one new storage HDD (+Parity HDD) and copy data from a HDD in your storage space to unRAID.

Pull the new empty storage spaces HDD (assuming it is in good condition) - install in uRAID server.

Repeat with next HDD in your storage space etc.

Note: I purchase the 8TB Ext Seagate drives from Amazon for $240NZD landed (vs $420NZD fr 8TB Int HDD based on Pricespy) - skin them and use these.

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