SYBA SI-PEX40071 8 SATA port controller


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This is my first unRAID server experience and i'd like to know, at the end of these test, if this little server can go or not.....

Assuming i use for example only 4 ports without port multiplier + the 4 ports on the motherboard can it work?

It's too slow?

Can i ignore the yellow warnings or it's better to change this card?

I would use it only for my BluRay and DVD streams....

Thanx.

 

Zippi.

 

 

 

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Thanks.

 

The first set are the speeds for the drives, tested individually. That is, with no contention (with other drives) for the controller (and its x2 [pcie v2] limit of ~750 MiB/s, or, and most important in this case, no contention for the single Sata port (which all 4 are multiplied off of) (and its 6Gbps [~550 MiB/s] limit). Those numbers serve as reference points for further testing ...

 

The second set are the speeds for the drives, tested concurrently; all competing for the resource(s). In this example, the total bandwidth provided (by the 9705 port multiplier) was only ~480 MiB/s [vs 550], hence exposing it as the constraining component. That may turn out to be typical overhead for Port Multipliers, in general. (When I subject a SiI3726 port multiplier [10+ years older; only Sata II] to a similar test, it provides a maximum of ~240 MiB/s.

 

There is some specific significance of all of this, for you Zippi.  You should probably only put 2 of your unRAID array data drives on the multiplied ports, along with the SSD. The other 3 (native) ports can each have an array data drive. Your parity drive(s) should go on mobo ports, as can additional data drives.

 

What do you think, johnnie.black? (You've played in this sandbox, right?)

 

--UhClem

 

Edited by UhClem
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On 20/3/2017 at 5:40 PM, UhClem said:

[After we're all finished with testing, you should move /dskt elsewhere; it's not good to clutter root.]

--UhClem

 

I looked into the USB unRAID key to delete the dskt.txt file but it is gone.

Is it normal?

 

Zippi.

 

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2 minutes ago, mr-hexen said:

 

The results of sde are peculiar...

 

Yes, it's a quick test, it can give strange values sometimes, another run may give different results.

 

16 minutes ago, UhClem said:

What do you think, johnnie.black? (You've played in this sandbox, right?)

 

Never tested a port multiplier but results are in line with what I would expect.

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On 3/21/2017 at 1:42 PM, Zippi said:

It's too slow?

No we were just pushing it to its limits, so you could know how best to use it.

On 3/21/2017 at 1:42 PM, Zippi said:

Can i ignore the yellow warnings or it's better to change this card?

You can definitely ignore those warnings. (They were [harmless] mistakes by unRAIDs logger.)

No clear reason to change the card. You can even use the other 2 ports for other (than unRAID) drives--like a DVD/BluRay drive, or a backup drive thru an eSata adapter on the case rear. Or, if you really expand your unRAID array (beyond 9 drives total), you can put an additional unRAID data drives on those 2 ports. It just means that Parity Checks, and Array Rebuilds, will run ~15-25% slower.

 

One last question (but no more tests) which 4 physical Sata ports were we just using? The four closest to the rear of the case, or the front of the case? thanks

 

--UhClem  "If you push something hard enough, it will fall over." Fud's First Law

 

Edited by UhClem
:)
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1 hour ago, Zippi said:

Only 3 WD RED:

 

sdc 148.36 Mib/sec

sde 107.26 Mib/sec

sdf 140.98 Mib/sec

There might be a problem with the sde drive (or even the port it's connected to).

 

Run the following:

for i in 0 1 3 5 10 20

do

/dskt O $i e         [that is a capital-O]

done

 

and please report the results.

 

 

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The four the front of the case......

Was a test because the screen printing on the board is not so clear which are the direct ports and which are multiplied and also the little manual in the box don't help...

I thought to use the first 4 SATA III ports on motherboard for: 1 parity + 1 cache + 2 data drive.

Then possibly later use the ports on this card when i'll buy other disks!

If you need other test tell me......

 

Zippi.

 

Edited by Zippi
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1 hour ago, Zippi said:

sde 110.34 Mib/sec

sde 139.22 Mib/sec

sde 147.41 Mib/sec

sde 151.31 Mib/sec

sde 151.09 Mib/sec

sde 154.81 Mib/sec

Good! The drive on sde, and the port itself, are fine. (Maybe just a little slow at the very very beginning. Or maybe not even that. It could be that that drive is a little slow in going from the "active/idle" state to the "active/active" state. Not to worry. But, if I (or you) were curious, reversing the numbers in the "for ..." line would tell the story.

2 hours ago, Zippi said:

The four the front of the case.

Thanks--now, there is a permanent place for this information. (We will leave the ID of the 5th port location for the next guy.)

2 hours ago, Zippi said:

I looked into the USB unRAID key to delete the dskt.txt file but it is gone.

Is it normal?

Yes, the actual downloaded file (dskt.txt) was moved, and renamed, when:

    >>> change that to mv /boot/dskt.txt /dskt

I think you should keep "dskt" (it is tiny), but the question is "Where?"

 

Guys, help me & Zippi out here ...

[Again, I don't use unRAID]; what is the (non-volatile) equivalent of /usr/bin (or, maybe better [if it is in $PATH], $HOME/bin)?

 

--UhClem

 

Edited by UhClem
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unRAID is an all RAM based OS, built from scratch each time it boots, so the unRAID boot flash drive provides both the copies of the distro to be expanded into RAM, plus the 'persistent storage' for all configuration and logging, in /boot/config and /boot/logs.  Other user scripts and programs are generally also stored on the flash, although could be on a Cache or array drive if not needed until after array start.

 

Probably best to move it back to the flash drive:

   mv /dskt /boot

 

Then to run it, you would either run:

   /boot/dskt ...

Or:

   cd /boot

   dskt ...

Edited by RobJ
add word
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18 hours ago, RobJ said:

unRAID is an all RAM based OS, built from scratch each time it boots, so the unRAID boot flash drive provides both the copies of the distro to be expanded into RAM, plus the 'persistent storage' for all configuration and logging, in /boot/config and /boot/logs.  Other user scripts and programs are generally also stored on the flash, although could be on a Cache or array drive if not needed until after array start.

 

Probably best to move it back to the flash drive:

   mv /dskt /boot

 

Then to run it, you would either run:

   /boot/dskt ...

Or:

   cd /boot

   dskt ...

I do this: mv /dskt /boot

but returns: mv: cannot stat '/dskt' : no such file or directory

 

with: cd /boot i go in /boot and then?

 

Zippi.

 

Edited by Zippi
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14 hours ago, RobJ said:

Earlier, you executed the command as /dskt, indicating it was in the root, but that error says it's not there any more.  Did you reboot?  If so, it's gone, and you'll need to download another copy to the flash drive.

Yes, i reboot and so there isn't the file in usb root.....

Also if i copy the file in the flash drive root of unRAID, do the tests and after i exit like root user and then i connect again there isn't the file....

This means that the file is somewhere or it's gone like when i reboot?

Thanx again for the patience but i'm a newbie :-)

 

Zippi.

 

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7 minutes ago, Zippi said:

if i copy the file in the flash drive root of unRAID, do the tests and after i exit like root user and then i connect again there isn't the file...

flash drive root = /boot

the mv command moved it from /boot to /, which is cleared on reboot.

try leaving it in /boot, and just running it from there.

mv /boot/dskt.txt /boot/dskt

/boot/dskt (stuff)

 

@UhClem, does your script care if it's run from a FAT volume? (perms not really honored)

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