Unraid with External USB HDD?

Is it possible to use an external USB HDD with unRaid?

Yes.  Mounted outside of the array via SNAP

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=UnRAID_Add_Ons#SNAP

Not for an array disk. You can't take an array hard disk to another location and modify it without breaking parity so unRAID just wasn't written to use removable storage. Besides, most people don't want a slow USB drive slowing their array down. Best would be to either sell it and buy an internal or just crack it open and use the drive itself.

 

 

 

 

I ask because I ran out of SATA ports on my motherboard and figured I could just throw my FLAC music on there since they don't require the bandwidth BluRay ISOs do.

 

I couldn't get SNAP to work.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I followed the directions and assigned the external USB drive.  It shows up on the snap.sh -showusb, but I can't see it from the network.

I ask because I ran out of SATA ports on my motherboard and figured I could just throw my FLAC music on there since they don't require the bandwidth BluRay ISOs do.

 

I couldn't get SNAP to work.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I followed the directions and assigned the external USB drive.  It shows up on the snap.sh -showusb, but I can't see it from the network.

 

I can help you get it going. 

What version of SNAP have you got?  You should be able to do snap.sh -v to find out. 

 

Post the entry in snap.list.

cat /boot/config/snap/snap.list

 

Post the name of the device.

ls /dev/disk/by-id/usb*

I ask because I ran out of SATA ports on my motherboard and figured I could just throw my FLAC music on there since they don't require the bandwidth BluRay ISOs do.

 

I couldn't get SNAP to work.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I followed the directions and assigned the external USB drive.  It shows up on the snap.sh -showusb, but I can't see it from the network.

 

I can help you get it going. 

What version of SNAP have you got?  You should be able to do snap.sh -v to find out. 

 

Post the entry in snap.list.

cat /boot/config/snap/snap.list

 

Post the name of the device.

ls /dev/disk/by-id/usb*

 

snap.list entry:

usb-WD_EXT_HDD 1021=Music

 

device name:

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SanDisk_U3_Cruzer_Micro_0000060432101547-0:0@

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SanDisk_U3_Cruzer_Micro_0000060432101547-0:0-part1@

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-WD_Ext_HDD_1021_574341565933343735353037-0:0@

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-WD_Ext_HDD_1021_574341565933343735353037-0:0-part1@

 

snap version 0.47

I ask because I ran out of SATA ports on my motherboard and figured I could just throw my FLAC music on there since they don't require the bandwidth BluRay ISOs do.

 

I couldn't get SNAP to work.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I followed the directions and assigned the external USB drive.  It shows up on the snap.sh -showusb, but I can't see it from the network.

 

I can help you get it going.  

What version of SNAP have you got?  You should be able to do snap.sh -v to find out.  

 

Post the entry in snap.list.

cat /boot/config/snap/snap.list

 

Post the name of the device.

ls /dev/disk/by-id/usb*

 

snap.list entry:

usb-WD_EXT_HDD 1021=Music

 

device name:

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SanDisk_U3_Cruzer_Micro_0000060432101547-0:0@

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SanDisk_U3_Cruzer_Micro_0000060432101547-0:0-part1@

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-WD_Ext_HDD_1021_574341565933343735353037-0:0@

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-WD_Ext_HDD_1021_574341565933343735353037-0:0-part1@

 

snap version 0.47

 

The serial number for that usb device is:  574341565933343735353037-0:0

 

This is what you needed to use to add it:

snap.sh -a 574341565933343735353037-0:0 Music

 

The entry in the snap.list should look like:

574341565933343735353037-0:0=Music

 

If you run this command you will see the device names and the serial part needed by SNAP will be highlighted in blue.

snap.sh -listDevInfo

It's still not showing up in my network.  The snap.list is correct and exactly the same as the one in your post.  Do I need to format at the drive or anything?  There's already stuff on it that I loaded from my Vista 64 machine.

 

Restarted unRaid and it now works.  Thank You

Hi, I'm hoping to build an unRAID server very soon.

 

Has anyone had any experience with USB3 drives?

 

Will SNAP mount these to be usable by unRAID and would I notice any slowdown in speed over internal SATA?

 

Also I'm hoping the Asus U3S6 PCI-E card (USB3/SATA6) will be compatible. Anyone use one? EDIT: Answer is yes to this card: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12931.0

 

Would I be better off trying to take the drive out of the enclosure and hope it works as a normal SATA drive?

 

I ask as I have ordered a 2nd USB3 drive before deciding to move all 9 of my data hard drives to an unRAID server to pool them all together as one.

 

If necessary I could return it and buy a SATA drive instead (would be £10 cheaper too).

 

Thanks for any help.

Hi, I'm hoping to build an unRAID server very soon.

 

Has anyone had any experience with USB3 drives?

 

Will SNAP mount these to be usable by unRAID and would I notice any slowdown in speed over internal SATA?

 

Also I'm hoping the Asus U3S6 PCI-E card (USB3/SATA6) will be compatible. Anyone use one? EDIT: Answer is yes to this card: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12931.0

 

Would I be better off trying to take the drive out of the enclosure and hope it works as a normal SATA drive?

 

I ask as I have ordered a 2nd USB3 drive before deciding to move all 9 of my data hard drives to an unRAID server to pool them all together as one.

 

If necessary I could return it and buy a SATA drive instead (would be £10 cheaper too).

 

Thanks for any help.

 

USB drives can not be added to the unRAID array

OK. Thanks for the reply.

 

Will it be possible in a future update to unRAID and is it possible now to mount the drive outside of the array to use for scheduled backups of important data in the array?

OK. Thanks for the reply.

 

Will it be possible in a future update to unRAID and is it possible now to mount the drive outside of the array to use for scheduled backups of important data in the array?

It is easily possible to mount the drive outside of the array.  It can be done with the appropriate linux commands, or, with the SNAP user-add-on, or with the unMENU user-add-on.

 

As far as USB drives in the array, the reason I think they were not allowed was because of their really poor performance.  It would take days to calculate parity.  USB 3.0 might change that, but lime-tech has made absolutely no mention of the ability to add USB drives to the array.

Cheers Joe 

... or just crack it open and use the drive itself.

How funny, lionelhutz, I had no idea you could do that... you saved me hundreds of dollars!