unRAID Server Release 4.7-beta1 Available


limetech

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This release includes support for so-called Advanced Format drives.  It also includes a few minor bug fixes.

 

After reading through the release notes, come back here and read the bottom line:

  • Let others in the Community run this for a while before using on your production server.
  • After installing 4.7, run it for a while before adding new disks.  This is because once a drive is written with a 4K-aligned partition, it will appear unformatted in all previous unRAID versions; and then if you click Start, it's MBR will be overwritten.
  • Once you are satisfied things work ok, go to the Settings page and set "Default partition format" to "MBR: 4K-aligned", and leave it that way.  Now all new drives you install will be 4K-aligned, whether AF drives or not.  If  you use Joe L.'s preclear_disk.sh script, be sure to use the -A switch.
  • If you are using a Western Digital EARS drive, and it has already been formatted with the jumper in place, my advice is to just leave the jumper in place.
  • If you are installing a new WD EARS, toss the jumper in the trash.
  • For those of you who must get rid of that jumper (and you know who you are) watch the Forum for how to convert your jumpered EARS to non-jumpered.

 

 

unRAID Server 4.7-beta1 Release Notes
=====================================

Changes from 4.6 to 4.7-beta1
-----------------------------

Feature: Advanced Format drive support - partition 1 may now be aligned on 4K boundry (sector 64)

This release now provides support for so-called Advanced Format (AF) drives.  AF drives are hard drives which
have native 4KB sector size instead of traditional 512-Byte sector size (though these drives typically still report
a sector size of 512-Bytes to the operating system).  Drives larger than 2TB are still not supported in this release
however.

Traditionally, when the Master Boot Record (MBR) is created on a hard drive, partition 1 is positioned to start
on sector 63.  This is due to legacy support for old drives that use cylinder/head/sector addressing instead of
Logical Block addressing.  AF drive support involves nothing more than positioning the start of Partition 1 on
sector 64 instead of sector 63, thus "aligning" it on a 4KB boundary (since 64 sectors = 32KB which is a multiple
of 4KB).

Whether to create Partition 1 starting with sector 63 or sector 64 is configurable using a new setting in the Disk
settings section of the Settings page called "Default partition format".  The default value of this setting is
"MBR: unaligned", which specifies an MBR-style partition table with partition 1 starting in sector 63.  If you
intend to install a new AF drive, you should first change this setting to "MBR: 4K-aligned", which specifies an
MBR-style partition table with partition 1 starting in sector 64.  [Note a future version may include a third
option called "GPT", or "GUID Partition Table".  This will be necessary to support drives larger than 2TB.]

For most AF drives, you will want to set "Default partition format" to "MBR: 4K-aligned" for maximum performance
(but see note about the Western Digital EARS drives below).  Also, there is no performance or storage loss in
starting Partition 1 in sector 64 for ALL drives, not just AF drives.

IMPORTANT: any drive formatted with "MBR: 4K-aligned" using this version of unRAID OS will NOT BE RECOGNIZED as
formatted in any previous version of unRAID OS.

As for WD EARS - these drives include a physical jumper which, if installed, remaps the sectors internally
so that if Partition 1 is created to start in sector 63, it gets remapped to a starting sector that is on a 4K
boundary (a hack to support Windows XP).  If you have formatted an EARS drive with a previous version of unRAID or
Windows with the jumper in place, we recommend you leave the jumper in place and do not re-format the drive; just
treat it as a non-AF drive.  There is NO performance penalty for doing this!

Finally, the MBR of any drive that already has a valid "unRAID" MBR will not be re-written, regardless of the
setting of "Default partition format".  This includes unRAID MBR with "factory-erased" signature.  Therefore, if
you use Joe L.'s excellant "preclear_disk" script, you must expclitly use the -A option to position partition 1 in
sector 64 if this is what you desire.


Other: added Cancel button when Clearing is in process.

Bug fix: fix problem causing Win7 to report "too many open files"

Bug fix: disable login on certain non-user accounts.

A bug was fixed where certain non-users were able to login via telnet. But to get this fix to apply (if you want), you must follow this procedure:
1. After booting this release, go to your flash share and delete the files 'config/passwd' and 'config/smbpassd'
2. Reboot the server
Note: you will need to re-enter any users you had created.

Bug fix: do not save HWADDR to config/network.cfg.

Previously, the ethernet MAC address (HWADDR) was being stored in 'config/network.cfg'.  Normally this causes no problems unless configuration moved to a different motherboard in which case the old MAC address could instated.
To instate this fix, you should click on 'Apply' under the Network section of the Settings page so that 'config/network.cfg' gets re-written.


Upgrade Instructions (Please Read Carefully)
============================================

In addition to below, if the Change log indicates 'memtest' version upgrade, please copy the following file from the new release to the root of your Flash device:
    memtest

If you are currently running unRAID Server 4.2-beta1 or higher (including 4.2.x 'final'), please copy the following files from the new release to the root of your Flash device:
    bzimage
    bzroot

If you are currently running unRAID server 4.0 or 4.1, please copy the following files from the new release to the root of your Flash device:
    bzimage
    bzroot
    syslinux.cfg
    menu.c32
    memtest

This can be done either by plugging the Flash into your PC or, by copying the files to the 'flash' share on your running server.  The server must then be rebooted.

If you are currently running unRAID Server 3.0-beta1 or higher, please follow these steps to upgrade:

1. Referring to the System Management Utility 'Main' page, make a note of each disks's model/serial number; you will need this information later.

2. Shut down your server, remove the Flash and plug it into your PC.

3. Right-click your Flash device listed under My Computer and select Properties.  Make sure the volume label is set to "UNRAID" (without the quotes) and click OK.  You do NOT need to format the Flash.

4. Copy the files from the new release to the root of your Flash device.

5. Right-click your Flash device listed under My Computer and select Eject.  Remove the Flash, install in your server and power-up.

6. After your server has booted up, the System Management Utility 'Main' page will probably show no devices; this is OK, navigate to the 'Devices' page. Using the model/serial number information gathered in step 1, assign each of your hard drives to the correct disk slot.

7. Go back to the 'Main' page and your devices should appear correctly.  You may now Start the array.

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You could just zero out the first 250 blocks where the MBR resides and re-assign ?

 

Kryspy

Actually, the MBR is in the first 512 bytes. so you only really need to zero out one block to zero out the MBR.

Since we do not know how the EARS drives deal with the jumper internally when it is changed, it is generally been suggested you zero out the first 4k (8 blocks)  That would be one of its internal sectors.

 

dd if=/dev/zero count=8 of=/dev/sdX

where sdX = the device for your disk.

 

Joe L.

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So what can we expect from a AF drive unjumpered vs one that is jumpered? Any noticeable difference?

 

From what I have read and seen the biggest difference comes from right a large amount of very small files.  If you are writing DVD sized files there will be no noticeable difference more than likely.  If you write a huge folder of very small files, you may see a difference with that.

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So what can we expect from a AF drive unjumpered vs one that is jumpered? Any noticeable difference?

AF un-jumpered with partition starting at sector 64 should be exactly the same performance as AF jumpered with partition starting at sector 63.

 

Absolutely no difference expected.

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Will the Samsung F4 EcoGreen 2TB drives work with this release?

 

Yes, they should work with the firmware update. The forum is looking for someone with one of these drives willing to test unRaid 4.7 with a Samsung F4.

 

I have a couple of these, freshly updated with the new firmware. With all the publicity about their integrity I decided to run them in some kind of QA setup before installing in production servers. They're in a test system on my service bench, so I could set up a quick unRAID and run whatever tests you like for a reasonably long time. I was just going to run some big iozone exercise but I'm game if you have a better suite.

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Will the Samsung F4 EcoGreen 2TB drives work with this release?

 

Yes, they should work with the firmware update. The forum is looking for someone with one of these drives willing to test unRaid 4.7 with a Samsung F4.

 

I have a couple of these, freshly updated with the new firmware. With all the publicity about their integrity I decided to run them in some kind of QA setup before installing in production servers. They're in a test system on my service bench, so I could set up a quick unRAID and run whatever tests you like for a reasonably long time. I was just going to run some big iozone exercise but I'm game if you have a better suite.

 

I have 2 of these as well that I'm preclearing right now. Would it be better to wait for the 4.7 final before deploying these hard drives into active duty? I'm willing to test perform any tests that will safeguard my other data, since I do not have a separate machine to test with.

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Since my parity drive was my only EARS drive in use I went ahead and zeroed the MBR and re-assigned it.  CLicking on it registers it as 4k aligned now (since I chose that option).  All other drives remain un-aligned.    Parity is currently rebuilding.

 

Kryspy

 

i am in your exact situation right now, with my only EARS drive being the parity disk (no jumper in use). i'm going to wait until 4.7 final before i decide to make any changes. i just want to double check on the process first because i'm only reading about this jumper issue for the first time today.

 

1. Stop the array

2. unassign the EARS drive (my parity)

3. log in via telnet

4. type the following (from Joe L.)

dd if=/dev/zero count=8 of=/dev/sdX

where sdX = the device for your disk.

5. start the array and let it rebuild parity

 

Edited

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Will the Samsung F4 EcoGreen 2TB drives work with this release?

 

Yes, they should work with the firmware update. The forum is looking for someone with one of these drives willing to test unRaid 4.7 with a Samsung F4.

Will the Samsung F4 EcoGreen 2TB drives work with this release?

 

Yes, they should work with the firmware update. The forum is looking for someone with one of these drives willing to test unRaid 4.7 with a Samsung F4.

 

I have a couple of these, freshly updated with the new firmware. With all the publicity about their integrity I decided to run them in some kind of QA setup before installing in production servers. They're in a test system on my service bench, so I could set up a quick unRAID and run whatever tests you like for a reasonably long time. I was just going to run some big iozone exercise but I'm game if you have a better suite.

 

I have 2 of these as well that I'm preclearing right now. Would it be better to wait for the 4.7 final before deploying these hard drives into active duty? I'm willing to test perform any tests that will safeguard my other data, since I do not have a separate machine to test with.

 

I have 4 of these drives, still with original firmware.  I installed one in my 4.5.6 system and it has data on it before I discovered this thread. The other 3 are blank. I'd be wiling to put a system together with 4.7beta for testing. I don't use unmenu. Should I remove the drive in my production system?

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Odds are you are OK, but yes...  update the firmware...

 

If there is only one drive,

Stop the array

un-assign it

Start the array without it assigned

Stop the array

Re-Assign it. 

Start the array with it newly assigned.  It will be completely re-written with itself.  (and any missing data because of the firmware bug written from parity and the other drives)

 

Joe L.

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