Cobra281's RPC-4224 Build

Originally I was going to build a WHS in the Norco 4220 rack.  Whenever I am looking at spending this kind of money, I do quite a bit of research before purchasing.  When I was researching the Norco 4220 via Google, I found this site.  Upon further browsing of this site, I found out how awesome unRAID was, and I quickly switched my build to be an unRAID server.  Another thing I found while browsing this site was the Norco 4224. (MORE POWER!!!)  I Found Raj's recommended build list and decided on the 20 Drive Beast (Again. MORE POWER!!!), but I slightly modified his build to add the Norco 4224 and substitute 8 GB of RAM instead of the 4GB.

Two weeks after finding this site, I decided to go ahead and make the plunge.  My build is just starting and I have only unpacked the RPC 4224.  I will update as my build progresses.

OS at time of building: unRAID 4.7 PRO

CPU: Intel Core i3-550

Motherboard: Supermicro MBD-X8SIL-F-O

RAM: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB)

Case: Norco RPC-4224

Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX

SATA Expansion Card(s): 2 - Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 and a 2 Port SATA2 Controller Card

Cables: 4 - Norco C-SFF8087 to SFF8087 Cables and 2 - 3ware SFF8087 Reverse Breakout to SATA2 Cables

Fans: I am going to try the stock fans that came with the Norco RPC-4224

Rack: Norco R4-15U

Parity Drive: WD20EARS

Data Drives: 1 - WD20EARS and 2 - WD1001FALS (Just because I had them)

Cache Drive: WD20000LSRTL

Total Drive Capacity: 4 TB Data Storage

Primary Use: Media Server / Backup Server

Likes: Expandability

Dislikes: None so far

Add Ons Used: Preclear (This is a must IMO) / unMenu (Another must IMO.)

Future Plans: More WD20EARS when they go on sale again.

Boot (peak): Unknown ATM (Will update later)

Idle (avg): Unknown ATM (Will update later)

Active (avg): Unknown ATM (Will update later)

Light use (avg): Unknown ATM (Will update later)

I put my full size office chair in the picture to show you a reference to just how big this mamma jamma is.

Double Boxed As expected

Very Well Packaged

More Unpacking

No bays pushed in during shipping (Which I've heard may happen)

Inside of the 4224

Shot of the back of the hard drive bays

Close up of the Molex power connectors on the back of the hard drive bays

Close up of the SFF-8087 connectors on the back of the hard drive bays.  These connections are now in the middle of the case instead of the corner.  This helps folks with sausage fingers (like me) hook up the cables.

Shot of everything I have so far to put into her

I am quite excited to get this thing going this weekend.  I will update with more pictures on Monday.

Updates:

Update 1 on page two.

Continuing the Build...Part 2

Power Supply Installed

Look how huge this thing is!

Installed the processor

Installed the RAM

Installed the Motherboard and Processor Fan

Powering the Hard Drive Trays

My case threw up cables

Another shot of the cabling mess

IT'S ALIVE!!!!  IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

Note: This sucker is loud.  I can hear it downstairs.  The room it is in is upstairs on the opposite side of the house.  I don't really mind the noise though.  It reminds me of MORE POWER!!! and just how awesome this bad boy is.

Above it is running the memtest.  I let it run for two complete cycles.  Everything was fine and completed without error.

I precleared 5 of the drives without issue for one cycle so far.  I just received my Monoprice order so I will be installing the last expansion card for the last two SATA ports.  This is why I only precleared once.  I will install the card tomorrow and then start the preclear for two additional cycles.

That brings me to another question.  How exactly do you issue a shutdown command?  I tried shutdown, but it gave me all sorts of options and I remember reading on the forms that there was a way to NOT shut the server down and I did not want to incorrectly choose, so I just left it running.

Quick question:  Do I need to supply power to both of the molex connectors on the hard drive boards?  (My 8th Picture Down)

Quick question:  Do I need to supply power to both of the molex connectors on the hard drive boards?  (My 8th Picture Down)

Supposedly you do not, though in all builds I put together for customers I always connect both molex connectors to the power supply.  I am fairly sure the 2 molex connectors are there so that redundant PSU's can be hooked up.

See this post about it. As per what Rajahal says, best to power both...

Shawn

Done.  Thank you for the quick replies.

Actually, Norco now recommends that only one set be powered if only one PSU is used.  I've revised my practices to hook up only one set, and I haven't had any problems yet (tested on both the 4224 and the 4220).  It certainly doesn't hurt to hook up both connectors, but it isn't strictly necessary.

I will try it with one side first.

Now.  As far as disk placement?  From left to right ...top to bottom?

1  2    3    4

5  6    7    8

9  10  11  12

13  14  15  16

17  18  19  20

21  22  23  24

Where should I put my Cache disk?  Parity Disk?

Should I leave the controller cards out of the mobo until I need them?  Should I leave the hard drive trays unpowered until I need them?

Thanks again.

I will try it with one side first.

 

Now.  As far as disk placement?  From left to right ...top to bottom?

 

1   2    3    4

5   6    7    8

9   10   11  12

13  14  15  16

17  18  19  20

21  22  23  24

 

Where should I put my Cache disk?  Parity Disk?

That is all person preference.  On the builds I have done with these bigger cases I have put parity in the number 1 spot and cache in the number 24 spot with data disks in between.

Should I leave the controller cards out of the mobo until I need them?  Should I leave the hard drive trays unpowered until I need them?

I would hook everything up so that all you have to do is slide a drive into the case and you are good to go.

Thank you.

I put parity in #1 slot and cache in #4.  I always hook up the drive bays such that the top row use the motherboard slots, and the rest use the SATA controller cards (and some of the last drive bays may use the remaining 2 motherboard slots).  As long the parity and cache are both hooked up to the motherboard and not to a SATA controller card, it ultimately doesn't matter where you put each drive.  To me top left and top right makes sense.  First and last slot makes sense too, as long as you hook up the drive bays appropriately.

Thanks for that insight.  I will probably go with the 1, 4 option.

I will try it with one side first.

 

Now.  As far as disk placement?  From left to right ...top to bottom?

 

1   2    3    4

5   6    7    8

9   10   11  12

13  14  15  16

17  18  19  20

21  22  23  24

 

Where should I put my Cache disk?  Parity Disk?

 

Should I leave the controller cards out of the mobo until I need them?  Should I leave the hard drive trays unpowered until I need them?

 

Thanks again.

If you have the norco OEM cables, I believe  the right one is disk 0 (the first drive)

i have mine:

4  3  2C 1P
8  7  6  5
12 11 10 9
etc

its a bit backwards but thats the way it the bus is.

I have 1&2 off motherboard, 3&4 on the 1x card.

4-8 on motherboard

the rest on MV8's

its all personal preference.

i went with the bios/bus order so i can find a drive later by matching it to the bios.

that way when it throws an error on port XX i can find it faster.

Thanks

Johnm: A good thought, but unfortunately it doesn't always work out the way you would hope.  The drive letters (sdb, sdc, etc.) are assigned by the Linux OS depending on the order in which the drives initialize.  When the OS probes the sata ports, it does so in one batch process, not one at a time.  So even if a drive is physically attached to the sata0 slot, that doesn't mean that it will always show up as sda (or sdb, since sda is often the flash drive).  If you install a new disk into say the sata3 slot that just happens to initialize faster than your drive in the sata0 slot, then that new drive will be labeled as sdb and your older drive will be something else.  The good news is that unRAID doesn't care at all how Linux assigns the drive letters, it will always roll with the punches and you will be none the wiser.  unRAID only looks for the drive's serial number, so the drive can be moved to another slot and unRAID will (or at least should) be able to figure it out.  The bad news is that your plan of being able to always identify a failed drive by the drive letter won't always work (it may work sometimes, but it isn't reliable and I wouldn't count on it).  The safest way to keep track of your drives is to just take a screenshot of your devices page (and store the screenshot somewhere besides the unRAID server!) before making any hardware changes.  The drive serial numbers and disk assignments (parity, disk1, disk2, etc.) are all that matter.  The drive letters matter not.

The take-away from all of this is that there's no reason to go all OCD on your wiring, trying to match up sata0 with the disk0 slot, sata1 with disk1, etc. because it won't matter anyway.

True.

i was getting sas port errors and i was trying to track it down so i put them all in order.

I moved drives so they were in order by disk1 disk2 disk3.

i noticed unraid didn't care that i moved the physical drives to new ports. (at least 5 b6a didn't)

also noticed some SDx letters have changed on me.

Thanks for the info.  The build is coming slower than I expected, but I am in no rush.  I have the power supply in, the mobo is in with processor and RAM, and the hard drive trays are powered and connected as much as possible.

I am still waiting on my monoprice order.  It will be here Monday.

The hardest part so far has been removing the protective plastic from the case.  That took 30 minutes alone LOL.

I am taking pictures and I will be posting them here on Monday.

Continuing the Build...Part 2

Power Supply Installed

Look how huge this thing is!

Installed the processor

Installed the RAM

Installed the Motherboard and Processor Fan

Powering the Hard Drive Trays

My case threw up cables

Another shot of the cabling mess

IT'S ALIVE!!!!  IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

Note: This sucker is loud.  I can hear it downstairs.  The room it is in is upstairs on the opposite side of the house.  I don't really mind the noise though.  It reminds me of MORE POWER!!! and just how awesome this bad boy is.

Above it is running the memtest.  I let it run for two complete cycles.  Everything was fine and completed without error.

I precleared 5 of the drives without issue for one cycle so far.  I just received my Monoprice order so I will be installing the last expansion card for the last two SATA ports.  This is why I only precleared once.  I will install the card tomorrow and then start the preclear for two additional cycles.

That brings me to another question.  How exactly do you issue a shutdown command?  I tried shutdown, but it gave me all sorts of options and I remember reading on the forms that there was a way to NOT shut the server down and I did not want to incorrectly choose, so I just left it running.

From the system console or telnet, the command is 'powerdown'.  That works in default unRAID, but there is also a powerdown script that makes the command even better.  It saves your syslog, waits for add-ons to stop, etc.  It can be very helpful if you are troubleshooting an intermittent problem.  A single press of the server's power button (do not press and hold) should also invoke the upgraded powerdown script if installed.  I believe it also works on default unRAID, but I don't remember exactly.

The other way to properly shut down the server is to access it from the unRAID Web GUI (or unMenu), stop the array, and then press the power down button.

I have only run preclear so powerdown will be fine.

Thanks