unRAID Server release 4.5-beta11 available

Download | Torrent (thanks Biggy!)

EDIT: 4.5-beta9 and -beta 10 were pulled and replaced with 4.5-beta11 in order to fix critical bugs.  Following notes still apply...

Main changes are to fix some bugs and upgrade Samba to the latest version for better Windows 7 support.

Also upgraded to latest 'stable' linux kernel to see if Marvell driver issues reported by some users are fixed, though there is no mention of any driver fixes in the release notes for this kernel.

Another change is that the unraid driver 'tunables', md_num_stripes, md_write_limit, and md_sync_window, may now be configured via the webGui Settings page.  If you have been experimenting with these, please delete your 'config/extra.cfg' file.

You will notice the new config settings under the 'Disk' section of the 'Settings' page.  To change, you enter a new value and click 'Apply'.  'md_num_stripes' requires Stop/Start of the array to take effect.  Changes to the other settings, 'md_write_limit' and 'md_sync_window' take place immediately.  If you set a value to blank (click in the field and backspace until it's gone), then click Apply, the value will revert to it's default value.

There is another change to the user share file system which enables caching of names and attributes - this is not the same as caching of file names for purposes of keeping disks from spinning up.  This change may significantly speed up certain Samba operations on large directories.

unRAID Server 4.5-beta11 Release Notes
======================================

Changes from 4.5-beta10 to 4.5-beta11
-------------------------------------

Bug fixes:
- Fix webGui crash caused by uninitialized md_num_stripes.
- Restore Samba default "unix extensions = No"


Changes from 4.5-beta9 to 4.5-beta10
------------------------------------

Bug fixes:
- Fix user security mode password handling.


Changes from 4.5-beta8 to 4.5-beta9
-----------------------------------

Bug fixes:
- Fix race condition on startup where smbd was not always started.
- Fixed enabling Samba asynchronous I/O, which wasn't really enabled in -beta8.
- Fixed symlink creation and handling in user share file system.

Other changes:
- Upgrade samba to 3.4.3
- Upgrade linux kernel to 2.6.31.6
- Make unraid driver tunables (md_num_stripes, md_write_limit, md_sync_window) configurable via webGui Settings page.
- Upgrade pkgtools in order to support slackware packages which have .txz extension.
- Change e100 and Broadcom GigE drivers from module to built-in so that kernel includes the firmware.
- Enable name and attribute caching in user share file system to speed up SMB large directory operations.


Changes from 4.5-beta7 to 4.5-beta8
-----------------------------------

New features:
- Enable 'Cache Drive' feature with 'Plus' registration key.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed path length limitation in user share file system.
- Fixed incorrect handling of file/directory mode and extended attributes in user share file system.
- Fixed intermittant kernel crash with more than 19 hard drives in array.

Other changes:
- Increased write peformance and added three user-tunables:
        md_num_stripes to set the stripe cache size
md_write_limit to set a ceiling on most number of active write stripes
md_sync_window to set the parity sync/check window size in stripes
- The 'mover' script now uses 'rsync' to move files from the Cache drive to the array.
- Upgrade linux kernel to 2.6.31.5
- Changed linux kernel preemption model to "Voluntary Kernel Preemption".
- Enable Samba asynchronous I/O.
- Changed 'ide_core' from module to built-in.


Changes from 4.5-beta6 to 4.5-beta7
-----------------------------------

Bug fixes:
- If 'config/style.css' is not present, then don't tell browser to load it.
- Fixed kernel crash when number of drives > 17, now correctly supports up to 20 drives ('Pro' issue only).

Other changes:
- Prevent disks appearing 'unformatted' as a result of incomplete Stop Array operation.
- Add driver for Adaptec 2410SA PCI RAID card (untested).
- Upgrade linux kernel to 2.6.30.8
- Upgrade samba to 3.3.7
- Upgrade fuse to 2.8.1


Changes from 4.5-beta5 to 4.5-beta6
-----------------------------------

Bug fixes:
- Fix ntp startup problem.
- Fix bogus temperature values being displayed when disks are spun down (bug introduced in -beta5).

Other changes:
- Permit spaces in Active Directory account login username.  Any valid AD character should now be possible EXCEPT for the percent '%' symbol.  This is because the '%' symbol is used by linux 'net' command as a separator between username and password, as in:
net ads join -U username%password


Changes from 4.5-beta4 to 4.5-beta5
-----------------------------------

New features:
- Added new share allocation method called "Fill-up".
- Added "Min free space" setting for each share.
- Special handling of split level explictly set to "0".
- The 'mover' will now delete empty directories on the cache disk.
- After looking in the 'config' directory on the Flash for the license key file (for backward compatibility), if not found, unRAID Server OS will look in the root of the Flash.  This allows easier backup/restore of the 'config' directory contents.

Bug fixes:
- Fix wrong 'memtest' in zip file - oops.
- Fix powerdown script.
- Fixed problem where drives would sometimes spin down immediately following spin up.

Other changes:
- Don't store AD adminstrator password, and don't display personal information in the system log.
- Can now use any printable characters in password strings.
- When disabling NCQ don't try to set queue_depth to 1 if it's already set to 0.
- Upgrade ntp from version to 4.2.4p0 to 4.2.4p6.  Also save/restore ntp drift file to/from Flash.
- Upgrade linux kernel to 2.6.29.1
- Support Marvell SAS driver.


Changes from 4.5-beta3 to 4.5-beta4
-----------------------------------

New features:
- Increased maximum number of array devices from 16 to 20 (Pro only).
- Pressing Power button gracefully shuts down the server.
- Disable NCQ on all disk devices that support NCQ.  This typically results in much better write throughput.  A setting called "Force NCQ disabled [yes/no]" is also available in the Disk section of the Settings page of the System Management Utility to override this new behavior.  That is, if this setting is 'yes', then we force NCQ off; if setting is 'no', we leave NCQ queue_depth as-is, ie, whatever linux driver sets it to.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed syslog rotation problem - syslog was rotated, but then syslogd was not restarted.

Other changes:
- Support SAS (Serially-Attached SCSI).
- Support Initio 162x SATA chipset.
- Support the motherboard speaker (beeping).
- Added 'lm_sensors' package.
- Upgrade Samba to version 3.3.3.
- Upgrade memtest to version 2.11 in release zip file.


Changes from 4.5-beta2 to 4.5-beta3
-----------------------------------

Known issues:
- The 'reiserfs' file system is built with kernel-option to enable extended attribute support.  This is necessary for Active Directory.  Even if file system is not mounted with extended attributes, reiserfs still seems to create a hidden file called '.reiserfs_priv' in the volume root. This file is harmless and does not appear in any share.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed problem where all Flash files appeared to have Hidden/System/Archive all set.
- Fixed upgrade problem where 'simple security' was not being initialized properly.
- After formatting a new disk, the 'File system type' was not being updated.
- If cache disk present, should allow 'use cache disk' option in creating new share.
- Fixed problem with mover not moving.

Other changes:
- Changed name of samba include file introduced in -beta2 from 'boot/config/smb.extra' to 'boot/config/smb-extra.conf'.
- Upgrade Samba to (patched) version 3.3.2.  The patch is a bug fix that prevented windows client from removing Read-only attribute (previous versions of samba 3.3.x fail with 'Access denied').
- If security model is not Active Directory don't mount the data disks with acl & extended attributes enabled.
- Prevent recording (ie, writing) 'last access time' when directories and files are read on the Flash.
- Added 'lsof' command.
- Include 'Hardware Monitoring' in the linux kernel build along with this device support:
  AMD Athlon64/FX or Opteron temperature sensor
  Intel Core (2) Duo/Solo temperature sensor
  ITE IT87xx and compatibles
  Winbond W83627HF, W83627THF, W83637HF, W83687THF, W83697HF
  Winbond W83627EHF/DHG


Changes from 4.4.2 to 4.5-beta2
-------------------------------

New features:
- Support Active Directory Service (ADS).  This lets an unRAID server join an Active Directory (AD) domain.
- System Management Utility will now use a CSS style sheet file on the Flash (config/style.css) if present.
- May now read syslog directly via browser by referencing 'http://tower/log/syslog' (substitute 'tower' with your server name).  Actually any 'file' in the /var/log directory can be read via 'http://tower/log/file'.
- May now read arbitrary files on disk and user shares via http protocol by referencing URL 'http://tower/share/<diskN>/...' or 'http://tower/share/user/<sharename>/...' (substitute 'tower' with your server name).
- Samba configuration now 'includes' the file on the Flash 'config/smb.extra' if present.  This is included at the end of the 'global' section just before the share definitions.  This may be used to customize the Samba configuration.
- Added control to enable/disable 'mover' logging.

Bug fixes:
- With user mode security enabled, would not accept 'root' share login until password was set at least once.
- Fixed problem in 'mover' script where mover would attempt to move objects in a top-level directory staring with a '.' character.  These would all fail and cause excessive syslog messages.
- Fixed bug in 'logrotate' which would prevent syslog from rotating.

Other changes:
- Part of adding AD support: Removed "User security [enabled/disabled]" control from Shares page, and added "Share security [simple/User Level/Active Directory]" control to Settings page:
  unRAID 'Basic' (free version) supports only 'Simple' share security model;
  unRAID 'Plus' supports 'Simple' and 'User Level' share security models only;
  unRAID 'Pro' supports all share security models ('Simple', 'User Level', and 'Active Directory').
- Removed System Management Utility control for setting SMB ports; this can be done via 'config/smb.extra' if desired.
- Change spin-down logic to account for external programs spinning drives up/down.
- Per user request, added '/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.9'
- Upgraded to linux kernel 2.6.28.4.
- Upgraded to samba 3.3.0.


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

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.


If you are installing this release to a new Flash, please refer to instructions on our website at:

http://www.lime-technology.com/wordpress/?page_id=19

I am unable to access any shares over the network with this version, it asks for a password (I do have user security enabled). I am on Windows 7, I have a user in unraid defined with the same name and password as the Windows 7 user, but the password does not work. Reverting back to beta 8 and everything works as expected.

Sorry I didn't grab a syslog, had people coming over and needed it back up and running, if necessary I'll get it later tonight.

EDIT

NEW Beta 11 Torrent

http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=372dfcd849e19024605dcd434917948471f89e97

(sorry weebo, i'm bored, needed something to do)

Cheers,

Matt

The new emhttp/shfs and 2.6.31.6 kernel are up and running within my Slackware-Current install. Array is up and online. Will try upgrading SAMBA later, but so far so good.

Same as jk2587, share access failed...

Quick & dirty solution was to re-enter the passwords in the Users area..

Malcolm..

Same as jk2587, share access failed...

 

Quick & dirty solution was to re-enter the passwords in the Users area..

I had to do the same.

I had to reset my passwords as well.  Looks like user share performance has increased quite a bit.  Write speeds are doubled to my cache drive now.  Still only half as fast as writing to the cache disk directly, but I'll take it.

Here is the script I'm using (its a modified version of the one posted in the beta 8 thread using a larger block size of 4k)

#!/bin/bash

if [ ! -z "${1}" ]
   then TMPFILE="${1}"
   else TMPFILE="test.$$"
fi

trap "rm -f ${TMPFILE}" EXIT HUP INT QUIT TERM

echo "`date` writing to: ${TMPFILE}"
dd if=/dev/zero of="${TMPFILE}" count=1000000 bs=4k
echo "`date` Done."
ls -l --si ${TMPFILE}

echo "`date` reading from: ${TMPFILE}"
dd if="${TMPFILE}" of=/dev/null bs=4k
echo "`date` Done."

rm -f "${TMPFILE}"

Using user shares I get 28.5 MB/s write and 148 MB/s read (SSD drive)

Using the cache drive direct I get 51.6 MB/s write and 212 MB/s  read

Any chance we could see network bonding in a future release?

I can finally change folder names again in the Finder using Snow Leopard. I don't know if it is the new samba or the fact that I had to reset my user password in Unraid, but now it works.

I just upgraded to 4.5b9 and my slow file list problem is fixed. THANK YOU 

Replaced -beta9 with -beta10 to fix a sneaky bug causing lost passwords for User security mode.  This one's actually not my fault 

Seems the Samba team used the occasion of 3.4 release to change a longstanding default configuration value.  For those who might be interested, here is the Samba 'bugzilla' reference:

https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6406

So when I upgraded to 3.4.3 in -beta9, the "passdb backend" default value had been changed from "smbpasswd" to "tdbsam" - which means that the file previously storing passwords for Samba user access was no longer being referenced to retrieve passwords.

Why did they change the default?  I have no clue.

I just upgraded to 4.5b9 and my slow file list problem is fixed. THANK YOU 

That's good to know!  Thanks.

I had to re-enter the share passwords too.

I'm also still having problems with symlinks in Finder on SNow Leopard 10.0.2.  I can't open them

They work fine in Windows Explorer on XP though

Exploring a little deeper...

I did delete the original symlinks & re-create them under beta9 and that didn't fix it.

I did delete the original symlinks & re-create them under beta9 and that didn't fix it.

You mean they still work properly under XP but not Snow Leopard?

Mac OS aliases are not exactly the same as symbolic links, but you can create both types.  If you go and explicitly create an alias, it seems to work...

I did delete the original symlinks & re-create them under beta9 and that didn't fix it.

You mean they still work properly under XP but not Snow Leopard?

Mac OS aliases are not exactly the same as symbolic links, but you can create both types.  If you go and explicitly create an alias, it seems to work...

Yes, they work under Windows just fine, but not in Snow Leopard.

I create my symlinks using:-

ln -s /mnt/user/test  /mnt/disk1/data/test

This has worked fine for me in 4.5beta1.  User shares themselves are fine under beta9, but the symlinks are not.  I access my share from Windows, Snow Leopard, Ubuntu & Media Streamers so having different aliases for different devices wouldn't be be ideal for me, however for the purposes of beta testing I'm happy to try...  How do you explicitly create an alias?

Thanks,

Mark.

Beta 10 installed this morning and all up and running AFAIK. Write speeds showed good improvement - Terracopy is typ. reporting 36MB/s up from 28MB/S on the Samsung drives and 26MB/S up from 18MB/s on the Seagates. 30% write improvement is very welcome.

Write performance is pretty close to 33% of native disk performance as mentioned/hinted at in beta 8.

Parity check, no noticable performance improvement as already mentioned. Trying firmware update for a Seagate to see if that will speed those drives up. 

Beta 11 Torrent... Deleted Beta 9 & 10 Torrents from previous post

http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=372dfcd849e19024605dcd434917948471f89e97

Cheers,

Matt

Beta 10 apparently makes my Marvell gigabit issue worse.

Appears to be some factor other than the NIC drivers at play as they supposedly have not changed.

With beta 10 I am unable to obtain a gigabit connection with my primary on-board NIC regardless of whether the secondary NIC is enabled.

With beta 8 I get gigabit only if the secondary is enabled.

With beta 6 I get gigabit only if the secondary is disabled.

Motherboard is Asus A8R32MVP Deluxe.

Summary of Performance and Driver Information Reported by ethtool

  *Only with the secondary NIC disabled will primary NIC negotiate a 1000Mb/s connection with beta 6.

**Only with both NICs enabled will the primary NIC negotiate a 1000Mb/s connection with beta 8.

    Unable to obtain gigabit connection with primary NIC under any circumstances with beta 10.

Secondary PCI NIC obtains gigabit connection with betas 8 & 10 but does not support WOL.

Lewcass, have you tried looking at more relevant forums such as areas related to the Linux Network Drivers or Linux Kernel to see what they have to offer? UnRAID merely uses the drivers they provide and the distribution limetech provides usually only control what drivers are included. You may require a specific fix or change such as explicitly controlling the order of drivers/modules loaded or special options passed to the driver on load.

I haven't tried it yet but it looks like the Memtest version included is 2.11 based on the file size (116,508 bytes). Details on Memtest 4.00 are in this post:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=4406.0

Lewcass, have you tried looking at more relevant forums such as areas related to the Linux Network Drivers or Linux Kernel to see what they have to offer? UnRAID merely uses the drivers they provide and the distribution limetech provides usually only control what drivers are included. You may require a specific fix or change such as explicitly controlling the order of drivers/modules loaded or special options passed to the driver on load.

Thanks BRiT. I believe you're trying to offer a constructive suggestion. But if this is a problem I have to dig into arcane linux driver issues myself, I'd just as soon go buy an Intel NIC or another motherboard. I'm already spending a lot more time learning about linux than I anticipated I would need to when I decided to build an unRAID server, and while I enjoy learning new things, frankly it's taking up a lot of time I should be spending on more important priorities in my life.

I'm reporting this issue here, because I believe that is what we're supposed to do with betas.  The point being so LimeTech can find a solution, not only for me, but for any other customers who might also be affected.

You are doing the right thing by reporting your problem here.

What many do not realize is that outside of the md driver and emhttp+shfs, the rest of the system isn't too different from a stock Linux of the Slackware variant. I am trying to help out by directing you to resources that are dedicated experts to the issues you're experiencing. There is a very limited set of users who run unRAID and even smaller subset with your same hardware. In contrast, there is an order of magnitude larger set in the number of people who run Linux with the same hardware. I am not suggesting you to learn how to develop Linux kernel drivers. I am making you aware that your issues might be solved quicker if you talk to those who do develop the Linux kernel drivers. Sometimes just posting the hardware you have, the Linux kernel you're using (2.6.31.6), and the issue you're experiencing elsewhere you may get an exact answer and fix. One should never limit their options when seeking solutions.

What happens if you force gigabit speed? I think the command is: ethtool -s eth0 speed 1000 And what output does ethtool eth0 display?

From a quick google, it seems the Sky2 driver has always had and continues to have major issues going by this 15+ page thread over on a gentoo site: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-487018-postdays-0-postorder-asc-start-350.html?sid=f0c5f11b86ae58c967954f61a4a476a8 and there are many more threads like it elsewhere. Some others have issues with it dropping connections and stalling.

You are doing the right thing by reporting your problem here... What happens if you force gigabit speed? I think the command is: ethtool -s eth0 speed 1000 And what output does ethtool eth0 display?

As I reported in the beta 8 thread, it doesn't help. Connection stays at 100.

From a quick google, it seems the Sky2 driver has always had and continues to have major issues going by this 15+ page thread over on a gentoo site: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-487018-postdays-0-postorder-asc-start-350.html?sid=f0c5f11b86ae58c967954f61a4a476a8 and there are many more threads like it elsewhere. Some others have issues with it dropping connections and stalling.

Thanks for providing that link. No doubt there are problems with these drivers.

In my situation the puzzling thing is that it was already working consistently well under beta 6, then not as well (at least with the same conditions) under beta 8, and now not at all under beta 10. Seems to me that something besides the drivers is changing.

Not seeing any problems with my onboard Marvell Yukon Ultra2 Gb NIC. Mine is a slightly different version though so may not be overly helpful (88E8056 vs 88E8053).  

From PCI devices (unMenu/System Info)

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 14)

Subsystem: J & W Electronics Co., Ltd. Unknown device 7150

Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 29

Memory at fdffc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) I/O ports at e800

Expansion ROM at fdfc0000 [disabled]

Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 3

Capabilities: [50] Vital Product Data

Capabilities: [5c] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable+

Capabilities: [e0] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00

Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting

Kernel driver in use: sky2 Kernel modules: sky2

From Ethernet Info (unMenu/System Info)

NIC info (from ethtool)Settings for eth0:

Supported ports: [ TP ]

Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

Supports auto-negotiation: Yes

Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes

Speed: 1000Mb/s

Duplex: Full Port: Twisted Pair

PHYAD: 0 Transceiver: internal

Auto-negotiation: on Supports Wake-on: pg

Wake-on: d Current message level: 0x000000ff (255)

Link detected: yes

NIC driver info (from ethtool -i)

driver: sky2version: 1.23

firmware-version: N/A

bus-info: 0000:05:00.0

Ethernet config info (from ifconfig)eth0    

Link encap:Ethernet  

HWaddr 00:03:47:6b:63:5c            

inet addr:192.168.1.10  

Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0          

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  

MTU:1500  Metric:1          

RX packets:2029894 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0          

TX packets:592713 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0          

collisions:0

txqueuelen:1000          

RX bytes:3049232690 (2.8 GiB)  

TX bytes:34386629 (32.7 MiB)          

Interrupt:17