Post Tagged with: "hardware"

HighPoint RocketRaid 3540 fails under heavy I/O

As I previously mentioned in my posts about using AoE on Debian for a storage server, I chose to use a HighPoint RocketRaid 3540 RAID controller for RAID; however, I have been having problems where it fails under heavy I/O. After contacting HighPoint's support department, they acknowledged that there is a known defect related to failure under heavy I/O on all RocketRaid 3540 controllers with serial numbers beginning in "08", and agreed to RMA my card.

UPDATE: I RMA'd the card and HighPoint replaced it with a working version, although I'm not sure what the difference is because the replacement also has a serial number beginning in "08". Perhaps a firmware/BIOS update?

July 1, 2009 0 comments Read More

Debian NAS using AoE (Part 2)

As I mentioned in Debian NAS using AoE (Part 1), I recently needed to implement a low-cost, enterprise grade storage system for backups and to provide network attached storage for vserver-based Debian servers. I was able to build a suitable storage server with 13TB of raw storage for a reasonable price, and decided to use Debian with LVM2 and AoE to divide and share it across the network.

Before getting to the OS installation, I had to setup and build the RAID arrays in the HighPoint 3540 BIOS. I set up a RAID 1 mirror of the two 300GB drives to use for the OS. Then, I created a 6-disk RAID6 and a 7-disk RAID6, which left me with 4GB and 5GB of usage storage.

Next, I installed Debian Lenny from the Lenny netinst ISO onto the 300GB RAID 1 mirror I created, with no additional packages/package groups selected. After the installation was complete, I rebooted the server to install openssh server, lvm2, and AoE. Since I wanted to be able to use the storage server to run vserver instances if needed, I also installed the vserver kernel and tools:

apt-get update
apt-get install vserver-debiantools linux-image-2.6-vserver-amd64 lvm2 vblade vblade-persist aoe-tools

I configured LVM to recognize the physical volumes:

pvcreate /dev/sdb
pvcreate /dev/sdc

I created the volume groups data1 and data2 on the physical volumes:

vgcreate data1 /dev/sdb
vgcreate data2 /dev/sdc

I created two 1TB LVM logical partitions (/dev/data1/backups, /dev/data1/backups2):

lvcreate -L 1TB -n backups data1
lvcreate -L 1TB -n backups2 data1

I made the ext3 filesystem on them so they would be usable:

mkfs.ext3 /dev/data1/backups
mkfs.ext3 /dev/data1/backups2

I configured AoE (ATA over Ethernet):

modprobe aoe

vblade-persist setup 0 1 eth0 /dev/data1/backups
vblade-persist setup 0 2 eth0 /dev/data1/backups2

vblade-persist start 0 1
vblade-persist start 0 2

Finally, I verified they were up and available using:

aoe-discover
aoe-stat

Output from aoe-stat… :

e0.1 1099.511GB eth1 up
e0.2 1099.511GB eth1 up

To mount an AoE export on a remote server, I used the following (on the remote server):

modprobe aoe
apt-get install aoetools
aoe-discover
aoe-stat (should show the available AoE exports)
mkdir /mountpoint
mount /dev/etherd/e0.1 /mountpoint (replace e0.1 with the appropriate device from aoe-stat)

March 3, 2009 1 comment Read More

Debian NAS using AoE (Part 1)

Recently, I needed to implement a low-cost, enterprise grade storage system for backups and to provide network attached storage for vserver-based Debian servers. After considering the requirements and projected short-term future growth, I decided to build a storage server with at least 12TB of raw storage, which would allow me to create two 4TB RAID6 arrays.

Ultimately, I was able to get 13TB of raw storage for less than $6300 (~$484 per TB, compared to many vendors starting prices of $1000 or more per TB).

Hardware

Supermicro CSE-933T-R760B Black 3U Rackmount Case – $769.99
Supermicro MBD-X7DBN-O Dual LGA 771 Intel 5000P Extended ATX Motherboard – $359.99
2x Intel Xeon E5405 Harpertown 2.0GHz LGA 771 80W Quad-Core Processor – $224.99 ($449.98 for 2)
4x Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR2 667 FB-DIMM ECC RAM – $212.99 ($851.96 for 4)
13x Western Digital RE3 1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive – $189.99 ($2469.87 for 13)
2x Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000 RPM Hard Drive – $229.99 ($459.98 for 2)
HighPoint RR3540 RAID Controller – $799.99

Total: $6161.76 (plus shipping)

After reviewing the current Linux distributions targeted towards NAS systems, like FreeNAS and OpenFiler, I decided to stick with a simple system using Debian with LVM2 and AoE. My next post, Debian NAS using AoE (Part 2), will dig into the details of the OS and software setup.

February 23, 2009 0 comments Read More

Atech Flash PROGear-G5 28-in-1 Card Reader Review

Since we purchased our 8MP Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera, Leila and I have been taking a lot more pictures. Transferring pictures from the digital camera takes a long time, so we bought a card reader. After a bit of research, we decided on one of the slightly more expensive ones we found – the Atech Flash PROGear-G5 28-in-1.

High quality JPEGs from our camera are about 5MB each. The transfer rate from the camera to computer is about 0.5MB/s, but with the new card reader our 1GB "Ultra II" card and 2GB "Extreme III" card transfer at 10MB/s and 15-20MB/s respectively. Although it was slightly more expensive than other card readers, the performance is definitely worth it. To transfer pictures off the camera previously took 20-30 minutes, while it now takes about a minute.

Atech Flash PROGear-G5 28-in-1

February 18, 2008 0 comments Read More

dd-wrt on Buffalo WHR-HP-G54

Our old wireless router was dying, so I took the opportunity to buy a new one. After shopping around, I decided on a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, a dd-wrt compatible, high-power MIMO router/access point.

If you're not familiar with dd-wrt, it is replacement firmware for wireless routers with advanced functions and a terrific interface. In less than 10 minutes, you can also replace the default firmware on your Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, by following the 5 steps below.

1) Change the IP address of your computer to 192.168.11.2, with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0
2) Connect your computer to one of the LAN ports on the WHR-HP-G54 with an ethernet cable
3) Download a TFTP client
4) Download the dd-wrt software and save it to the same directory as the TFTP client you just downloaded. I used the generic Broadcom standard build of dd-wrt v24 RC3.
5) Copy and paste the following into a file named install.bat in the same directory as the TFTP client and firmware, and run it by double clicking on it. Then just follow the instructions provided by the batch file.

```
@echo off</code>
```
```
 
```

echo ============================================================================

echo Type or paste the firmware filename below and then press Enter.

```
echo.
```
```
set /p dd-wrt_fn=Firmware Filename:
```
```
echo.
```
```
if not exist %dd-wrt_fn% goto FNF_ERROR
```

echo ============================================================================

echo This batch file will upload %dd-wrt_fn% in the current

echo directory to 192.168.11.1 during the router's bootup.

```
echo.
```

echo * Set your ethernet card's settings to:

```
echo      IP:      192.168.11.2
```
```
echo      Mask:    255.255.255.0
```
```
echo      Gateway: 192.168.11.1.
```
```
echo * Unplug the router's power cable.
```
```
echo.
```

echo Press Ctrl+C to abort or any other key to continue . . .

```
pause &gt; nul
```
```
echo.
```

echo * Re-plug the router's power cable.

```
echo.
```

echo ============================================================================

echo Waiting for the router; Press Ctrl+C to abort . . .

```
echo.
```
```
:PING
```
```
ping -n 1 -w 50 192.168.11.1 &gt; nul
```
```
if errorlevel 1 goto PING
```

echo tftp -i 192.168.11.1 put %dd-wrt_fn%

```
tftp -i 192.168.11.1 put %dd-wrt_fn%
```
```
if errorlevel 1 goto PING
```
```
echo.
```

echo ============================================================================

echo * WAIT for about 2 minutes while the firmware is being flashed.

echo * Reset your ethernet card's settings back to DHCP.

echo * The default router address will be at 192.168.1.1.

```
echo.
```
```
pause
```
```
goto END
```
```
:FNF_ERROR
```

echo ============================================================================

echo ERROR: Make sure this batch file and the firmware are in the same directory!

```
echo.
```
```
pause
```
```
:END
```

February 6, 2008 0 comments Read More