Re: [PLUG] Using Mediasonic Probox 4-bay enclosure
On Sun, 24 Jan 2021 12:22:11 -0800 (PST) Rich Shepard dijo: >I suspect all their enclosures have both interfaces. It wouldn't surprise me if they used the same card in everything they make. I still have the old card floating around here somewhere, with a flaky USB port but an eSATA port that works fine, in case anyone needs it. >> There isn't a lot of difference between the two connectors as to >> speed, and I didn't have an eSATA cable, so I used USB. > >Interesting. I've read that eSATA is faster (same speed as internally >mounted drives), but it also depends on what else is on the USB. SATA and eSATA are rated at 6Gbps, while USB 3.0 is rated at 5Gbps. But then, there is the matter of how much is lost in the connection and how much interference there is from other devices trying to get access at the same time. Plus, how many lanes do each have available to them? As I said, when I switched to eSATA I expected at least a little faster throughput, but I didn't notice any difference at all. ___ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Using Mediasonic Probox 4-bay enclosure
On Sun, 24 Jan 2021, John Jason Jordan wrote: I have a Mediasonic 2-bay enclosure with a 6TB and an 8TB WD red. I set them up as RAID0, which resulted in a volume of 12TB because RAID0 gives you (number of drives) * (the size of the smallest drive). John, That's what I learned today when I refreshed my minimal RAID knowledge. If I had it to do over again JBOD might have been a better choice because it would not have wasted 2TB of space. The drives were backed up nightly to a NAS as a mirror, so I didn't need redundancy within the Mediasonic. Yep, JBOD is readily handed by LVM2. I'll partition/format (ext4) the four physical disks, make a physical group, then set up one or two logical volumes. My Mediasonic has connectors for USB 3 and eSATA, and the computer that I connected it to had both of those ports as well. I suspect all their enclosures have both interfaces. There isn't a lot of difference between the two connectors as to speed, and I didn't have an eSATA cable, so I used USB. Interesting. I've read that eSATA is faster (same speed as internally mounted drives), but it also depends on what else is on the USB. After a couple years the USB port on the Mediasonic got flaky, so I bought an eSATA cable. I didn't notice any difference. But eventually I called Mediasonic and for $20 they sold me a new PC card with both connectors, only about 2cm square. It was trivial to open the case, and replace the old card. I mention this just so you know that I had good service from Mediasonic. I read that SATA is more reliable over the long term so I bought a Mediatronic PCIe card with two external SATA ports ($23) and a 2m/6' SATA-eSATA cable. The Asus motherboards on my desktops have 6 SATA headers so running one of them to the back of the case for external drives makes life easier. If you want the drives in the Mediasonic to look like just one big drive, then your choices are RAID0 or JBOD. If you want two drives of your four to be one big drive mirrored to the other two, so you have redundancy within the Mediasonic, then I think you can make each pair RAID0 or JBOD, and then both of these volumes can be made into a RAID1 (but I've never done that, and I'm sure someone here will tell me that I'm wrong. But bear in mind that RAID0 is a bit faster on read/write than JBOD. Whenever I tell professionals who work on big data centers that I use RAID0 they immediately tell me what a bad idea it is because if either drive fails then you've lost the whole thing. But they don't realize that my RAID0 arrays are backed up nightly to a mirror on my network, so I do have redundancy, just not the way they are used to doing things. I have a 2Tb external hard drive that stores daily (well, nightly really) differences in changed files. I don't keep backups for long; dailies for a month, weekly (Sunday) files for 6 months. I've never needed to go back more than a couple of months to restore I file I really needed. (Except the one time a hard drive failed on me and Keith told me just how to do a Dirvish bare-metal restore. Then I was back in business again. So JBOD using LVM2 will do what I need. The Mediasonic and its drives are now about four years old so, although they are working fine, it was about 75% full, and I replaced it with a new Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that has four 7.68TB U.2 drives, also set up as a RAID0. (Fast!) The new setup lost its RAID array a few days ago and it looks like I'm going to have to recreate it. I'm still trying to figure out what caused the failure - right now it looks like TB3 on Linux is disconnecting the drives every 15 seconds, and this is a recent development because it was working fine for several weeks. In the meantime, since the middle of December, the Mediasonic has been sitting here unplugged. They are good units. Thanks for sharing your insights with me, John. Stay well, Rich ___ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Using Mediasonic Probox 4-bay enclosure
On Sun, 24 Jan 2021 07:40:16 -0800 (PST) Rich Shepard dijo: >3. What should I read to learn how best to make use of this device? I have a Mediasonic 2-bay enclosure with a 6TB and an 8TB WD red. I set them up as RAID0, which resulted in a volume of 12TB because RAID0 gives you (number of drives) * (the size of the smallest drive). If I had it to do over again JBOD might have been a better choice because it would not have wasted 2TB of space. The drives were backed up nightly to a NAS as a mirror, so I didn't need redundancy within the Mediasonic. My Mediasonic has connectors for USB 3 and eSATA, and the computer that I connected it to had both of those ports as well. There isn't a lot of difference between the two connectors as to speed, and I didn't have an eSATA cable, so I used USB. After a couple years the USB port on the Mediasonic got flaky, so I bought an eSATA cable. I didn't notice any difference. But eventually I called Mediasonic and for $20 they sold me a new PC card with both connectors, only about 2cm square. It was trivial to open the case, and replace the old card. I mention this just so you know that I had good service from Mediasonic. If you want the drives in the Mediasonic to look like just one big drive, then your choices are RAID0 or JBOD. If you want two drives of your four to be one big drive mirrored to the other two, so you have redundancy within the Mediasonic, then I think you can make each pair RAID0 or JBOD, and then both of these volumes can be made into a RAID1 (but I've never done that, and I'm sure someone here will tell me that I'm wrong. But bear in mind that RAID0 is a bit faster on read/write than JBOD. Whenever I tell professionals who work on big data centers that I use RAID0 they immediately tell me what a bad idea it is because if either drive fails then you've lost the whole thing. But they don't realize that my RAID0 arrays are backed up nightly to a mirror on my network, so I do have redundancy, just not the way they are used to doing things. The Mediasonic and its drives are now about four years old so, although they are working fine, it was about 75% full, and I replaced it with a new Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that has four 7.68TB U.2 drives, also set up as a RAID0. (Fast!) The new setup lost its RAID array a few days ago and it looks like I'm going to have to recreate it. I'm still trying to figure out what caused the failure - right now it looks like TB3 on Linux is disconnecting the drives every 15 seconds, and this is a recent development because it was working fine for several weeks. In the meantime, since the middle of December, the Mediasonic has been sitting here unplugged. ___ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Using Mediasonic Probox 4-bay enclosure [RESOLVED]
On Sun, 24 Jan 2021, Rich Shepard wrote: Now I need to find some docs that will teach me what I need to know. Slackware has LVM2 but no HOWTO so more research is in order. Found what I need to know about LVM2. Question: Does the brand of SATA-eSATA cable matter? Rich ___ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Using Mediasonic Probox 4-bay enclosure [RESOLVED]
On Sun, 24 Jan 2021, Rich Shepard wrote: There seem to be many NAS software tools for linux. I think one of these would be appropriate. LVM2. Now I need to find some docs that will teach me what I need to know. Slackware has LVM2 but no HOWTO so more research is in order. Rich ___ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Using Mediasonic Probox 4-bay enclosure [UPDATE]
On Sun, 24 Jan 2021, Rich Shepard wrote: 1. Do all drives need to be of the same size? I don't think so. I don't want RAID, but 4 drives independently mounted. Or, two pairs of two drives each as a single logical volume. (Gotta' learn about this.) 2. What software should I use and what configuration options should I use? There seem to be many NAS software tools for linux. I think one of these would be appropriate. Thoughts? Rich ___ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Using Mediasonic Probox 4-bay enclosure
Reading about John's issues with his Synology NAS has prompted me to learn how best to use the Mediasonic Probox 4-bay enclosure I bought a few years ago. I cannot find a model number on it (which I think is rather strange), and the only docs that came with it are instructions on loading the drives on the racks and inserting them in the case. Because I did not find how to best use it at the time it's been sitting here. Now I want to take advantage of it and have a few questions which I know folks here can answer. 1. Do all drives need to be of the same size? (I assume the brand doesn't matter as long as they all run at the same speed -- 7200rpm.) Now I have 2Tb, 2x1Tb, and a 750Gb drives in there. 2. What software should I use and what configuration options should I use? Currently I have an external USB drive for backup but can use some of the drive space on the Probox for that. The rest of the space would be for storage. 3. What should I read to learn how best to make use of this device? TIA, Rich ___ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
