NASLite Network Attached Storage

I'm having issues with getting my box setup. Before trying NASLite-2 I tried Clark Connect and Ubuntu. I can get to the point of formatting the RAID array but when it gets to 100% the box reboots and then the array is invalid. (In the NASLite format it built the inodes but it rebooted during the next step).

I tried using just 3 drives instead of 6 to keep it under 1TB but that didn't make a difference either. I also tried using Slackware 10.2 to format the RAID array but all of the kernels I tried just hung when they were scanning the array. The common issue seems to be the MegaRAID card.

I've tried this setup on both an ASUS P3V4X with a P3-667 and also with an FIC CA63-EC with a P3-800 (both with the latest BIOS). I also updated the MegaRAID 150-6 with the latest BIOS.

The other hardware is 256MB RAM, 6 WD2500JD drives in a RAID 5 array, and 10/100 LAN. I replaced the power supply with a 600W model because I thought it might be the power supply but that didn't help.

I've seen several people using the MegaRAID 150-6 cards with NASLite-2 so it should work. The MegaRAID docs are inconsistent and tell you in one place to close jumper J1 for 32-bit PCI but in another tell you that it auto-configures for the PCI slot it's plugged into. Does the MegaRAID card need special tweaking with the jumpers or the config? Please help!

-ScottH

Here's some more details:

I decided to see if it's a heat issue and placed a room cooling fan blowing directly into the side of the case and try again. The format completed the inodes step in NASLite but after about 30 seconds of displaying "writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information" the box rebooted. When it came back up NasLite saw the array just fine but when I tried to apply the ext3 journaling I received this error:

EXT2-fs error (device sd(8,1)): ext2_new_inode: reserved inode or inode > inodes count - block_group = 0,inode=1
tune2fs 1.27 (8-Mar-2003) Creating journal inode: tune2fs: Input/output error while trying to create journal file

Has anyone seen this behavior when trying to format a RAID 5 array in NASLite? Does anyone know of issues with the MegaRAID 150-6 and the configuration I'm using? Any help would be appreciated.

-ScottH

Just a quick question, have you setup and successfully used that Megaraid card before on another OS?

I use the same card in my NASLite-2 box and have had no problems, if your brand new to the card it might be how your configuring the raid in the cards BIOS. Let me know if you have used this card in the past and I'll know how to preceed here.

Ralph,

I just recently started using the MegaRAID card. The configuration in the card BIOS is pretty vanilla as I just added the 6 drives to the array as RAID 5 and Initialized it.

-ScottH

After much weeping and nashing of teeth I decided to punt and try a different motherboard. After putting the MegaRAID card and the SATA drives into the new motherboard everything worked flawlessly.

My configuration is now:
Gigabyte 8IEXP w/ P4-2.26
1GB RAM
LSI MegaRAID 150-6
6xWD 250GB SATA in RAID 5

So my issues appear to be from the MegaRAID card conflicting with the P3 motherboards which both have VIA Apollo Pro133A chipsets and not NASLite. The 8IEXP only has 32-bit PCI slots and the MegaRAID card works fine.

I just need to upgrade my network from 100-BaseT to Gigabit and I'll be set!

-ScottH