NASLite Network Attached Storage

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Task-specific simplicity with low hardware requirements.
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:18 pm 
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Hi,

I hope you may be able to help me, I've just bought an AMCC 3Ware 9500S-4LP SATA Raid Controller 128MB 4 Ports from ebay and was given the link to the 3ware download page.

I did not look at the download page until i physically put the card in my machine, there are hundreds and hundreds of drivers and other stuff, cli files, raid management files, cli management files etc etc.

I'm afraid I have little clue, as to what I need.

This is how basic my computer skills are:
I'm guessing naslite is Linux based?
I'm guessing as my old pc is from 1995, it would be Linux 32bit
Do I need one of each file ie. one driver, one cli file, one cli management file, raid management file etc.

Really appreciate any tips or pointers, where to learn more, as I'm guessing it will be a long trial and error path for me otherwise :-o

Many thanks in advance
DC


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:18 pm 
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Location: gods own country
if it starts you down the path i can offer answers to questions 1 and 2 - yes its linux based and yes pc is likely to be 32bit - next bit is guesswork and a question - why do you need drivers - you cannot add to naslite - all drivers are included in the package - but you need an expert to take it further - sure Mike will be along soon


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:33 pm 
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Ah I did wonder if it would just work..
Cheers
fingers crossed
Look forward to Mike saying something
:-)
You may have guessed, I have not turned it on yet..


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 7:14 pm 
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Not really familiar with the 3Ware stuff but I suspect that it is kinda like the LSI stuff (they are now one).

You should simply install the card and there should be a RAID BIOS prompt that comes up on boot to get into the controllers BIOS and set up the array. Beyond that I am not going to be a whole lot of help. You really don't need any of the other stuff off of the web site unless you have to set up the array with say a live CD of Linux. The CLI is a command line interface, You REALLY don't want to get into that unless you are a hard core storage admin. Likely there is a config tool that runs on just about every OS available but again I suspect that you can get it all done from the BIOS at boot.

Mike


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 3:15 am 
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Cool, many thanks for your comment! good to know what all the files are and that we don't really need them.

Will hopefully get to fire it up in the next day or so,

Cheers

:-)


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 Post subject: Help
PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 6:17 pm 
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Hmmm, installed the card and two new hdd's and the machine does not boot.

Take the card out and it boots, can't find anything, and shuts down.

Card back in and no boot, no screen out put either, attached discs seem to be spinning and card had a green light on it, but that is all it does.

Any ideas ?

Many thanks for any thoughts,
Cheers,
DC


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:45 pm 
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Location: Up State NY in the USA!!!!
Have you tried the card in a different slot?

Have you tried resetting the BIOS to the default as well before install?

Also try the card in another machine if you don't have another slot to see if the machine boots.

Mike


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 6:07 am 
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Thanks for the pointers, much appreciated!

When I initially tried the card in my naslite box it did not fit, the card pci slot on the motherboard is way too short, I bought it to fit pci, so a little disappointed to say the least.

Then I read about the card fitting various pci designs and so tried it in my newer xp pc, it fitted but with a section of the card's connections overhanging the pci slot on the motherboard, it fired up and saw the new hardware as a raid controller.

I noticed the socket on the newer board had a very thin stop end to it where as the older pci socket had a thick end to it which does not allow the card to slot in. I shaved, very very carefully a small amount off the old socket stop end so the card does now slot in.... :-o

Could it be that old pci slots work differently to newer pci slots ?


I will try the bios and maybe shave another socket end down a bit.


The machine is from 1995 so it is getting on a bit but still worked lovely until I tried the raid card and two new sata drives.

Fingers crossed :-)


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:30 am 
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You can't do that to the PCI slot on the card. They are keyed because some are 5 volts signaling only, likely the PCI socket on your old motherboard. You are lucky you didn't blow the card!

The motherboard is to old in your NAS box and you need to upgrade to something a little more modern if you intend to use the RAID card.

Mike


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:06 pm 
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Hey had me panic for a bit there ! :-)

I checked and re-checked the spec of what I bought, and had a bit of a read up on the web, learning.

It seems I have a 5V 32bit pci slot on the motherboard, and the raid card is a universal 3.3 & 5v 64bit pci card, quite a bit of it hangs over the end of the pci slot.

Sorry I must have not made it clear as to what bit I shaved off the socket, so it would fit.

Anyway I reset all the bios, pulled out all the plugs I could see, including the ram and plugged it all back in again.

Bingo!! :-)

I've set the two new hdd's as raid 0 in the 3ware bios thing, for the time being, as I have external drives of each machine too, as a back up.

Just off to see if I can find why the drives are not seen, naslite-2 is seen, but can't see any drive/storage...

Many thanks for your tips!


Last edited by DeafCat on Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:23 pm 
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Ah I guess the drives don't show as no card is found in the log...

(take no notice of the date, the battery on the motherboard ran out a long time ago)

Feb 3 12:36:59 user.info kernel: Loading Adaptec I2O RAID: Version 2.4 Build 5
Feb 3 12:36:59 user.info kernel: Detecting Adaptec I2O RAID controllers.
Feb 3 12:36:59 user.info kernel: Red Hat/Adaptec aacraid driver (1.1-3 Aug 12 2007 09:05:44)
Feb 3 12:36:59 user.warn kernel: scsi: Detection failed (no card)
Feb 3 12:36:59 user.notice kernel: megaraid: v2.10.10.1 (Release Date: Thu Jan 27 16:19:44 EDT 2005)
Feb 3 12:36:59 user.warn kernel: GDT-HA: Storage RAID Controller Driver. Version: 3.04
Feb 3 12:36:59 user.warn kernel: GDT-HA: Found 0 PCI Storage RAID Controllers
Feb 3 12:36:59 user.warn kernel: 3ware Storage Controller device driver for Linux v1.02.00.037.
Feb 3 12:36:59 user.warn kernel: 3w-xxxx: No cards found.

Errrm any suggestions/help, much appreciated
Many thanks in advance I hope...


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 5:01 pm 
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i am throwing pebbles in the pond waiting for mike or others - are you using the latest version of naslite?? if not that could be the problem

but before that try it in linux - download a cd and boot from that - see if it works ok

and i seem to remember that you may have to set the raid drives up in linux before naslite sees them - but dont quote me on that


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 5:36 pm 
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Hey, :-) I'm a bit slow but get there in the end... I hope.

When things work I generally just leave them, not touched my naslite machine since 2008, it's a 2007 naslite release I believe :-o , on a 1995 pc.

Just looked up all the server elements emails and yes there have been quite a few updates since then, I guess the raid card will be covered by an update...

Can I just upgrade my existing naslite-2, rather than buy a whole new one ?

Many thanks!!


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 6:01 pm 
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Considering the age of your release I am pretty sure that you will have to buy a full pop version of the appliance software. Not really that big a deal since it is only around $30.00 USD.

Mike


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 6:55 pm 
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you can put your email addy in the upgrade thing and it will say if it can be updated at a discounted price - theres a discussion somewhere on this - there is a cut off point on age but cannot remember what it is


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