Intel SS4200 running FreeBSD 7.1 with 4 x 1.5 TB seagate drives

[Gidi]

yejun:

>I received mine today. With stock CPU and memory, zfs is really slow. ZFS
>30MBps write, UFS 70MBps write. Both results are under FreeNas with single
>driver.

If you write to a single zfs drive it's maybe the overhead of Data+ZIL+L2ARC
which overlads a single spindle.

I run eon 129 with 4*1TB Samsung F1 drives in a raidz set and see in vista between 65 to 105 MB/s writes (depending how long the last windows reboot was).

(This is a SS4200 with a E2220 CPU and 2GB/ddr2/6400)


>The other thing I found out is the DOM is only visible in recover mode. EON >can boot from DOM, but it isn't mounted.

I gave up on booting OSOL from the DOM since it never woked for me, so how far goes your boot then ?

Is it crashing when it tries to mount the FS ?

 

[yejun]

I gave up on booting OSOL from the DOM since it never woked for me, so how far goes your boot then ?

Is it crashing when it tries to mount the FS ?

I haven't received my serial cable yet, so I can't see any error.
From ssh, it seems fine. But without dom, EON can't save config. I can import zpool, but everything else gone after reboot.

 

[tormorian]

My Experience with EON and SS4200

Getting EON on the DOM.

1. Install Virtualbox, configure a VM with an Intel GigE interface, boot the VM from the EON iso, and insert a USB thumbdrive, attach to the VM.

2. Run /usr/bin/setup and set your IP to static, you'll be needing it later. Then run /usr/bin/install.sh and install to your USB thumbdrive.

3. Now, here is the fun part. Power down your SS4200, insert the USB drive into the chassis. Then, while holding in the reset button at the back, hit the power button at the front. When the power light at the front turns amber, release the reset button.

4. You are now booting from your USB stick. SSH in to the static IP, log in, and run /usr/bin/install.sh, and target the c0t0 disk (the DOM). Install EON.

5. Shutdown the box, remove USB stick, and power on.

VOILA! No need for serial connectors, 1x->16x PCI video cards. All SATA drives show under format, GigE interface is running nicely.

Sweet chassis, and props to EON for a most excellent NAS distro

-chris

----------------------------

Ok, hit a couple of small hiccups, apparently changes to the root filesystem aren't committing. Its kinda like booting for a read only USB, no configs are preserved. Working on it now

Second hiccup is that the server IS dhcp booting, not using the static IP that I committed to the USB installer. Just so happened that the static IP I assigned and the DCHP one auto-assigned were the same.

 

[yejun]

Getting EON on the DOM.

1. Install Virtualbox, configure a VM with an Intel GigE interface, boot the VM from the EON iso, and insert a USB thumbdrive, attach to the VM.

2. Run /usr/bin/setup and set your IP to static, you'll be needing it later. Then run /usr/bin/install.sh and install to your USB thumbdrive.

3. Now, here is the fun part. Power down your SS4200, insert the USB drive into the chassis. Then, while holding in the reset button at the back, hit the power button at the front. When the power light at the front turns amber, release the reset button.

4. You are now booting from your USB stick. SSH in to the static IP, log in, and run /usr/bin/install.sh, and target the c0t0 disk (the DOM). Install EON.

5. Shutdown the box, remove USB stick, and power on.

VOILA! No need for serial connectors, 1x->16x PCI video cards. All SATA drives show under format, GigE interface is running nicely.

Sweet chassis, and props to EON for a most excellent NAS distro

-chris

----------------------------

Ok, hit a couple of small hiccups, apparently changes to the root filesystem aren't committing. Its kinda like booting for a read only USB, no configs are preserved. Working on it now

Second hiccup is that the server IS dhcp booting, not using the static IP that I committed to the USB installer. Just so happened that the static IP I assigned and the DCHP one auto-assigned were the same.

Can you save configuration after boot eon from DOM?
I have done exact same thing, but when it boot from DOM directly, the DOM itself is invisible.

 

[tormorian]

What Im trying to do now is configure the system totally while its booted from the USB drive, then do /usr/bin/install and /usr/bin/updimg.sh, to save the config to the DOM. A poor workaround at best, since if I want to change anything after I boot from DOM, it will be lost, but I guess its as good as Im going to get it :-D


-chris

 

[nadtz]

I played around some more and found something interesting out, freebsd 8 64 doesn't see the DOM unit when booting with the same settings that 32 bit works with. The best i can get is IDE config set to compatible in the bios which only sees 1 instead of the 2 drives I have currently installed. I believe I actually read this somewhere but have confirmed it for myself. With my testing pretty much completed I have 2 more 1.5tb drives coming soon and am ready to go 'production' with this.

My remaining issues are;

Cant boot pata laptop drive with 40 > 44 pin adapter, this would be nice but by no means is a deal breaker.

replacement DOM is fairly slow

I think my best option is going to be to keep the DOM unit and move /usr to the storage pool once i get the 1.5's in unless i can figure out the adapter issue or I go with a cheap IDE drive (80gig or whatever to boot from).

this will give me a robust unit with all the benefits of zfs, which i am starting to like a lot, plus esata for backups to a 2tb drive.

For the money spent I am still very happy with this unit and the results, the rest time will tell.

 

[jlw2_74]

Lost in space

NADTZ: I see you are a new member as I am. There is a big difference I am a newbie and lost.So this reply is for any help possible. I bought a Fujitsu Siemens SS4200-E from Legend Micro(e-bay cheap). The problem is I had to install the DOM myself,2 new Hitachi 1tb HD's.When I installed on my network router NIC, HD lights solid blue (initialized ? ) but power light flashing. Did the reset deal and got the solid amber power light.Ether way not showing up on net work.Could this be a SS4200-EHW with a F/Siemens case.Could you or some other kind person send me in the correct way.
Lost in the sea of tranquility.Thanks in advance. jlw2_74

 

[nadtz]

NADTZ: I see you are a new member as I am. There is a big difference I am a newbie and lost.So this reply is for any help possible. I bought a Fujitsu Siemens SS4200-E from Legend Micro(e-bay cheap). The problem is I had to install the DOM myself,2 new Hitachi 1tb HD's.When I installed on my network router NIC, HD lights solid blue (initialized ? ) but power light flashing. Did the reset deal and got the solid amber power light.Ether way not showing up on net work.Could this be a SS4200-EHW with a F/Siemens case.Could you or some other kind person send me in the correct way.
Lost in the sea of tranquility.Thanks in advance. jlw2_74

You say you installed the DOM yourself, what are you installing on it (or what is supposed to be installed on it)? After replacing my DOM unit I had to play around before the system would see the unit properly, for that I needed the serial header and cable.

 

[nadtz]

So my almost final config is

Freebsd 8 32+ ZFS
SSH for management
Samba for file sharing
smartmontools for smart monitoring
esata attached external drive for backups

Note those ZFS tweaks make a difference! im currently at

vm.kmem_size="512M"
vm.kmem_size_max="512M"

till I get /usr moved and the kernel recompiled, as compared to my previous post

[root@storage ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/storage/tmp/test bs=1m count=4000
4000+0 records in
4000+0 records out
4194304000 bytes transferred in 56.306824 secs (74490154 bytes/sec)
[root@storage ~]# dd if=/storage/tmp/test of=/dev/null bs=1m count=4000
4000+0 records in
4000+0 records out
4194304000 bytes transferred in 34.046112 secs (123194801 bytes/sec)


Once again thanks for this and other places on the net that got me this far, I think I'm just about done and man am I happy with ZFS.

 

[eon]

EON ZFS storage

Getting EON on the DOM.
4. You are now booting from your USB stick. SSH in to the static IP, log in, and run /usr/bin/install.sh, and target the c0t0 disk (the DOM). Install EON.


Ok, hit a couple of small hiccups, apparently changes to the root filesystem aren't committing. Its kinda like booting for a read only USB, no configs are preserved. Working on it now

Second hiccup is that the server IS dhcp booting, not using the static IP that I committed to the USB installer. Just so happened that the static IP I assigned and the DCHP one auto-assigned were the same.

tormorian,

Are you saying if you run updimg.sh after booting from the DOM the changes are not being preserved?

Are the files you changed in /mnt/eon0/.backup?

I'm also a little puzzled why your static configured image from the booted USB was not copied to the DOM. The only reason I could figure, is the static configured image was not copied to the DOM at install.sh. Instead the OEM image was copied (defaults to dhcp at boot).

Did you have to do anything other than install.sh to configure the static interface?

You can try this manually and let me know after step 4 you will see
EON ZFS Storage install complete on /dev/dsk/c0d0s0 (<-note your cXdXsX entry here)

then let's manually copy your static configured image most likely in /mnt/eon0/boot. One thing to note is if you previously installed to the DOM it may automount to /mnt/eon0. If it does umount /mnt/eon0 before running install.sh.

steps to manually copy your static image located on /mnt/eon0/boot/x86custom.eon

mkdir /mnt/DOM
mount /dev/dsk/c0d0s0 /mnt/DOM (<- replace your cXdXsX entry from above)
cp /mnt/eon0/boot/x86custom.eon /mnt/DOM/boot/x86.eon

Hope that helps

 

[yejun]

tormorian,

Are you saying if you run updimg.sh after booting from the DOM the changes are not being preserved?

Are the files you changed in /mnt/eon0/.backup?

I'm also a little puzzled why your static configured image from the booted USB was not copied to the DOM. The only reason I could figure, is the static configured image was not copied to the DOM at install.sh. Instead the OEM image was copied (defaults to dhcp at boot).

Did you have to do anything other than install.sh to configure the static interface?

You can try this manually and let me know after step 4 you will see
EON ZFS Storage install complete on /dev/dsk/c0d0s0 (<-note your cXdXsX entry here)

then let's manually copy your static configured image most likely in /mnt/eon0/boot. One thing to note is if you previously installed to the DOM it may automount to /mnt/eon0. If it does umount /mnt/eon0 before running install.sh.

steps to manually copy your static image located on /mnt/eon0/boot/x86custom.eon

mkdir /mnt/DOM
mount /dev/dsk/c0d0s0 /mnt/DOM (<- replace your cXdXsX entry from above)
cp /mnt/eon0/boot/x86custom.eon /mnt/DOM/boot/x86.eon

Hope that helps

The DOM isn't visible during normal boot.

Without any change in BIOS,
Recover mode:
c0t0d0 (usb stick) c1t0d0 (dom) c2t0d0 (hd)

Normal mode:
c0t0d0 (usb) c1t0d0 (hd)

 

[nadtz]

The DOM isn't visible during normal boot.

Without any change in BIOS,
Recover mode:
c0t0d0 (usb stick) c1t0d0 (dom) c2t0d0 (hd)

Normal mode:
c0t0d0 (usb) c1t0d0 (hd)

out of curiousity is this 64 or 32 bit EOn? I the same thing more or less happens with freebsd 64, it starts booting then the DOM dissapears and freebsd halts.

 

[yejun]

out of curiousity is this 64 or 32 bit EOn? I the same thing more or less happens with freebsd 64, it starts booting then the DOM dissapears and freebsd halts.

64 bit.

So my almost final config is

Freebsd 8 32+ ZFS
SSH for management
Samba for file sharing
smartmontools for smart monitoring
esata attached external drive for backups

Note those ZFS tweaks make a difference! im currently at

vm.kmem_size="512M"
vm.kmem_size_max="512M"

till I get /usr moved and the kernel recompiled, as compared to my previous post

[root@storage ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/storage/tmp/test bs=1m count=4000
4000+0 records in
4000+0 records out
4194304000 bytes transferred in 56.306824 secs (74490154 bytes/sec)
[root@storage ~]# dd if=/storage/tmp/test of=/dev/null bs=1m count=4000
4000+0 records in
4000+0 records out
4194304000 bytes transferred in 34.046112 secs (123194801 bytes/sec)


Once again thanks for this and other places on the net that got me this far, I think I'm just about done and man am I happy with ZFS.

What did you change? I only get 25MB/s over samba write on a single driver.
I also noticed very weird samba over wireless performance. On UFS, 11MB/s write, 8MB/s read and very consistent. On ZFS, less than 7MB/s write, over 12MB/s read, speed vary a lot.

 

[nadtz]

64 bit.




What did you change? I only get 25MB/s over samba write on a single driver.
I also noticed very weird samba over wireless performance. On UFS, 11MB/s write, 8MB/s read and very consistent. On ZFS, less than 7MB/s write, over 12MB/s read, speed vary a lot.

I upgraded my usit with more memory and a faster CPU, if Im understanding the ZFS information i've been reading, upgrading memory can make a substantial difference. Note via smb Im seeing about 25Mb/s via my wireless or gigabit ethernet, I see better speeds via SCP/FTP.

 

[yejun]

I finally received my serial cable. Saved a few MB of video ram.

I also got freenas amd64 boot from DOM, after added these lines to device.hints

hint.ata.0.at="isa"
hint.ata.0.port="0x1f0"
hint.ata.0.irq="14"

No need to change anything in bios.

 

[αngeloio]

Boot sequence ?

Hi guys,

I am new to FreeBSD but not new to the Linux/Unix world. I am trying to apply simonlok's (and others') instructions and install FreeBsd on the machine. I plan to replace the original DOM with a PATA hard disk and use this for root device. I have an already built RAID array that I would (preferably) like to keep and mount...

I have one (probably stupid) question. Where (or How) do you boot FreeBsd from I mean do you use a usb CDROM or a usb memstick (to which I assume you have dd the image) ??? And most important all the changes that you need to do (for example in /boot/loader.conf) do you do them on the installed root filesystem AFTER installation or somehow you do them to the BOOT device BEFORE installation ???

I would be so grateful if someone explained the FreeBsd installation procedure in detail (including the boot image sequence) and assuming that only linux or windows PCs are available (meaning I dont have an existing BSD system to mount the iso image from and do changes....don't know if needed of course...).

Any help would be so greatly welcomed

Many thanks to all in advance

Best Regards
Ioannis
Greece

 

[nadtz]

Hi guys,

I am new to FreeBSD but not new to the Linux/Unix world. I am trying to apply simonlok's (and others') instructions and install FreeBsd on the machine. I plan to replace the original DOM with a PATA hard disk and use this for root device. I have an already built RAID array that I would (preferably) like to keep and mount...

I have one (probably stupid) question. Where (or How) do you boot FreeBsd from I mean do you use a usb CDROM or a usb memstick (to which I assume you have dd the image) ??? And most important all the changes that you need to do (for example in /boot/loader.conf) do you do them on the installed root filesystem AFTER installation or somehow you do them to the BOOT device BEFORE installation ???

I would be so grateful if someone explained the FreeBsd installation procedure in detail (including the boot image sequence) and assuming that only linux or windows PCs are available (meaning I dont have an existing BSD system to mount the iso image from and do changes....don't know if needed of course...).

Any help would be so greatly welcomed

Many thanks to all in advance

Best Regards
Ioannis
Greece

What I did was

Boot system off of USB CD (freebsd now provides a memstick image as well) and via serial console changed the bios to boot from CD. Right now my network is a machine running centos and windows 7 laptops, a freebsd system isn't needed but if you want to use the memstick image you will need dd)

When freebsd is booting you will get the 'splash screen' and options 1-7 (I believe) for various options, hit 6 and type in

set console=comconsole (hit enter) and you will get an ok
then type in boot and hit enter, this redirects output to serial while installing (if you need it for a serial install I set the ss4200 bios for 9600 instead of 115200 and this worked fine for me)

note the above is only for serial installs, if you are using a video card disregard.

proceed with install

when complete log into the system and edit /boot/loader.conf /etc/ttys and /etc/rc.conf as needed.

rebuild kernel as needed (in the handbook though the info there is kind of outdated)

install whatever other apps you might want (easiest with ports or pkg_add, also in the handbook)

Id be curious to know how the hard drive works for you, I have a pata laptop drive that I cant get to work and I'm not sure if its a cable issue or a crappy 44 > 40 pin adapter issue.

So to sum up most of the information posted in simonlok's first couple of posts are post install changes, so long as you can get the system installed and booted its not that hard if you are at all familiar with unix.

I'm sure someone out there has a much more detailed freebsd install how to (it hasn't changed much since 3.5) than I'm willing to right while I'm working, but to be honest if you have used any linux installer in text mode its not that hard to figure out, just be aware of the difference in freebsd with filesystems and slices and you will be ok.

 

[nadtz]

One last bit of info for anyone interested, I did some research and added the following to smb.conf

max xmit = 65535
socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_SNDBUF=65535 SO_RCVBUF=65535

and my read/write speed went from about 20/25MB/s to 33/45MB/s (gige on a T60 laptop with a 7200RPM hard drive). I can probably do a bit more tweaking because both read and write speeds start fast then slow down a bit, but I'm pretty happy as is.

 

[tormorian]

Ill give that a try this weekend, and let you know how it works...

-chris

tormorian,

Are you saying if you run updimg.sh after booting from the DOM the changes are not being preserved?

Are the files you changed in /mnt/eon0/.backup?

I'm also a little puzzled why your static configured image from the booted USB was not copied to the DOM. The only reason I could figure, is the static configured image was not copied to the DOM at install.sh. Instead the OEM image was copied (defaults to dhcp at boot).

Did you have to do anything other than install.sh to configure the static interface?

You can try this manually and let me know after step 4 you will see
EON ZFS Storage install complete on /dev/dsk/c0d0s0 (<-note your cXdXsX entry here)

then let's manually copy your static configured image most likely in /mnt/eon0/boot. One thing to note is if you previously installed to the DOM it may automount to /mnt/eon0. If it does umount /mnt/eon0 before running install.sh.

steps to manually copy your static image located on /mnt/eon0/boot/x86custom.eon

mkdir /mnt/DOM
mount /dev/dsk/c0d0s0 /mnt/DOM (<- replace your cXdXsX entry from above)
cp /mnt/eon0/boot/x86custom.eon /mnt/DOM/boot/x86.eon

Hope that helps

 

[00Roush]

One last bit of info for anyone interested, I did some research and added the following to smb.conf

max xmit = 65535
socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_SNDBUF=65535 SO_RCVBUF=65535

and my read/write speed went from about 20/25MB/s to 33/45MB/s (gige on a T60 laptop with a 7200RPM hard drive). I can probably do a bit more tweaking because both read and write speeds start fast then slow down a bit, but I'm pretty happy as is.

I actually think you are better off just having socket options = TCP_NODELAY. I have actually found that while using the 65536 buffer sizes generally increase performance it also can limit performance as well. I can explain more in detail as to why if you would like. Basically not setting the buffer sizes allows the buffers to be sized dynamically and can provide better performance. You might give a try and let us know how it turns out.

00Roush