Snap 705N/4100 lives and thrives!

[Technophobe]

The info regarding clearing the PW would be useful (although I just reinstalled the OS

Especially as I had no idea in what condition the server was .... it looked like someone may have "made some fixes to it" So to be safe, start with something I know.

Memory, I fitted PC133 / 128Mb dimms and have been thrashing it most of the day (3 PCs copying files to it to max it out ) .... So far it is behaving well and it will not get this kind of activity undernormal use.

Never seen 12.5M/s but just under 10M/s -

Actually I find that Windows appear to put a limit in TCP/IP transferes of 4.00M/s .... but can't find anything useful on this, all of my PCs (different models and CPUs all seem to Max out at the same speed ..... very odd and why ?? (and the reason to use 3 PCs to max out the server)

No idea what is special with 3.4.807 infact I wasn't able to DL it so will ask again when I have some time - but won't be soon as "I'm on the road again" next week.

I've removed the posting as you suggest, I just put it there incase it rang any bells as the symptoms seems very similar.

Thanks for the suggestions

[jontz]

Originally Posted by Technophobe

The info regarding clearing the PW would be useful (although I just reinstalled the OS

Especially as I had no idea in what condition the server was .... it looked like someone may have "made some fixes to it" So to be safe, start with something I know.

Memory, I fitted PC133 / 128Mb dimms and have been thrashing it most of the day (3 PCs copying files to it to max it out ) .... So far it is behaving well and it will not get this kind of activity undernormal use.

Never seen 12.5M/s but just under 10M/s -

Actually I find that Windows appear to put a limit in TCP/IP transferes of 4.00M/s .... but can't find anything useful on this, all of my PCs (different models and CPUs all seem to Max out at the same speed ..... very odd and why ?? (and the reason to use 3 PCs to max out the server)

No idea what is special with 3.4.807 infact I wasn't able to DL it so will ask again when I have some time - but won't be soon as "I'm on the road again" next week.

I've removed the posting as you suggest, I just put it there incase it rang any bells as the symptoms seems very similar.

Thanks for the suggestions

Reset instructions can be found here: http://wiki.procooling.com/index.php/Snap_Server_Resets

PC133 will work just fine, as you have stated, it will just run at PC66 speeds.

I might suggest that you look at the switch that you are using, as I suspect that it is the source of your 4MB/sec problem. I can get 10MB/sec or better on any one of the comps on my network, so I don't believe that Windows is your problem, unless someone has done some strange registry editing. It's possible that it could also be your network cards, if all of the PC's on your network have the same NIC cards in them.

[Technophobe]

Hi Thanks for the link

I am primarily using Alied Telesyn 10/100 Switches, (and others) but I have tried others with the same result (Admittedly, due to the structure of my (ad hock) network data may have to pass through 2 or three switches, but none of this seems to make any real difference even through just one switch same result. I did spent some time on this with the same thoughts in mind but did not get anywhere useful. These switched can combile 3 or 4 PCs to one destination and can pass a combined speed of 100Mb/s.

I have a variety of network cards, again no difference.

The PC software, on all, is bog standard XP pro. ( A couple have win2k, but these are older slower PCS (celeron 700mhz based HP E-pcs) so I don't expect miracles)

Thankd again

[jontz]

Originally Posted by Technophobe

Hi Thanks for the link

I am primarily using Alied Telesyn 10/100 Switches, (and others) but I have tried others with the same result (Admittedly, due to the structure of my (ad hock) network data may have to pass through 2 or three switches, but none of this seems to make any real difference even through just one switch same result. I did spent some time on this with the same thoughts in mind but did not get anywhere useful. These switched can combile 3 or 4 PCs to one destination and can pass a combined speed of 100Mb/s.

I have a variety of network cards, again no difference.

The PC software, on all, is bog standard XP pro. ( A couple have win2k, but these are older slower PCS (celeron 700mhz based HP E-pcs) so I don't expect miracles)

Thankd again

No problem, always glad to be of service.

Hmmm...again, this is realy odd. Mine passes over 10MB/sec to any ONE computer on my network. If you can, pull up the network config on your snap and post it. Not just the IP address and whatnot, but the full config that shows which network options are turned on or off. That may shed some light on this...

[blue68f100]

When you have a router (Netgear FVS338) that has 92mbps through the WAN with a 266 mhz X-scale cpu with 16/32 meg of ram. It pretty much full speed ahead.

Yea, I had an old SMC that clamped me around 1.8 meg/s.

[Technophobe]

OK, Here are the ADAPTEC & DELL SNAP 4100 setting (both are set the same)

I'll remove / edit this later once you've had a chance to look through it.

TCP/IP
Server IP Address 192.168.1.5
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway 192.168.1.1
WINS IP Address (None)


Microsoft Networking
Enable Microsoft Networking Yes
Enable NetBIOS over: TCP/IP and NetBEUI
Workgroup or Domain Workgroup
Workgroup/Domain Name MSHOME


Advanced Microsoft Networking
Enable Master Browser Yes
Enable Opportunistic Locking Yes
Enable NT SMBs No
WINS Scope (None)
Server Comment (None)


Novell Networking
Enable Novell Networking Yes


Advanced Novell Networking
Server Name for Novell Networking SNAP4100NW
Frame Type: Auto-detect
Internal Network Number: Auto-configure
External Network Number: Auto-configure

Assignments by frame type:
802.2: (None)
802.3: (None)
Ethernet II: (None)
SNAP: (None)
Reply to Get Nearest Server requests No
Allow large Internet packet support Yes
Enable Novell backup support Yes
Make hidden network shares (ending with a "$") visible from a NetWare client No
Number of user licenses (for your backup applications) 250


Apple Networking
Enable Apple Networking No


UNIX NFS
Enable NFS Yes


FTP
Enable FTP Server Yes
Connection Limit 100
Connection Timeout 15
Allow anonymous connections Yes


SNMP
Enable SNMP Yes
Access to this server is Read & Write


Advanced SNMP
Public community public
Private community private
Server location (None)
Contact person (None)
Traps enabled No


Web
Enable Web Services for All Users Yes
Web Root Network Share: WebRoot$
Path: WWW
Disk: RAID5
Home Page Properties Show network share comments - Yes
Show Administration link - Yes
Show Active Users link - Yes
Show Change Password link - Yes
Show Web Support link - No
Use Index.html file - No
Shortcut URLs No shortcut URLs


Ethernet
Address 00-C0-B6-08-73-05
Link Speed 100 Megabits/second
Link Mode Full Duplex

[Technophobe]

WRT following issue posted above

System 22/6/2006 7:57:24
F PANIC : blkfree: freeing free block

I though I was doing so well (after Mem upgrade) having copied >>200GB (500,000 files) to the server .... but then, stupidly perhaps, I decided to click on a compressed file residing on the server to open it and, Hey presto, it crashed again with exactly the same stack content.

Now its raid rebuild time again ............. :-((((((( DOH!


Snap Server 4100 4 x 120Gb 3.4.803 (goodie)
Dell Server 705N 4 x 160Gb 3.4.790 (baddy)
Snap Server 1100 1 x 250Gb 4.0.860 (goodie)

Snap Server 4100 4 x 120Gb 3.4.803 (goodie)
Dell Server 705N 4 x 80Gb 3.4.790 (baddy)

[blue68f100]

500,000 files whow......

Makes me wonder if your hitting a limit, I don't know about.

[re3dyb0y]

I cant see there being a file limit

I know in some file browsers (one ive seen in Red Hat) it wont display files over a certain number....

[blue68f100]

I suspect it may me a bad bit combo in the ram. Maybe he has an old pc laying around that has a DIMM's slot or two where he can setup mem86 to test ram for several days/weeks.

Did the ram chips have gold contacts or silver?

Wonder if these snaps support eec ?

I have a Unigen spec sheet from snap. Post the part no and I will see if its listed.

EEC is listed as an option.

[Technophobe]

Hi, Answers

The ram chip was out of a very relaible PC been used for months at a time without crashes (so I think it is good, but I might just try your suggestion to be absolutely sure). Although it did exactly the same with a different Module (I upgrades from 64-128Mb).

Gold contacts (wouldn't uses anything else)

Server uses Non-EEC

Next step will be an OS upgrade when time permits.

Snap Server 4100 4 x 120Gb 3.4.803 (goodie)
Dell Server 705N 4 x 160Gb 3.4.790 (baddy)
Snap Server 1100 1 x 250Gb 4.0.860 (goodie)

Snap Server 4100 4 x 120Gb 3.4.803 (goodie)
Dell Server 705N 4 x 80Gb 3.4.790 (baddy)

[jontz]

OS upgrade couldn't hurt at this point. I don't see anything in your config that would cause the speed limitation that you are having. I am really curious about it now! Any chance that you could hook a PC or laptop directly to the snap with a crossover cable and see what kind of speed you get?

[re3dyb0y]

Originally Posted by Technophobe

The info regarding clearing the PW would be useful (although I just reinstalled the OS

Especially as I had no idea in what condition the server was .... it looked like someone may have "made some fixes to it" So to be safe, start with something I know.

Memory, I fitted PC133 / 128Mb dimms and have been thrashing it most of the day (3 PCs copying files to it to max it out ) .... So far it is behaving well and it will not get this kind of activity undernormal use.

Never seen 12.5M/s but just under 10M/s -

Actually I find that Windows appear to put a limit in TCP/IP transferes of 4.00M/s .... but can't find anything useful on this, all of my PCs (different models and CPUs all seem to Max out at the same speed ..... very odd and why ?? (and the reason to use 3 PCs to max out the server)

No idea what is special with 3.4.807 infact I wasn't able to DL it so will ask again when I have some time - but won't be soon as "I'm on the road again" next week.

I've removed the posting as you suggest, I just put it there incase it rang any bells as the symptoms seems very similar.

Thanks for the suggestions

The speed thing

There was teh issues of MS limiting numbers of connections, which was becoming problems for peoepl trying to get faster internet

drTCP i believe you need to look at

[Phoenix32]

Originally Posted by blue68f100

Wonder if these snaps support eec ?

Damn good question. Wish I knew...

[blue68f100]

I have the document on what ram (DIMMS) Snap Apppliance used. Could cross reference if I had some part numbers. You would think being a server they wouldn't take a chance with non eec. They did get a preimun for their hardware. Unless they did there own testing and screened them.


I know on my old fried cripid 2000 , it was pretty pickey. I had like 12 ps of simm's laying around, only 2 in the lot would boot.

[Phoenix32]

I would think the best bet would be to look up spec on the chipset on the board.

[Technophobe]

I have taken a 64MB ram module out of my server the Module has 4 devices

Each device is ..... NEC D45128163GS

As there only 4 devices the parity / ECC (if any) will be in the Chips

So check out the device datasheet and see if they are ECC or not

The server will work with Chips that are Non-ECC

[blue68f100]

These numbers do not match UNIGEN Part Numbers. I will email you the chart.

[Phoenix32]

Originally Posted by rpmurray

I wouldn't be too sure about that. The Seagate 500GB drives draw a bit too much power on startup for the Snap 4000 power supply. Three will work, with four it comes on for a couple of seconds and then shuts itself down.

It might work with the Hitachis since they seem to have lower startup power requirements, but they use a bit more when running than the Seagates. I don't have any Hitachis to test this with.

Right now I'm trying to replace the power supply with a 250W unit, but it's going to require some rewiring to hook it to the motherboard, and I've been tied up at work for the last few weeks, so haven't gotten very far.

Recently, in another message thread, someone was having trouble with 4 x 400GB drive. This thread came to mind concerning the power requirements, but then that conversation turned towards a possible limit of the 4000 and large numbers of sectors (above about 1.2 TB). Something keep nagging at me saying that was wrong, then I came back and read this message thread again.

Dave, this guy has 3 x 500 GB drives working (power was the issue for 4). For my math, that would be 1.5 TB. If we can confirm from rpmurray that he has 3 x 500 GB drives working with no problems, that would dispell that issue would it not?

rpmurray, can you confirm 3 x 500 GB drives working with no problems in your 4000 please? Any issues at all formatting or putting into and keeping a RAID 5 etc?

Ideas? Comments? I am still searching for the limitations of the 4000 (stock).

[Technophobe]

Originally Posted by blue68f100

These numbers do not match UNIGEN Part Numbers. I will email you the chart.

No these are the NEC memory chips fitted to the Memory Module. Do a search on the NEC part number should tell you all you need to know. I have been travelling so have not had time to do it myself.

[rpmurray]

rpmurray, can you confirm 3 x 500 GB drives working with no problems in your 4000 please? Any issues at all formatting or putting into and keeping a RAID 5 etc?

I didn't have any trouble formatting the drives. But since I was trying to get it to do RAID 5 with four drives, and I couldn't get it to power up and stay up with that many, I never got around to actually raiding them together. It never occurred to me that this wouldn't work once I can get the fourth drive to power up. I can't tell you if it would work with three at the moment.

If I can get some time this week, I'll try hooking it up again and see what it does with three drives.

[Phoenix32]

Ah, so there might yet still be a problem with the RAID 5 and the size of the drives maybe... This will be interesting... looking at the size of Hard Disks, there may be a problem using 300 or 320 GB drives instead of 250's due to the total size in the end. This would definately be good information to know...

[rpmurray]

One of the reasons it never occurred to me that larger drives might not work is because of this statement I found from on ebay from the seller Spontaneous Combustion:

http://stores.ebay.com/Spontaneous-C...-Upgrades.html

Snap 4000/4200/4500 = Varies, but most will go 4x400 for 1.6TB (email me for more info)

[Phoenix32]

Which again brings me back to, I wonder if there are some differences between the various revs of the 4000 (there are 4 revs I know of) and the at least 2 different motherboards in them. Makes me wonder...

[nickgd]

I seem to have network speed problems on a Dell 705N (4100). Here in this thread I read that I sould be able to get up to 10M/s. How best can I measure the transfer speed (read and/or write) under WinXP Pro?