RN52x RN62x additional sata power

i checked on my 2 nas and its definitely an esata connector, not esatap. the shape is different enough to see.

please see the linked picture for comparison.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/d9yW7.jpg 

the readynas has clearly the left connector, even if its not blue.

the esatap connector would allow you to plug in a usb device (its designed that way).

the esata-port on the readynas is too wide for usb.

I would still not put more than the load of a single 2.5" drive on it.

just as info for those running RN52x/62x who are interested in using truenas instead of readynas os.

i successfully installed a m.2 sata 2242 ssd (slot on the back of the mainboard), additional ECC-RAM (the 526X only comes with 4 GB, which is less than the required 8GB for truenas, the RN62x comes with 8 GB), removed the usb daughterboard (in case i ever want to use it as a readynas again), installed truenas on it and made a raidz2 pool with all disks.

so far everything besides the display on the front is working. speed and temperatures are in the green and its behaving just like any other truenas box.

i also have riser-cards for the internal pcie x8 slot and pcie to nvme adaptercards for 1 and 2 ssd's. 

i dont have drives for it yet, but i will be experimenting with this as well once i have them.

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beisser wrote:

installed truenas on it

 

 

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where did you installed the truenas? the M.2 SATA? i thought that is not bootable.

the m.2 slot is bootable in bios mode, but not in uefi mode (or i couldnt figure out how to make it appear).

i set the boot rom execution for storage in the bios to legacy instead of uefi, set the boot filter to legacy only instead of uefi and legacy.

after that the m.2 drive appears in the boot options.

here some screenshots:

the ts240... is my transcend 240gb m.2 sata disk.

boots truenas just fine 😉

in the next few days i will also be converting my rn628x to truenas.

there i will fiddle some more with the bios settings.

maybe i can make the m2-sata disk show up in uefi boot as well.

This is excellent news! A second life for those old good gears!

Thanks

just converted my rn628x.

here i didnt need to do anything in the bios. the drive showed up as boot option immediately even in uefi mode.

just installed truenas from usb, switched booting to the ssd in uefi mode (truenas shows up as debian in uefi) and it booted fine.

only modification i did to the rn628x was to remove the usb daughterboard (like with the 526x) and upgrade memory a bit (would run with the factory 8 gb, bit i wanted more).

This is great1 and thanks for figuring it out as I have a 628 as well. I ordered PCIe extension cable as my old one broke. It is on its way. 

I did not remember the M.2 SATA was in the boot option list. I am not sure it is because the the STA drive i use or the BIOS version is old. I used an off brand SATA drive i bought from Aliexpress. 

Do you mind load your BIOS_ver.log here or send one to me? It is part of the log file. 

Thanks

if anything my bios on the rn628x is much older than yours.

my unit is one of the original beta units, so its likely that the bios is older.

also i cant send any logfiles since im not using readynasos anymore.

i can however, when i get home go into the bios and make a note of the version.

Thanks. When you are in your BIOS, please take note of both the bios_date and bios_version. 

here is a screenshot of my bios version and build date:

it identifies as rn528, but its a 628x, no idea if thats normal, or specific to my beta model.

thank you for the info. Mine is Jan 2017 V 3.0, slightly newer than yours. So it might be the problem of the BIOS. I will wait until my new PCIe cable arrive to test further. Hope I don't have to buy another SATA card. 

By the way, I see have 32Gb RAM installed. What is the RAM you used?

What PCIE riser card do you have in the 628? I can't seem to find any, as you said. the PCIe slot is so deep from the opening of the slot on the case. No card is that long and deep enough with a right angle riser card. I guess a cable is the only option. 

PS. It is normal for the BIOS to be RN528. Here is mine:

/sys/class/dmi/id/bios_date
::::::::::::::
01/25/2017
::::::::::::::
/sys/class/dmi/id/bios_version
::::::::::::::
RN528v30

im using a normal 90 degree riser card.

i dont care if the card is offset, as i am not using anything with an external connector.

so im just removing the mounting bracket of whatever card im using and use the card.

you are limited in how long the card can be though because at some point you collide with the atx powercable of the mainboard.

my cards are all shorter than that though, so i dont have any issues there.

the ram i used was simply 2x 16gb dr4 ecc udimm i bought from ebay (pricey compared to nonecc ram). the ram is actually ddr4 2666 ram, but automatically runs at 2133 mhz, which is correct for this platform.

here is the output of dmidecode for this memory module (i have 2 installed):

Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x0047
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 72 bits
        Data Width: 72 bits
        Size: 16 GB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: DIMM_B1
        Bank Locator: NODE 1
        Type: DDR4
        Type Detail: Synchronous
        Speed: 2667 MT/s
        Manufacturer: Samsung
        Serial Number: 12475D6A
        Asset Tag: DIMM_B1_AssetTag
        Part Number: M391A2K43BB1-CTD
        Rank: 2
        Configured Memory Speed: 2133 MT/s
        Minimum Voltage: Unknown
        Maximum Voltage: Unknown
        Configured Voltage: 0.003 V

i just checked my rn526x (not beta unit) via dmidecode and its running 2.9 with a date of 05/10/2016.

short update on my original topic of adding additional ssd-drives to a readynas 52x/62x.

i found a way to do that without putting additional load on the powersupply of the nas.

i will be using external usb to sata power cables to power the drives via external usb powersupply.

here are two sneakpeek pictures to give an idea 🙂

when its finished i will also add pictures of how i power the drives and how everything looks in truenas.

more to come soon when i have the remaining parts.

finally the missing parts have arrived.

here is my solution for powering external sata ssds:

so far it works like a charm.

this particular rn526x now has 6xHDD's and 3xSSD's (upgradable to max 6 SSD's, as the additional sata controller has 6 ports).

Might be interesting for other people.

p.s.: this only works if you use something other than readynasos on your rn52x/62x. readynasos wont show the additional drives and will just ignore everything.

Sandshark what do you think about this solution?

i know its janky, but all is better than not utilizing the true potential of the hardware 🙂

I have to wait till a moderator approves the photos before I can see them, but your description sounds good.

FWIW, I believe you could use that configuration in ReadyNASOS.  The GUI won't see the drives in the Volumes or Performance screens, but once you create a volume via SSH, it should see that, and then all the share creation and control functions should work with that volume.  You could even add drives to the existing volume, again using SSH, but I don't recommend that.  Interestingly, RAIDar does see all the drives, and they all show up in the appropriate logs.

I tested this on an RD5200 and RN3200 converted to ReadyNAS OS6.  In the case of the 5200, I just added drives to the otherwise unused SATA ports (it uses SAS only).  On the 3200, I added a card, as my goal was to allow the use of >2TB drives in all bays since 6 of the 12 SATA ports don't support them.  When I added the card, it seemed to "reserve" one of the drive designations for itself, but it otherwise worked doing volume set-up via SSH.  There is a post somewhere in the forum where I discuss doing that, but I don't have a pointer to it.

the pictures just show the 10 port usb powersupply (60w total power), my 3 ssds in a selfmade frame and the usb to sata-power cables running from the powersupply to the disks.

the second picture shows the disks in a pool under truenas.

the disks are then connected to the sata data-cables coming out the back of my nas as seen in previous posts.

it looks a bit messy due to cable lenghts.

especially the red sata cables are a bit long and to inflexible to place them nicely.

will need to think about how to optimize it to make it look nicer.

performance is fine. about 800MB/sec. expected from the 3 old ssds in raidz1 (raid5 equivalent) im using for this experiment.

edit: here is a picture how it looks while installed in my homelab at the moment