Areca 1880

[Nizzen]

Can you make a step by step guide for Areca 1880 users?

Regards from a noob

[mobilenvidia]

Can you make a step by step guide for Areca 1880 users?

Regards from a noob

Send me a 1880 and I certainly will

I don't know how the 1880 boots, or if it has an equivalent Preboot CLi
Areca must surely have apps that do the same thing as MegaCLi

Must have a look.

[trans am]

Could you do a test with the M4's on the 9265 if you've still got it?

My 0002 drives work OK but the upgraded ones (0009) aren't detected at start-up, they sometimes are detected when inserted while monitoring in MSM.

This is getting pretty sad, I do like the M4's but I was planning on using them on a raid controller...

I'm using 4x 64gb m4 in raid0 on 9260-4i on intel x58 most times it boots fine but every so often I will get the lsi beep of death during post and the only way to clear is to press F or some key (I forget) but its like it will only show 2 out of 4 disks and finally it will work. Is this what Anvil is talking about? Anvil didnt you mention in your thread about the Anvil bench you changed the spinup delay? how exactly does spinup delay effect ssds? I never messed with it because I'm not using spinup drives. they are solid state. cant you just set it to 0 for ssds? what the hell is spinup delay? anvil what is your mobo? sorry I just noticed this is a 1880 thread. good luck with that. I can only imagine the frustration of investing hard earned money on an 1880 and not getting it to play nice.

[Anvil]

The m4's works just fine, as long as they are on the old firmware.

Unfortunately I've upgraded half of my drives to 0009 , I'll wait for a fix, the (0009) m4's are currently used as boot drives on onboard-controllers

[Razor_Blade]

Well, cross your fingers, but I have successfully booted on M4 0009 firmware drives 5 times from a cold boot. Getting that command in is not for the feint of heart! You need to hook up to the RJ-11 port on the card and use Putty to get into the CLI. You also need the set the speed to 115200 and the flow control to XON/XOFF. Then you should be able to see the CLI. Log in with the password you set. Once in type exactly this command (no mistakes, backspaces will break the command): spin 128 8

128 is the number of milliseconds to wait before the card spins another drive and the 8 is the number of drives you have. If you have more drives, up this number to match. Then type: st

You can make sure the command worked by typing spin in the console once more, and it should show the correct 128ms spin time. Reboot system, enjoy life. Report back, if you have problems or questions. I would like to make sure this works for everyone so also let me know if you are successful. Easy, right? LOL

[Computurd]

I bow before you

ok so lets make this understandable for us guys with no experince.

what is Putty? do you install this as a program or an OS?
this has to be on a separate machine?

can you give the actual command line that needs to be entered in putty?

what would i enter in for the 8 i am using?

can you please make some type of guide?

you da man!

[Razor_Blade]

I bow before you

ok so lets make this understandable for us guys with no experince.

what is Putty? do you install this as a program or an OS?
this has to be on a separate machine?

can you give the actual command line that needs to be entered in putty?

what would i enter in for the 8 i am using?

can you please make some type of guide?

you da man!

Putty is an executable used to make various network connections. Here is where you can get it. It simply runs, no installation needed. You might have to Run as Administrator, if you leave that user account control garbage on.
O
nce you have opened it (and allowed it through windows firewall, if prompted) you will have a screen asking you to set up the connection. Select Serial, make sure the COM port listed is the same as the COM port your computer has set for Serial, and change the speed to 115200. Make sure the computer is on (booting/in BIOS is fine if you are using a second machine to connect) and select Open. If you hit enter once, it should ask you for a password (spelled pasword, LOL!). Type in the password you have set, and you are in. The commands should look exactly as follows, with the exception of the last parameter on the spin command. It should always be equal to or greater than the number of drives you have. Here you go:

spin 128 8
spin
st

Reboot you machine after all the commands work. Be SUPER careful with syntax. If you mess up, DO NOT ENTER THE "st" COMMAND!!! Just try the spin 128 8(or 12 or whatever) command again until the output is correct or reboot to clear. That's all folks! Make sure you have the latest firmware and all, and you should be good. Compu, you should contact Areca and let them know that they have fixed it, as far as I can tell.

[mobilenvidia]

Putty is a very useful app for devices with serial connections to allow Firmware updates or also getting debug info from it.
I use it quite a bit in my Satellite receiver (Linux box) firmware mods.
It can be a little tricky to setup sometimes.
Often you need a USB to serial adaptor for it to work
Do you need a USB to RJ11 converter for the Areca if you have no serial port ?

Areca must use the serial connection for what Razor_Blade has just done.
LSI and other OEM versions of SAS2x08 cards also have a serial header. (TPM)
This may also work on them.

If I can find an old serial cable could attempt to solder up a header to try.

[Razor_Blade]

The RJ11 cable came with mine, I just used a USB-Serial cable I had to hook it up.

[mobilenvidia]

The RJ11 cable came with mine, I just used a USB-Serial cable I had to hook it up.

That certainly helps to have it included

[dbguru]

Sounds a bit like a magic - but what is the exact version of the controller and firmware which you tested it on?

Should the first param after spin still be 128 if I have mix of 4 SSDs (M4 w/009 fw) and 12 regular HD (of 2 different kinds)?

And 2nd param - should it be 16 in this case or smth else?

Happy New Year!

Well, cross your fingers, but I have successfully booted on M4 0009 firmware drives 5 times from a cold boot. Getting that command in is not for the feint of heart! You need to hook up to the RJ-11 port on the card and use Putty to get into the CLI. You also need the set the speed to 115200 and the flow control to XON/XOFF. Then you should be able to see the CLI. Log in with the password you set. Once in type exactly this command (no mistakes, backspaces will break the command): spin 128 8

128 is the number of milliseconds to wait before the card spins another drive and the 8 is the number of drives you have. If you have more drives, up this number to match. Then type: st

You can make sure the command worked by typing spin in the console once more, and it should show the correct 128ms spin time. Reboot system, enjoy life. Report back, if you have problems or questions. I would like to make sure this works for everyone so also let me know if you are successful. Easy, right? LOL

[Razor_Blade]

I used the latest firmware from Areca's site, and I have a 1880ix-12 with 4GB of cache. I am not sure about if I can release the one of the firmwares I was using to accomplish this, but If you PM Computurd, he should be able to get it for you. Honestly, we ought to just let Areca know that the solution is working, and they can get it releases in non-alpha form. I am not even sure if the firmware is required, the command might be enough.

As for your drive configuration, I have no idea what to tell you there. I would suspect that with 8 spinning disks, having them all spin up that fast would be a bad idea for your power supply, but there isn't a setting to change it for individual drive groups. I would try "spin 128 4" if the SSD's are the first drives. You could try "spin 128 16" and see if it works. If it doesn't, you can always go back to the default by typing "spin 1024 1", I think. The document I used to get the command is not very specific on how it works and it's uses.

Sounds a bit like a magic - but what is the exact version of the controller and firmware which you tested it on?

Should the first param after spin still be 128 if I have mix of 4 SSDs (M4 w/009 fw) and 12 regular HD (of 2 different kinds)?

And 2nd param - should it be 16 in this case or smth else?

Happy New Year!

[Rubycon]

Do you have a list of commands that can be used to access hidden settings?

[dbguru]

I want to do using (if possible) same fw version as you had.

What do you see in arc_cli sys info for
Firmware Version
BOOT ROM Version?

Thanks.

I used the latest firmware from Areca's site, and I have a 1880ix-12 with 4GB of cache. I am not sure about if I can release the one of the firmwares I was using to accomplish this, but If you PM Computurd, he should be able to get it for you. Honestly, we ought to just let Areca know that the solution is working, and they can get it releases in non-alpha form. I am not even sure if the firmware is required, the command might be enough.

As for your drive configuration, I have no idea what to tell you there. I would suspect that with 8 spinning disks, having them all spin up that fast would be a bad idea for your power supply, but there isn't a setting to change it for individual drive groups. I would try "spin 128 4" if the SSD's are the first drives. You could try "spin 128 16" and see if it works. If it doesn't, you can always go back to the default by typing "spin 1024 1", I think. The document I used to get the command is not very specific on how it works and it's uses.

[Razor_Blade]

Do you have a list of commands that can be used to access hidden settings?

Not sure what you mean, This isn't like the console in video games. LOL There aren't a ton of commands available in the CLI, just type help to see them all.

[kikourof]

Ok just to be clear, is this problem we've been waiting to be fixed only affecting the booting on a RAID volume made of M4s?

Meaning if I just want to use a RAID 0 with Areca 1880 and that IT IS NOT MEANT TO BE A BOOT VOLUME then there won't be any issue for me?

Cause sincerely having to mess up with all these CLI stuff is not making me to want to buy the M4s for my 1880...

And happy new year all!

[Anvil]

As long as the M4s are connected to the controller you will have issues booting. (it stalls)

[Razor_Blade]

Ok just to be clear, is this problem we've been waiting to be fixed only affecting the booting on a RAID volume made of M4s?

Meaning if I just want to use a RAID 0 with Areca 1880 and that IT IS NOT MEANT TO BE A BOOT VOLUME then there won't be any issue for me?

Cause sincerely having to mess up with all these CLI stuff is not making me to want to buy the M4s for my 1880...

And happy new year all!

If you haven't bought the M4 drives yet, I wouldn't. In my case, setting the drive spin up the way I did is fine, because I have only M4's connected to it. I have no clue what that setting is going to do to arrays with normal drives in it. My guess is that it would put a TON of load on your 12v rail. If you have a really beefy PSU, you could probably get away with it, but it seems risky. Just use a different drive. The Samsung's are looking good or Sandforce, since it isn't your boot drive (just keep backups. lol).

[Horsi74]

I would prefer Corsair Performance Pro for the 1880.
My setting is currently: 4 x 256gb Corsair Performance Pro RAID0 @ Areca 1880
Works perfectly.

Very Strange: With a new Adaptec SFF8087 6G cable, I get a slightly higher transfer rate than with an older LSI cable.

[Nizzen]

How hard is it for Crucial or/and Areca to fix the M4 issue in a firmware?

M4 was the winner, now it is epic fail and thrown in the garbage can. Even OCZ works better with Areca

4x Max iops it is now together with many Hitachi 3tb R6. Works well enough.

[Anvil]

Lets hope the fix is part of the new m4 firmware expected to be released next week.

[kikourof]

Ok, still giving the M4 a last chance waiting to see if this new firmware fixes the issue. Anybody got to test it yet?

[Wintel64]

Does the "spin 128 4" command can fix the M4 009 firmware issue?

I used the latest firmware from Areca's site, and I have a 1880ix-12 with 4GB of cache. I am not sure about if I can release the one of the firmwares I was using to accomplish this, but If you PM Computurd, he should be able to get it for you. Honestly, we ought to just let Areca know that the solution is working, and they can get it releases in non-alpha form. I am not even sure if the firmware is required, the command might be enough.

As for your drive configuration, I have no idea what to tell you there. I would suspect that with 8 spinning disks, having them all spin up that fast would be a bad idea for your power supply, but there isn't a setting to change it for individual drive groups. I would try "spin 128 4" if the SSD's are the first drives. You could try "spin 128 16" and see if it works. If it doesn't, you can always go back to the default by typing "spin 1024 1", I think. The document I used to get the command is not very specific on how it works and it's uses.

[Razor_Blade]

Yes, it does, but make sure that the second number matches the number of drives you are using.

[Wintel64]

Can work with the latest M4 0309 firmware and have you try the areca 1880 v1.50 beta firmware?

Yes, it does, but make sure that the second number matches the number of drives you are using.