ASRi-2758F and USB 3.0 Boot

[DataMover]

Hi guys,

I've seen USB 3 questions from time to time here and I would like to share this:

my Supermicro ASRi- 2758F has external and internal USB 3.0 headers. While I started my build with an USB 2.0 thumb drive on one the USB 2.0 headers, I soon moved on to connecting a legacy external 5 drive enclosure via USB 3.0 and setting the tunable xhci_load = "YES".

I noticed, that this extremely slows down boot of the system, at least. Most of the times the system wouldn't reboot at all. Transfer rates are about 80 MB/s writing. Pulling one of the drives kicks the whole RAIDZ volume, which is built upon those 5 drives.

Nevertheless I bought a mini USB 3.0 thumb drive dd'ed my FreeNAS boot image on it, connected it to the internal USB 3.0 header on the board and removed the USB 2.0 boot drive. I am particular pleased to say, that this works well with the ASRi-2758F! No slow boot (but no faster either!), no problems rebooting. Everything's fine, as far as I can see.

Tomorrow I expect my SanDisk Cruzer Extreme to arrive, which is tested for data rates of 180 MB/s and above. Let's see what can be achieved....

(t.b.c.)

 

[cyberjock]

Please don't take this as me questioning you or anything personal, but why are you posting? It's a well known fact that USB3 support either works fine or is generally complete crap with any given hardware. Are you just trying to share that your motherboard doesn't work well with USB3?

 

[engmsf]

DataMover,

Which SODIMM ECC ram module are you using with your SUPERMICRO MBD-A1SRi-2758F-O? Are all the 4 LAN ports recognized by FreeNAS (9.X)?

Do you use your FreeNAS as a Plex Media Server? If so in full transcoding what CPU usage are you seeing in the reporting menu - for movies that are > 10GB?

 

[DataMover]

Sorry,

AFK for a while ;)

I use Kingston 1,35 V modules. I bought them before all the clutter with Kingston and Supermicro started. Now I would tend to any supported low voltage type and search the internet for reputations.​

​

Yes, I use it as a Plex media sever. I am not sure, if it makes any difference to transcode a 2 GB HD video or 10 GB HD video. My first findings are written down in post #9 here.​

​

Also yes to the LAN ports. All 4 of them are recognized.​

​

Kind regards
DataMover

 

[D4nthr4x]

I disable usb 3.0 on my board if I need to move data to it I'll plug it into another PC and then transfer it over the network.

 

[Shroom]

Hey DataMover, I saw another thread of yours referencing this board and am glad to see you posting again. Very curious how the ASRI-2758F board is working out for you. Looking to get one myself.

I will probably buy a nice small SanDisk Cruzer Fit to put on the internal USB 3.0 header. You have confirmed this working with USB 3.0 enabled? Do you know if it will it run as a 2.0 port with 3.0 disabled?

Do you think a 190MB/s flash stick will really offer a performance advantage (for boot, anyway) over a cheaper, smaller 2.0 stick? If so, do you think it's worth the extra $$ for one of those Cruzer Extremes?

 

[DataMover]

Hey Shroom,

the ASRi-2758F is working well. A friend has also bought this board one week ago and converted his old FreeNAS setup - so I will be able to get another opinion soon.

Although I have a small CNmemory USB 3.0 thumb drive (it really is the size of my thumb nail ;-), I can confirm it is working on the internal header with xhci_load set to yes. An yes, it will run as a USB 2 device on a USB 2 port - in fact if you set up a fresh system, that's the only choice to boot your FreeNAS, as a fresh setup doesn't have xhci_load enable and thus won't boot from USB 3.

Therefor the steps are: install FreeNAS on the thumb drive and plug it into a USB 2 port, boot and setup your system. Confirm everything is working as it should be. Then set the tunable and shut down the system. Now plug the thumb drive into the internal USB 3 header and turn on the system again. It should and most probably will boot.

Now, enough with all the "yesses". No, I don't think that you should waste your money by buying a really huge (size in GB) flash stick. The FreeNAS image is extrem small. How often will you reboot your box? Once a week? Once a month? I guess it might give you an advantage of a couple (meaning very few) seconds - if any. I bought this cheap and small (16 GB, couldn't find any smaller;-) CNmemory flash stick. And it was just for the size (this time physical dimensions) of the device. That's my opinion for the boot device!

For data...well, I also have a Cruzer Extreme and I can tell you it's fun on my MacBook plugged into a USB 3 port. Copying 8 GB from this flash stick onto the internal SSD and Finder says right away: less than a minute )
But again: don't waste your money for the USB boot device.

Kind regards
DataMover

 

[Shroom]

Thanks Data! Looking forward to hearing your friend's results as well.

I figured the flash drive did not matter much, I'm still going to get a couple of those tiny Sandisk 8GBs. I just thought maybe a 16GB Extreme might be worth a few extra bucks if it meant a somewhat speedier boot time, but you're probably right that it won't make much of a difference.