Home Server with RAID 1 SATA M2 SSDs

[runyor]

I have been using a Raspberry Pi Model B as a home server for a decade now. Mainly as an http/cronjob server, it has never failed on me (did a SD card upgrade at some point for additional disk space). Backup was just a couple of SDs ready to replace the failing one.



Now I need more CPU power so I got myself a RockPro64 4GB and plan to setup it with two M2 SSDs in RAID 1.



My current inventory:

- board

- 60W power adapter

- PCIE to M2 SATA adapter (two slots) based on the JMB582 chip



Items I am waiting for:

- heat sink (forgot to order it with the board)

- serial to usb adapter (because apparently you cannot install Debian without it as video fails: https://youtu.be/dENsLmDhq5Y)

- 2x SATA SSDs (1TB each)



Tried installing Debian 12 but (as per the linked YouTube video) I think I got this https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/ROCKPro64#N..._on_Debian so now I need something to hook up to the uart (please let me know if I am wrong on this).



Manjaro worked great and I was able to at least confirm the SATA adapter is loaded fine:
$ lspci
00:00.0 PCI bridge: Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd RK3399 PCI Express Root Port
01:00.0 SATA controller: Micron Technology Corp. JMB58x AHCI SATA controller

[diederik]

Tried installing Debian 12 but (as per the linked YouTube video) I think I got this https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/ROCKPro64#N..._on_Debian so now I need something to hook up to the uart (please let me know if I am wrong on this).

Why not SSH into the RP64 and run the command?

[runyor]

Tried installing Debian 12 but (as per the linked YouTube video) I think I got this https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/ROCKPro64#N..._on_Debian so now I need something to hook up to the uart (please let me know if I am wrong on this).

Why not SSH into the RP64 and run the command?

I assumed the DHCP client is not enabled by default on the Debian installer as the board did not show up on my router's devices list.

[AnjinMeili]

What is the symptoms of your issue? Can you step by step what you have done so far? Which image? Booting from eMMC or SD?

[ChriChri]

For your setup you might find useful information here:

https://git.sr.ht/~chrichri/RockPro64_u-...RAID_howto

If your SATA controller is supported by u-boot you could finish your setup without serial console, but I'd strongly advice to be ready for failure in which case debugging via serial would be needed. Reverting to a boot from sdcard/eMMC works without serial console by disabling SPI via jumper.

[wdt]

Not worth setting up another account.....
Flash sector size 0x2000 ..... is this a typo? maybe 0x200?

[ChriChri]

Not worth setting up another account.....
Flash sector size  0x2000  ..... is this a typo?  maybe 0x200?

Hm, I'm not really into that topic, but it seems that sectors used for erasing can be quiet big. Information from the SPIs data sheet (wiki) point to a size of 4096byte, but the page https://github.com/sbabic/libubootenv/bl..._config.md says it can be left out.

A quick test reveals that indeed the commands fw_* work without that parameter. I'll take it out off the howto.

[wdt]

0x2000 = 8K ,, this seems too low (small) for an erase block size, which is usually 64K or larger
Nowadays often 256K,, but this is NOR flash so it could be different
-----
and after looking at the examples I think that it is indeed erase block size,, just mislabled

[Davidmenk3]

I have been using a Raspberry Pi Model B as a home server for a decade now. Mainly as an http/cronjob server, it has never failed on me (did a SD card upgrade at some point for additional disk space). Backup was just a couple of SDs ready to replace the failing one.

Now I need more CPU power so I got myself a RockPro64 4GB and plan to setup it with two M2 SSDs in RAID 1.

My current inventory:

- board

- 60W power adapter

- PCIE to M2 SATA adapter (two slots) based on the JMB582 chip

Items I am waiting for:

- heat sink (forgot to order it with the board)

- serial to usb adapter (because apparently you cannot install Debian without it as video fails: https://youtu.be/dENsLmDhq5Y)

- 2x SATA SSDs (1TB each)

Tried installing Debian 12 but (as per the linked YouTube video) I think I got this https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/ROCKPro64#N..._on_Debian so now I need something to hook up to the uart (please let me know if I am wrong on this).

Manjaro worked great and I was able to at least confirm the SATA adapter is loaded fine:
$ lspci
00:00.0 PCI bridge: Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd RK3399 PCI Express Root Port
01:00.0 SATA controller: Micron Technology Corp. JMB58x AHCI SATA controller

Sounds like you’ve got quite the DIY home server upgrade in the works! That RockPro64 setup is ambitious—RAID 1 with M.2 SSDs sounds rock solid (pun intended). As for the serial adapter, yep, you’ll need it for Debian if video fails—been there, done that, and wished for easier installs. If all else fails, and you need more power or reliability, you could always consider an affordable dedicated server from HostNoc—sometimes outsourcing the headaches is worth it! Good luck getting everything up and running!