skylark

Sort of explains how i've managed to get the beta version of the plugin identifying itself as a kosher version. But ... something strange happened with the preclear overnight. It stopped! Nothing running this morning and array not started which to me looks like the array has rebooted??? Need to take a further look but this 8TB certainly doesnt want to be precleared.

Good to hear ... but can you explain what is 'preclear disk beta' in settings?? I run my preclear disk from the plugins tab and although its timestamp doesnt match it runs the new script without issues.

gfjardim ... was that reply for me? If so i do not understand what you are trying to tell me. I do not have a preclear disk beta tab within settings. FYI i downloaded the 'amended' version by 'search'ing for 'preclear' on the CA apps tab. It downloaded the new version (dated today) and the install script confirmed this but the plugin it installed still shows old timestamps and version number against it and hasn't got 'beta' anywhere to be seen. You know much better than me how these things work. I'm just happy to confirm that it does!!

Just upgraded from v5.0.5 to 6.1.9 via 'method 1' and it went like a dream, nothing untoward as yet Now i've got to work out how to get my five disks (3x6TB, 2x4TB) converted from reiserfs to xfs. Fortunately i've got one spare slot with an 8TB drive now pre-clearing (thanks gfjardim!) nicely!

Can i give this a go? I've got an 8TB still to clear. How do i get the new version? <Edit> ... I've got it and it works a treat!!! Stopped and restarted my array a few times with no ill effects to the preclear (none expected) and more importantly the webgui returned after around 10 seconds instead of hanging which was the point at which i had been power cycling unable to confirm that the preclear was still ongoing. The only confusion was with the download script which still shows the old date/timestamp and version on the plugins screen (2015.11.18 ) which was why i asked where i could get it from earlier. Great work and thanks a lot gfjardim >

That might do it, pausing the preclear until the array either stops or starts. Hopefully the webgui will remain responsive.

Can i come back i here? I was NOT preassigning disk to the array. It initially showed below as an unassigned disk. I the started a preclear using the plugin which started and ran aok UNTIL i tried to 'start' the array, which i assume is allowed? Webgui at that point becomes inaccessible. Similarly if i 'start' the array BEFORE the preclear which again runs fine if i then choose to 'stop' the array the webgui freezes. In both cases the preclear 'seems' to be continuing but hcw can i tell? More importantly the array is useless from that point so i just power cycle costing me days!

I'll not muddy the waters here and let you guys sort things out ...

... Anything to save days if not weeks of lost time will be appreciated. I don't have UD installed, should i have? Also, my scenario is slightly different inasmuch as i am preclearing an unassigned disk not yet allocated to the array. I am assuming that this is ok and that i dont need to assign it until AFTER it has been successfully cleared. J BB, looks like yours is preclearing AFTER you've assigned it, yes? Got to admit i'm only anle to view your jpeg from my ohone at present and my eyes are not good [emoji1]

JB ... exactly the same problems i'm having when trying to clear a number of 8TB drives. Whether i kick off a preclear from the plugin before or after starting the array any attempts at changing its status either stop or start results in total unresponsiveness of the gui and each time i have had to power cycle the server. Not ideal with an 8TB drive taking days to complete but i just havent got the time to wait and see if the server will come back to life. SO .. the only is to run a preclear on its own therefore the array is unuseable for days until i can see it end successfully. Any way around this would be appreciated.

Can i just say thanks for this comprehensive writeup as i am just about to build my backup server and was needing a solution to this very scenario as a linux 'non-geek'. Can i ask a couple of supplementary to complete the picture ... how can i wake up my backup server at a specific time to run the job and which side is best to control the cron job ie should it be run from the primary or backup server? I'm thinking the backup server IF it can be woken and powered off automatically. Dont really want it up and running 24x7. I'm running a pair of hp microservers (N54L's) btw.

I've just cleared an 8TB Seagate drive using the plugin without faster post read (i'm old school and really want ALL of the disk to be fully exercised) ... took 76hrs. Got one more to go. Guess i could try that faster preclear switch if it appears.

Thanks! Only 'old' files in preclear so i've restarted, d'oh!!

Guys ... i have a standalone machine which is currently preclearing an 8TB drive, some 36 hours in (around 50%) and it's gone unresponsive on me via the gui so i've no idea whether i should kill it or not. The preclear was launched via the plugin (it's v6.1.9 btw) when the arrat was stopped and i kept on dipping in via the the little view icon to see how it was going. And then .... I 'start'ed the array thinking it couldn't hurt my preclear and since then no access via gui. I CAN still ssh into the machine but i've little to no linux cli experience so was wondering if anyone could give me a couple of commands to run to see if i can get this thing going again otherwise i'm going to lose a couple of days preclear and given that these things take 3 days per cycle ......

Good price for an offline backup.

My writes are via user shares which i think i would want to write to cache drive then move overnight to speed things up. Is it worth pooling a couple of drives to protect these writes and any docker/vms resident? Guess it comes down to the size of these as well. Anyone got any way to calculate the size of individual dockers?

Thanks for that. I can write about 100GB two or three times weekly to the array so guess my starting size is around the 160GB mark + dockers + a couple of vms. Will 250GB do it or should i be going higher?

Thanks. Understood now

Hi ... i know this is a kinda 'how long is a piece of string question' but i'm looking to invest in a ssd to be installed as a cache drive. Question is how small is too small and how big is too big? It'll be used for a handful of dockers, Plex (possibly??) and a handful of vms. So what size(ish) should i be looking to install as a decent startup? Guess the real question is how large are you're SSDs?

Thanks again. It's rebuilding now. Just 10 hours to go!

Thanks! So there's no problem sticking the old parity disk in alongside the now increased parity?

Yes there is. I dont understand what it does and why it should be run. Armed with that information i might just go ahead and run it but i'd like to know why i'm running it if possible. Thanks to Frank1940 for answering positively. I'll hive that a go.

Can i ask for a bit of assistance please? I have successfully replaced a 6TB parity drive with an 8TB and parity is again valid. I now want to use the old parity drive to replace one of the existing 4TB data drives to give me an extra 2TB of space. What steps do i need to take to achieve this? Is it as simple as removing the 4TB and inserting the old parity disc in its place? Will the system recognise the missing disc and rebuild or not? And .. do i need to preclear the old parity drive before i reassign it as a data drive?

No problems at all with 8 seagate 4TB nas drives. Been running 24x7 for 2years now. Just preclearing a couple of 8TB units to swap in.

Can someone explain how i can check the current share ownership to establish whether the new permissions script has previously run or not.