One of my disk, which was precleared like all others, dont want to spin down and after investigating a bit, I saw that it shows unknown partition format, while all other disk in array are showing "MBR: 4K-aligned". I have no clue what might have caused this, but what should I do now? I didnt noticed any other anomalies, all data is accessible, etc

 

One of my disk, which was precleared like all others, dont want to spin down and after investigating a bit, I saw that it shows unknown partition format, while all other disk in array are showing "MBR: 4K-aligned". I have no clue what might have caused this, but what should I do now? I didnt noticed any other anomalies, all data is accessible, etc

 

Step 1.  Post a syslog.

Step 2.  Stop the array and reboot.  The description is probably only captured when you first boot.

Step 3.  Do not panic.  Odds are step 2 will get the display in sync.

 

A disk that will not spin down is typically "busy" and being accessed.  To see what it is that is keeping the disk busy type:

fuser -cu /mnt/disk*

That fuser command will give what is currently accessing the disk, but not if it was accessed a few minutes ago.

For that you'll need to install "inotify tools"

 

You can type

mkdir /boot/packages

cd /boot/packages

wget http://www.slackware.org.il/slackware/slackware-12.2/slackware/a/inotify-tools-3.13-i486-1.tgz

installpkg inotify-tools-3.13-i486-1.tgz

 

to to install it.

Then, to monitor the activity on a specific disk type:

inotifywait -mr /mnt/disk4

 

Remember, if you have spin-up groups enabled, any activity on other disks connected to "host0" will cause disk4 to spin up as well.

 

Joe L.

Thanks Joe for the instructed steps. I have attached syslog. Let me know if there is something in there that shouldnt be.

 

The fuser command indeed shows that something is accessing the disk;

root@UNRAID:~# fuser -cu /mnt/disk4
/mnt/disk4:           2452c(root)

 

EDIT; After reboot it still shows as unknown 

 

syslog.txt

Should I backup the data and check the file system of the disk? Since I have 1 spare disk, should I copy data from questioned disk and precleared it again. Its really bugging me that it shows unknown partition format while all other disk are ok.

Should I backup the data and check the file system of the disk? Since I have 1 spare disk, should I copy data from questioned disk and precleared it again. Its really bugging me that it shows unknown partition format while all other disk are ok.

You should not let it bug you unless your data is missing.  You should report it to lime-tech as a possible bug.

 

The array only accepts one file-system type.  And that is a reiserfs.  It only knows two partition formats at this time, MBR 4k-aligned, and MBR-unaligned.

 

If you wish, I suppose you can perform a manual check of the file-system on that disk by following the instructions in the wiki here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Check_Disk_Filesystems

 

You can also list the partition information by typing

fdisk -l -u /dev/sdX

where sdX = the three letter linux device name for your disk.

 

Joe L.

 

Umax ..

 

no worries.. i had it too before when i just had 5 beta 2

i can't for the hell remember what it made go normal but i think after a few reboots it came normal ... or after one time i shuffled the disks around ... (stopped array ... unassigned that disk ... click done ... go back an reassign same disk .... click done ... start array ... ) but like i said i am not sure any more what solved it permanently...

anyway he ran for weeks with no issues ...  it is a cosmetic thing