I suddenly seem to have a Parity drive that is disabled...(solved)


Recommended Posts

I take a quick look at my Unraid box ( Supermicro X10SRH-CLN4F, Version 1.00A) every day and noticed this afternoon that I had a warning the Parity drive was disabled. I had just upgraded to 6.9.2 this morning, so I tried rebooting the computer to see if that would help...nope. I then looked to see if anything about the disk's health jumped out at me...undecided on that point, so I moved on. I then reverted to the last OS (6.9.1) to see if that changed anything...nope. I did download a couple of diagnostics ZIP files along the way, which I'll attach below. I'm by no means a Unraid guru, so it's time for professional help! I've been searching but I'm not crazy about just throwing things at the wall, hoping for a fix. The two things I listed above hopefully didn't make the situation worse. Any words of advice?

tower-diagnostics-20210410-1621.zip tower-smart-20210410-2007.zip

Edited by gatorgrabber
Link to comment
1 hour ago, gatorgrabber said:

noticed this afternoon

You should setup Notifications to alert you immediately by email or other agent when a problem is detected instead of waiting until you happen to check the webUI.

 

1 hour ago, gatorgrabber said:

Any words of advice?

Asking for advice when you are unsure what to do is the best thing you could have done. Many people have asked for advice after they have already done some things that made the situation worse.

 

1 hour ago, gatorgrabber said:

Parity drive was disabled

Unraid disables a disk when a write to it fails, whether it is parity or a data disk in the array. This is because the failed write means the disk is no longer in sync with the array.

 

There are different reasons a write can fail, and a bad disk is often not the reason. A frequent cause is bad connections.

 

The only thing you should have done differently is get the diagnostics before rebooting. Syslog resets when you reboot, so we can't see why the disk was disabled. Wouldn't hurt to check connections before proceeding just in case.

 

To get a disk back in sync with the array, it must be rebuilt.

 

SMART for parity disk looks OK and since parity doesn't actually contain any of your data no reason to not rebuild to that same disk.

  1. Stop array
  2. Unassign disk
  3. Start array with disk unassigned
  4. Stop array
  5. Reassign disk
  6. Start array to begin rebuild

What you should see on Main - Array Disks while parity is rebuilding is a lot of reads on all other disks, a lot of writes to parity disk, and nothing in the Errors column for any disk.

 

If you have any problems during parity rebuild, post new diagnostics without rebooting.

 

Just another note. Your system share is on the array. Best if it is on cache and set to stay on cache, since these files are always open by dockers and VMs and will keep array disks spunup if they are on the array, and these won't perform as well due to slower array.

Link to comment

Thanks for the quick assistance! I'm setup for notifications, it's just that I don't see them when I'm in the field (wildlife biologist) until I get back in. Your step by step is very useful, thanks for that. My only question involves how to properly unassign the disk...that I don't want to screw up! Also, I have already shut down the server and checked the cables and power to make sure nothing was loose; nope. Thanks!

Link to comment

With the rebuild just about done (1 hr to go), I got the same message about a possible issue. Attached is the diagnostics report, taken without rebooting this time. Disk on the way out? If so, bummer since it's not even 2yrs old and the youngest in the array. Perhaps go with another mfg for a replacement??

tower-diagnostics-20210411-0630.zip

Edited by gatorgrabber
Link to comment

Well, I just wandered in and saw that my parity disk is actually in the green (active) and healthy, at least according to SMART. Parity was shown as valid...😕 I ran another diagnostics report and have attached it below. I haven't rebooted or modified it in any way, wary that I'll anger the disk gods hiding in my server!

 

tower-diagnostics-20210411-0854.zip

Edited by gatorgrabber
Link to comment

It was the alert (red) notification that the parity disc was invalid. I got the same report below this morning while the rebuild was in progress. After it was finished, all seems well??

 

 

Unraid StatusNotice [TOWER] - array health report [FAIL]Array has 6 disks (including parity & cache)alert

Parity - WDC_WD40EFRX-68N32N0_WD-WCC7K1ULAPSS (sde) - active 91 F [DISK INVALID]
Disk 1 - WDC_WD30EFRX-68EUZN0_WD-WCC4N7JRHV3Z (sdg) - active 91 F [OK]
Disk 2 - WDC_WD30EFRX-68EUZN0_WD-WCC4N6TL8FD5 (sdf) - active 93 F [OK]
Disk 3 - WDC_WD30EFRX-68EUZN0_WD-WCC4N6LL04CK (sdd) - active 91 F [OK]
Cache - CT1000MX500SSD1_1919E201FCEC (sdc) - active 88 F [OK]
Cache 2 - CT1000MX500SSD1_1919E201F026 (sdb) - active 91 F [OK]

Parity sync / Data rebuild in progress.
Total size: 4 TB
Elapsed time: 2 hours, 6 minutes
Current position: 1.05 TB (26.2 %)
Estimated speed: 132.7 MB/sec
Estimated finish: 6 hours, 11 minutes
Sync errors corrected: 0

Link to comment
9 minutes ago, gatorgrabber said:

It was the alert (red) notification that the parity disc was invalid. I got the same report below this morning while the rebuild was in progress. After it was finished, all seems well??

 

 

Unraid StatusNotice [TOWER] - array health report [FAIL]Array has 6 disks (including parity & cache)alert

Parity - WDC_WD40EFRX-68N32N0_WD-WCC7K1ULAPSS (sde) - active 91 F [DISK INVALID]
Disk 1 - WDC_WD30EFRX-68EUZN0_WD-WCC4N7JRHV3Z (sdg) - active 91 F [OK]
Disk 2 - WDC_WD30EFRX-68EUZN0_WD-WCC4N6TL8FD5 (sdf) - active 93 F [OK]
Disk 3 - WDC_WD30EFRX-68EUZN0_WD-WCC4N6LL04CK (sdd) - active 91 F [OK]
Cache - CT1000MX500SSD1_1919E201FCEC (sdc) - active 88 F [OK]
Cache 2 - CT1000MX500SSD1_1919E201F026 (sdb) - active 91 F [OK]

Parity sync / Data rebuild in progress.
Total size: 4 TB
Elapsed time: 2 hours, 6 minutes
Current position: 1.05 TB (26.2 %)
Estimated speed: 132.7 MB/sec
Estimated finish: 6 hours, 11 minutes
Sync errors corrected: 0

That is normal as until the rebuild finishes the parity is deemed to not be valid.

Link to comment

I appreciate the help, thanks! That part I understand but it also was giving me the same message (about the parity disk being invalid) yesterday morning before I started this thread. Perhaps the message this morning was a relic of the browser (not Unraid) holding the message in cache; I've seen that before. Well, all seems to be fine so I'll just let it be for now.

 

Trurl mentioned having my system share stay the cache; any suggestions on that since I've got you?

Link to comment
2 minutes ago, gatorgrabber said:

Trurl mentioned having my system share stay the cache; any suggestions on that since I've got you?

At the moment the Use Cach setting = Yes which means you want it initially be written to the cache and later moved to the array.   The Help built into the GUI gives a good summary of how the settings operate.

 

the way to proceed to get it on the cache is:

  • disable docker/VMs services if they are enabled (as files open in these services cannot be moved)
  • change the Use Cache setting for the ‘system’ share to ‘Prefer’
  • manually run mover from the Main tab to get it to move ‘Prefer’ type shares from array to cache.
  • When mover finishes you can re-enable the Docker and/or VMs services iyou use.
  • (optional) change the Use Cache setting to ‘Only’ to say files for this share can never be written to the array.

 

Link to comment
  • gatorgrabber changed the title to I suddenly seem to have a Parity drive that is disabled...(solved)

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.