August 5, 20214 yr Hi. I just received a new eSATA docking bay for HDDs. I'm replacing a USB3 dock that works fine with older disks but new disks I just bought aren't recognized by Unraid in that dock. Now, the new dock isn't recognized unless there is a disk in the dock at boot time. Without a disk in it on boot, any disk I put in the dock later just doesn't appear in Unassigned Devices. Nor are there any logs that show a disk being added.  With a disk in the unit on boot, that disk is recognized in UD. I can remove it and add another disk and it gets recognized and correctly listed in UD, and there are related log entries.  Is this behavior to be expected? Or should it act like the previous USB3 dock and show disks added and removed regardless of whether there was a disk in it at boot time?  Is there a way I can trigger the OS to pick up the dock and disk once booted (when I forget to put a disk in the dock on boot, which I'm sure I will, 🙄 )?  These are what I bought and added to my server: https://www.amazon.ca/ORICO-External-Docking-SSD（4TB-support/dp/B00A5323NO/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=orico+esata&qid=1628120388&sr=8-5 https://www.amazon.ca/StarTech-com-ESATAPLATE1-1-Port-eSATA-Bracket/dp/B000GX4C7I/ref=sr_1_17?dchild=1&keywords=esata+cable&qid=1628120450&sr=8-17  Thanks for any feedback.  Bob Edited August 5, 20214 yr by MrChip Add solved to title
August 5, 20214 yr Community Expert Are you inserting and removing disks while the dock is powered? I don't have that particular dock, but I always insert the disk while the dock is powered off, then turn it on, and then turn it off before removing disk.
August 5, 20214 yr Author  17 hours ago, trurl said: I always insert the disk while the dock is powered off, then turn it on, and then turn it off before removing disk  I generally do the same - turn the unit off before removing or inserting disks. I did that with the USB dock and I do that with the new one.  With this problem I'm experiencing, I've tried the different options - replacing a disk with the unit on, and replacing with the unit off. In either case if there's no disk in it (with the unit powered on) when Unraid boots then any amount of disk swapping doesn't work - the disk doesn't appear in UD. I can change disks with the unit on, or turn it off and swap disks and turn it back on, and in both cases the disk does not appear in UD. But when I boot Unraid with a disk in the unit and the unit powered up then UD shows the disk and it shows each disk change, regardless of whether the unit was on or off during the change. (By that I mean disk changed with the unit on, versus turn off the unit, change the disk, turn on the unit.)  If this was another USB dock device, I'd send it back because I'm sure disk changes should be detected regardless of whether there was a disk in it at boot time. But this is an eSATA dock, and I'm not sure how Unraid/SATA should behave when a device appears on a SATA port after power-up.  I did some testing and looked at lsscsi output and tried echo "- - -" > /sys/class/scsi_host/host4/scan  to see if that helped. It didn't, but here's the details for those interested:  Boot with device on and disk inserted The UD device lists shows the disk as unassigned device Dev2 (I have a permanently installed unassigned disk at Dev1) root@Tower:~# lsscsi [0:0:0:0] disk Ut163 USB2FlashStorage 0.00 /dev/sda [1:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WDS100T2B0A 00WD /dev/sdb [2:0:0:0] disk ATA CT1000MX500SSD1 033 /dev/sdc [4:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WD10EZRX-00A 1A01 /dev/sdd [7:0:0:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sde [7:0:1:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdf [7:0:2:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdg [7:0:3:0] disk ATA ST8000NE001-2M71 EN01 /dev/sdh [N:0:1:1] disk WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0__1 /dev/nvme0n1 -- the disk is: [4:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WD10EZRX-00A 1A01 /dev/sdd Turn off the dock device and remove the disk -- the disk disappears from the UD list, and the the lsscsi output root@Tower:~# lsscsi [0:0:0:0] disk Ut163 USB2FlashStorage 0.00 /dev/sda [1:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WDS100T2B0A 00WD /dev/sdb [2:0:0:0] disk ATA CT1000MX500SSD1 033 /dev/sdc [7:0:0:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sde [7:0:1:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdf [7:0:2:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdg [7:0:3:0] disk ATA ST8000NE001-2M71 EN01 /dev/sdh [N:0:1:1] disk WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0__1 /dev/nvme0n1 Turn on device, without disk inserted -- no change to lsscsi output, no change to UD device listing Turn off device, insert disk, turn on device -- disk appears in UD and lsscsi becomes root@Tower:~# lsscsi [0:0:0:0] disk Ut163 USB2FlashStorage 0.00 /dev/sda [1:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WDS100T2B0A 00WD /dev/sdb [2:0:0:0] disk ATA CT1000MX500SSD1 033 /dev/sdc [4:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WD10EZRX-00A 1A01 /dev/sdd [7:0:0:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sde [7:0:1:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdf [7:0:2:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdg [7:0:3:0] disk ATA ST8000NE001-2M71 EN01 /dev/sdh [N:0:1:1] disk WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0__1 /dev/nvme0n1  Then I tried booting without a disk inserted in the dock and the dock powered off.  No disk is listed in UD (except the permanent one at Dev1) root@Tower:~# lsscsi [0:0:0:0] disk Ut163 USB2FlashStorage 0.00 /dev/sda [1:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WDS100T2B0A 00WD /dev/sdb [2:0:0:0] disk ATA CT1000MX500SSD1 033 /dev/sdc [7:0:0:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdd [7:0:1:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sde [7:0:2:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdf [7:0:3:0] disk ATA ST8000NE001-2M71 EN01 /dev/sdg [N:0:1:1] disk WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0__1 /dev/nvme0n1 Insert a disk into the dock and power it on. -- No change in UD disk list, nor the lsscsi output root@Tower:~# lsscsi [0:0:0:0] disk Ut163 USB2FlashStorage 0.00 /dev/sda [1:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WDS100T2B0A 00WD /dev/sdb [2:0:0:0] disk ATA CT1000MX500SSD1 033 /dev/sdc [7:0:0:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdd [7:0:1:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sde [7:0:2:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdf [7:0:3:0] disk ATA ST8000NE001-2M71 EN01 /dev/sdg [N:0:1:1] disk WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0__1 /dev/nvme0n1 Force a rescan: root@Tower:~# echo "- - -" > /sys/class/scsi_host/host4/scan No change in UD or lsscsi. root@Tower:~# lsscsi [0:0:0:0] disk Ut163 USB2FlashStorage 0.00 /dev/sda [1:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WDS100T2B0A 00WD /dev/sdb [2:0:0:0] disk ATA CT1000MX500SSD1 033 /dev/sdc [7:0:0:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdd [7:0:1:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sde [7:0:2:0] disk ATA ST2000DM008-2FR1 0001 /dev/sdf [7:0:3:0] disk ATA ST8000NE001-2M71 EN01 /dev/sdg [N:0:1:1] disk WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0__1 /dev/nvme0n1  This was surprising and disappointing - I was hoping that the rescan echo command would be what I needed. But no.  I then tried booting with the dock powered on but no disk inserted. No improvement. Same UD and same lsscsi output. I tried the echo "- - -" again, and still no improvement.   Â
August 5, 20214 yr Author Sigh ... Live and learn from silly mistakes.  My main board has SATA hot swap settings for each SATA port. I forgot about that. When I set up my server I ignored the SATA port settings for ports I wasn't going to use, so they were at default of no hot swap. When I added the eSATA dock I used one of those ports. I remembered changing the hot swap setting, but forgot that it was per-port and I hadn't done it for all the ports.  I fixed that now, and the dock is working as expected when the system is booted with the dock off and no drive in it. Â
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