After reboot, "Too many attached devices. Please consider upgrading your"

[detz]

So I had a issue where two drives "failed" and I had to rush to replace them

I put a new drive in and put the old one attached as a usb drive so I could copy files over, reboot and eventually rebuilt the new drive with data. My parity drive was still broken though so I just stopped the array to start to pre-clear it and now I can't start it again. I get what the message is but I'm confused on WHY it let me start it about six times over the past weeks and now all of a sudden it won't. I'm physically away from the server for a week now and can't just unplug something, is there a way I can get this back online (I need to access these files) without physically being there? Why did this just happen, it's frustrating it let me stop the array knowing I couldn't start it back again without any changes!!

cylon-diagnostics-20210828-1904.zip

Edited August 28, 2021 by detz

[JorgeB]

You have a plus license with 13 devices connected, it won't allow you to start the array unless you upgrade to Pro, note that if the array is started with 12 or less devices it will allow you to connect more and it will work until the next time you need to start the array again.

[detz]

2 hours ago, JorgeB said:

You have a plus license with 13 devices connected, it won't allow you to start the array unless you upgrade to Pro, note that if the array is started with 12 or less devices it will allow you to connect more and it will work until the next time you need to start the array again.

Yes, I get that, but that's not my question. I was able to start the array multiple times with these 13 devices while I was home replacing the drive and it allowed it. Now it won't when I'm not physically there, why was this?  Also, I would think a basic warning when stopping the array "You have too many devices connected, you will not be able to start the array...." would be shown to prevent this situation. Now my array is stopped with no way to start it again since I'm not physically at home so I have no way to get my files. The worst part is I have a pro license too, at home, not in use...I'm starting to wonder if it's time to look at other options.

 

Besides paying for an extended license which I don't need is there any way to "remove" a device so I can start this array back up?

Edited August 29, 2021 by detz

[JorgeB]

Just now, detz said:

I was able to start the array multiple times with these 13 devices

Can't see how that is possible, number of devices his checked before array start, it won't start with more devices than the license allows, likely some disk(s) had dropped offline, so they din't count.

[itimpi]

It is also worth pointing out that is perfectly acceptable to plugin drives AFTER the array is started even though they would exceed the licence limit.