Can't add new disk to array

[jj_uk]

I've just finished pre-clearing a disk using the Binhex preclear docker. All successful. The new drive is 'sdh'.

 

I stopped the array, and selected the new disk from the drop-down menu in the MAIN tab - 'Array Devices'. The page refreshed after selection, but the drop-down set itself back to 'unassigned', and now the disk doesn't appear in the drop-list.  My array is still 3 drives + cache. It should be 4 drives + cache with the new disk added.

 

I can see the disk in "unassigned devices".  How can I add the new disk to the array?

 

 

 

 

[jj_uk]

I restarted the server and tried again. It has allowed the drive to be added this time, and it's (annoyingly) clearing the drive, which was supposed to be done by the preclear script!

 

[itimpi]

That means for some reason the pre-clear signature on the drive was not recognised.

 

the fact it disappeared when you first tried to add it suggests dropped offline, but since it seems you rebooted without first grabbing diagnostics it is too late to see why that happened.   It is possible it was at that point the pre-clear signature got destroyed.

[jj_uk]

I use a syslog server so I have the logs, attached.

 

syslog-192.168.1.230.log.zip

[itimpi]

That log does not seem to go back far enough to cover you attempting to first add the drive   do you have older log files that go back to that point?

[jj_uk]

Oh no, It looks like I misconfigured the syslog server. It's logging to a share, which would have stopped when the array stopped. darn.

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by jj_uk

[jj_uk]

Unraid finished clearing my disk overnight. I deleted the drive's 'Historic Devices' entry in the Main tab GUI, then formatted the disk as Unraid was reporting it can't be added because it was not formatted.

Following the format, which only took a few seconds(?), the disk is showing as "unmountable: volume not encrypted".

 

The disk settings are showing as "encrypted". So, again, i'm stuck.  What do I need to do to add this new disk? 

 

Attached is the log file.

 

 

 

syslog-127.0.0.1.log

Edited December 27, 2021 by jj_uk

[itimpi]

The explanation sounds a bit strange  you have to add the disk to the array BEFORE formatting it, and your description sounds as if this was not what happened?

[jj_uk]

The disk was added to the array yesterday, then Unraid started a disk clear.

I've fixed this by formatting again. The disk is now part of the array and working correctly.  Next: Move files to the new disk from the old disk to re-balance usage.

 

[JonathanM]

32 minutes ago, jj_uk said:

Move files to the new disk from the old disk to re-balance usage.

Why?

[jj_uk]

4 hours ago, JonathanM said:

Why?

 

I thought that disks needed to be roughly balanced usage-wise? e.g. all about the same amount of data on each? no?  I've always done that. uhh..

[JonathanM]

3 hours ago, jj_uk said:

 

I thought that disks needed to be roughly balanced usage-wise? e.g. all about the same amount of data on each? no?  I've always done that. uhh..

Depends on your use case, and how your files are currently distributed, and how you want them to be distributed in the future. Unraid doesn't care, and as long as you have proper minimum free space limits set, you'll never see a meaningful difference using the shares.

 

It's purely an artificial need to organize things, but the benefits for most users lie on the side of letting drives fill up as they add them. That way the new files are all on a single drive, as most folks tend to use new files heavily then let them alone for archival reasons.

 

However, if you are like some people, me included, that micro manage which files go on which physical disks, then sometimes you need to move files from disk to disk to free up space for new files that "belong" on a specific disk.

 

That's why I asked the question, because unless you know a specific reason to move files, you probably don't really need to.

 

Every file operation incurs risk from user error or other things, so the less you muck around, the safer your data is, generally speaking.