How to 'renew' usb drive so it has no previous settings?

[fwiler]

I keep having an unresponsive issue that pops up between 2-8 hrs.  I can click on each tab and everything looks fine except Dashboard and Main, all information is blank.  I also can't bring up terminal or view log when this happens.  I am not seeing any errors on syslog.  I have to run poweroff locally at the server and then manually start up again.  

 

In troubleshooting, I installed all new known working hardware that was a previous Windows machine. Removed all containers, vm's, and started removing pluggins.

 

The issue is, I can still see left over remnants on flash drive even after removing some pluggins, and shares.

 

For example-

While watching the log, I could see a very old share trying to be moved when mover is enacted.  Found it listed on flash drive for some reason even though I had deleted the share a long time ago.

 

I removed several pluggins and rebooted, but I still see them listed under /boot/config/plugins along with /boot/config/plugins-removed

 

So how can I clean up the usb drive so it doesn't have all this crap that shouldn't be there even after removing it from gui.  I only gave two examples of many, but I have no idea what other files aren't being deleted that could effect the system, which makes it impossible to troubleshoot.

[trurl]

User shares are simply the combined top level folders on array and pools.

 

If you create a user share in the webUI, top level folders named for the share are created on array and pools as needed in accordance with settings you have made for the share.

 

Conversely, any top level folder on array or pools is automatically a user share named for the folder.

 

Any user share you haven't made settings for has default settings.

 

I think you are trying to fix your problems from the wrong end.

 

Attach diagnostics to your NEXT post in this thread.

[fwiler]

Thank you, I do understand how the shares work, but the issue is the remnants of deleted configs or information being stored on the unraid usb drive.

My point was, after starting over, even with new hard drives, the share name (in this case macbackups), was shown in logs trying to be moved, and of course failed because there is no macbackups share. I had already deleted macbackups a long time ago.

I searched the unraid usb drive, and sure enough it was there.  That means the share info wasn't completely deleted.

 

The same for some but not all pluggins.  Delete, and they are still shown on usb flash drive.

 

I'm trying to remove all of this previous configurations to rule out errors produced by them, but it seems I can't start fresh, and I do not know all other places that could be storing old info that needs to be deleted.

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by fwiler

[itimpi]

The fact that mover is ‘finding’ a share means there IS a folder of the name on one of your drives.   Simply having the shares .cfg file on the flash dtive would not be enough to make mover to try to use it.

[trurl]

32 minutes ago, fwiler said:

the share name (in this case macbackups), was shown in logs trying to be moved

Which means it really exists. Possibly you have something recreating a top level folder somewhere.

 

Did you actually check your User Shares page? You can see how much of each disk is used by a share by clicking Compute... for the share.

[fwiler]

I'm aware of user shares and top level folders (although I don't agree with every top level folder becoming a share)  There has not been a macbackup share for over 6 months as I removed it like I said earlier.  (Side note, it would be nice to have a not share option)

And if there really was something there, then why an error when watching the logs, as it should move it.

I used MC and looked everywhere on the drive to make sure.

 

In any case, I removed the entry from usb flash drive and no longer see it show up in logs when moving.

 

Besides the ghost share issue.

Deleting the plugins and reinstalling did not fix the issue.

After deleting plugins AND deleting the entries from the unraid usb drive, then installing again, I am no longer having any issues. 

 

So there is some data, config, or whatever in a plugin that was not being deleted and causing issues.

 

Why are entries left on usb drive for pluggins after removing them?

For example, install unassigned devices.  Remove unassigned devices and reboot.

Under /boot/config/plugins unassigned devices is still there with it's config files.

 

Why are there still config files for shares still listed after removing them?

I just did a test1 share.  Deleted it and rebooted.

Yet it's still listed under /boot/config/shares as test1.cfg

 

This makes it very hard to troubleshoot if someone assumes config files are being deleted when you remove either a share or a plugin.

 

[trurl]

27 minutes ago, fwiler said:

Why are entries left on usb drive for pluggins after removing them?

So you can reinstall with their previous settings. You can delete those from the flash drive yourself and it will just recreate them from scratch if you reinstall a plugin.

 

28 minutes ago, fwiler said:

Why are there still config files for shares still listed after removing them?

If you recreate a share it will still have those settings. But, it might just be because it doesn't bother to delete them. I'm not sure I like that myself since it clutters up diagnostics with a lot of .cfg files for shares that don't exist.

[fwiler]

Thanks, to me this is an issue.

 

There's a reason someone would remove a pluggin and reinstall it. 

Settings should be deleted without manually having to dig for them.

Or at very least, prompt user if they want to save settings.

 

Hence my very original question on how to renew an unraid usb drive, which it sounds like it's not possible.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of all the locations or files that could house settings that could effect the system.

[Kilrah]

If you screenshot your Main page so you're sure of what drive belongs where and then delete the whole config folder on the flash drive you'll be starting clean.

You'll have to create a password, reenter all your network and other settings, reassign the drives the same way, starting the array will create shares for the existing folders but you'll then need to reconfigure each of them how you want them as they'll be created with defaults... You'll have lost your app templates so any Dockers will be orphan and need to be removed/recreated with all settings, unless you kept the Dockerman plugin folders...

 

Starting fresh while keeping all data is possible when you know what you're doing but not exactly straightforward.

 

On 2/24/2023 at 5:16 PM, fwiler said:

There has not been a macbackup share for over 6 months as I removed it like I said earlier. 

When using the delete option in the share, which requires first deleting all contents separately it does remove the config file for me.

If you just delete the folders on the disks then it of course won't.

 

  

On 2/24/2023 at 5:48 PM, trurl said:

So you can reinstall with their previous settings. You can delete those from the flash drive yourself and it will just recreate them from scratch if you reinstall a plugin.

I agree that uninstalling a plugin should have a checkbox to remove any configuration files too. 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Kilrah

[fwiler]

20 hours ago, Kilrah said:

If you screenshot your Main page so you're sure of what drive belongs where and then delete the whole config folder on the flash drive you'll be starting clean.

You'll have to create a password, reenter all your network and other settings, reassign the drives the same way, starting the array will create shares for the existing folders but you'll then need to reconfigure each of them how you want them as they'll be created with defaults... You'll have lost your app templates so any Dockers will be orphan and need to be removed/recreated with all settings, unless you kept the Dockerman plugin folders...

 

Starting fresh while keeping all data is possible when you know what you're doing but not exactly straightforward.

 

 

Thanks.  This is what I was really looking for.  Knowing that everything is in the config folder and not anywhere else is very helpful.