Array not protected (after cowboy removing drive)

[WiZu]

Hi all, last weekend I got a notification from Unraid that one of my drives had errors. Unraid (disconnected (don't know how to call this)) from the array. I directly used a filemanager tool to move all data from this disk to another disk. After this completed I removed the drive while updating the motherboard+processor (coincidentally this was already on my schedule). 

 

Now after everything is booted up again I did a array check all was fine without any errors but I noticed a orange triangle (array started, unprotected). After some google I found out the way I removed the drive is not the default way of doing. Oke, but how do I proceed from here? I think the next thing I will have to do from this point is the "New Config" step, but I'am not sure. So my question is it safe to do this from this point to get my array back to the protected state? 

[Kilrah]

Yes, New config, preserve all assignments, and let parity rebuild.

[JonathanM]

Keep in mind that the disk slot was still available for writing because of the parity emulation, so before you do the new config make sure all the data on that disk slot is backed up elsewhere. It's entirely possible that between the time you cleaned out the emulated disk and now that Unraid wrote data there, especially because it had more free space than any other drive.

[WiZu]

16 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

Keep in mind that the disk slot was still available for writing because of the parity emulation, so before you do the new config make sure all the data on that disk slot is backed up elsewhere. It's entirely possible that between the time you cleaned out the emulated disk and now that Unraid wrote data there, especially because it had more free space than any other drive.

Can it write data there when there is no drive in the computer? If so where does it write it to? Because when I say removed I mean removed it from the case.

[itimpi]

7 minutes ago, WiZu said:

Can it write data there when there is no drive in the computer? If so where does it write it to? Because when I say removed I mean removed it from the case.

Yes!

 

When a drive is disabled then Unraid ‘emulates’ it using the combination of the other drives plus parity.   You should see it being mounted when you start the array and be able to browse any contents.   Unraid will act as if the drive was still there and any writes to the ‘emulated’ drive will update parity appropriately.

[WiZu]

23 hours ago, itimpi said:

Yes!

 

When a drive is disabled then Unraid ‘emulates’ it using the combination of the other drives plus parity.   You should see it being mounted when you start the array and be able to browse any contents.   Unraid will act as if the drive was still there and any writes to the ‘emulated’ drive will update parity appropriately.

Thanks for the information!

Just for my insurance, this even go's up when the array is set like this:

Disk 1 is the disk in question.

Planning to do the config tonight so hope that this is just it 😄

 

[JonathanM]

If you would have posted the entire width, we would have better answers, but yes, if that line shows a mounted filesystem on the right side of that screen, any data on that slot will be lost if you do a new config instead of rebuilding on a physical drive.

[trurl]

Note that the correct way to handle all this was just to rebuild the disabled disk, either to itself or to a new disk. No moving data or anything else, no rebuilding parity. If you really wanted to backup anything on that disk before rebuilding, it would have been better to copy data somewhere off the array. By moving data from an emulated disk to other disks in the array, you made everything work a lot harder since all disks have to be read to emulate reading the disabled disk, and you no longer had any redundancy while you were doing all this.

 

Please ask for help if you are unsure what to do.

[WiZu]

14 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

If you would have posted the entire width, we would have better answers, but yes, if that line shows a mounted filesystem on the right side of that screen, any data on that slot will be lost if you do a new config instead of rebuilding on a physical drive.

 

I only posted that because the other columns where empty. This is the full width version, and I do see the FS indeed. When I click the file browser it shows empty. When I check with Krusader it shows no data on disk 1. In the overview (screenshot) I do see 7GB used. Any idea where this 7GB is stored so I can move it to another disk before creating a new config? My goal was to not add a new drive at this moment. I want to upgrade to less but bigger drives this year.

 

[WiZu]

4 minutes ago, trurl said:

Note that the correct way to handle all this was just to rebuild the disabled disk, either to itself or to a new disk. No moving data or anything else, no rebuilding parity. If you really wanted to backup anything on that disk before rebuilding, it would have been better to copy data somewhere off the array. By moving data from an emulated disk to other disks in the array, you made everything work a lot harder since all disks have to be read to emulate reading the disabled disk, and you no longer had any redundancy while you were doing all this.

 

Please ask for help if you are unsure what to do.

 

I found out the hard way indeed. Learing a lot here, and thats good, like commented in the above comment I am planning to replace some disks this year so will be reading more info about this. 

[Kilrah]

That 7GB is just the overhead of the empty filesystem, if you see no files the drive is empty. 

[JonathanM]

The empty filesystem still has ones and zeroes accounted for in parity, so to remove the disk you will need to rebuild parity after doing the new config without the disk. Do NOT check the "parity is already valid" box, because it isn't. Parity doesn't "do" files, it does the entire drive, which includes the filesystem. Think of the filesystem as the filing cabinet with drawers and blank labels for holding files, it's part of the parity emulation even if there are no files recorded there. That 7GB is the organizational structure needed to keep track of potential files.

[trurl]

8 hours ago, JonathanM said:

to remove the disk you will need to rebuild parity after doing the new config without the disk.

Or you can rebuild onto the original disk instead of rebuilding parity.

 

How do you know there was anything wrong with the disk? Connection problems are much more common than bad disks.

If you still have that disk, plug it back in, but don't assign it. Then post diagnostics so we can take a look at its SMART report.

[WiZu]

Ok, so its been a while, but its all working again 😄 Thanks for all of the great help/ information!