I'm trying to accomplish a swap disable, but am having problems actually executing it.  Here's my 'initial' configuration (running in degraded mode for the moment):

 

Main | Users | Shares | Settings | Devices version: 4.2.1

Disk status

Model/Serial No. Temperature Size Free Reads Writes Errors

parity WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0/WD-WCAMR2532330 34°C 312,571,192 - 134 16 0

disk1 Not installed - 195,360,952 3,804,196 - - -

disk2 ST3250820AS/5QF4NGBX 48°C 244,198,552 4,828,212 161 8 0

 

 

If I try and put the newer, bigger drive as disk1, I get this, and can't start the array:

 

Disk status

Model/Serial No. Temperature Size Free Reads Writes Errors

parity WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0/WD-WCAMR2532330 35°C 312,571,192 - - - -

disk1 WDC WD5000AAKS-0/WD-WCAS80320673 46°C 488,386,552 - - - -

disk2 ST3250820AS/5QF4NGBX 48°C 244,198,552 - - - -

Command area

Stopped. Disk in parity slot is not biggest. If this is a new array, move the largest disk into the parity slot. If you are adding a new disk or replacing a disabled disk, try Parity-Swap.

 

 

Okay, so that seems reasonable.  Reading the documentation, it seems like I should move the parity to disk1, then the new disk as parity.  It seems there's two ways to accomplish this:

 

a> I change the parity to the bigger drive, then assign the old parity to disk 1.

b> I unassign the parity, assign it to disk 1, then assign the new drive to parity

 

 

Both of these result in:

 

Disk status

Model/Serial No. Temperature Size Free Reads Writes Errors

parity WDC WD5000AAKS-0/WD-WCAS80320673

WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0/WD-WCAMR2532330 46°C 488,386,552

312,571,192 - - - -

disk1 WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0/WD-WCAMR2532330 35°C 312,571,192 - - - -

disk2 ST3250820AS/5QF4NGBX 48°C 244,198,552 - - - -

Command area

Stopped. Invalid configuration. Too many wrong and/or missing disks!

 

 

 

It seems like what I really should be doing is:

 

c> Assign the parity to disk 1 immediately.  Unfortunately, this does not appear as an option - only the new disk.

 

 

So.....  am I being exceptionally stupid and misunderstanding how this is supposed to work?  Is there a parity-swap button hiding in the GUI somewhere that I can't seem to find?

 

 

Info: unRAID Server Plus (4.2.1)

Original config: 320GB Parity (PATA), 200GB Disk 1 (SATA), 250GB Disk2 (SATA)

New disk: 500GB SATA

 

 

 

 

 

First thought is that you are doing too much at once.  Try changing one drive at a time.

 

 

Bill

If he has a degraded array he cannot do one thing at a time.

 

You should first get back to your "degraded" state with parity assigned as it was, and disk1 missing.

 

Then, stop the array, assign a new large disk as the parity drive and re-assign parity as disk1.

 

If you still have the same error I think Tom has a bug to look at.  There is no magic button.

 

Remember, the parity swap was originally written when the device assignment page did not exist.  You might have to leave the assignments as they were and physically swap the drives.

 

Tom gave his instructions for the parity swap in a post in this thread: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1268.0

 

Let us know if you have any success.

This appears to be the very same situation I ran into in December when trying to help someone do a swap-disable.  If you look here at Reply #16 http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1268.msg8520#msg8520, you will see a screenshot that looks very much like yours, and with NO reasonable option to start a swap-disable.  We had just moved the parity disk to Disk1, which had failed.  I would like to know if the sequence of ball colors is the same as yours.  Farther down, Tom reiterates the documented way it should be done, but then discussion drifts away, and the fact that you can't actually do it was forgotten.  Tom will want to check this out, and perhaps add the option back, as I assume it must have been there once.

 

For now, you may have to do what that user did, copy the data off the failed drive, and rebuild the array.  Sorry!

  1. carefully un-assign disk1, and keep disk2 and parity exactly as they are (and hope it is not too late)

  2. copy all data from disk1 to elsewhere

  3. un-assign parity, and re-assign as disk1, and format it

  4. add new drive as parity, and build parity

  5. copy data back to disk1

 

The swap-disable procedure has been rarely needed, unfortunately; perhaps too rare to iron out the process.  I wish I could advise you better.  I'm wondering if it might be a good idea to just turn off the power, not shut down correctly, in order to keep the previous super.dat with Disk 1 marked missing.  I would definitely right now save the contents of your flash drive, particularly the config directory.  What is the modification date of config/super.dat and config/super.old?

 

Edit:  Joe beat me, so this is basically a re-wording of his message.

 

Thanks for the info - my situation seems close to the other thread, which I read through before posting.

 

super.dat is dated today, I *think* after the new hardware got put in place.  super.old is a few weeks old - I think its at a time when the array was in its previous state.

 

Unfortunately, I can't do a swap putting the new parity on the connector of the old parity, as the old parity is PATA and the new one is SATA.  I wonder if that means I'm hosed - one read of the documentation implied this was necessary, since it talked about physically reconnecting the drives.

 

Is there any way to hack the config files on the flash disk before starting up?  Super.dat looked like a binary file, so I'm guessing not, but figured I might as well ask.

 

Do people not use the parity-swap feature much?  It seemed to me like the ideal way of adding bigger drives to a setup without doing unnecessary swaps - unless your parity is the same size as an existing drive, wouldn't you always have to do at least n+1 swaps to put in place n new drives?

 

 

To be fair, my old drive is still working, I just don't have have the right combinations of connectors to be able to swap the drives around as I'd like (stuck with 2 SATA, 2 PATA in the current case).  So I'm not exactly worried about data loss while I mess around.  And I fully realize that this sort of thing is totally impossible with most traditional raid setups...

 

Thanks again for all the help!

Unfortunately, I can't do a swap putting the new parity on the connector of the old parity, as the old parity is PATA and the new one is SATA.  I wonder if that means I'm hosed - one read of the documentation implied this was necessary, since it talked about physically reconnecting the drives.

 

Well, good news here at least, the hardware being connected to DOES NOT matter.  The only moving you will do is virtual, on the Devices page, assigning and un-assigning drives to disk numbers.  You don't have to do anything to the physical hardware.

 

The question is then... "Has anybody ever done a parity swap to replace a failing or missing drive?"

 

I'm certain that people have replaced their parity drive with a bigger one and just re-computed parity, but has anybody successfully done a parity swap when they had a failed drive?    Does this feature still work in the current version of unRaid?

 

I've only read of people with problems, but would love to be proven wrong

 

Joe L.

(success stories are less likely to have somebody make a post to say it worked. People with problems often post to say something did not work as expected.).

 

heh - the 'swap-disable' function has a bug which we just fixed for a customer.  If someone needs this functionality before 4.3 release, send me an email: [email protected].

Hey All,

 

I am the customer, thanks Tom. The fix worked flawlessly. I installed the two new files to my flash on my PC then booted up the server. My drives were not in order. I reassigned the drives and who's your daddy! It had a red light saying copying parity. Then I checked the radio box under "Unraid will copy parity data to the new drive and then reconstruct data". I did! it started and this morning I have a new 750GB parity drive and my old 500 gb drive has replaced my dead 400GB and all lights are Green - WOO HOO. Now I can finish setting up my XBMC machine and dump the MCE 2005 machine in the living room. I'll then be able to HEAR the movies I am watching instead of the growling PSU and CPU fans in the corner.

 

I bought my flashes like 2 or 3 years ago I cannot remember how much, does not really matter.  Tom spent the last 2-3 days fixing this bug for me and testing, dedication i say. great product - great service - great support = Very Happy Customer. In these days of big box stores and nosales people sales it's good to know there are few still around.

 

Regards,

 

DVS

i say. great product - great service - great support....

 

And I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on two pro keys..

Just waiting to see next release and/or a kernel .config file so I can add the hardware/memory/cpu support I need.

 

So far, my unraid testing is looking good.