suddenly: "Device is disabled, contents emulated" on Disk7

[Jules0815]

Hi guys,

 

suddenly I am facing an issue with Disk7. It is marked as ""Device is disabled, contents emulated".

 

 

Fortunately, as it was the last disk of the array, there was no data on the disk yet.

I run a self build Unraid server with mainboard an two SATA cards in it.

 

Did I made any changes?

Yes, I added two SSD to create a cache pool. Those were connected to the same controller. But first everything went fine.

1 or 2 weeks later Disk7 stopped working.

 

What I did to fix the issue?

Checked if the drive spins up when connecting power to it -> yes

I tried the same drive on another controller + on mainboard sata port (a port which works for another drive) with several shutdown/restarts inbetween -> no change

Tried 3 different sata cables -> no change

I connected the drive under windows, drive is available, I deleted the volume, installed again in the Unraid server, I got an option for formatting the drive in Unraid, did the format but still, if I add it in the stopped array, still the red cross for "device is disabled".

 

In the meantime I bought a LSI SAS9211-8i Controller to replace my two controllers in the next days as I do not fully trust them. But on the other hand drive was also not working on a sata port of the mainboard where another drive runs fine.

 

Hope you guys can help me solve this.

Attached the diagnostics.

Thanks in advance

tower-diagnostics-20230815-1024.zip

Edited August 15, 2023 by Jules0815

[JorgeB]

We can't see what happened because the diags are after rebooting but once a disk gets disable it must be rebuilt:

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/manual/storage-management#rebuilding-a-drive-onto-itself

 

[Jules0815]

I followed the steps, looks better now, rebuild progress is running. I will let you know when it is finished if everything worked.

Thanks

[Jules0815]

Thanks Jorge, your link did the job

[Jules0815]

I was too optimistic ...
After writing data to the drive again, it stopped working.
Diagnostics attached, no reeboot done.
Thanks in advance

tower-diagnostics-20230816-1927.zip

[JorgeB]

Disk dropped offline, it's on a Marvell controller, those are known to sometimes drop devices with no reason, suggest replacing it if possible.

[Jules0815]

Ok.

I got a LSI 9211-8i which I will set to IT-mode.

Waiting just for cables and give it a try with that one.

Thanks

[Jules0815]

After two hours because of the PAL error I managed to flash the LSI 9211 to IT-mode via EFI.

...

Data rebuild is running, will let you know if it works fine in the next days/weeks.

[Jules0815]

SOLUTION: LSI 9211-8i with IT-mode. No issues so far