How To Diagnose "Device is disabled - contents are emulated"

[kzisme]

Hello,  just noticed that one of my array drives is showing a red "X" next to the drive and states that it is disabled and the contents are emulated.  I have checked the cables (I only noticed it after installing another drive so thought it could be cables), and ran some SMART tests (main page says it is passing). 

 

Is there a certain way to tell if this device just got into an incorrect state, and needs formatted+parity rebuilt?  I'd like to be able to know if I should remove+replace this drive.  

 

I have attached my current SMART report for the drive in question as well as my current system diagnostics.  Please let me know if there is any other relevant information I could have missed.

HUH721008AL4200_7HK7269F_35000cca257b5f584-20231223-0019.txt tower-diagnostics-20231223-0010.zip

[JorgeB]

Diags are after rebooting so we can't see what happened, but the disk looks OK, if the emulated disk is mounting and contents look correct you can rebuild on top, it would be a good idea to replace cables/swap slots first to rule that out.

 

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

[kzisme]

On 12/23/2023 at 4:14 AM, JorgeB said:

Diags are after rebooting so we can't see what happened, but the disk looks OK, if the emulated disk is mounting and contents look correct you can rebuild on top, it would be a good idea to replace cables/swap slots first to rule that out.

 

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

When verifying if a disk's contents are "ok" what is the best way to go about checking?  The unRAID dashboard shows 55.8GB of storage is taken up on the disk, but when checking the web based file browser, and via the terminal I don't see any contents inside.  

Does unRAID take up disk space inherently (or in some non-standard way) that can't be seen via terminal commands or the dashboard file browser?  EDIT: 

 - It seems that is may just be the underlying filesystem, but just wanted to verify.  

Edited December 25, 2023 by kzisme
adding info

[JorgeB]

XFS always uses some overheard, if the disk is supposed to be empty not much to check.

[kzisme]

18 hours ago, JorgeB said:

XFS always uses some overheard, if the disk is supposed to be empty not much to check.

Gotcha - I wasn't sure the amount that "should" take up. 

 

I re-seated the cables to the drive twice, and rebuilt the drive on-top of itself and the problem persists.  

I will try swapping cables with another drive tomorrow (I use breakout cables like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013G4FEGG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), and also read somewhere that the crc errors that I am seeing are typically (almost always) cable related.

 

I have attached a new diagnostics and SMART report from the rebuild as well - if this adds anything.  I'm just trying to determine if it's a cable issue, a drive that needs replaced, or something else at this point. 

HUH721008AL4200_7HK7269F_35000cca257b5f584-20231225-2251.txt tower-diagnostics-20231225-2250.zip

[JorgeB]

Run a long SMART test on the disk.

[kzisme]

On 12/26/2023 at 6:04 AM, JorgeB said:

Run a long SMART test on the disk.

Here is the latest dig + smart test after a short+long test. 

HUH721008AL4200_7HK7269F_35000cca257b5f584-20231231-1424.txt tower-diagnostics-20231231-1425.zip

[kzisme]

I have also swapped out my breakout cable for a brand new one and the disabled drive persists.  Is there a way to "reset" the drive status?  The previous rebuild on-top of itself also didn't fix it

[JorgeB]

SMART test passed so the disk should be OK, try swapping cables/slot with a different disk and rebuild again, if the same the disk could be bad, despite SMART.

[kzisme]

On 1/1/2024 at 6:47 AM, JorgeB said:

SMART test passed so the disk should be OK, try swapping cables/slot with a different disk and rebuild again, if the same the disk could be bad, despite SMART.

Sweet - ended up ordering a new SAS breakout cable, swapped it for the old one, and rebuilt the drive (since I didn't realize there wasn't a different way to make a disk go from disabeled ---> Enabled)  

After the disk rebuild - all is well.  I suppose those errors were specifically about the cable in this case.  I appreciate the help and guidance!