Just for background, I'm a 58 year old carpenter, not an IT guy. I managed to build an UnRaid server thanks to these forums. I use it primarily just to store my music and movies which I access through a media player. I can rip a movie and put in on the server but that's about it. I installed UnMenu and a couple of packages so that it does a monthly parity check and I have a the UPS package for my APC UPS. It's been working fine for over a year. The only slight glitch I had was when I upgraded my PCS to win7 and had to set the sever to local master to be able to see it (thanks to Joe L for sorting that out).

 

All of sudden, I can't access the server at all. Well, that's not strictly true - I can't access the gui. Neither Firefox or windows explorer can find it. It doesn't matter if I try using "tower" or the IP address. I can access any of the discs and any of the folders on any of the discs, and the server shows up on the network just as it should, it's just I can't access the management utility.

 

I connected a monitor and keyboard but this doesn't work either - the monitor just displays "no signal input".

 

As I can't access it, I can't supply a sys log. The only information I can think to give is that as far as I recal, it's version 4.5.4. I have 5 data discs, a parity and cache.

 

So I'm stuck. What should I do? What can I try?

 

 

You can get to the logs by accessing the flash drive. \\TOWER\flash\logs if you can't do it on the UnRaid server, then disconnect the flash drive connect it to a free USB port on your PC and get it from there.

You can get to the logs by accessing the flash drive. \\TOWER\flash\logs if you can't do it on the UnRaid server, then disconnect the flash drive connect it to a free USB port on your PC and get it from there.

 

Ah, OK I'll give that a go.

 

Also, as an update, it appears the keyboard I tried was faulty. I've found another so at least the monitor I've connected now shows the login prompt and I'll be able to enter commands here.

I looked in the flash drive but the latest syslog files I can see is dated 9th October - probably the last time the server was shut down. Can't see anything current.

I looked in the flash drive but the latest syslog files I can see is dated 9th October - probably the last time the server was shut down. Can't see anything current.

run this command:

 

cp /var/log/syslog /boot/syslog.txt

 

then post the txt file

Ok that's done. Took me a while to figure out how to attach a file to my post but hopefully I've done it right and a "zipped" syslog is attached.

syslog.zip

I didn't have time to tear your syslog apart.

 

At a glance, it looks like the server is in good health and still running. it is at IP 192.168.1.50

 

the mover kicked off yesterday and moved your photos off the cache and all 6 drives are still up and working.. it ran the monthly parity check on the first.

 

The issue will most likely be minor.

 

You said you tried to connect to the IP (192.168.1.50) itself in your web browser?

I didn't have time to tear your syslog apart.

 

At a glance, it looks like the server is in good health and still running. it is at IP 192.168.1.50

 

the mover kicked off yesterday and moved your photos off the cache and all 6 drives are still up and working.. it ran the monthly parity check on the first.

 

The issue will most likely be minor.

 

You said you tried to connect to the IP (192.168.1.50) itself in your web browser?

 

Yes all seems to be OK, it's just that I can't access the management consol. I've tried both "tower" and the IP address as you've noted. I've also tried it on 2 different PCs which are connected to the same network and I've tried both IE (std and 64 bit) and Firefox. I've accessed my router and it reports that the server is connected. This is verified by the fact that I can access any of shares (user as well as disk and also the flash) from any PC and also my HDI Dune media player.

 

I'm not sure when the problem first manifested itself because I'd don't make a habit of regularly logging in to the console. It won't have been more than a few days as I usualy have a quick look once week or so, just to make sure there are no "red balls" or errors (which is what I wanted to do today).

 

 

 

It sounds like the webgui is just hosed up.

 

if you have unmenu installed, try the ipaddress:8080 to get into unmenu.

 

With 7, i usually just type my server name in the address bar, once in a great while i had to do http://tower or IP.

 

If you do get in, I would probably reboot it. that might be all it needs.

 

as far as checking for red balls, you could install the smtp and the "unraid status email" package. then it will email you if the server is happy or broken.

If you type this on the command line it should restart the web interface.

 

/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &

 

FYI, download a little ftp program called PuTTY. You can use that to FTP into your server and do the command line stuff without bothering to connect a monitor and keyboard.

 

Peter

 

When I set my ethernet connection on the server to use Jumbo Frames, I had problems connecting to the webgui, but Unmenu was able to. Also if you are not running 4.7 yet I would advise strongly to update to that version. What kind of network connection do you use, do you use the onboard NIC?

 

 

Cant see it sugested so going to pipe up.

 

On the PC that you are connecting to unRaid from can you check the IP address of the machine. I think i say your unraid was 192.168.1.50 so make sure your PC is also getting an IP address on 192.168.1.XX

 

If you are unsure how to check. You are running Win 7 right? , then  Click on Start and then type CMD

 

This will then open a DOS window and if you type IPCONFIG /all

 

You should then see what IP you have. Just a suggestion and start with the basic checks and move forward one at a time.

 

Craig

Thanks everyone for all the help so far.

 

@johnm, I can get into unmenu by using either tower:8080 or the IP address:8080. So that sort of works but I can't get to the "normal" UnRaid main from UnMenu. Also "tower" or the IP address without the ":8080" still don't work.

 

@lionelhutz, I tried the command "/user/local/sbin/emhttp &" but that hasn't helped. I heard all the discs spin up but as far as getting into "tower", nothing changed.

 

@One2Go, up until yesterday everything has been working fine since June 2010 and apart from accessing the web gui, everything else seems to be fine. The server runs 24/7 so I don't think the network connection is likely to be the problem but for info I use a separate GigE card (can't remember the make/model but it's one that is recommended).

 

I've attached the latest syslog since trying the above suggestions.

 

syslog-2011-11-11.zip

If you type this on the command line it should restart the web interface.

 

/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &

 

FYI, download a little ftp program called PuTTY. You can use that to FTP into your server and do the command line stuff without bothering to connect a monitor and keyboard.

 

Peter

 

 

thanks I was looking for that little snippet, i had lost that command.

PS i think you meant Telnet not FTP.

 

Cant see it sugested so going to pipe up.

 

you can see by his syslog he is using the shares just fine..

 

Thanks everyone for all the help so far.

 

Not a problem.. bored at work anyways..

As long as you can get into unmenu, Id just reboot the server from unmenu. see if that fixes it.

 

I am sure it is fixable without a bounce. but i am a windows admin.. when i doubt, bounce the box.. LOL..

 

 

 

 

 

Not a problem.. bored at work anyways..

As long as you can get into unmenu, Id just reboot the server from unmenu. see if that fixes it.

 

I am sure it is fixable without a bounce. but i am a windows admin.. when i doubt, bounce the box.. LOL..

 

 

Sorry to be dumb but how can I safely re-boot the server from within UnMenu? I can see a button under "Array Mangement" to stop the array (which carries a warning that I must use the Lime Technolgy supplied weg management web page to start it). I can't see a button to shut it down. What I normally do in the Lime Technolgy main weg gui is to stop the array first then shut it down but as I can't get into the normal web gui, I can't do it this way.

You have to go through the painful learning curve of some basic Linux commands. Two things I suggest 1. try to install a remote connection program like "Putty" that allows you to do commands from the command prompt. 2. do some of these commands from the console.

 

bring up the command prompt from the console and type:

 

halt -p

 

or run from the command prompt

 

/usr/local/sbin/powerdown

 

This will power off the UnRaid server. Then power it back on and see what happens. I find myself constantly Googling for Linux Commands "Whatever I need to find" part of the staple for running UnRaid, no way around taking on board some of the basic Linux commands like "cd" or "ls". Remember it is not User but usr which verifies that Unix the basis for Linux was written by programmers who hated to type or space aliens, take your pick.

You have to go through the painful learning curve of some basic Linux commands. Two things I suggest 1. try to install a remote connection program like "Putty" that allows you to do commands from the command prompt. 2. do some of these commands from the console.

 

bring up the command prompt from the console and type:

 

halt -p

 

or run from the command prompt

 

/usr/local/sbin/powerdown

 

This will power off the UnRaid server. Then power it back on and see what happens. I find myself constantly Googling for Linux Commands "Whatever I need to find" part of the staple for running UnRaid, no way around taking on board some of the basic Linux commands like "cd" or "ls". Remember it is not User but usr which verifies that Unix the basis for Linux was written by programmers who hated to type or space aliens, take your pick.

 

Well OK (but as I've mentioned, I do have a keyboard and monitor connected at the moment). However, I've downloaded this putty thing but I've had to do a lot of trawling about to find what to do with it. I've finally discovered that I have to select telnet as the connection type and port 23. So, now I can access the console and login from a PC as well as the local keyboard and monitor.

 

However, I'm a bit nervous about just typing "halt -p" because in my reading up on telnet and putty etc I came accross this http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Console#To_cleanly_Stop_the_array_from_the_command_line which mentions all sorts of stuff about stopping Samba and unmounting discs first.

 

Or as I've mentioned, I can access unMenu and stop the array. Are you saying that I should do this first, then use putty and type halt -p after the array has stopped?

 

Apart from not being able to access the Lime Technology web gui, the server seems to be working fine so I'm nervous about making things worse by typing the wrong command.

in unmenu under "user scripts" there is a "power down" button... never tried it. but I know it is there.

I am running UnMenu version 1.2 and there is no power down in the userscript page. Maybe I need to go to the next version.

 

Use Unmenu to stop the array then from putty go to the directory /usr/local/sbin/ and execute the powerdown script from the command line that should be a safe way of getting your server down and up again. In addition you can always use the shutdown command with a reboot option have done that many times without any difficulties.

I am running UnMenu version 1.2 and there is no power down in the userscript page. Maybe I need to go to the next version.

 

Use Unmenu to stop the array then from putty go to the directory /usr/local/sbin/ and execute the powerdown script from the command line that should be a safe way of getting your server down and up again. In addition you can always use the shutdown command with a reboot option have done that many times without any difficulties.

 

OK. As advised, I used UnMenu to stop the array. However, as soon as I did that, I could no longer access the server at all. I couldn't bring up UnMenu, nor could I access it any more using putty.

 

So, again as advised, I entered the command "halt -p" by using a keyboard connected directly to the server. After that, I couldn't enter anything via the keyboard either. The only option I had left was to cycle the power. This was clearly not a clean shutdown as the server is now doing a parity check - just what I was trying to avoid happening. God I hope this hasn't screwed things up.

 

On the plus side, I can now access the server as normal (i.e by simply putting "tower" into the web browser). All disks show "green". I'll know better if there are any problems in 260 minutes or so...................

 

Assuming everything is OK and for future reference, I could really do with knowing the correct way to cleanly re-boot the server when the normal web gui isn't available. Better still, I'd like to know why the normal web gui died and what I can do to prevent it happening again.

Linux is normally not known for the BRS method (Big Red Switch) so you had three options and I don't think anything would have helped something was hosed beyond believe. The options you could have used is the powerdown script from the /usr/local/sbin/ directory, OR the command "shutdown -t 2 -r" which would have waited 2 seconds then shutdown all processes and reboot the server, OR according to this link http://www.computerhope.com/unix/uhalt.htm halt sets the computer to a mode that enables a user to turn off the computer. Which to me sounds a normal and safe procedure. Because you experienced something that clearly frightened you the box must have been in a state from where there was no return, or perhaps you did not give the command enough time to execute or the box now just expected for you to throw the switch. Difficult to say as I assume that you had no feedback from the console. The beauty of UnRaid as your box comes back online it has the ability to repair any data that may have been corrupted. Again as said before it maybe to your advantage to update to version 4.7 as that one seems to be the version of choice when it comes to stability & reliability.

Linux is normally not known for the BRS method (Big Red Switch) so you had three options and I don't think anything would have helped something was hosed beyond believe. The options you could have used is the powerdown script from the /usr/local/sbin/ directory, OR the command "shutdown -t 2 -r" which would have waited 2 seconds then shutdown all processes and reboot the server, OR according to this link http://www.computerhope.com/unix/uhalt.htm halt sets the computer to a mode that enables a user to turn off the computer. Which to me sounds a normal and safe procedure. Because you experienced something that clearly frightened you the box must have been in a state from where there was no return, or perhaps you did not give the command enough time to execute or the box now just expected for you to throw the switch. Difficult to say as I assume that you had no feedback from the console. The beauty of UnRaid as your box comes back online it has the ability to repair any data that may have been corrupted. Again as said before it maybe to your advantage to update to version 4.7 as that one seems to be the version of choice when it comes to stability & reliability.

 

Thanks for the help but like I said in post #1, I'm a 58 year old "chippy", not an IT guy so most of what you've said has gone over my head.

 

I do my best but to me "putty" is something they used to use for fixing glass in window frames.  I have an automotive background too,  but that just makes matters worse as FTP means Federal Test Procedure.  Every discipline has it's own set of abreviations which mean different things to different people.

 

What I could do with is a simple guide which says "if it happens again, type xyz then cycle the power" but I guess in the world of computers, that's probably just not possible.

 

 

Three safe ways to power down:

• http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Console#To_cleanly_Stop_the_array_from_the_command_line
  
• The powerdown script (available via unMenu)
  
• The unRAID webGUI
  

 

There are no other safe ways to power down!

 

Update and restart unmenu using the "User Scripts" tab.

Three safe ways to power down:

• http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Console#To_cleanly_Stop_the_array_from_the_command_line
  
• The powerdown script (available via unMenu)
  
• The unRAID webGUI
  

 

There are no other safe ways to power down!

 

Update and restart unmenu using the "User Scripts" tab.

 

Thankyou. I'll ignore all other advice I was given (no offence intended to anyone who tried to help).

 

So the server is now back up and running normally. I can again access the "normal" web gui. However, I'm not going to mark the thread as "solved" at this time because I still have no idea what caused the initial problem, nor how to prevent it happening again. Also, cycling the power to cure it, may be normal practice on Windows based machines, but I'd hope that linux would have a more elegant solution. 

OK. As advised, I used UnMenu to stop the array. However, as soon as I did that, I could no longer access the server at all. I couldn't bring up UnMenu, nor could I access it any more using putty.

 

What you wrote should have given you a clue. When you stopped the array from UnMenu it should have just come back indicating that the array has been stopped and the drives have been unmounted and that it is ready for powerdown. But because this did not happen, it didn't matter what you entered afterwards as commands your machine had gone south long before. An orderly shutdown was no longer possible for you, perhaps for some of the more knowledgeable users here they could have found out from the commandline what the problem is. Also unless logs were written during this time and if you can post them, you will not be able to determine what caused it  and how to prevent future happenings. Write it off as one of the many mysteries in cyber space, solar flares, hardware fatigue or Error is between keyboard and chair If you want to feel a bit better about this problem then just read some of the Announcements regarding the Beta releases and you will soon get the idea this not really a problem maybe at best a nuisance.