Admittedly, I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to RAID servers.  I've been able to build an unRAID server and have loved it for some time.  Well, I've gotten my first "red ball" and it is on the parity drive.  The data drives appear fine (all solid green balls).  The parity drive reflects 2 errors and appears to have been spun down.  I looked through the wiki and there is plenty of information on what to do if a data drive fails, but not so much a parity drive.

 

Should I just stop the array, clear the statistics, reboot, and do a parity check to see how the parity drive responds?  If it results in any errors I assume I should just get a new hard drive to put in the parity slot and it will be rebuilt...correct?  Naturally, the last thing I want to do is lose any data, but I'm not exactly sure what the best process is for me to avoid this.  Any guidance is appreciated. 

I would first check the cables to the drive. Then, you can unassign the drive and start the array. Then stop the array and assign it again. It will attempt to build parity again. If the drive is bad, it will red-ball again.

 

Peter

What lionelhutz said is all good advice.  In general, dealing with a failed parity drive is the same process as dealing with a failed data drive.

Thanks!  I did just that and it is going through the parity sync now.  Fingers crossed.

I guess everything is OK.  The parity sync completed and did not report any errors.  For good measure I did a backup of one of my clients to the server and it worked just fine, again, without any errors.  If there were bad sectors does the parity sync somehow determine that and move around them?  Just curious.  Thanks again for the help and I guess I'll keep on using it without worrying about it too much.

 

Additionally, I just thought of one of thing.  Is there any way for the server to offer some kind of flag when it has an error.  I rarely look at http://tower and I can't help but wonder how long I've been using the server with the parity drive being down.  I would think there is a way to do this, but I may not be aware of it.

Run a parity check to confirm parity. Umenu has an email notification package.

Thanks everyone.  I ran the parity check and it completed without any errors so I guess it is fine.  Also, thanks for the comments about unmenu.  I'll try to install it.  If it can just offer me some kind of warning when there is an error it will help me act quickly.