I had an incident where the system log was 100% and hence i restarted the server. Once restarted, i realised two of my drives were disabled and the array won't start. One of the drives had a cable issue which i resolved with another sata cable but the other one failed completely(making screeching noises and won't detect) and i removed that disk. Now , i am getting an error and i cannot start the array. I've placed an order for a replacement drive. In the mean time, can i start the array with losing the data in the missing drive till the replacement drive arrives. 

 

 

tower-diagnostics-20241102-1106.zip

Edited November 2, 20241 yr by sibetron

If disk8 is really dead you can force enable disk6 to see if it's still possible to rebuild disk8, you need a new disk, same size or larger than old disk8, when you have that post back and I can port the instructions.

Hi there, I will be getting a new disk to replace the disk8 today. How do i force enable disk6 to rebuild disk8? 

This will only work if parity is still valid:

-Tools -> New Config -> Retain current configuration: All -> Apply
-Check all assignments and assign any missing disk(s) if needed, including the new disk8

-IMPORTANT - Check both "parity is already valid" and "maintenance mode" and start the array (note that the GUI will still show that data on parity disk(s) will be overwritten, this is normal as it doesn't account for the checkbox, but it won't be as long as it's checked)
-Stop array
-Unassign disk8
-Start array (in normal mode now), and post new diags.

I posted the new diags.

tower-diagnostics-20241117-1400.zip

Emulated disk will need a filesystem check, but there ATA errors with parity, so first check/replace cables for that disk and post new diags after array start.

Here are the new diags. It turns out my motherboard disables sata  4 when m.2 sata is used and replaced a sata power cable.

 

 

tower-diagnostics-20241118-1241.zip

Edited November 18, 20241 yr by sibetron

No ATA errors for now, check filesystem, on the emulated disk8, run it without -n

 

I cannot find it on disk8

It shows this 

You need to rerun adding the -L option.

Ok got an error

Phase 6 - check inode connectivity...
reinitializing root directory
reinitializing realtime bitmap inode
reinitializing realtime summary inode
        - resetting contents of realtime bitmap and summary inodes
        - traversing filesystem ...
bad hash table for directory inode 1835471 (no data entry): rebuilding
rebuilding directory inode 1835471
bad hash table for directory inode 52330859 (no data entry): rebuilding
rebuilding directory inode 52330859
entry ".." in directory inode 2232701676 points to free inode 139
bad hash table for directory inode 2232701676 (no data entry): rebuilding
rebuilding directory inode 2232701676
bad hash table for directory inode 4294967424 (no data entry): rebuilding
rebuilding directory inode 4294967424
Metadata corruption detected at 0x46fa05, inode 0x100000083 dinode

fatal error -- couldn't map inode 4294967427, err = 117
root@Tower:/dev# 

 

Edited November 18, 20241 yr by sibetron

Try again, but that doesn't look good, if xfs_repair cannot repair the filesystem, only option is using a file recovery app like UFS explorer.

xfs_repair didn't work. I guess the data is lost forever. Thank you for your assistance

1 hour ago, sibetron said:

xfs_repair didn't work. I guess the data is lost forever. Thank you for your assistance

As was mentioned there is a good chance something like UFS Explorer would probably recover the files if they are important to you.  
 

That software is not free to run in recovery mode but it does provide a free option that would allow you to see what it would recover so you can decide if it is worth the cost.

I can see all the files in the scan of ufs explorer and i am in the process of recovering it. Thank you

I copied the necessary files from disk8 using ufs explorer. Now, when i add the disk to the array , its rebuilding the disk8 with empty filesystem. Should i continue with the data rebuild ? or is there any other option to add the drive to the array without it .

tower-diagnostics-20241123-1309.zip

Edited November 23, 20241 yr by sibetron

You could do a new config and resync parity, but it will take about the same time, so if the rebuild is already going, just let it finish.