I've got a bit of a strange issue, and its going to take a bit to explain.

I'm currently running 7.2. Though I don't think the version has anything to do with the issue I'm running into. I'm thinking it might be a power supply or cache drive issue... leaning toward cache drive. But I've thought about replacing the power supply on the system since it's pretty much at it's limits.

In September, I had a cache drive issue, or I thought it was a cache drive issue and I'm now wondering if it was something else or maybe it is still a cache drive issue that is only shows up in specific circumstances. I worked with someone on here to diagnose the issue. I ended up reformatting the cache drive and everything seemed to be good again.

Since then I've ran into an oddity for me... maybe someone else knows what this is a sign of.

Usually the issue starts with the server getting shut off because power drops or something else happens. When I upgraded to 7.2 I ran into the same issue, but rebooting a couple times seemed to fix it.

My first reboot will usually show everything looking ok, but nothing functioning correctly. I couldn't access my shares from another computer because it was acting like there were no files in any share even when looking at the shares via the Unraid menu. Docker's appear to be running, but in reality I can't access any of them. So I shut it down, and power on the system a few minutes later. The power off process isn't normal though because the webpage doesn't change from the normal menu screen I was on when shutting down... but the system physically shuts off.

My second bootup will usually show that the cache drive is not connected. So the server doesn't start. I shut it down again.

My third bootup will look like everything is good. Cache drive is reconnected and the server appears to be up and running. However when I open up the log to see what is going on I'll have a flood of error messages about rsyslogd errors. I've tried to chase down what the errors mean or the cause, but I've learned that shutting down the server again and powering up again a few minutes later seems to fix it. So that's what I do.

The fourth bootup. Everthing appears to be running fine. No cache drive issue. The server stays up and running just fine. When I look at the syslog and I see some rsyslogd errors and I/O errors dealing with the sdk which is the cache drive, but the system seems fine. No errors are stopping the system from working or raising red flags. The log isn't being flooded by rsyslogd errors. I'm seeing some rsyslogd errors and btrfs errors on the cache drive (sdk). I'm not sure if this is normal... I assume it isn't.

I have a new SSD drive that I could swap out for the current cache drive. That was the plan when I bought it, but I hadn't researched how to swap a cache drive.

So... is this a continuation of a cache drive issue? Maybe the drive is failing, but just hasn't fully failed yet? I'm attaching the log files. Some guidance would be appreciated.

tower-diagnostics-20251112-1405.zip

I've ran a scrub on the cache drive. No errors were found. I did a check file system status on the cache drive and it returned an error, but it also said not to fix it without being told to do so by a developer. The cache drive keeps going from working fine, to not working fine every time I reboot.

The drive has been in service for 8 years based of of smart data. But it doesn't show any problem in the smart data. I've switched data cables without any noticeable consistency. I've switched power cables without any noticeable consistency.

I don't know if the Power Supply is at it's limits. I'm guessing at it. The more I read about power supply needs it sounds like it should be enough to handle the 1 parity drive, 8 data drives and 1 cache drive. It's an older PSU, so maybe it has just been aging and needs to be replaced. Or maybe it isn't the problem at all.

The diags show what look like power/connection issues with the pool device; replace both cables, and try again, if no change, it could be a device problem.

I have tried a few different power and data cords. So I decided to swap out the hard drive for a new SSD that is larger. I had planned to do this at some point in time, but I had been putting it off. The hard drive connection points wouldn't hold on to the power and data cords very well. I initially thought the problem was the cords, but the cords slid on and held on the SSD nicely. Guess I'll see if there is a further issue.

Thank you for the help!