Thomas_K Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Hi I'm an absolute unRaid and linux Noob. Anyway, unRaid caught my interrest as it seemed like a good and stable mediaserver solution. Having read a lot in this forum, especially about the Atlas build i bought 2 pro licenses. Installing ESXI 5 on my Supermicro X9SCL motherboard, containing 1 M1015 Controller flashed with 9211-8i firmware in IT mode setup to passthrough in ESXI. Installed unRaid 5beta12 as used in the Atlas build. Installed 3 Seagate ST2000DL003(2 new, 1 used)as datadisks and started copying. But then the problems started When about 3 TB of data was copied i started getting write errors on one of the new disks. Tested the disk, in another pc using Seagates software. No errors. I the wiped it completely, inserted it in the unraid server, started copying again and everything went fine. No errors. I then wanted the Parity drive installed for safety. Installed a brand new Seagate ST2000DM001, started building parity, but after a short while it stopped with 384 write errors. I then read somewhere on this forum that some kernel driver could be a problem, and an upgrade to 5.0 RC3 should solve the problem. I then upgraded but the errors were still there after a rebuild. I the swapped to another brand new drive(same make and model) but the same errors. What to do next?? Included syslog from the last parity rebuild syslog.txt Quote Link to comment
dheg Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Based on experience Did you preclear the drives? -> I have drives failing right after 5 successful consecutive preclear cycle, you are never too sure! Did you check the drives cables? -> I had a drive apparently fine which didn't stop failing until I changed the sata cable Are the drive cables tight together? -> same as before, my cache drive reliability was compromised until I untied the cables These are very nasty and hard to find issues, who would think 2 drives (out of 5) would failed out of the box? Also a noob here !! PS: may I asked you why did you build a ESXi server? I just post a topic on this issue (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=20605.0) Quote Link to comment
Thomas_K Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 No i did not preclear any drives. How do i do that?? Thomas Quote Link to comment
BetaQuasi Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 A forum search will find what you're looking for - here's a direct link: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=13054.0 Highly recommend doing this with all drives that you add to the array - you say you have existing data, so make sure you have a copy of it elsewhere before you run the preclears. Quote Link to comment
Thomas_K Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 How come you have to preclear a disk before using it in unRaid, when the tool itself is not build in unRaid. For me it is not very intuitive. Quote Link to comment
johnm160 Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 How come you have to preclear a disk before using it in unRaid, when the tool itself is not build in unRaid. For me it is not very intuitive. Pre clear is (sort of) built in. Once you have a parity drive installed any new drive added to the array will be precleared when you install it. While the disk is being pre cleared you will not be able to use the array. One of our members here Joe L wrote a Pre Clear script that allows us to pre clear the drives while still using the array (Thank You Joe L) Running 2 - 3 passes of the pre clear script also is like a burn in test on the drive and allows us to find drives that should be RMA'd before we ever put them into the array. As many senior members here will be able to tell you, there is a percentage of new drives that fail pre clear and get returned. Quote Link to comment
S80_UK Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Pre clear is (sort of) built in. Once you have a parity drive installed any new drive added to the array will be precleared when you install it. While the disk is being pre cleared you will not be able to use the array. One of our members here Joe L wrote a Pre Clear script that allows us to pre clear the drives while still using the array (Thank You Joe L) However, the "sort of" is important. The built-in clearing writes to the disk to initialise it prior to use, but there is no checking that the writing of zeroes was successful, and as mentioned the server is inaccessible while this happens. The PreClear script from Joe L does much more and allows the existing drives in the server to be accessed throughout. It reads the entire disk to verify readability. This also gives an opportunity for the drive to mark any unreadable sectors and to reallocate spares if needed. It then writes zeroes throughout the new disk. Then it reads back each and every sector to ensure that they are zeroed. Lastly it adds a special marker so that unRAID knows that the disk has already been cleared so that it does not do this when the drive is added to the array. In addition to the clearing and checking, the script also adds disk seeks from time to time in a way that helps ensure the drive is going to be reliable. It is generally recommended to run multiple passes of the PreClear script (typically 3). It takes some time, but is worth it as a means of filtering out drives that may not be fully reliable before you commit valuable data to them. Quote Link to comment
Thomas_K Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 I understand that is a nice and need to have feature, but what i don't understand is why this script, not is a part of the build and why you can't start it using the standard web gui. For me, as a noob, this is not userfriendly. I need to read a lot in the forum, learn to install scripts and to use commandline in linux, just to setup my server. This is not what i was expecting. I thought this was an easy to use, fast and reliable server, which i could control 100% through the webgui. This is not that i'm not satisfied with unraid or the steep learningcurve, but it would be nice if it was more intuitive to use(Yes i'm a Windows user) Btw. I've downloaded the script and started a preclear on the drive inteded for the parity drive. Then it's just wait and see. I've also seen a smart test mentioned several times in this forum. How is that done?? Thomas Quote Link to comment
johnm160 Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 I understand that is a nice and need to have feature, but what i don't understand is why this script, not is a part of the build and why you can't start it using the standard web gui. For me, as a noob, this is not userfriendly. I need to read a lot in the forum, learn to install scripts and to use commandline in linux, just to setup my server. This is not what i was expecting. I thought this was an easy to use, fast and reliable server, which i could control 100% through the webgui. This is not that i'm not satisfied with unraid or the steep learningcurve, but it would be nice if it was more intuitive to use(Yes i'm a Windows user) Btw. I've downloaded the script and started a preclear on the drive inteded for the parity drive. Then it's just wait and see. I've also seen a smart test mentioned several times in this forum. How is that done?? Thomas Joe L best explains the preclear issue here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=20445.msg181472#msg181472 Smart test can be done from the command line but for linux noobs like me I installed the UnMenu add on which allows me to do it ( and a million other things) via a web interface. Quote Link to comment
Thomas_K Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 Thanx Now(during preclear) im getting massive buffer I/O errors and drive not ready error on the drive. I expect that it's not normal. But why do i get those errors? Any ideas? Quote Link to comment
BetaQuasi Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Is it possible you've installed your M1015 in a slot that isn't a PCI-e x8 slot? Quote Link to comment
Thomas_K Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 No, just checked. It's mounted in slot 6, which is a X8 slot Thomas Quote Link to comment
chickensoup Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Have you tried replacing your SATA cables as was recommended? If the errors are appearing on more than one drive it is likely to be a controller or cabling problem. If your SATA cables are bent or twisted the contacts inside can become fragile and even break completely. You may also get IO errors if you have power cables zip-tied to SATA cables. Perhaps it is worth taking the VM out of the equation as well, try on a bare box build without ESXi. Do you get the IO errors on drives connected to the onboard SATA ports as well as the controller card? Quote Link to comment
Thomas_K Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 Hmm, problem might be solved. Disconnected my 5 in 3 dock, and connected the disk directly. Now the preclear runs like a maniac(Between 140 and 180 MB/s) and up until now, no errors seen. That might bee the reason to all my problems!!! Thomas Quote Link to comment
chickensoup Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Good to hear, sounds like you have a winner If all is well please remember to change the topic to (Solved)! Quote Link to comment
Thomas_K Posted June 5, 2012 Author Share Posted June 5, 2012 It was my 5 in 3 disk case causing the problems. After a preclear no errors or relocated sectors was found. Thank you all for your sugestions. Quote Link to comment
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