I'm concerned if something is wrong with my Unraid setup. The color on the Disk Status for the parity drive appears red, .... well, closer to orange than red. But it's not green. The data drives are green.

 

By the Started under Command area it is also red; Free is - ; Reads is 0; Writes is 50,232,120.

 

Now, I have NOT put any data on any drives yet, so I wouldn't expect any reads, or for that matter writes.

 

Is the parity normally red? Or do I have a problem?

 

 

Does the parity drive show temperature? Is the drive label in italics?

The drive may be missing or may have been re-assigned a different resource by the motherboard upon startup.

My motherboard does this once in a while.

It's hard to tell much from what you have indicated.  May I recommend reading the Troubleshooting page.  A syslog and attached picture would be very helpful.

 

If you are just starting, then it may be running a parity sync, and the ball would not be green until that is complete, and parity is valid.

Does the parity drive show temperature? Is the drive label in italics?

 

Yes, the temperature is 28C, and the label is in atalics.

 

Here is a pic of the current main screen:

 

 

Looks like it may be doing a parity, and expects to tak 273 minutes to accomplish for the 2 movies that I copied up.

 

Also, since posting this I have had this experience:

 

I copied a couple movies up: they transferred at 7MB/Sec. Wsa coping from an old machine with 100mb nic.

 

So I decided to copy down from the Unraid to my new desktiop with GB, and it too ws copying at 7MB/sec, and it crashed the Unraid server on both attempts.

 

I am attaching the syslog. FYI..I did see a lot of errors on the screen go by as it boots.

 

By the way, I should probably indicate the hardware:

 

• ABIT 9 Pro MOBO
  Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHZ
  3 WD 1GB drives, SATA
   
  
• 
  

 

 

 

Your unRAID is fine. It is building parity.

 

It mentions so, clearly in the page you attached.

 

It will take the time estimated.

 

 

Thanks, related to the color. When I posted the question there was zero data on the drives, so nothing to sync.

 

But, "...is fine"...should I expect it to crash when I copy files off of it? I've only tried twice, and it went down both times. Unfortunately, I don't have a video card in it, and telnet wouldn't work after the 'crash'. so I couldn't do a syslog. I suspect I'll have to rob the video card out of this PC and put it in and see if I can get it to crash again and catch a syslog. Assuming it is not totally crashed.

 

Also, should I expect only 7MB/sec on the transfers? On the second one, I was transferring from a Quad Cored PC with a GB card, and GB was up on the Unraid too.

 

First things first.

 

You were in the middle of a full parity calculation on all of your storage space when you took the screen shot.  The "orange" color indicator is telling you that parity has not yet been calculated for your array. 

 

Once the full parity calculation is completed, the indicator will turn green.  It was not calculating parity on the two files you moved to the unRAID array, it was calculating parity on every bit of every byte on your hard disks.  Parity does not work on files, it is calculated on disk blocks, regardless of what they contain.  They might be part of files, partition data, empty space, boot records, everything.  Even if you write no files to a disk, it is still written to and read when its file system status is updated by the OS.

 

The syslog you posted does not represent errors, but simply status messages logged there by the Linux OS and resident processes.  It might have errors, but a quick glace at yours showed none.

 

Now that you have rebooted, let the parity calc process complete.

 

Next, you are using a fairly old version of unRAID.  Please download and use the 4.3.1 release (or 4.3.2 if it gets released soon)

 

Unfortunately, the syslog you posted does not show us why your server crashed. The syslog is written to a RAM file-system, so when you rebooted after the crash, details logged about the crash were no longer there.

 

To capture the syslog as it is written you will need to log on as root (via telnet is fine) and then type

tail -f /var/log/syslog

 

This command will run and send its output to the screen.  If the system crashes in such a way where you cannot log in to capture the entire syslog, at least you can take a picture of the console to show the last of the syslog messages.  If you are using telnet, you can save its screen buffer to a file. (The "tail -f" program will run until you type Control-C to stop it, but since we want the tail end of the file when a crash occirs, and care much less about the initial contents, let it run until you capture a crash event)

 

Most system crashes are due to memory problems.  Make sure you are setting the voltage correctly for your memory.  Run "memory test" from the unRAID menu at least one or two full passes. 

 

A crash while copying files might have left your file systems with corruption, and actually, until your memory is verified as good, any parity calculations are probably suspect anyway.  (did I mention you need to run the memory test first?)  Check out the wiki on how to run reiserfsck to check for errors: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Check_Disk_Filesystems

 

The unRAID server should never crash...  Mine never has, and I've had it since Oct 2005. 

 

Your read/write spped of 7MB/s would depend on a lot of things, including your network interface, and your PC, and the PC's operating system.  If you are running Vista, you will want to install Vista SP1 or your performance will be really bad....

 

While doing a parity calc, I would think 7MB/s is pretty decent.  Afterwards, slower than expected.  Remember, during a parity calculation you are reading every byte from both of your data disks and writing every byte of your parity drive... that is why it is taking 270 minutes..  You were trying to read and write to it at the same time...  The crash is not expected, the slower read and write times is.

 

So first... check the voltage settings for your memory and then run the memory test...

    second, let the parity check process finish.

    third, before you add any more files to your array, check your file-systems for corruption.

 

Joe L.

Thanks Joe, for the quick and thorough response. 'been reading a bit and had seen on another post about checking voltage and memory

 

I will put a vid card in the system and perform all the things you mention. I had not checked voltage, or performed a memory test.

 

Correct, first things first. I'll try to see that HW is healthy.

 

I hadn't thought bout the parity doing a bit by bit of the drive, irrespective of if files are on there or not.

 

It does seem to be taking quite a while to do the parity. Interesting.

 

I'll post back what I find.

 

Oh, and I'll try to download the later OS too. I thought I got the latest from the site, but not beta. I try to stay away from beta. I'll go look for that now.

 

I'll search out considerations about upgrades. I presume I can upgrade the OS and pop it in and my existing setup/drives/data will still be intact.

 

Thanks again!

 

Thanks Joe, for the quick and thorough response. 'been reading a bit and had seen on another post about checking voltage and memory

 

I will put a vid card in the system and perform all the things you mention. I had not checked voltage, or performed a memory test.

You will need a video card to select the memory test from the unRAID boot menu

Correct, first things first. I'll try to see that HW is healthy.

An excellent first step, especially important before you put your precious data on the server

I hadn't thought bout the parity doing a bit by bit of the drive, irrespective of if files are on there or not.

 

It does seem to be taking quite a while to do the parity. Interesting.

The initial parity calculation, and any manual full parity calculation takes a bit of time.  On my larger, but slower IDE based array with 10 data disks, over 850 minutes.

Once it is done, any other parity calculations are done as you write the files.  (unless you use the cache feature in the Pro version of unRAID, in which case the parity is calculated as the files are moved from the cache drive to the actual data drive)

I'll post back what I find.

 

Oh, and I'll try to download the later OS too. I thought I got the latest from the site, but not beta. I try to stay away from beta. I'll go look for that now.

4.3.1 is out, 4.3.2 expected any time now with a few tiny bug fixes.  Neither is a beta release.

I'll search out considerations about upgrades. I presume I can upgrade the OS and pop it in and my existing setup/drives/data will still be intact.

To upgrade from your release to the newest OS, just need to copy bzroot and bzimage from the unzipped distribution to your flash drive and reboot.  All your files and settings will be intact.

 

To upgrade to the Plus or Pro licensed versions, only need to copy the "key" file Tom sends you to the "config" folder on the flash drive and reboot.

 

Joe L.

Thanks

 

I've put in the Vid card, and installed the upgrade. And I tried to run the memtest. But when I boot to the flash, and the OS/Memtest options come up, it won't respond to my USB keyboard. It loads the OS (or should I say Unraid  ).

 

Oh, and I checked the voltage. The memory calls for 1.9, and it was set to 2.0. So I dropped it to 1.9.

 

Any suggestions on getting it to recognize the keyboard? I've tried two different USB ports. (It does recognize it on boot, as I can go into Bios, but when I let it go on to boot off the flash, no response when trying to select the memory test.

 

[EDIT]

The upgraded server came up with the drives unassigned and all red on the Main page statuses.. I wonder if putting the USB Flash in a different USB port may cause this.

 

 

Hmmmm...maybe I overwrote the config file. I did back up the flash before doing the install. I'll try to put that back and see what happens too.

 

[uPDATE]

OK. I had overwritten the config data. i did the upgrade before seeing the response above about what to copyo over. I copied the backed up files back and it came up OK. And for anyone wondering, I moved teh Flash drive to a different USB, and it worked fine.

 

I'm letting it build parity now, and I plan after that to run the disk and file system checks.

 

Only think left after that will be to do the memory check, if I can figure out how to get it to resopnd to the keyboard.

 

 

 

I've put in the Vid card, and installed the upgrade. And I tried to run the memtest. But when I boot to the flash, and the OS/Memtest options come up, it won't respond to my USB keyboard. It loads the OS (or should I say Unraid  Grin).

 

It could be a BIOS option, try turning on USB Legacy support (or something like that, don't remember what it's called exactly).

Thanks. I should have thought to check Bios.

 

For this MOBO, I had the option of select for USB Keyboard and mouse: OS or BIOS support. I changed it from OS to BIOS, and I have the mem test running now.

 

 

I your memory need 1.9V, 2.0 won't heart it. 1.8 would be bad. I'd leave it on 2.0.

 

USB port doesn't matter.

 

Have you ever left the system build a complete parity?

Because if you don't, at reboot it will start over.

 

You can R/W while building initial parity but to be honest, I'd just leave it alone to finish.

 

 

thanks. I'm learning what you say is true.

 

When I opened this thread, it was based on the Parity drive color think looking closer to red than yellow, and I didn't expect (as noted earlier) that zero data would be building parity. I know better now.

 

And, over night, it did finish building parity. All was green this morning, and the drives were spun down.

 

Regarding the voltage, thanks for the heads up. I have changed it to 1.9, but I will consider moving it back to 2.0

 

I ran 4 passes on the memory test, and all were good.

 

I have data copying to it today while I'm at work.

 

I think maybe I'm working OK on it now. I'll be doing some tests of read speed soon. What I've read is that 'best' you can expect while building parity is 15MB/sec, and I've been getting 7. Hopefully the reads after parity is finished will be more in line with what everyone else is seeing.

 

Maybe I should open another thread to specifically ask this,(in fact I have the question in another thread that was on this topic, and no-one has answered)...but I'll try: Does anyone know if I can put in IDE drives with this Abit Pro9 board, and use the IDE ports that are on the board? I've read it doesn't work, on an older post.

 

 

I have changed it to 1.9, but I will consider moving it back to 2.0

 

I ran 4 passes on the memory test, and all were good.

You know the old addage about not fixing what ain't broke... 

Besides, you are currently at the recommended voltage...