Great thats what I hoped

Thanks dgaschk

 

I was thinking about it on the way to work - as the disks are showing as unassigned rather than showing the disk as assigned and not recognised, I am sure that if I re-assign them to the same slots it should come back online and see everything. Once I assign them, if I do a manual parity check will it assume that the data disks are OK and rebuild the parity drive... or do I need to tell it to do this - obviously I am worried that it may assume that the data on the parity drive is correct and overwrite some data.

 

 

Do a parity check before changing to AHCI. After changing and assigning disks, parity may need to be rebuilt. If parity is rebuilt do a second parity check.

 

I am worried that it may assume that the data on the parity drive is correct and overwrite some data. Once it has identified these errors, what happens - does it assume that the parity drive is right and "correct" the data, or does it assume the data is right and "correct" the parity information?

It is my understanding that the ONLY time parity takes precedence is when a write operation to a data drive has failed. In all other instances parity is changed to reflect what is on the data drives. There is a way to force that to change with the command line setinvalidslot or something like that, but that is almost never used.

  Yes. This is correct.

 

 

I know I am getting off track slightly but can anyone explain this (or tell me not to worry)... on a few occassions the unit has become unresponsive (not often thankfully) meaning that the only way to reset is to force a poweroff from the power button. After such an event the unit starts a parity check - sometimes (yesterday being one) after the rebuild it reports some errors - last night was 4 errors. Once it has identified these errors, what happens - does it assume that the parity drive is right and "correct" the data, or does it assume the data is right and "correct" the parity information? Or maybe it does nothing and waits for the user to tell it what to do from a command line? On the occassions when I have had errors it is typically quite a low number, I think the largest I have had is in the region of 100ish several years ago, and so I have always ignored it!

 

 

This should not be happening. Next time, telnet to the server and copy the syslog to the flash drive. Post a message and we can debug the issue and try to perform a clean shutdown.

Hi dgaschk

 

Unfortunately I had switched to AHCI before doing another parity check as your post arrived after I started.

 

I enabled AHCI and re-assigned the disks - the array came up and all seems good... one thing I noticed is that the time to access a share is massively quicker. Before, when I clicked on a shared disk it would take 5 - 10 seconds to open and list in Windows - now it is less than a second! So if this is anything to go by it has made a big difference.

 

The parity rebuilds which I mentioned only occur when a clean powerdown isnt completed - e.g. if something has locked and I have to hold the power button in for 5+ seconds to power off - I read the post about configuring the button to do a clean poweroff and was going to play with this when all is back on an even keel. So I dont think this is anything unexpected. For over a year it has been fine its only since I had my mobo fail and replaced with this Gigabyte one that I have had some issues.

 

My AB9 Pro turned up today - wish I hadnt been so hasty as I do like the GB mobo... anyone want to buy an AB9??

Well all seems OK at the moment and my spare 2Tb disk is pre-clearing on an eSATA port as I write.

 

If I get any more issues I'll be sure to come back - thanks all!!