Hope somebody can help... replaced my NIC recently and then did a clean install of unRaid 5rc10 (nothing else installed - not even unMenu)

The parity drive was redballed at startup - and so I suspected that I had nudged a SATA cable when installing the NIC.

I removed the parity drive, checked the cables etc and all seemed secure but still the same problem.

I took out the parity drive again and checked it via a caddy connected to my PC - Smart etc seemed OK!

I ran reiserfsck on all my data drives and they were OK so I ran initconfig

All my drives have been reassigned correctly (the Parity drive is the only Hitachi enterprize drive I have - so no confusion there) BUT it still redballs when I start up the array?! No parity rebuild etc - just a reballed parity drive.

All shares seem OK but I'm stressed/worried - obviously currently unprotected!

Syslog attached! HELP! Please!

First time I have felt really insecure re my unRaid (after years of uneventful use!)

Thanks in anticipation

DaveK

syslog.txt.zip

I think that this is correct behaviour.  You have to make unRAID believe that you've replaced the drive (by starting the array once with the drive disconnected?).  After that the drive should come back green and you can rebuild parity.

Hi - Thanks for this.

I'm not much of an expert at this sort of thing so will try this later.

So - just so I understand...init config, assign all drives except the parity drive, start up array, stop array, assign parity drive, restart array and parity drive should be OK?

Will try this tomorrow after I've received confirmation (not before!) - there are a lot of "error" flags in the log file which mean nothing to me but which are a little frightening. Anyone able to interpret any of these before I try the above?

Thanks again - much appreciated

DaveK

The initconfig isn't necessary.  Just the de-assign/re-assign.

 

With regard to the errors, a quick glance suggests that there are problems with your flash drive (the super.dat errors), and disk sdd (which look like they could be cabling problems).  Let someone more experienced in reading logfiles give you better advice.

Hi PeterB - thanks for persevering!

Did what you recommended and parity was building as I left for work this morning.. fingers crossed it will have completed OK when I get home!

Meanwhile - anyone care to comment on the log file errors.... and PeterB's comments re problems with my flash drive?! I now have something else to loose sleep over until I get some feedback!

Again, thanks in anticipation

DaveK

Run checkdisk on the flash in a PC or Mac.

Phew - everything back to normal. The world can relax

Re-starting the array with the Parity Disk removed then shutting down, reinserting the Parity Drive and restarting the array with it included forced a brand new parity build. Once this completed everything has settled down. Shut down - performed checkdisk on the memory stick - everything OK. Restarted - performed a parity check - everything still OK!

Phew

Thanks everyone - solved.

I can now go back to blissfully ignoring my unRaid server and letting it do it's stuff!

Thanks again

Took a look at your syslog above, only saw one problem, but it was causing all of your troubles.  The SATA cable to the Parity drive, sdd the Hitachi, was causing terrible communications issues, with constant CRC errors.  Different commands were all failing with CRC errors, but when a write failed, the drive was Red Balled, and that happened every time you tried to restart the array.  I saw no other issues.  CRC errors during SATA communications is almost always a bad SATA cable, but could also be a bad SATA connector or bad power to that one drive.

 

However you say the Parity drive is working now?  Did you possibly replace or re-seat the SATA cable?  It's possible that the cable was only partially connected, had slid a little off.  Please check your newest syslog for the same errors.  If you see any, please replace that cable ASAP.  And after proving that the replacement cable fixes the issue, cut that old cable to pieces, so you will never use it again!