Very strange - was just watching a movie with the kids when the movie kind of hiccuped (for lack of a better word) and suddenly the array disappeared. Went to the server and did a hard shutdown (shutdown -h now). It appeared to reboot normally, but was still not visible on the network, and it doesn't respond to the keyboard anymore - any thoughts on what I might try next? I'm (really) in uncharted waters now...

What do you mean by "appeared to reboot normally"?

 

Tapatalk from CM10.1 Kindle

 

 

I realize that was a bit vague

 

Just watched the screen as it booted and it ran through it's (apparent) usual process - up to and including the login prompt

(As I type this, I realize that it probably doesn't mean much..)

Maybe try checkdisk on the flash?

 

Tapatalk from CM10.1 Kindle

 

 

I would certainly try rebooting all your network related hardware.  It could be something like your router had a glitch.

If the keyboard will let you try memtest from the boot menu.

 

If the keyboard won't work to select memtest on boot then you can edit syslinux.cfg on the flash and make memtest the default by moving the "menu default" line to the Memtest86+ section. Make sure to use a Linux compatible editor for this.

 

If it's booting up to the Tower Login then it's most likely booting okay.    The issue would seem to be a network issue.  As suggested above, power cycle all your network hardware (router and any switches you may be using);  and reboot the PC's you're accessing it with.

 

If the WebGUI still isn't accessible, try \\tower\  from Windows Explorer and see if the array is accessible.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions - I'll give 'em a go today and see what pops up.

Windows explorer didn't pan out - although that was a good shot.

 

Leaning towards a network issue, although the keyboard/server locking up is a bit disconcerting...

If there is any possibility of a networking issue, the very first test should always be to ping by numeric ip (after testing, if possible, that the network interface is 'up' at both ends).

I may be wrong, but, I read somewhere that if it's not responding to keyboard inputs the best bet is to wait a couple of hours, even more so after a forced shutdown. What it's might be doing is scanning all of the disks for errors, which, apparently shoots CPU up to 100%.

OK - let it run for 24 hours -  but the keyboard still wouldn't accept any input-frozen at "Tower login:"

 

ran checkdisk on the flash - checked out just fine.

 

Had another stick of memory from a working computer and swapped that in - initially seemed to work - got to the web gui and a parity check was started, but 10 minutes later the keyboard was frozen and I couldn't hit the array anymore.

 

As far as the network goes, both the server and my computer are plugged into the same switch, coupled with the fact that every other computer in the house (3 others) have no connection issues.

 

Could it be anything else other than a MB that has decided to pick this moment to die?

Possibly overheating? Is the CPU fan OK?

 

temps are good and cpu fan is spinning merrily away right now

You don't mention what version of unRAID you were running or much about your hardware. The original post made me think hardware because it suddenly stopped and then when you restarted the keyboard didn't work. But it is getting at least part of the way finished booting and even ran for a while after you changed memory.

 

Did you actually run memtest before you changed the memory? Did you run memtest after you changed the memory?

 

Are you running any plugins or other addons? Here is a recent post by Joe L. going into detail about how addons are installed and the possibility of getting hung if something doesn't behave properly. Not sure if this would make the keyboard not work, though. There is something in Linux that echoes your keystrokes but I don't know if it could get hung so badly that it would not work. Did you wait a while to see if your keystrokes were ever echoed?

 

When the logon appears on my console my plugins have not finished loading yet because they continue to display more lines on the console. In fact, I think the logon appears after /boot/extra and /boot/plugins have been processed but before /boot/config/plugins.

 

I am still inclined to think hardware but just thought I would add whatever I could think of.

Ran memtest for several hours - no errors reported.

Am viewing the syslog right now via telnet - here's an attachment - Seeing some error msgs that hopefully could point a finger at what's going on with my box.

 

(Still running 4.7 btw)

 

syslog.txt

Could you try a new flash drive with the 3disk version just to see if it boots and responds to the keyboard/etc?

 

That would eliminate the flash drive & addons/etc if it also doesn't work.

 

I have no idea if that would affect your current array though (i imagine not unless you then try mounting hdds). Someone correct me here if i'm totally wrong.

I guess we should have asked to see a syslog sooner. I see similar syslogs on this forum, often followed by requests for smart reports and complete syslogs. Obviously some problem with ata4. I assume you have checked the cables?

OK - I'm cautiously optimistic.

Rechecked the cables last night and gave 'em all a good jiggle - nothing obvious, but who knows?

In the booting/rebooting over the last couple of days I'd tried different usb ports for the flash drive and gotten slightly different results. Found another port last night I didn't know existed and booted from there - and now the syslog looks almost completely clean(!)

I'm leaning even more strongly towards a failing MB, or at least controller now. (Unless someone has a different theory) Thanks for all the help - amazing how much anxiety this box brings me every couple of years!

 

Unrelated question, but didn't want to start a new thread. I searched on this fairly extensively, but couldn't find my exact situation: I'm getting several of these "Tower shfs: duplicate object: /mnt/disk3/***" errors in the log file - but the kicker is that the movies are NOT showing up on multiple disks. I would expect to find the same movie listed on 2 or more disks in the log file, but they are all showing up on single disks only. i.e. I'll see this line

Apr 23 03:17:39 Tower shfs: duplicate object: /mnt/disk9/Movies/ALIENS.iso

repeated with a different time stamp, but only on disk 9. If it were a duplicate object, wouldn't it appear on multiple disks?

Thanks again everyone!

If you are using 5.0 rc12a, then if you use the Web GUI to drill down on any folder/file it will show what disk(s) the folder/file are on.

If you are using 5.0 rc12a, then if you use the Web GUI to drill down on any folder/file via the share then it will show what disk(s) the folder/file are on.

Nope - 4.7

I can actually see from the log which physical disk the files are on - just curious as to why they are listed as duplicates if there is only one "copy" showing on the disk

Since Movies is at the top level of disk9 then you must have a share named Movies. Does this share include any other disks? If so look at those other disks for /mnt/diskX/Movies/ALIENS.iso

Good to go - (feel like an idiot for that last one!)

Thanks again to all!

So just to clarify what happened -- was this simply due to a duplicate of the movie on a 2nd disk?    If so, I'm surprised that caused the whole array to stop responding !!

Nope - that was a separate issue that I thought I'd clear up while I was here and everyone was being so helpful

 

My best guess is that the MB (or usb controller) is dying as everything cleared up once I found a third (usb) slot to try the flash drive in