Server DOWN! Help

[dmangus]

Need some help, my server hung as i was attempting to spin down my disk. I was able to log in via ssh and look at processes. I then tried to stop my plugins via the scripts in /etc/rc.d/ those hung and did nothing. I then attempted to kill -9 the processes which again did nothing. after I figured a quick init 6

 

the system never came back up. Now when i boot I get the following error

 

VFS: Cannot open root device "(null)" or unknown-block(2,0)

Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:

0800        3987648 sda driver:sd

  0801          3987620 sda1 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000sda1

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(2,0)

pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted 3.1.1-unRaid #1

Call Trace:

[<c1309aa3>] panic+0x50/0x143

[<c1451af4>] mount_block_root+0x1e6/0x1fa

[<c10896a5>] ? sys_mknod+0x13/0x15

[<c14511e0>] ? parse_early_options+0x1c/0x1c

[<c1451b75>] mount_root+0x6d/0x75

[<c1451c8e>] prepare_namespace+0x111/0x138

[<c14512d1>] kernel_init+0xf1/0xfd

[<c130c676>] kernel_thread_helper+0x6/0xd

 

HELP!

 

[dmangus]

Oh well i guess my flash drive bit it. I decided to upgrade it since it wasn't working. Thinking it must be a kernel issue. after backing it up and then coping the images for the newest unraid-RC12, it seems not the flash drive can't be recognized. Today is not my day.

 

Well i will try and copy my backup to another flash drive, even I know this wont really do nothing for me tonight. Well crossing fingers. 

[garycase]

As you already know, a new flash drive won't be useful without a new key.

 

However, you can initialize a new flash drive;  then boot to UnRAID to confirm it will indeed boot okay.    Then you can look at the drive assignments page and confirm that all of your drives are listed -- do NOT actually assign anything to the array at this point.

 

On the Main tab, click on Flash and note the GUID of the new flash drive.

 

Then you simply need to get a new key from Limetech (Tom).  Tom's pretty good at replacing the key when a flash drive dies => I don't know if he's charging a nominal fee for that these days or not (I'd think it'd be fair to do that) ... but in any event if you send him the GUID in an e-mail I suspect you'll get a fairly quick response.

 

Once you have the key, if you simply put it on the flash drive and you'll be ready to go.

 

[garycase]

... one other thought:  Are you sure the system is trying to boot from the flash drive?    If the boot priority has been "lost" on the server, your problem may be as simple as it trying to boot from the wrong device.

 

Unless you have an IPMI motherboard, you'll need to attach a keyboard and display to confirm that.

 

[dmangus]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yea It was booting from the flash drive, and now with the backup on the new flash drive, it loads up with no problems. Now I am like a lost sheep as my server was my media server running plex. None the less the only thing i can do now is request a new key and try and see if I can RMA this retarded card. I basically had it running on that card for the last year.

 

This card was a verbatim 4 gig, now i can only hope this 8gig scan disk last longer.

[BetaQuasi]

You say you were running Plex - for a USB drive to die that quickly... are you storing the Plex database etc on the USB stick?  If so, take this opportunity to put it on a cache drive or on an array disk.  Plex read/writes will chew USB flash drives very quickly.

[burtjr]

This is the main reason I went with the Kingston Flash Card Reader MobileLite G2 USB 2.0 Multi-card Reader, when the card goes I throw in my backup SD card and I have minimal down time. The GUID is with the reader and not the card.

[PeterB]

This is the main reason I went with the Kingston Flash Card Reader MobileLite G2 USB 2.0 Multi-card Reader ...

+1

[dmangus]

You say you were running Plex - for a USB drive to die that quickly... are you storing the Plex database etc on the USB stick?  If so, take this opportunity to put it on a cache drive or on an array disk.  Plex read/writes will chew USB flash drives very quickly.

 

No i have everything on cache, nothing runs off the usb except the system. The only thing i did do is create a swap file on the usb, not sure if that could be a cause of its quick failure. I have 6 gigs of ram on a HP Microserver, and 1 gig swap on the usb.

 

This is the main reason I went with the Kingston Flash Card Reader MobileLite G2 USB 2.0 Multi-card Reader, when the card goes I throw in my backup SD card and I have minimal down time. The GUID is with the reader and not the card.

 

Nice! i wish i knew about this before, if it seems these cards don't have a long lifespan this would definitely be the best coarse.

[itimpi]

No i have everything on cache, nothing runs off the usb except the system. The only thing i did do is create a swap file on the usb, not sure if that could be a cause of its quick failure. I have 6 gigs of ram on a HP Microserver, and 1 gig swap on the usb.

A swap file would definitely dramatically reduce the life of a USB drive s it would cause a lot of writes to happen.  If you want/need a swap file/partition then the place to put it would be on the cache drive.

[PeterB]

if it seems these cards don't have a long lifespan ...

 

The problem with flash technology is that each cell can only accept a maximum number of writes before it fails, so it's best suited to write once/read many (or, at least, many more read cycles than write cycles).

[dmangus]

No i have everything on cache, nothing runs off the usb except the system. The only thing i did do is create a swap file on the usb, not sure if that could be a cause of its quick failure. I have 6 gigs of ram on a HP Microserver, and 1 gig swap on the usb.

A swap file would definitely dramatically reduce the life of a USB drive s it would cause a lot of writes to happen.  If you want/need a swap file/partition then the place to put it would be on the cache drive.

 

I didn't even think about this... Thanks I will definitely change up my set up with this in mind. Tom just blessed me with  new Key so when i get home today after work Ill make those changes. Thanks again guys for the support.