Had a power outage during a storm today, and even though I do have my box hooked up to a UPS, something seems to have gone wrong.  I wasn't home when it happened, so I'm not sure if the server powered down cleanly or not.

 

When I first went to power it back up, nothing happened other than the blinking cursor.  So I started back up again, went into the BIOS and my USB flash drive was no longer set up as the primary boot drive.  So I fixed that, and then it at least booted into unRAID.  But now I can't access the web interface.  I can access unMenu, but it says:

 

Not started, unRAID ARRAY is STOPPED 0 disks in array.    Array is not protected by a parity disk: Parity disk not configured.

 

I have 6 total disks in the server (1 parity, 1 cache, 4 data).  If I try to click on "Disk Management" in unMenu, it seems to then crash unMenu because then I can't even access that anymore.

 

I'm officially nervous.  Attached is the syslog I pulled from unMenu.  Running v4.7 (I think - since I can't access the interface, I can't tell for sure).

syslog-2013-06-29.txt

Had a power outage during a storm today, and even though I do have my box hooked up to a UPS, something seems to have gone wrong.  I wasn't home when it happened, so I'm not sure if the server powered down cleanly or not.

 

When I first went to power it back up, nothing happened other than the blinking cursor.  So I started back up again, went into the BIOS and my USB flash drive was no longer set up as the primary boot drive.  So I fixed that, and then it at least booted into unRAID.  But now I can't access the web interface.  I can access unMenu, but it says:

 

Not started, unRAID ARRAY is STOPPED 0 disks in array.    Array is not protected by a parity disk: Parity disk not configured.

 

I have 6 total disks in the server (1 parity, 1 cache, 4 data).  If I try to click on "Disk Management" in unMenu, it seems to then crash unMenu because then I can't even access that anymore.

 

I'm officially nervous.  Attached is the syslog I pulled from unMenu.  Running v4.7 (I think - since I can't access the interface, I can't tell for sure).

You are on 4.7, it appears as if the flash drive has some corruption and your configuration cannot be read.

 

I would start with putting it in a window's box and running checkdisk/scandisk on it.

Ran chkdsk on the Flash drive and everything checked out:

 

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

Copyright © 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

 

The type of the file system is FAT32.

Volume UNRAID created 1/19/2010 9:35 PM

Volume Serial Number is A434-596E

Windows is verifying files and folders...

File and folder verification is complete.

Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

 

4,043,288,576 bytes total disk space.

      16,384 bytes in 1 hidden files.

      114,688 bytes in 22 folders.

1,007,271,936 bytes in 403 files.

3,035,881,472 bytes available on disk.

 

        4,096 bytes in each allocation unit.

      987,131 total allocation units on disk.

      741,182 allocation units available on disk.

 

I then (on a hope and a prayer) inserted the flash drive back into the unRaid box and booted back up, but with the same result.

 

Any other ideas?  I'm wondering if my mobo is hosed.

I found this thread where someone seemed to have a very similar issue to mine, but he was able to pinpoint it to one bad drive.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14945.0

 

Looking at my log file, the section that sticks out to me is:

 

Jun 29 02:37:15 fileserver emhttp: Device inventory:

Jun 29 02:37:15 fileserver emhttp: restart_md_driver: stat pci-0000:00:11.0-scsi-2:0:0:0: No such file or directory

Jun 29 02:37:15 fileserver emhttp: restart_md_driver: stat pci-0000:00:11.0-scsi-3:0:0:0: No such file or directory

Jun 29 02:37:15 fileserver emhttp: restart_md_driver: stat pci-0000:00:11.0-scsi-1:0:0:0: No such file or directory

Jun 29 02:37:15 fileserver emhttp: restart_md_driver: stat pci-0000:00:11.0-scsi-4:0:0:0: No such file or directory

Jun 29 02:37:15 fileserver emhttp: restart_md_driver: stat pci-0000:00:11.0-scsi-5:0:0:0: No such file or directory

 

Isn't that where it should be picking up that I have 6 drives attached?

Ran chkdsk on the Flash drive and everything checked out:

 

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

Copyright © 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

 

The type of the file system is FAT32.

Volume UNRAID created 1/19/2010 9:35 PM

Volume Serial Number is A434-596E

Windows is verifying files and folders...

File and folder verification is complete.

Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

 

4,043,288,576 bytes total disk space.

      16,384 bytes in 1 hidden files.

      114,688 bytes in 22 folders.

1,007,271,936 bytes in 403 files.

3,035,881,472 bytes available on disk.

 

        4,096 bytes in each allocation unit.

      987,131 total allocation units on disk.

      741,182 allocation units available on disk.

 

I then (on a hope and a prayer) inserted the flash drive back into the unRaid box and booted back up, but with the same result.

 

Any other ideas?  I'm wondering if my mobo is hosed.

The syslog showed three disks were found.  (I think) Do you have more than three?

It is more likely the config folder on the flash drive has lost its super.dat file or the disk.cfg file.

 

Do the disks show up on the disk assignment screen in the drop-down lists?  Do you have a record of which drive is the parity drive?

(If you do not know which is parity, do not assign the parity slot at all,  just  assign the data disks.  )

If a data disk shows as unformatted, it is possible it is the parity disk. (if it one of the largest on your array) 

 

Joe L.

There are 6 drives in the server (1 parity, 1 cache, 4 data).  Below is the latest screen cap I have.  That one EARS drive has since been replaced.  I also made sure all SATA cables were secure.

 

I don't if the disks show in the disk assignment screen because I can't access the web interface.

 

I'm officially nervous. 

 

For good reason ... and that will hopefully also make you VERY cautious about what you try, so you won't lose any data 

 

As Joe noted, you have apparently lost the configuration information on the flash drive.  Unless Joe has a suggestion for how to recover that (I'm not aware of anyway to do that from the disks themselves, but there may be -- Joe would know), then I'd simply rebuild your array ... but would ONLY assign the data drives initially.

 

While you're at it, if you had any plans to upgrade to v5 (e.g. for larger disk support), you may as well do that now.    I'd copy your key file (Pro.key or Plus.key) from the config folder on the flash drive to a safe place (your PC);  then erase everything on the flash drive;  and then copy the complete distribution for v5RC15a (or later if one is released today).    Then copy your key to the Config folder on the flash drive.

 

Now boot to the flash drive;  go to the Web GUI; and assign your 4 DATA drives.    Start the array -- and you should now have a good array.    If ANY drives are shown as Unformatted, do NOT proceed with a format operation ... if that happens, post a screenshot here.

 

Assuming the array is okay, you can then Stop it, assign your parity drive, and then Start it and let it do a parity sync (a very long operation, as I'm sure you know).    When that finishes, run a parity check (another long process) to confirm it went okay.    Then, finally, you can stop the array and add your cache drive.

 

Thanks garycase.  So I take it if I completely rebuild like that I will lose any add-ons I had and will have to reconfigure them?  Not a huge deal I suppose, but I do remember struggling a bit with getting Crashplan set up.  But I've been wanting to move that to my cache drive anyway so perhaps this would be the motivation to do so.

Yes, if you start over you won't have any add-ons until you add and configure them.    On the other hand, that also ensures that if any add-on was part of the "culprit" in this problem (perhaps didn't shut down correctly and corrupted the flash drive), it won't be interfering with your recovery 

 

... and it's a good time to update to v5 if that's something you wanted to do.

 

I have been wanting to update to v5, but was waiting for the official release...of course I think I remember saying that like 2 years ago. 

 

I seem to remember Crashplan is a lot easier to set up with v5 though, is that true?

I have been wanting to update to v5, but was waiting for the official release...of course I think I remember saying that like 2 years ago. 

 

I seem to remember Crashplan is a lot easier to set up with v5 though, is that true?

 

I don't use Crashplan so I can't answer that.  But it's probably true ... a LOT of the add-ons are easier to setup with v5 (in fact quite a few REQUIRE v5).

 

garycase, I'm about to try your suggestion of wiping the flash drive, copying the install files of the latest v5 RC, copying my current key over, and rebuilding the array and I just want to make sure I'm understanding something.  All of my drive information is actually stored in that key file?  Or is it on the drives themselves?  I guess where I'm confused (or worried) is if I completely wipe my flash drive (minus the key file), I'm not losing any important information for drive assignments, parity, etc?  In other words, even if I "start over" (so to speak), unRAID will still "know" these drives were part of an array?

No, the key file simply identifies that specific USB flash drive as being licensed for the version you have (Plus or Pro).

 

The drive info is stored in a couple of files on the flash drive -- but you don't need that to recreate the array.  The only drives you MUST know are parity and (if you have one) cache.  Be CERTAIN you know the serial numbers of those drives before you start.  Note that they're already shown in the screen capture you posted above ... i.e. your parity drive is WCAVY1333194 and your cache drive is WCANKH463140.    The data drives can be assigned in any order (although you may want to use the same order you had before).

 

UnRAID won't "know these drives were part of an array" => but it WILL know that they're properly formatted ReiserFS drives with data, and can add them to a new array without any problem.

 

BEFORE you start, copy the entire contents of your flash drive to a folder on your PC ["UnRAID Flash Drive Backup" or some such]  so you can revert to that version "just in case".    But I don't anticipate you'll have any problems.

 

Thanks for the clarification.  So will I lose all of my shares as well?  Or can I copy the shares folder in the config folder over with the key file?

No shares will be lost. Every top level directory is a share.

Not looking good...

 

I wiped the flash drive (after backing it up), copied the Plus.key file over, then ran 'make_bootable' as administrator, ejected the flash drive and inserted into the unRaid box.

 

After taking what seemed longer than usual to get going, it eventually started running Linux/unRAID, and it eventually got to the unRAID login prompt, but before I even was able to login, it started doing something and is now blinking cursor with some variation of /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:11.0/ata6/host6/scsi_host/host6 (981)  And I'm not able to access the web interface .

 

One thing I noticed that's a little disturbing is that when I went into the BIOS before booting, it only seemed to recognize 3 of the 6 attached drives (as Joe even pointed out after looking at my syslog).  And I'm not sure why it's not even showing a line for SATA5 & SATA6.  Everything also just seems "off" (for lack of a better word).  Just getting into the BIOS takes a good 3 minutes or so, and that has never been the case.

 

If it were me , at this point, I'd clear the CMOS on the motherboard & start fresh...

Well, at first I thought I was making progress with the CMOS reset, because after I did it, the BIOS recognized 5 of the 6 drives, and acknowledged the SATA5 & SATA6 ports, but didn't pick up anything in SATA1, even though that's where my cache drive is connected.

 

But then when it boots into unRAID, once it gets to the login, I'm getting those same device lines again (see below).  Where that screen shot is now is how it sits forever with a blinking cursor.  And I'm still unable to access the web interface.

 

One other thing I tried was booting into a Linux distro from a USB flash drive on that same box, and that didn't work either.  Got a lot of the same messages I saw come through when booting up unRAID (ata1: softreset failed (1st FIS failed).  But I didn't disconnect any of the drives when doing that.

 

Is there anything else to try?  Or is it time to start looking at motherboards?

 

Clearly you're having some basic hardware issue.    Likely either power or motherboard; but could be memory or any of several other less-likely issues.

 

If you can't even reliably boot into the BIOS, that is NOT a good sign.  Disconnect ALL of your drives and see if that's still a problem.    If you can boot to the BIOS with the drives disconnected, then connect ONE at-a-time (with power off of course); and repeat the test.  You may very well find one drive that is the cause of this issue [if a controller card on a drive fails with a short, that can cause what you're seeing].

 

If you can't even boot to the BIOS with no drives connected, then you most likely have either a power supply or a motherboard failure.

 

Finally, so good progress.  I narrowed it down to an issue with either the SATA1 port or the drive connected to the SATA1 port (which happens to be my cache drive, and is SSD).  I will try to confirm which it is by connecting some other drive to the SATA1 port.

 

So with nothing connected to SATA1, I'm able to boot into unRAID and see my 4 data drives and parity drive.  I assigned the 4 data drives and started the array, and now can see my shares on my other boxes.  The security on v5 must be different because I keep getting "Windows cannot access" errors, so I can't read the shares.  Do I need to set something up differently on v5?  I set the security to public on all of the shares.  I didn't add any additional users, but I never had to do that before with v4.7.  I also set my Workgroup name to the correct Windows Workgroup I have set up.

Try running New Permissions found on the Utils page...

Thanks mikejp...that seems to have done the trick.

 

I assigned the parity drive and started the parity sync.  After that, I'll see what's going on with that cache drive/slot, but it's a relief having everything back online now.

 

Thanks to Joe L, garycase and mikejp for the help.  I'll mark this as solved once everything is synced up with no issues.

 

Time to start reading up on v5...

Glad all's working now -- as I noted earlier, it had to be a hardware issue, and it just takes a bit of experimentation to isolate what's causing it 

I just hope it's not a bad port on the mobo.  I need all the ports I can get!

Well, turns out it was a bad drive after all.  A brand new OCZ Agility 3 solid state drive, that I had connected and activated in unRAID, but wasn't even using it for anything yet - was waiting to upgrade to v5.  Ironically I'm now upgraded to v5 sans the cache drive.  I just checked OCZ's website and it seems this drive has a 3 year warranty so I should be able to get a replacement.

 

Thanks again to all who helped.