OK so I'm still running 4.7 and do a monthly parity check which is automated. My problem is when the parity check starts I no longer have access to the server or the unMenu. It has been running since 11/1 and I still have no response from the server.  I can log into the server directly but what command can I use to check what is going on? Should I be worried?  In the last month I have probably added around 800GB of data.

You can run this command:

/root/mdcmd status

 

I'm not a "Linux guy", so I don't know the details of the output format, but the key thing is to run it;  then do it again a bit later -- and see if anything's changing.    I suspect not => which will mean your system is "hung".

 

If that's the case, shut it down (try pressing the power button briefly and waiting a few minutes;  if that doesn't work, hold the power button in until it turns off);  then reboot it; and see what it shows for the last parity check time.

 

Thanks. As soon as I get home tonight I give that a try. This happens every month but typically it is only down for about 24hrs. Is it typical for access to the server to be down when running a parity check? If not what should I be doing to resolve this? I can send logs tonight if that helps, but if someone could tell me which logs and where they are located that would be helpful.

Is it typical for access to the server to be down when running a parity check?

 

No, you should still be able to access the server => although I generally don't, as I want the check to run at full speed.  But 24 hours is a long time ... if you're using PCI controllers, it'll be much slower than motherboard controllers or PCIe cards; but I'd still not expect it to take that long.    What's your mix of drives [sizes and whether IDE or SATA] and what controllers are you using?

 

 

Should I be worried?  In the last month I have probably added around 800GB of data.

 

Hopefully there's nothing to worry about;  but if as long as you're backing up your data you have nothing to worry about.    If you're not making backups of your data, you should !!    UnRAID (or any other RAID) is NOT a backup.

 

 

 

 

I've updated my profile to include my server specs. I think my SATA PCI card may be slowing my system down. I should have gotten a PCI-e card not sure why I didn't since I have both a PCI express x1 and a PCI express 2.0 x16 slot available.

Yes, a PCI SATA controller is definitely a bottleneck.      A PCIe x4 card (in your x16 slot) would be a significant improvement ==> although if it's fast enough for your streaming needs (which it likely is), the only real difference would be MUCH faster parity check speeds.   

so from the cmd line everything looked ok. I reran and it was the same so I did a reboot. Everything came online just fine. My parity check so it was completed 11/1/13 9:54 pm with 0 errors. So I guess my question is why it didn't come back online and/or did it complete the parity check? On another note I will shop around for a PCIe card but right now it looks like I can just remove the 2 drives on the system as they are both just 1TB drives and I have 13.5TB total and only using 6.6TB.

My parity check so it was completed 11/1/13 9:54 pm with 0 errors. So I guess my question is why it didn't come back online and/or did it complete the parity check?

 

Yes, it completed the parity check ... it wouldn't show the completion time if not.    Apparently emhttp (the Web GUI) got hung, so you couldn't get to the array.    Did you by chance try just accessing the array with Windows Explorer?    It was likely okay -- you just couldn't get to the Web GUI.

 

 

I can just remove the 2 drives on the system as they are both just 1TB drives and I have 13.5TB total and only using 6.6TB.

 

Clearly you don't need the space; but you can't simply pull the drives.  You'll need to do a new config; assign the drives you want to keep; and then do a new parity sync.    Since you're running v4.7, be SURE you know the serial numbers of all your drives and how you need to assign them [in particular, you need to be sure you use the correct drive for parity and (if you have one) the cache drive]

 

... might also be a good time to upgrade to v5.0

 

Yes I was going to do a backup and then upgrade to 5.0. I'll probably pull the drives first and redo the parity check then upgrade to 5.0.