[SOLVED-ISH] Trying to add new disk.... Unraid says no


Recommended Posts

Hey guys, I've just run across an issue when trying to add a new disk to my existing array (which has been running perfectly for well over a year).

 

I've been running 5.0 rc 10 for ages (it has been perfect so saw no need to upgrade). I've been using the 6 onboard sata ports, but have now begun to run out of space, so I bought a Syba pex 40054 (Marvell 88SE9230 controller) 4 port sata card. I've installed it and the syslog shows it as being detected no problem, I've just installed a freshly precleared 3TB drive connected to the card. The drive is detected and shows up in unraid when the array is stopped, I've assigned the drive to the next empty slot (slot 5) and the blue ball appears as expected, unraid states that a new disk has been found and will be added and the array expanded, however when I click start to do this unraid simply dumps me straight back at the same screen where you assign drives to slots. It won't actually add the disk and start the array and I can't see why.

 

I thought maybe it was an issue with rc10 so I just upgraded to 5.05 but exactly the same thing happens. The array will not restart.

 

There is a bunch repeated stuff about importing at the end of the syslog that I assume means unraid is trying to start the array.

 

I've attached a syslog from rc10 and the latest one from 5.0.5 and some screenshots of what the disk assignment page looks like.

 

Any help would be appreciated, Thanks in advance.

syslogs.zip

Link to comment

Just to check for the obvious - did you remember to check the 'Yes I want to do this' checkbox before trying to start the array?

 

Looking at the syslog it appears that you have Simple Features installed.  This is not properly compatible with unRAID 5.0.5, although I do not know if it can cause the symptoms you are seeing..    You should either revert to the default GUI, or use the Dynamix replacement GUI instead.  The repeating IMPORT statements in the syslog are expected if you have the GUI running without the array started.

Link to comment

Thanks,

 

Yes I checked the checkbox.

 

I tired to install dynamix but could not get it to work properly, all it would give me is a blank screen in my browser. So I have removed it and reverted to the stock gui.

 

I tried to add the disk using the stock gui and it actually started to clear the disk even though it was already precleared, so now it looks like i'll have to preclear it all over again

Link to comment

I tried to add the disk using the stock gui and it actually started to clear the disk even though it was already precleared, so now it looks like i'll have to preclear it all over again

That suggests that a previous attempt to add it had actually worked and as a result had cleared the pre-clear signature.  If you had realised that you would probably only have had to elect to format it.

Link to comment

Ok, so I've just tried to add the new disk and again the same problem as before. The array will not restart it simply hangs on the assign drives page, the status bar at the bottom of the browser just says "Waiting for Nas" I've let it go for 20 minutes and it's definitely not restarting. The drive activity light was constantly on for the new drive and I ended up having to physically disconnect the new drive in order to even get the server to powerdown. (Telnet was still working)

 

There seems to be some entries in the syslog with regards to ata7 which is the sata port the new drive is connected to. Should I try another sata port? Is it a problem with the new sata card?

 

And what should I do with this disk now? The preclear flag will be removed, can I reinstate it somehow?

New_Syslog.zip

Link to comment

I would try different sata cables to eliminate the sata errors. You may look through posts for the 9230 and unraid 5. I have an on board 9230 and had similar errors with certain drives.  You could try putting a slower sata2 drive on the controller and the new drive on the motherboard. Different cables solved it for me but I was on unraid 6. Also 6b6 has a newer kernel and possibly better drivers. I just put a new 4tb on with no errors.

Also don't bundle the sata cables together.

Link to comment

Ok, so I've just tried to add the new disk and again the same problem as before. The array will not restart it simply hangs on the assign drives page, the status bar at the bottom of the browser just says "Waiting for Nas" I've let it go for 20 minutes and it's definitely not restarting. The drive activity light was constantly on for the new drive and I ended up having to physically disconnect the new drive in order to even get the server to powerdown. (Telnet was still working)

 

There seems to be some entries in the syslog with regards to ata7 which is the sata port the new drive is connected to. Should I try another sata port? Is it a problem with the new sata card?

 

And what should I do with this disk now? The preclear flag will be removed, can I reinstate it somehow?

 

No, I don't think you can reinstate the preclear flag.

 

Logically you have 3 components that may be causing the issue: the drive, the cabling or the controller.

 

The easiest piece to test is the cable to see if it makes any difference. I would also search the forums for your controller to see if others have reported any issues with it. It is the most likely culprit, but also the biggest pain to try and verify.

 

Hopefully you will get lucky with a cable issue, but if not, you will have some effort to test the rest. Likely the easiest way to check the drive is to preclear it again, then hook it up to a SATA port on your motherboard and boot up a new copy of UnRAID (new USB key). This way you can try and mount the disk into an array without impacting any of your existing config. If the drive mounts and formats, then you know it's fine and must be the controller.

 

There are other methods of testing the drive, but I'd be hesitant to move one of your production drives to the new SATA controller to test in case something goes wrong.

 

If the drive and cable are good, then you know it's got to be the controller.

 

Link to comment

I had another thought... if you want to test the controller you could try and move your parity disk to it and then do a parity check and see what happens. This way you don't risk any of your data and can test the controller with minimal risk. If that works fine then you could try and add your disk to the motherboard SATA controller and see if you can add it (after a preclear).

 

 

Link to comment

Small update:

 

I decided to test a spare 250 gig drive I had sitting here before messing around with changing cables or anything. I precleared the drive and put it it into the array and it was added and everything started normally.

 

So I guess this means the sata card and cable are fine. Perhaps the drive did not preclear correctly before (twice??) or perhaps the card just doesn't like that particular drive (the card is supposed to support 3 and 4TB drives).

 

I have a brand new 3TB preclearing now and I will try adding that one once it is done. If that one won't work either I will try moving my 2TBs onto the card and putting the 3TBs on the mobo.

Link to comment

check the web page of the card manufacturer (Syba and maybe Marvell) for a firmware update that supports drives > 2.2 TB.

 

I've checked both Syba and Marvell websites and can't seem to find any firmware anywhere, the specs state that it suits 3 and 4TB drives, so I assume the shipped firmware should support them.

 

I tried adding the brand new 3TB and actually got the array to start and add the disk, however the array expansion was taking forever and the syslog was full of hard-resetting sata link errors. I am beginning to think the card just does not like 3TB drives. I ended up having to do an initconfig and a full parity rebuild to get the 3TB out of the array.

 

However on a more positive note I have just switched one of my 2TB drives from the onboard sata to the card and everything seems to be fine, I'm going to switch the 2 other 2TB's over soon and if that all goes well I'll add the 3TB's to the onboard ports which I know will work fine.

Link to comment

In order to confirm that the controller can handle big drives (>2.2 TB) perhaps

you can test it in a Windows environment?

If it works in Windows, there might be a driver related issue in unRAID.

It would be nice if you can work that out.

I've added the card to our wiki and a definite information about the status of this card would be nice.

Thanks for contributing.

 

Link to comment

In order to confirm that the controller can handle big drives (>2.2 TB) perhaps

you can test it in a Windows environment?

If it works in Windows, there might be a driver related issue in unRAID.

It would be nice if you can work that out.

I've added the card to our wiki and a definite information about the status of this card would be nice.

Thanks for contributing.

 

Sure, I can try it out.

 

I did test it in my windows machine when I first got it to confirm it was not DOA but I never put anything over 2TB on it, so I will throw it back in the windows machine and chuck a 3TB on it when I get some free time.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

So an update on this card.

 

I've been having all sorts of problems with this thing and unraid. But I'll address the request of testing in under windows first.

 

I have just installed the card into my Windows 7 desktop (using the included Syba drivers.) and attached a 3TB disk. The disk is detected and appeared in disk management, I gave it a quick format (the disk had been previously precleared so obviously needed to be reformatted to ntfs.) After the format the disk appeared as normal in My Computer. I thought I would chuck a bunch of files on it to see what happened, I set a 20GB bunch of video files transferring. Transfer speed was initially around 100MB/s but very quickly the transfer dialog box seemed to freeze up, the speed and completion stopped updating. After a minute or so of being frozen it restarted but this time speed had dropped to 4.5MB/s, it continued at this speed for a while before again freezing, it was at this stage I aborted the transfer. After this I tried transferring single files of about 2GB in size and again noticed the same behaviour each time.

 

............

 

And now the problems I've been having with it in Unraid.

 

After it became apparent the card did not like 3TB drives in Unraid, I figured I would just move my 3 x 2TB drives and my 60GB cache drive onto the disk, thus freeing up 4 sata ports on the motherboard and allowing me to add the 3TB's there instead.

 

The first 2 x 2TB's went on fine, but when I went to add the 3rd I started getting repeated sata errors and constant "hard resetting link" errors in the syslog (This is with only 3 drives connected btw, still 1 port free). I tried multiple combinations of cables and ports, new cables, old cables, every possible port, then I thought maybe it just doesn't like that one particular disk, so I pulled all other disks off and added the "problem" disk on it's own, guess what I was fine! Added another 2TB, still fine, tried the 3rd - ERRORS. I ended up getting it nice and stable with just 2 x 2TB's and my 60GB cache drive connected, I left the other 2TB on the motherboard. Once it was stable I ended up having the parity drive red ball (probably due to all my messing around with cables) so I actually did a parity rebuild with the card and the 2 x 2TB's which went fine, it then ran nice and stable for about a week. So I sort of accepted that I would just end up with a 3 port sata card instead of 4.

 

Once I was happy it was stable I went about replacing all my sata cables (previously they were all miss matched lengths and none were locking type cables), I swapped them all out with new locking ones and started the array, everything went fine for about 10 minutes and one of the 2TB's on the card red balled (again due to sata errors) admittedly this could have been due to a dodgy cable and not the card (though this same cable is now connected to the motherboard and is working fine). I pulled the drive and threw in a precleared one, swapped the cable over with a spare and rebooted, the drive was detected and seemed fine, but by this stage I had lost all faith in the card and moved all drives off the card and onto the motherboard for the data rebuild. Data rebuild went fine and the array is back up and running with all drives on the motherboard. I'm not going to trust this card again, it has just had too many problems and the last thing I need is for it to freak out and I get 2 drives red balled, so I'm going to throw it in the cupboard and get something else to replace it.

 

So my experience in summary:

 

The Syba PEX-40054 (Marvell 88SE9230 controller).

 

* Would not work with 3TB drives in Unraid 5.05 (repeated sata errors and hard resetting link errors)

* Would not work with 3 x 2TB drives in Unraid 5.0.5 (same sata errors as before) would however work with 2 x 2TB's and 1 x 60GB SSD

* Had sudden random sata errors after a week of normal functioning resulting in red balling of drive (though may not have been the card's fault)

* 3TB drive did show up in Windows 7, but seemed to lock up under load (with only 1 single disk!)

 

Now can anyone recommend me a decent 4 port pcie sata card?? I'm looking at a used RocketRaid 2300 at the moment that might fit the bill, otherwise there is the Syba PEX-40064 which uses the 88SE9215 which is apparently working fine, though I don't know that I am ready to trust another Syba card again so soon.

 

 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.