how to figure out which drive ata16 is, as example


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Is there a simple way to figure out which hard drive is referenced in the syslog - where it shows ata15, as example.  How does one tell what disk number or disk id that is?  I was hoping there is a way to convert that to the actual disk number, like disk 3 sdi, again as example.

 

The manual way is I have to search the syslog  and find the part where it talks about ata15, then next to it is the drive serial number.  I then go look in the webgui and match it, then I have the disk number.

 

There must be a easier way.

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I'm just exploring syslogs, but it looks like you can search for the first occurrence of "sd 15" and get this:

Jun 26 21:25:34 Tower kernel: scsi 15:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Hitachi HDS72202 JKAO PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Jun 26 21:25:34 Tower kernel: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdj] 3907029168 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB)

Then search for "] (sdj)" and get this:

Jun 26 21:26:08 Tower kernel: md: import disk8: [8,144] (sdj) Hitachi_HDS722020ALA330_JK11B1YAJGH14V size: 1953514552

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Thanks, that is the manual process that I already did.  I was hoping for a more simple and faster way to get that information.

 

The part that bothers me is that unless you read your syslog often, you would not know a disk is having issues.  On the webgui home page, shows zero errors.  There are not alerts sent, nor anything else to inform you that a drive is having issues.  It would be nice if unraid would see these errors and report them to me in a more direct way - send an email would be great.

 

I guess people just don't know until the drive dies, or they happen to be looking at the syslog.

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This is an example of why the community has been asking for email notifications. I don't know if you read the unRAID 6.0 road map, but this is being promised in 6.0 RTM which we should have in the next 3 months.

 

It will be one of several reasons to upgrade once you are ready.

 

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I couldn't agree more, and yes I've been reading about the v6 features.  I just hope that the email notification will actually do what I need it to, report hard drive and all other serious errors.

 

After thinking about how to move my data off the disk with errors, I've run into a issue.  My spare drive is already larger than my parity drive, so I can't just swap the old bad for the new one I have.  This means I will now have to manually copy the data to another drive.  I'm worried about how the array will manage this.  After doing a search on this topic, I didn't come up with anything recent.  If I elect to  update my parity drive first, then I have to hope these host bus and other errors don't prevent the parity drive from building correctly - meaning I don't lose data.  That approach sounds more risky, which is why I would prefer to just copy the data off and remove the drive.  I will add the new one afterwards.

 

So now I'm looking for the process to simple remove a disk from the array, meaning I will need to first move the data to another drive.  I would then need to unassign the bye bye disk and hope that works.

 

With version 5, what would be the best way to proceed - hoping there are updated instructions for this?

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With version 5, what would be the best way to proceed
If you have enough space on the other drives in the array, you could copy the data to the rest of your drives.

 

How big and how full are each of your current array drives?

 

Many times when a drive is failing, it's faster to physically disconnect the drive, and manipulate the data on the missing drive using the rest of your drives to emulate it. Downside to that approach is that if another drive fails while you are running with a missing drive, you will lose the data on both drives.

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@ Trurl - thanks for the swap disable link.  I read that thread and posted my question there.  Thanks again!

 

@ Jonathanm - yes, I have the space to manually copy the data off.  However, it looks like there are instructions in the swap-disable thread on how to skip that step, I think.  :) 

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@ Trurl - thanks for the swap disable link.  I read that thread and posted my question there.  Thanks again!

 

@ Jonathanm - yes, I have the space to manually copy the data off.  However, it looks like there are instructions in the swap-disable thread on how to skip that step, I think.  :)

Swap disable is slightly more risky to your data, but not by much. Having a backup of your data would reduce the stress you are going through significantly, so perhaps after you get through this issue, maybe think about backup?

 

I'll answer your "what is the copy button doing" question here, instead of another reply in the other thread. It is copying the current parity drive bit for bit to the drive you wish to use as parity, so the new parity drive can be used to reconstruct the failed drive to your old parity drive after it is done copying.

 

The reason I think the swap disable is slightly riskier is that the copy process from the old parity drive to the new drive is not verified after it's completed, as far as I know. It assumes that the copy went ok, so it's possible for the old parity drive to be overwritten with bad data if the copy didn't go perfectly. I've seen drives fail in strange ways, including accepting the data written without kicking out a write error, but then when you try to read it, you get garbage. Doesn't happen often, but it can happen. I prefer to keep a copy of my at risk data intact until I can verify it's ok, and the swap disable eliminates that extra safety blanket.

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