I've got 11 data drives + 1 parity. I'm running 5.0 beta 14. Drive 7 failed. I replaced it and rebuilt from parity. During rebuild, drive 1 starting having issues (read errors) causing the rebuilt file system on drive 7 to be corrupt (see log entries below) such that I can read files (at least the subset I've tested), but I get an "access denied" error when trying to write to it. The good news is, I anticipated both of these failures and have complete backups of both drives.

 

Drive 7 log entries:

Oct 28 14:37:14 Filebox kernel: REISERFS error (device md7): reiserfs-2025 reiserfs_cache_bitmap_metadata: bitmap block 251199488 is corrupted: first bit must be 1 (Errors)

Oct 28 14:37:14 Filebox kernel: REISERFS (device md7): Remounting filesystem read-only (Drive related)

Oct 28 14:37:14 Filebox kernel: REISERFS warning (device md7): clm-6006 reiserfs_dirty_inode: writing inode 881 on readonly FS (Minor Issues)

 

Now for the recovery questions.

 

I could run reiserfsck on drive 7 and see what it can fix, but given that I already have complete backups of drive 7 and 1, here's what I'd like to do. I'd like to completely format drive 7 so the file system is fresh and uncorrupted. I'd like to remove the parity drive and use it to replace that failing drive 1. I'd then copy my backed up data back to drives 1 and 7. Then I'll install a new drive as the parity drive and recalculate parity. I can't just use the new drive as drive 1 because it's 4tb and my current parity drive is only 3tb.

 

Is this possible and how would you suggest doing this? In addition to general advice/procedure, I have the following specific questions. Should I run drive 7 through pre-clear to format? Is there a faster way since I'll have to recalculate parity at the end anyways? I'd like to avoid all the parity calculations until the end to save time. How do I reassign disk 7 without Unraid restoring to it?

 

Thanks!

Since you want to replace two drives and parity; and have full backups of the two drives you're replacing;  you can simply do a New Config, and assign everything the way you want -- then start the array and it will do an initial parity sync.

 

If you want to copy your backups to the new drives 1 & 7 before adding parity, just do that -- don't assign a parity drive on the new configuration until you've done the copies.

 

Note that there's no need for a cleared drive when you're adding it to a new configuration; or to an array without a parity drive, so pre-clear won't save any time [You may want to run it as a disk test; but it's not needed for the traditional "add a drive fast" purpose]

 

Finally, while you're doing this is a good time to update your flash drive to v5.0.6 so you're not running beta software.

 

If you have the patience, I'd proceed like this...

1. Set a new configuration to remove all current drive assignments. Be sure you know which serial numbers you wish to assign where.

2. Preclear any drives that you want to erase, and any new drives you plan to use. Preclear is a good way to increase confidence in a drive, and since you can preclear many drives simultaneously, it will only take as long as the biggest / slowest drive. Be extra careful and compare serial numbers before pulling the trigger each preclear command, it would suck to make more work for yourself by preclearing drives with good data.

3. Set a new configuration with all the drives in the slots you want, and recalculate parity. Precleared drives in data slots will show unformatted at this point, you can format them from the gui at that point. Do a parity check to ensure everything is working properly.

3. Get smart reports on all the drives, examine for errors, and file them away for future comparisons.

4. Repopulate drives with data from your backups.

 

Take this opportunity to make sure all your drives are healthy, possibly reducing the chances of multiple simultaneous drive failures in the future.

New Config! Awesome. That's exactly what I needed. I'll definitely get off beta, just wanted to get the data straight first. This actually makes 3 drives failed in 2 weeks. I was able to recover from the first one before the other two started acting up, then made the backups anticipating further problems. Bad luck I guess.

Were the drives that failed at once all the same type of drive bought near the same time? We have seen higher incidence of lots of closely timed failures occuring in this type of situation.

Were the drives that failed at once all the same type of drive bought near the same time? We have seen higher incidence of lots of closely timed failures occuring in this type of situation.

 

They were all 1.5TB Seagates of the same model. It's possible they were bought around the same time, though I have no way of determining that.

 

Edit: Now that I think about it though, they should have the manufacture date. I'll have to check that.