WEBGUI powerdown button comes and goes.

[jeffreywhunter]

Is there some state of the server that triggers when the PowerDown button displays on the Main page?

[bonienl]

You can only powerdown when the array is stopped. With a running array these buttons are not displayed.

[Frank1940]

You can only powerdown when the array is stopped. With a running array these buttons are not displayed.

 

You know that I have often wonder why this two-step process has remained in unRAID for so long.  It would be a simple process to rewrite code so that the "Reboot" and " Powerdown"  buttons stop the array before doing their thing.  I agree that the check boxes should still be there to require confirmation before allowing either one to start.  Of course, I realize that, at times, the array has to be stopped for maintenance reasons and, sometimes, after that action is completed, the server has be be rebooted, so the new code would probably have to check that the array is stopped so it doesn't waste time doing it again.

 

I, personally, find it annoying that I have to wait the thirty seconds or so (it seems like a couple of minutes at times!) for the array to stop before I get the Powerdown and Reboot dialog.  Plus, it confuses new Users like jefferywhunter, the first time they come across it. 

[trurl]

You can only powerdown when the array is stopped. With a running array these buttons are not displayed.

 

You know that I have often wonder why this two-step process has remained in unRAID for so long.  It would be a simple process to rewrite code so that the "Reboot" and " Powerdown"  buttons stop the array before doing their thing.  I agree that the check boxes should still be there to require confirmation before allowing either one to start.  Of course, I realize that, at times, the array has to be stopped for maintenance reasons and, sometimes, after that action is completed, the server has be be rebooted, so the new code would probably have to check that the array is stopped so it doesn't waste time doing it again.

 

I, personally, find it annoying that I have to wait the thirty seconds or so (it seems like a couple of minutes at times!) for the array to stop before I get the Powerdown and Reboot dialog.  Plus, it confuses new Users like jefferywhunter, the first time they come across it.

I always closely monitor whether the array does in fact stop so it does not actually cause me any delay that I would not have anyway to wait for it.

[Frank1940]

You can only powerdown when the array is stopped. With a running array these buttons are not displayed.

 

You know that I have often wonder why this two-step process has remained in unRAID for so long.  It would be a simple process to rewrite code so that the "Reboot" and " Powerdown"  buttons stop the array before doing their thing.  I agree that the check boxes should still be there to require confirmation before allowing either one to start.  Of course, I realize that, at times, the array has to be stopped for maintenance reasons and, sometimes, after that action is completed, the server has be be rebooted, so the new code would probably have to check that the array is stopped so it doesn't waste time doing it again. 

 

I, personally, find it annoying that I have to wait the thirty seconds or so (it seems like a couple of minutes at times!) for the array to stop before I get the Powerdown and Reboot dialog.  Plus, it confuses new Users like jefferywhunter, the first time they come across it.

I always closely monitor whether the array does in fact stop so it does not actually cause me any delay that I would not have anyway to wait for it.

 

Why do you have to monitor it?

 

Second thought.  The 'Stop Array' option would still have to be there to permit another changes that can only be done with the array stopped.  You could still do that if you wanted to before a reboot or powerdown.  If you read carefully, I said that the modified code would have to check to see if it had already been stopped.  You could still do things just as you have always done if you so desire.  I would like to see the best of both worlds...

[jeffreywhunter]

Plus, it confuses new Users like jefferywhunter, the first time they come across it.

 

garycase, thank you for this - you've touched on a very important point for the commercial future of UnRaid (if UnRaid wants a 'consumer' or even prosumer future).  If you all could indulge a 'newbie' rant for just a moment from an old marketer of technology on the topic of that new user perspective...no insults intended and (hopefully) expressed for the benefit of the community moving forward...

 

<rant>

I have spent over a week trying to get UnRaid going - and still not quite there - making progress, but the progress to date has been hard-fought - and yes, I did purchase two pro licenses at $149 so "I believe". 

 

I'm a 35 year technology veteran on the Micro$oft side of the equation.  I've been there and done that with technology from mainframes to PC's - grew up on CP/M and DOS (from v1.1 to v6) - I even have a collection of CP/M, DOS and OS/2 manuals (Anyone remember the OS of the future! - I actually have an award from David Barnes for being an OS/2 Ambassador and part of TeamOS2 ), so character based OS's (and their characteristics) are not new to me.  While inexperienced, I'm not a total NOOB to Unix/Linux (I've even worked in AIX), and while I can talk to a sysadmin and guide a team - I am not a sysadmin.  My previous media server experience includes a couple versions of an 8TB Raid on Windows 7 and Windows 8 using Windows Home Server 2011 with Plex.  So as a potential customer for UnRaid, I should be right in the center of your target market for expanding market share.

 

My process with Unraid, while enjoyable (I love to learn), has been extremely frustrating.  Mostly because of the time it has taken - knowledge is hard to find.  And combining new products and new technology and new techniques (while fighting indeterminate hardware issues) - I've almost gone back to WHS a couple times in the past week - I know it, I know windows and I have a BizSpark license, so I get all the MS software for FREE.  Which means the fact that I just spent $149 should carry some weight as to the 'potential' I see in UnRaid.

 

And I must say that the UnRaid forum is, frankly (and kudos to all who contribute), one of the best I've seen - responsive people, open to share and tolerant of noobs and I look forward to finally being able to contribute, rather than consume (and rant!).  And for the most part, I know that the knowledge is there, however, that knowledge is 'all over the place' and sometimes documented/organized in ways that only the knowledgeable can find it.  And I get it, I'm a developer (assembler, cobol, pascal, ruby, db servers...) and I've managed teams of over 100 developers - very few developers like the re-hashed journey of documentation - or have the time to do so.  Documentation and accessibility of knowledge IS the ultimate challenge to marketing technology and growing a community.

 

MS has their share of problems, but I will say, for the most part (counter points already acknowledged), they do a fair job of taking the technology out of the technology and employing the philosophy of 'start here' and installation wizards.  The Linux world has, I believe, better technology and a better philosophy (by a long shot).  I love the community and the desire to make things better.  But its very much an 'insider' world.  Can you grep what I sed?  (sed is a marvelous utility.  The language is very simple, but the documentation is terrible. The Solaris on-line manual pages for sed are five pages long, and two of those pages describe the 34 different errors you can get.  A program that spends as much space documenting the errors as it does documenting the language has a serious learning curve. - get my point?).  Not saying UnRaid is as bad as SED and others, but you get my point.

 

Learning curve is THE struggle that UnRaid faces to gain marketshare (remember marketshare = ability to expand and create).  By far, UnRaid promises to be a fantastic and enjoyable tool for me going forward.  And, while it took me a couple days, I did find documentation, and it has made the process somewhat less painful - but there are a lot of assumptions of base knowledge, gaps in process and 'more coming' along the way - and for 'rusty noobs', that can only be painful.

 

In one of my companies (www.solarmotorsystems.com) we are spending a lot of time trying to get into what we call "the mind of the customer".  Who is the target we want to attract, what do we need to communicate to "where they are" and how do we move them along a process to the action we want them to take (contact, buy, whatever).  We're building a new website (http://aagdev.cloudaccess.net if you're curious) and the process has been long and painful.  These are all new companies, so the 'message' by far isn't complete - and the resources to craft it extremely limited (we are a startup).  But we're trying to communicate a very deep set of technology-oriented concepts in green energy power generation and relate them to vastly different levels of understanding - and it is a monumental challenge and we have a long way to go.  I'm sure for a seasoned Linux Admin, UnRaid is a new, more efficient and productive way to do things.  That seasoned prospect already has years of experience dealing with the underlying Linux environment (and its nuances).  There are a few things new to learn, but mostly the challenge is dealing with a limited subset of 'new' issues getting something installed and launched.  And there is an entire background of diagnostic experience to get to the root cause when sh*t happens.  And if all UnRaid ever wants to be is a tool for the educated and experienced, then fine - goal accomplished.  However, if the goal is to grow and expand the community, knowledge has to be refined into a more accessible platform so it can attract the less initiated.  Perhaps I envision too much, this is afterall a technical community, but someone did get my $149 (it wasn't opensource).  So there is a business model of some sort here.

 

I hope this makes sense and doesn't frustrate or insult anyone, I'm just trying to say - while creating great technology is difficult and challenging - expanding the community beyond the insiders is even harder - but it can be done if you consider the 'mind of the customer', feel their pain, approach the learning curve from that perspective and use that perspective as the foundation on which to build the tools for learning.

</rant>

[trurl]

It sometimes seems the business model is evolving along with the product. Until v5 I'm not sure the company was anybody but Tom. With v6 development several people were added, but still doesn't seem like there are more than a half dozen employees.

 

I have only been here for a few years, and I chose unRAID not only because of it's unique features, but perhaps even more because of this forum.

 

Probably to get to where it needs to be as far as making it accessible to the less technical would be quite a few more employees tasked specifically to do so. My impression is that it is slowly getting better in this department, but maybe not as fast as the product itself is changing.

[jeffreywhunter]

That's was my impression.  Exciting times, very tough times.  Bringing technology to the masses (or at least a larger mass) is not for the feint hearted.  And you're right, there needs to be some dedicated folks towards creating what's needed.  sigh...

[gundamguy]

You can only powerdown when the array is stopped. With a running array these buttons are not displayed.

 

You know that I have often wonder why this two-step process has remained in unRAID for so long.  It would be a simple process to rewrite code so that the "Reboot" and " Powerdown"  buttons stop the array before doing their thing.  I agree that the check boxes should still be there to require confirmation before allowing either one to start.  Of course, I realize that, at times, the array has to be stopped for maintenance reasons and, sometimes, after that action is completed, the server has be be rebooted, so the new code would probably have to check that the array is stopped so it doesn't waste time doing it again.

 

I, personally, find it annoying that I have to wait the thirty seconds or so (it seems like a couple of minutes at times!) for the array to stop before I get the Powerdown and Reboot dialog.  Plus, it confuses new Users like jefferywhunter, the first time they come across it.

 

You raise vaild points, I thought it was like this because sometimes you need to stop the array without powering down the system.

 

It of course makes sense for the start array button to only show up when the array is not started.

 

But I could see an argument for a stop array button and a power down (Which is actually just stop array and powerdown) button.

[gubbgnutten]

But I could see an argument for a stop array button and a power down (Which is actually just stop array and powerdown) button.

 

I am also a bit annoyed by the lack of an ever-present power down button in the web UI and the need for multiple steps, but just a bit. Pushing the power button works just fine for me (thanks LT for fixing that bug a bunch of betas ago!).

 

If you need a workaround for quick and easy power down via a browser, bookmark http://tower/update.htm?shutdown=apply (replace tower with the correct server name).