July 24, 200916 yr Hit Stop unRAID but it did not stop and instead said that 6 of my 8 HDs were unformatted. Could not get it to stop, power down. or reset (tried on 2 different computers (1 Ma, 1 Vista) with same (lack of) results). Hit reset on unRAID and it started back up as normal (doing parity check because of the hard reset). It does say I have 2 Sync Errors (at bottom). I had replaced a 400GB drive with a 1TB and it had rebuilt it with no problems. What could have happened and what are sync errors? Also could there be any permanent damage? It is scary seeing all you data drives listed as unformatted.
July 24, 200916 yr You yourself cause the "parity" errors when you hit reset. unRAID was unable to properly update the parity drive with the status of the disks. Now that those parity errors have been reported to you, they have already been corrected. You do not need to worry about them. As far as the "unformatted" drives... When you attempt to stop the array unRAID must first perform an orderly shut-down. One of the first steps it does is to stop the processes currently accessing the disks. The only one it knows about is SAMBA, the process that is used to share disks on the LAN. Then, it attempts to un-mount each of the data drives. It can only un-mount a drive if it is not busy. It is busy if it is being accessed in any way. It is also busy if it is the "current directory" for any process. If any disk cannot be un-mounted, the array will not stop. It will then show all the drive it could un-mount as un-formatted. (it should show un-mounted, but that is a flaw in the user-interface. Looking at your screen shot, I'm guessing that a file was being copied from the cache drive to disk1 when you attempted to stop the array. (Those two disks could not be un-mounted because they were busy) There is no damage, the parity errors you saw were probably housekeeping bits related to the disks being un-mounted. This same type of error can occur if you install any kind of add-on process that accesses the disks. Unless you stop the add-on process first, before attempting to stop the array, the same type of problem when attempting to stop the array can occur. The best way to react when this occurs is to press the "Stop" button again. If it can un-mount the remaining drives, it will and then shut down cleanly. If not, it will just return the same listing of un-formatted" drives. If you wish to terminate any processes causing a disk to be busy you can type at the command line: fuser -mvk /dev/mdX (where X = the disk number, so for you, disk1= /dev/md1) Now, as far as doing this automatically, the "powerdown" script will terminate these types of processes for you, and cleanly power down your server, even when the management interface cannot. I suggest you download and install it. (find it in the wiki under add-ons) Tom has said this will be fixed in a future release, but it has been a problem confusing users for years. He has even proposed how he will kill processes accessing drives before attempting to un-mount them. In my opinion, that will only cause other issues, as add-on processes are terminated abruptly, unless he also provides a hook to add-on developers to cleanly terminate the add-on process. My idea is if all the drives cannot be un-mounted, then those that could should be re-mounted. That would fix the issue of the user-interface being misleading. Then, the process holding the disk busy should be reported (to the syslog and to the screen) That will help you to know why you cannot stop the array. Until any fix is in place, you will just need to know, the un-formatted description is only because a given disk had already been un-mounted, so there is no file-system on the mount-point, and it is incorrectly reported. The real problem is with the disk(s) showing sizes correctly when un-formatted drives all-of-a-sudden appear when the array stop is attempted. Those remaining drives were "busy" Whatever you do, do NOT press the format button in these situations. You probably will lose data if you yourself asked the "Unformatted" drives to be re-formatted. The wiki has a section describing this exact situation: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ#Why_is_a_disk_showing_as_Unformatted.3F Joe L.
July 24, 200916 yr Author You yourself cause the "parity" errors when you hit reset. unRAID was unable to properly update the parity drive with the status of the disks. Now that those parity errors have been reported to you, they have already been corrected. You do not need to worry about them. As far as the "unformatted" drives... When you attempt to stop the array unRAID must first perform an orderly shut-down. One of the first steps it does is to stop the processes currently accessing the disks. The only one it knows about is SAMBA, the process that is used to share disks on the LAN. Then, it attempts to un-mount each of the data drives. It can only un-mount a drive if it is not busy. It is busy if it is being accessed in any way..... Looking at your screen shot, I'm guessing that a file was being copied from the cache drive to disk1 when you attempted to stop the array. (Those two disks could not be un-mounted because they were busy) There is no damage, the parity errors you saw were probably housekeeping bits related to the disks being un-mounted. This same type of error can occur if you install any kind of add-on process that accesses the disks. Unless you stop the add-on process first, before attempting to stop the array, the same type of problem when attempting to stop the array can occur. The best way to react when this occurs is to press the "Stop" button again. If it can un-mount the remaining drives, it will and then shut down cleanly. If not, it will just return the same listing of un-formatted" drives. If you wish to terminate any processes causing a disk to be busy you can type at the command line: fuser -mvk /dev/mdX (where X = the disk number, so for you, disk1= /dev/md1)... Thanks Joe, So sync errors are parity errors and are auto fixed? Actually there was no disk access or activity that I know of when I tried to stop the array and I did hit the stop button multiple times over the course of about 15 minutes (wasn't about to touch the Format button with a 10' pole). The 400GB cache drive is formally disc1 which I replaced with a 1TB. It still seems to have the original data on it (which was comforting as the array rebuilt it). I did not Preclear it since it was going to be a cache. Do I now just delete the old data off it and start using or must I unmount and Preclear for it to work as the cache?
July 24, 200916 yr This "unformatted disk" problem you have encountered is one of the most glaring problems with unRAID and has been reported many times. It is caused if another process has a connection to the disk. Even a telnet session with a CD to a disk can be enough. More commonly, it is something like Joe L.'s directory caching program. It is harmless UNLESS you press the format button, which will reformat your disks and put you in a world of hurt. I STRONGLY urge you to install the PowerDown package, and whenever you see an unformatted disk, use it to shutdown the server. It will do a clean shutdown even if processes are running that would prevent unRAID's normal stop array from working, and on reboot there will be no parity check. In rare circumstances, a drive can show unformatted due to a cabling or hard disk problem. I had this happen when using round IDE cables when I first started using unRAID. -- Just saw your new post -- A sync error means that unRAID found a situation in which the parity calculation did not verify somewhere on the disk. In this situation, unRAID will recompute PARITY (it assumes the data is right and parity is wrong), and re-write the parity block. So if you ran a parity check and got 2 errors, and then ran it again you should see no errors.
July 24, 200916 yr Because you re-assigned a former data drive to be used as the "cache" drive the unRAID mover process was attempting to treat all the files it found on it as files written to "cache" and I'm certain it was in the process of moving them to the data drives. (basically over-writing their existing copies) Yes, to re-use a data drive as a cache drive you should first clear it. The pre-clear script is as good as anything to use for that purpose. You will first need to un-assign it from the cache drive role. Joe L.
July 24, 200916 yr This "unformatted disk" problem you have encountered is one of the most glaring problems with unRAID and has been reported many times. It is caused if another process has a connection to the disk. Even a telnet session with a CD to a disk can be enough. More commonly, it is something like Joe L.'s directory caching program. It is harmless UNLESS you press the format button, which will reformat your disks and put you in a world of hurt. The most current version of the directory caching program specifically opens up a process on each of the data disks to keep them busy (and un-mountable) It also monitors the syslog for an attempt to un-mount the drives (an attempt to stop the array). This should prevent you from seeing "Unformatted" if it is running and you attempt to stop the array. (Since it won't be able to un-mount any drive) It will require you to press "Stop" a second time within a minute or so of the first attempt. During that interval, the cache-dirs process is suspended so you can cleanly stop the array. This does not help with other add-on processes you might install, but at least you will know what is happening. Joe L.
July 24, 200916 yr Author ....I STRONGLY urge you to install the PowerDown package, and whenever you see an unformatted disk, use it to shutdown the server.... I want to install the Power Down package but am baffled as to how. Do I download the Slackware install package and copy to the unRAID Flash drive/share and run it from the console (what is the command/syntax to run it)? Do I do the same for the Powerdown package? Can it be done from my Mac or PC and the files copied to the flash. The instructions are so cryptic to me.
July 24, 200916 yr Author Also another (out of frustration) question. Tried copying a movie to my movies share and it is not going to the cache drive at all (it is even spun down). How do you get the cache drive to work? Do you have to copy directly to the cache drive and if so how does it know where to put the data? Why is this not in the manual or FAQ's (that I can find)?
July 24, 200916 yr ....I STRONGLY urge you to install the PowerDown package, and whenever you see an unformatted disk, use it to shutdown the server.... I want to install the Power Down package but am baffled as to how. Do I download the Slackware install package and copy to the unRAID Flash drive/share and run it from the console (what is the command/syntax to run it)? Do I do the same for the Powerdown package? Can it be done from my Mac or PC and the files copied to the flash. The instructions are so cryptic to me. most of us have created a folder on the flash drive for all the packages that will be installed. By far the easiest would be for you to do that too. To do that after you have logged in type: mkdir /boot/packages Then you can "cd" to that folder cd /boot/packages You can either download the file to your PC and move it to the flash drive at \\tower\flash\packages or at the linux command prompt you can type (or copy/paste) this command: wget http://unraid-powercontrol.googlecode.com/files/powerdown-1.02-noarch-unRAID.tgz If you have configured a "nameserver" in your unRAID settings, it should be able to download the file for you. Now, you do not need to unzip or uncompress the installable package. That is done for you when you install it. It will need to be re-installed every time you reboot, but you can add one line to the config/go script to do that for you. Once the powerdown-1.02-noarch-unRAID.tgz file is in the "packages" folder you install it by typing: CTRLALTDEL=YES LOGSAVE=30 installpkg /boot/packages/powerdown-1.02-noarch-unRAID.tgz Remember, linux is case sensitive... so make sure you type the letters exactly as shown. You will want to append that exact same line to the end of your config/go script on your flash drive. Lastly, on some motherboards you can also issue a command to bind the power button to this script. Pressing the power button will then invoke a clean shutdown too. To do that you can try the following command: sysctl -w kernel.poweroff_cmd="/sbin/powerdown" If t works you can add that as yet one more line at the end of your config/go script.
July 24, 200916 yr Also another (out of frustration) question. Tried copying a movie to my movies share and it is not going to the cache drive at all (it is even spun down). How do you get the cache drive to work? Do you have to copy directly to the cache drive and if so how does it know where to put the data? Why is this not in the manual or FAQ's (that I can find)? It will not use the cache drive is there is insufficient space on it (it might be full of files not yet moved to their final protected disks). It will not use the cache drive at all unless you enable it for the specific user-share. No, you do not write to the cache drive directly, you write to the user-share you normally would. The basic description of the cache drive was in the initial release notes when it was introduced. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1731.msg11937#msg11937 According to this post, you need to enable the cache drive for each user-share: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1731.msg12054#msg12054 Joe L.
July 24, 200916 yr Author most of us have created a folder on the flash drive for all the packages that will be installed. By far the easiest would be for you to do that too. To do that after you have logged in type: mkdir /boot/packages Then you can "cd" to that folder cd /boot/packages You can either download the file to your PC and move it to the flash drive at \\tower\flash\packages Done, and done. So I don't need the Slackware install package? That is done for you when you install it. It will need to be re-installed every time you reboot, but you can add one line to the config/go script to do that for you. I see the go file in the config folder but don't know how to add script to it. I can open it on my Mac in TextEdit. It only contains : #!/bin/bash # Start the Management Utility /usr/local/sbin/emhttp & Do I add the line at the bottom of this and save it in TextEdit from my Mac? Once the powerdown-1.02-noarch-unRAID.tgz file is in the "packages" folder you install it by typing: CTRLALTDEL=YES LOGSAVE=30 installpkg /boot/packages/powerdown-1.02-noarch-unRAID.tgz Remember, linux is case sensitive... so make sure you type the letters exactly as shown. You will want to append that exact same line to the end of your config/go script on your flash drive. Lastly, on some motherboards you can also issue a command to bind the power button to this script. Pressing the power button will then invoke a clean shutdown too. To do that you can try the following command: sysctl -w kernel.poweroff_cmd="/sbin/powerdown" If t works you can add that as yet one more line at the end of your config/go script. ...According to this post, you need to enable the cache drive for each user-share: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1731.msg12054#msg12054 Joe L. Duh, did not scroll down and see that. Thanks a million Joe.
July 24, 200916 yr most of us have created a folder on the flash drive for all the packages that will be installed. By far the easiest would be for you to do that too. To do that after you have logged in type: mkdir /boot/packages Then you can "cd" to that folder cd /boot/packages You can either download the file to your PC and move it to the flash drive at \\tower\flash\packages Done, and done. So I don't need the Slackware install package? That is done for you when you install it. It will need to be re-installed every time you reboot, but you can add one line to the config/go script to do that for you. I see the go file in the config folder but don't know how to add script to it. I can open it on my Mac in TextEdit. It only contains : #!/bin/bash # Start the Management Utility /usr/local/sbin/emhttp & Do I add the line at the bottom of this and save it in TextEdit from my Mac? Yes, use your editor to add the one or two lines to the end of it. Remember, when you are done it must still be named "go" with no extensions. Don't forget, you still need to put the powerdown-1.02-noarch-unRAID.tgz file in the /boot/packages folder. So either download it directly on the unRAID server using "wget" or download it on your PC and move it to the packages folder. Once the powerdown-1.02-noarch-unRAID.tgz file is in the "packages" folder you install it by typing: CTRLALTDEL=YES LOGSAVE=30 installpkg /boot/packages/powerdown-1.02-noarch-unRAID.tgz Remember, linux is case sensitive... so make sure you type the letters exactly as shown. You will want to append that exact same line to the end of your config/go script on your flash drive. Lastly, on some motherboards you can also issue a command to bind the power button to this script. Pressing the power button will then invoke a clean shutdown too. To do that you can try the following command: sysctl -w kernel.poweroff_cmd="/sbin/powerdown" If t works you can add that as yet one more line at the end of your config/go script. The "go" script is invoked each time you reboot. The one "emhttp" line in it is the unRAID management console/web-server being started. You'll need to install the package yourself this first time so it is available the nex time you try to shut down. Joe L.
July 24, 200916 yr So does this look correct? You need to press enter at the end of the line. (in other words, your cursor should be at the beginning of the next line)
July 24, 200916 yr Author Just did a Cont-Alt-Del and the system didn't shut down but it did reboot in an orderly fashion. I could see it unmounting and other housekeeping on the console. So to power off you push the actual power button? Do you hold it in for a few seconds?
July 24, 200916 yr Just did a Cont-Alt-Del and the system didn't shut down but it did reboot in an orderly fashion. I could see it unmounting and other housekeeping on the console. So to power off you push the actual power button? Do you hold it in for a few seconds? No, I think you only need to just push it once.
July 25, 200916 yr Mine powers down on ctrl-alt-del. Maybe the power management of your motherboard is not supported.
July 25, 200916 yr Author Mine powers down on ctrl-alt-del. Maybe the power management of your motherboard is not supported. I use the MD-1510 uses a Supermicro C2SEE motherboard because I thought it would be the most compatible.
July 25, 200916 yr Mine powers down on ctrl-alt-del. Maybe the power management of your motherboard is not supported. I use the MD-1510 uses a Supermicro C2SEE motherboard because I thought it would be the most compatible. Should work then. You might want to post a syslog to see if RobJ or WeeboTech sees any reason it would not shut all the way down.
July 25, 200916 yr Author I can report it does work. It could be the first time I entered the install command manually and may have miss typed. I copy and pasted the command to the go file and the 2nd time it did a full shut off.
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