Preclear Disk Plugin stays in 'starting' for more than 12 hours.

[musingcypher]

Good day everyone!

 

I'm a very new unRAID user. After reading and understanding from the forum, I put together a unRAID server with the following configuration. The main purpose is server and video streaming.

 

Hardware:

• ASRock H97M Pro4 S1150 mATX motherboard
  Intel i5 4460 Processor
  8GB RAM
  Corsair CX600M PSU
  Fractal Node 804 case.
  SATA_0(sdb): WD40EFRX. 4TB, intended as parity drive.
  SATA_1(sdc): WD40EFRX. 4TB, intended as storage drive.
  SATA_2(sdd): WD20EARS. 2TB, intended as stoage drive.
  Flash drive: SanDisk Cruzer Fit, 16GB.
   
  
• 
  

 

Software

• unRAID trial version. My understanding is, this will support the above 3 devices and the flash drive. Cache drive is in the future.
  
• 
  

 

Plugins

• Preclear Disk by bjp999. Joe L's script version 1.15.
  
• 
  

 

I connected the HDDs, and as predominantly suggested to speed up adding to array, started the Preclear script using the plugin on all three drives.

 

Problems:

Preclear Disk page shows all three drives staying in 'Starting' for more than 12 hours. Please see attached screenshot.

 

Clicking on the preview give the following log. Between all three, only the device name is different:

/boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh  -c 1 /dev/sdb

root@Tower:/usr/local/emhttp# /boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh  -c 1 /dev/sdb

grep: /boot/config/disk.cfg: No such file or directory

/boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh: line 1268: /boot/config/disk.cfg: No such file or directory

 

I've also attached the syslog generated from the diagnostics page.

 

Please help! Is there something else I need to do in order for the disk.cfg file to be created?

 

Thanks a lot.

tower-diagnostics-20160202-1102.zip

[itimpi]

The plugin expects there to be a disk.cfg file.    This is normally created the first time you start the array.  I believe that it is also created if you do Tools->New Config.

[musingcypher]

Thanks itimpi. May be I have more reading to do. I thought the first and foremost step right after connecting is the preclearing the disks.

 

 

[itimpi]

Thanks itimpi. May be I have more reading to do. I thought the first and foremost step right after connecting is the preclearing the disks.

Do not forget that preclear is not a core part of unRAID but a 3rd party add-on, so it tends to assume that you have at least created an initial array.  If/when preclear gets incorporated into the unRAID core functionality then this issue would probably be addressed.

[gundamguy]

The plugin expects there to be a disk.cfg file.    This is normally created the first time you start the array.  I believe that it is also created if you do Tools->New Config.

 

Is that information required for some reason?

[mr-hexen]

It likely looks and requires that file to make sure someone doesn't nuke a disk that's in the array.

[itimpi]

The plugin expects there to be a disk.cfg file.    This is normally created the first time you start the array.  I believe that it is also created if you do Tools->New Config.

 

Is that information required for some reason?

I believe that it is checked to make sure that you are not accidentally trying to preclear a disk that is already assigned to the array as a data disk.

[musingcypher]

Do not forget that preclear is not a core part of unRAID but a 3rd party add-on, so it tends to assume that you have at least created an initial array.  If/when preclear gets incorporated into the unRAID core functionality then this issue would probably be addressed.

 

Thanks again. That's logical and makes sense. I did 'new config' but there was no disk.cfg file. I added the disks to the array, and sure the 'disk.cfg' was created. I run Preclear and got the "sorry can't preclear as the disk is part of the array" message.

 

I did 'new config' again. disk.cfg was still intact in the expected folder. I started Preclean and it worked this time.

 

Happy camper now, but had I not waited, I'd have saved quite a bit of time.

[gundamguy]

It likely looks and requires that file to make sure someone doesn't nuke a disk that's in the array.

 

Yeah that makes sense. If there is no disk.cfg, then it should just proceed since you can't nuke an array disk right (as there isn't an array yet)? Or am I missing something here.

 

Is there a case where you don't have a disk.cfg, but you do have an array (other the corruption issues, in which case I doubt you are working on pre-clearing???)