File shares Never loading, and web interface locking up

[jaj08]

So I have been having this problem randomly for quite some time now. In the past when it would happen I would reboot the server, although most of the time the reboot would hang up, and I would end up having to force power the server off/on to get it back to life. Then on bootup a disk check would be forced, and all would work again then as expected.

 

The problem just happened again, so this time I thought I would try to dig in a little deeper instead of just rebooting the problem away. Right now I can get to the web interface without issues, and the initial listing of file shares displays, but I can't actually open any file shares when browsing from a windows system.

 

I actually went under diagnostics and tried to download a report. But now the web interface appears hung up after 30 minutes of no changes, and no exported log files.  Any ideas on how I can manually retrieve this information to assist in troubleshooting?

 

Running unRaid 6.1.8

[Frank1940]

If you have a monitor and keyboard attached to the server, login and run the following command:

 

 

diagnostics

 

You can also do this using PuTTY  on a Windows computer if connecting up a monitor-keyboard is difficult...

[jaj08]

How long does this usually take? Questioning if the same issue that locked up the web interface is at play as so far I have received no output in my putty session

[jaj08]

Still nothing, browser window has never generated an error, just shows that its spinning/working. And putty session is not generating anything.  Something in how the system is locked up is preventing these tasks from completing.

[trurl]

Are you running any plugins? Boot in SAFE mode.

 

Have you done a memtest?

[Frank1940]

Additional thoughts beyond what trurl suggested.  (He posted up while I was writing.) 

 

I would suggest that you start to maintain a paper log of what you are doing and what happens.  I would hook up a monitor and keyboard to the server so you can see what is happening.  You may have to take a picture of the monitor screen using a camera.  If you do take a picture try to directly in front of it with the camera lens centered on the screen.  (Being at an angle will make areas of the picture out of focus and difficult to read.)

 

OK with it locked up, you are going to have to force a reboot if you can.  If that doesn't work, do a power cycle.  While the power is off, pull your flash drive and do a chkdsk on it in Windows.  (This is in case the diagnostic script was generating its file and didn't finish writing the file!)  Also look in the root of the drive and in the    logs    folder for the diagnostics zip file. 

 

If you can't get a diagnostics file, list all of the components with model numbers  that you have in your server.  You also need to post which version of unRAID you are running and any plugins, Dockers and/or VM's that you are running.

 

You might also open up your server and verify that all of the fans are running and that the heat sink on the CPU is not clogged with dirt.

 

One final thought--- How much memory are you running?  Ver6 is not always 'happy' running with 2GB of RAM...    But I am not saying that is a problem at this point. 

[jaj08]

So tracking down what was happening during the time the system stops responding to file share request is difficult as this is actually used in an office environment. We use unRAID as a way to archive data off our front line servers, so at any point there could be a few data copies going on at once.  At one point a user thought he was triggering the lock ups by renaming a folder as he swore the system locked up each time after he attempted to rename a particular folder. Of course when I then went and tried to rename the same folder, no lockups, and we actually went another month or so before the next lockup occurred after having a few back to back.

 

I ended up forcing a reboot, on Reboot I noticed the Active Directory component showed that it was no longer joined to the domain. Once joined back to the domain all file shares once again worked as expected, with a disk consistency check in progress.  I had also manually done a disk check on the flash drive before I booted it up.

 

System Specs

Supermicro - X8SIL

Intel® Core™ i3 CPU 550 @ 3.20GHz

8gb RAM

22 Data drives, no cache drive.

 

In the past when I tried to do a shut down from the web interface the clean shutdown procedure always seemed to lockup on the syncing file system process, as it would then never complete the shut down process. This time I locked up the web interface trying to do the diagnostics.

 

I'm sure it's not as helpful, but here are the diagnostic reports after the reboot.

 

stlo-unraid2-diagnostics-20160317-0928.zip

[Frank1940]

You might try the powerdown plugin which replaces the LimeTech one.  You can find it here:

 

  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31735.0

 

It has a few bells and whistles which might solve the 'hanging' during shutdown.  It also writes the current syslog to the Flash Drive.  I am not sure when that happens in the shutdown procedure but it happens before the hang you would have some information.   

 

I seem to recall that hanging during shutdown can be an issue if there is an open file on the array at the time when it is attempted.  So you might check to see how you are transferring files to the server to see if there is some clues there. 

[jaj08]

I installed the power down plugin and open files plugin, so the next time this happens perhaps the open files will help me track something down. Assuming it doesn't just lock up the interface again.  I suppose for now I sit and wait until the next time this problem happens.