One nagging PITA with me and unRAID has always been the fact that once you click the stop array button, you are blocked from having any further interaction with the UI.  Plus, you get no feedback as to what the #$#%@#& is taking so long.

 

Sure I can log in and apply Linux-fu and kill processes, force unmounts, etc., but I feel like this is one area of unRAID that needs some improvement.  Some suggestions as far as the UI:

 

- a better interface (statusbar at the bottom of the browser ain't cutting it)

- more verbose/comprehensive list of steps being taken and their status

- display errors that are logged

- some rudimentary feedback if issues are encountered (such as after trying to unmount a drive 3 times, report what files are open by what processes)

 

I realize its a synchronous process and trying to make it fully async is not possible, but perhaps you can put in some kind of axillary listener (like the awk listener shared used a few years ago) that would be able to give some http access to the server status.

 

..... Unmounting........ Unmounting..... Unmounting. 

 

That is a problem seen since I started using unraid. I know it means a file is open or what have you but this follows the line of what bubbaQ is mentioning.  No UI after hitting that button and no easy way to fix it. 

 

Thankfully the powerdown script will force a stop but also cause a reboot.....  Hopefully this all can be improved. 

 

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Thankfully the powerdown script will force a stop but also cause a reboot.....  Hopefully this all can be improved. 

i wonder if it is worth requesting a parameter option to the Powerdown plugin that just carries out all the processes required to stop the array and then returns control to the command line?  Not sure how practical/easy it would be to implement.

Thankfully the powerdown script will force a stop but also cause a reboot.....  Hopefully this all can be improved. 

i wonder if it is worth requesting a parameter option to the Powerdown plugin that just carries out all the processes required to stop the array and then returns control to the command line?  Not sure how practical/easy it would be to implement.

 

I put together a plugin "Open FIles" from some work that BubbaQ originally did that displays open files and the processes holding open the files.  I added a button at the bottom that allows you to shutdown all the processes of the array, but does not unmount the drives.  You can then determine what processes are holding files open and troubleshoot shutdown problems from there.

 

The "Shutdown Processes" was taken from the powerdown script.  It would be relatively easy to add a parameter to powerdown to stop processes and leave the array drives mounted.  I would like to have more feedback on what this would be used for so it would make sense.  For example, samba is stopped and is not restarted, so I don't think you'd be able to access the flash drive, and the array cannot be accessed by the "Tower" name.  You'd have to access the tower by IP address.

 

This would allow the webgui to come back, but would not allow the shutdown of the array until the array is stopped and the drives unmounted.

Correct me if I'm wrong as I have used the open files plugin very little.  But it is not accessible after starting the stop process.  Now one could go to the plugin first but that's still not the work flow a normal user would do. 

 

Now I understand that the open files plugin is good for troubleshooting but if your array usually shuts down properly then you won't realize you have a problem till you hit stop and get stuck on unmounting at which time you are then locked out of getting to the open files plugin.

 

All I know is when I get stuck on that loop the only safe way out is the powerdown script and if memory severs me correctly it has to initiated at the local terminal because you loose Lan connectivity (I could be wrong).

 

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Ultimately, all of this can be rectified by switching emhttp to a "real" webserver that allows multiple processes concurrently, as the stop array process isn't the only instance where you cannot access the GUI for long periods of time (docker installation, CA reverting to legacy mode, etc etc etc)

Correct me if I'm wrong as I have used the open files plugin very little.  But it is not accessible after starting the stop process.  Now one could go to the plugin first but that's still not the work flow a normal user would do. 

 

Now I understand that the open files plugin is good for troubleshooting but if your array usually shuts down properly then you won't realize you have a problem till you hit stop and get stuck on unmounting at which time you are then locked out of getting to the open files plugin.

 

All I know is when I get stuck on that loop the only safe way out is the powerdown script and if memory severs me correctly it has to initiated at the local terminal because you loose Lan connectivity (I could be wrong).

 

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If it is an infrequent situation, then you are right, the Open Files plugin won't be much help after the fact.

 

Several suggestions:

- The powerdown script does run diagnostics and save it on the flash drive before unRAID is shutdown.  Initiating powerdown from the command line or briefly pressing the power button will run and save diagnostics.  This might help.

 

- Temporarily go to the Open Files plugin on each shutdown and run the shutdown processes until the process is found that prevents a shutdown.