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[6.2.4] Disk in parity slot is not the biggest, when trying to add 2nd 8TB HDD

blade316

By blade316
in General Support

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blade316 Rookie

blade316

Posted
Posted

Hey guys,

 

I have recently come onboard with unRAID and really liking it so far, this is also my first post to the forum.

 

I have a very simple setup at the moment, just some dockers for SAB, Sonarr, Plex etc, along with 8 SATA HDD's, 7 of which are currently in the array. I have two 8TB drives, one is a WD which is my current parity drive, and the other is a Seagate which i'm trying to add into the array as another data disk. This is where i'm having trouble, it thinks my seagate 8TB is bigger than my WD 8TB.

 

Current array setup when started:

Array_Devices.jpg

 

Array when stopped:

Array_Devices_2.jpg

 

Adding the Seagate 8TB drive in:

Array_Devices_3.jpg

 

Parity Warning:

Parity_Error.jpg

 

I have a gigabyte motherboard, and after reading through some forum posts I thought it might be HPA, but as per below HPA is disabled on both the 8TB drives, so they are the same size, as per below.

 

root@unRAID:~# hdparm -N /dev/sdh

/dev/sdh:
max sectors   = 15628053168/15628053168, HPA is disabled
root@unRAID:~# hdparm -N /dev/sdi

/dev/sdi:
max sectors   = 15628053168/15628053168, HPA is disabled

 

I have also attached my diagnostics zip file.

 

I'm not really sure what to do now, I have searched the forum but have been unable to find any similar posts.

I suppose I could make the Seagate 8TB my parity drive, but I'm not sure how to do that, plus it will involve rebuilding the parity from scratch again.

 

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

unraid-diagnostics-20170103-1435.zip

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JorgeB Grand Master

JorgeB

Posted
Posted

Odd haparm results since to unRAID they really appear with different sizes:

 

Jan  2 19:00:02 unRAID emhttp: ST8000AS0002-1NA17Z_Z840EEM3 (sdi) 7814026532

Jan  2 19:00:02 unRAID kernel: md: import disk0: (sdh) WDC_WD80EFZX-68UW8N0_VLH3727Y size: 7811880908

Jan  2 19:00:02 unRAID kernel: md: import disk1: (sdb) ST4000VN000-1H4168_Z3051JA1 size: 3905935308

 

I suspect the issue is with the Adaptec controller, note that your 4TB disks are also reported smaller, normal 4TB size:

 

Dec 31 18:40:23 Tower kernel: md: import disk10: (sdl) WDC_WD40EFRX-68WT0N0_WD-WCC4E0716981 size: 3907018532

 

Try moving the the Seagate to the Adaptec or use the parity swap procedure.

 

Note that if I'm right and you move any assigned array disk from the Adaptec to onboard, or vice-versa, unRAID will give a wrong disk error.

 

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interwebtech Collaborator

interwebtech

Posted
Posted

Odd haparm results since to unRAID they really appear with different sizes:

 

Jan  2 19:00:02 unRAID emhttp: ST8000AS0002-1NA17Z_Z840EEM3 (sdi) 7814026532

Jan  2 19:00:02 unRAID kernel: md: import disk0: (sdh) WDC_WD80EFZX-68UW8N0_VLH3727Y size: 7811880908

Jan  2 19:00:02 unRAID kernel: md: import disk1: (sdb) ST4000VN000-1H4168_Z3051JA1 size: 3905935308

 

I suspect the issue is with the Adaptec controller, note that your 4TB disks are also reported smaller, normal 4TB size:

 

Dec 31 18:40:23 Tower kernel: md: import disk10: (sdl) WDC_WD40EFRX-68WT0N0_WD-WCC4E0716981 size: 3907018532

 

Try moving the the Seagate to the Adaptec or use the parity swap procedure.

 

Note that if I'm right and you move any assigned array disk from the Adaptec to onboard, or vice-versa, unRAID will give a wrong disk error.

 

Also check that the Adaptec isn't rounding capacities "for compatibility". My Areca ARC-1231ML has a BIOS setting to do that and was on by default.

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blade316 Rookie

blade316

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Hey everyone,

 

I really appreciate your quick replies, thanks so much!

 

I will try each of your suggestions .... and see how I go.

 

I am using an Adaptec 6805 controller which I've had for years, and initially when I installed unRAID, I had this weird issue where it would display all the drives to assign to the array, but when you select one, it would select and then the page would refresh and back to unassigned again, not allowing any disks attached to the controller to be assigned. Disks connected to the onboard SATA ports were fine.

 

After searching the forums, I found a post for a different controller that suggested disabling the BIOS in the controller settings, I tried that and I was then able to select the disks for the array. However I do suspect that this controller just doesn't play nice with unRAID, which is why I'm having these little issues. I will also have another look in the controller settings and see if there's any other options I can disable.

 

I would like to remove the controller completely, however my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H)only has 2 x SATA III ports and 4 x SATA II ports, and I have 8 3.5 HDD and 2 x SSD's (however I'm not currently using them in unRAID).

 

The options I see that I have are:

 

[*]Upgrade the motherboard to one that has 8 SATA III ports (if possible), however then I will probably need to upgrade my CPU as well *sigh*

[*]Buy a different controller that is compatible with unRAID that supports 8 HDD's, and use my onboard 2 x SATA III ports for future SSD

[*]Remove my 2TB disk and replace with a another single 8TB disk, connect all drives to the SATA ports, however there's no room in future for an SSD then.

 

Would be great to hear your thoughts and/or suggestions on the above?

 

Cheers!

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garycase Grand Master

garycase

Posted
Posted

different brand hard drives are not exactly the same, so the other drive is a little bigger

That used to be the case, but for drives sold for internal use, not so much any more.

 

Agree.  This hasn't been true for MANY years (as in well over a decade).    One thing the industry has standardized on very well is the size of the disks -- different manufacturers have varying numbers of spare sectors (used by SMART for reallocation); but the reported size of disks has been the same for all manufacturers for a LONG time.

 

What DOES happen is that some manufacturers add small HPA's (or other equivalent space-masking techniques) to add things to their externally packaged units -- so you may find, for example, that if you buy an external drive and remove the drive from it that it may have a bit less space than the same drive sold bare for internal use.    But it's still the same drive -- and by removing the HPA you can restore it to the standard size for that drive.

 

 

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garycase Grand Master

garycase

Posted
Posted

Agree the sizes you're seeing are strange -- not only the "smaller" 8TB drive, but also the discrepancy for the 4TB unit.

 

Do you have a spare (unused) port on the Adaptec?  If so, simply moving the Seagate to that port may very well resolve the issue (although you'll still be in the position that you can't add another 8TB drive except on the Adaptec controller.

 

I have to wonder if there's something else going on here, however.  Look very carefully in your board's BIOS and see if there's an option for a "BIOS Backup to HDD"  -- not sure what the wording will be, but "BIOS Backup" should be part of it.  If you find the option, see if it's enabled or disabled -- and if it's enabled, DISABLE it.  Let us know if you find it.

 

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garycase Grand Master

garycase

Posted
Posted

Note also that one simple "fix" is to do a New Config, and assign the Seagate as the parity drive -- then let the system do a new parity sync.    This doesn't resolve the space issue -- but it would make parity the "largest" drive (as required) ... and since it's being seen with the correct size parameter, you wouldn't have any problem adding additional 8TB drives, regardless of where they were connected.

 

Not really a "fix" -- actually just a "work-a-round" ... but definitely resolves your problem.  Just remember that if you later decide to upgrade to dual parity, you'll also have to connect the 2nd parity drive to a motherboard port as well, so it doesn't encounter the size reporting issue.

 

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blade316 Rookie

blade316

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hey guys,

 

OK this reply has a few questions in it, to try an minimise the back and forth.

 

BIOS tweaks

I've checked both my controller BIOS and my MB BIOS, and disabled all the items possible that could potentially be causing an issue, unfortunately its still saying the seagate 8TB is bigger.

 

My controller details are here - http://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/support/raid/sas_raid/sas-6805/

 

From the specs it looks to be a PCIe x8 card, and its a PCIe v2, so that should be capable of around 500Mb/s per lane? However, the specs also say its 6GB/s per PORT, not per LANE, but i dont know if that matters.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I'm probably better off getting rid of this controller as it doesn't seem to like unRAID, however under the downloads section in the above link, there is linux drivers for it, but as I'm very new to linux i'm not sure if I could install them on unRAID? Also I believe unRAID runs on SlackWare? and I dont see slackware drivers in the linux drivers list.

 

SATA III expansion card

If I cant install drivers, I was thinking of just getting two 4 port SATA III PCIe expansion cards, which would give me 8 SATA III ports, plus my onboard ones for SSDs if needed. However I'm not sure if:

 

a) I would be in the exact same position I'm in now with compatibility issues.

b) If the PCIe 4 ports would give me maximum SATA III speeds from all 4 ports through the PCIe slots on my MB.

 

Does anyone have any experience installing extra drivers on unRAID for additional device support? If so, do they have to be slackware drivers?

or

Does anyone have one or more SATA III PCIe expansion cards? if so can you recommend a compatible card?

 

Parity Swap Process

I have no idea how to perform a parity swap, so if someone could point me to some documentation of give me the steps that would be great.

 

Also I want to say thanks, and I really appreciate you guys offering your assistance so far.

 

Look forward to any responses.

 

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