Hi,

The title is the TL;DR; and I could be being stupid about this but before I try and get my drive replaced I would like to be sure.

 

This week whilst a parity check was running on my unRAID sevrer (I didn't realise until later) I was doing some moving of files using unBalance and got a warning that some permissions were wrong. To fix this I did what was advised which was to run the "New Permissions (Docker Safe)" tool which I did. While this was running the parity check stopped (failed) and the parity check aborted with an error.

 

I assumed that this was because I ran the permissions tool and immediately started another parity check which finished reporting no errors. The Dashboard status shows:

 

Last checked on Mon 16 Jan 2017 10:41:37 AM GMT (three days ago), finding 0 errors.
Duration: 17 hours, 57 minutes, 48 seconds. Average speed: 123.7 MB/sec

 

I later noticed that the parity device is showing as Disabled on the Main tab of the UI, with 17 errors listed but this is where my confusion starts. I looked in the system log and found:

 

Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 6445719816
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719752
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 6445719688
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 6445719808
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 6445719744
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719760
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719768
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719776
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719784
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719792
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719800
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719808
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719624
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719632
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719640
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719648
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719656
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719664
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719672
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719744
Jan 15 16:25:40 DavidServer kernel: md: disk0 write error, sector=6445719680

 

So my question is how did the parity check run through and pass with no errors on 16th if the disk failed on the 15th?

 

Looking on the properties of the drive all of the SMART tests come back as PASS and no errors are shown on the page so I am unsure whether I really have a faulty drive or something funny went on with the Parity check and Permissions fix running at the same time.

 

Any advice appreciated on how to test further and prove whether there really is a fault with this drive.

 

Thank you

 

David

Go to Tools - Diagnostics and post the complete diagnostics zip. That will give us enough information to make a recommendation.

 

Connection issues are much more common than actual disk failures.

Go to Tools - Diagnostics and post the complete diagnostics zip. That will give us enough information to make a recommendation.

 

Connection issues are much more common than actual disk failures.

 

Thank you.

 

Attached

davidserver-diagnostics-20170119-1926.zip

SMART for all drives OK. Check connections.

 

You will have to rebuild parity. You can use the same disk.

 

Haven't tried it with the latest New Config but I think Tools - New Config - Retain: All is probably the simplest way to do this now.

Thanks for the advice. When I can I will shut it down, remove and clean all disk connections (it's an HP MicroServer so not expecting much to change there) and clean out any dust before starting again.

 

I am concerned about the warning on the page:

 

This is a utility to reset the array disk configuration so that all disks appear as "New" disks, as if it were a fresh new server.

 

This is useful when you have added or removed multiple drives and wish to rebuild parity based on the new configuration.

 

Use the 'Retain current configuration' selection to populate the desired disk slots after the array has been reset. By default no disk slots are populated.

 

DO NOT USE THIS UTILITY THINKING IT WILL REBUILD A FAILED DRIVE - it will have the opposite effect of making it impossible to rebuild an existing failed drive - you have been warned!

 

I am unclear from this whether my existing data will be retained or everything wiped?

Thanks for the advice. When I can I will shut it down, remove and clean all disk connections (it's an HP MicroServer so not expecting much to change there) and clean out any dust before starting again.

 

I am concerned about the warning on the page:

 

This is a utility to reset the array disk configuration so that all disks appear as "New" disks, as if it were a fresh new server.

 

This is useful when you have added or removed multiple drives and wish to rebuild parity based on the new configuration.

 

Use the 'Retain current configuration' selection to populate the desired disk slots after the array has been reset. By default no disk slots are populated.

 

DO NOT USE THIS UTILITY THINKING IT WILL REBUILD A FAILED DRIVE - it will have the opposite effect of making it impossible to rebuild an existing failed drive - you have been warned!

 

I am unclear from this whether my existing data will be retained or everything wiped?

No, it will just rebuild parity using the disks as they are. In fact, you could add or remove drives as it says and it would just rebuild parity. Just make sure you don't agree to let it format any of your data disks before you start the array. It shouldn't even offer to unless it can't mount them due to filesystem corruption. And of course, make sure you have the right disk assigned to parity.

You can also stop array, unassign parity, start/stop, re-assign parity and start array to begin parity sync, either way works.

No, it will just rebuild parity using the disks as they are. In fact, you could add or remove drives as it says and it would just rebuild parity. Just make sure you don't agree to let it format any of your data disks before you start the array. It shouldn't even offer to unless it can't mount them due to filesystem corruption. And of course, make sure you have the right disk assigned to parity.

 

You can also stop array, unassign parity, start/stop, re-assign parity and start array to begin parity sync, either way works.

 

Thank you both for the confirmation.

 

I will post once I've done the changes to let you know it worked.

 

David

Just wanted to say thank you to the respondents on my post.

 

The Parity rebuild has almost completed (7 hours to go) with no issues on the drive as predicted.

 

Thank you