Questions on Disk Replacement

[riopgtmn]

Hi Guys, 

 

I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. 

 

I recently built a rig with 8x 4TB WD Red Drives. I get everyone online and, and the drive in "Slot 1" Disk 1 starts throwing errors. So I am going to RMA it with WD. 

 

The system has 2 parity drives, for a total of 24 TB ( 20TB Currently) 

 

What I did was this: (Considering the array had no data on it yet) 

 

Stop Array > Pull Drive 

Go into New Config - Kept Parity Position

ReConfigured Data Slots the same as they were (Checked Parity Valid) as the disk were in the same position. 

Now I am seeing Disks 2,3,4,5,6 as online with Disk1 slot empty, as I'm waiting for the replacement drive from WD

 

When I get the replacement disk, The procedure should be: 

 

Stop Array 

Put new drive in Slot 1 / Disk 1 Position

Reboot

Select new drive in Disk1 Position

Then Rebuild 

 

In the future if any drive fails, Is there a better procedure to use? Thanks 

 

Is there any problem with putting data on the array while this disk is waiting replacement? 

 

 

 

 

[itimpi]

34 minutes ago, riopgtmn said:

Hi Guys, 

 

I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. 

 

I recently built a rig with 8x 4TB WD Red Drives. I get everyone online and, and the drive in "Slot 1" Disk 1 starts throwing errors. So I am going to RMA it with WD. 

 

The system has 2 parity drives, for a total of 24 TB ( 20TB Currently) 

 

What I did was this: (Considering the array had no data on it yet) 

 

Stop Array > Pull Drive 

Go into New Config - Kept Parity Position

ReConfigured Data Slots the same as they were (Checked Parity Valid) as the disk were in the same position. 

Now I am seeing Disks 2,3,4,5,6 as online with Disk1 slot empty, as I'm waiting for the replacement drive from WD

 

When I get the replacement disk, The procedure should be: 

 

Stop Array 

Put new drive in Slot 1 / Disk 1 Position

Reboot

Select new drive in Disk1 Position

Then Rebuild 

 

In the future if any drive fails, Is there a better procedure to use? Thanks 

 

Is there any problem with putting data on the array while this disk is waiting replacement? 

 

 

 

 

This is not the right way to do things as doing a New Config is never part of the normal replacement procedure.  Doing so and removing the drive from its slot invalidates parity (and thus the ability to easily rebuild the failed disk).   All you should have done was remove the drive and run with the drive missing (and being emulated by the combination of the other drives plus parity).   When the replacement arrived you would assign it in place of the failed drive and unRAID would then rebuild the emulated drive onto the new physical drive.   In your case since you say there is no data on the array you may be OK with regards to data loss, but you will still need to rebuild parity to match the drives you have left (even though the drives have no data they are not empty at the physical level as they have a file system created on them)

 

Regarding the problem disk it is highly likely that there is actually nothing wrong with it.    By far the majority of apparent disk errors turn out to be external to the drive with SAT cable/power cables being the commonest culprits.    If you put back the problem disk into the array and then get the diagnostics (Tools->Diagnostics) zip file and post it here you are likely get an informed view (the diagnostics includes SATA reports for all drives amongst other things).   

Edited July 29, 2017 by itimpi

[riopgtmn]

Hey thanks for the heads up, I am actually not near the box, but I will do that. 

 

Thanks!