Okay, I've wasted like 14 hours on this already.

 

I installed 2 brand new 20EARS (jumpered) into my 4.5.4 unRAID, assigned them to disks then let unRAID clear them.  I wake up this morning and unRAID seems to be "stuck" starting the array.  I can interact with other options of unRAID, but it just shows "starting" on the main page with the button disabled.  I wait.  Wait.  Wait.  15 minutes later I'm sure something is amiss.

 

I reboot the server, upgrade to 4.5.6 since I brought the server down, reboot again, then now unRAID wants to do the whole clearing process all over again.

 

The drives are fine and I don't want to waste another half day for it to clear:

 

1) Can it take a LONG time after clearing is completed to "start" the server?  That is, did I jump the gun by rebooting the server before it was complete?

2) How can I skip the clearing process?  I just want to get to the "format" part.  It seems it passed the first time around, but just got stuck trying to bring the server online.

 

TIA!

 

EDIT:  I already have 7 -20EARS (jumpered) previously installed so it shouldn't be an issue with the drives.

Okay, I've wasted like 14 hours on this already.

 

I installed 2 brand new 20EARS (jumpered) into my 4.5.4 unRAID, assigned them to disks then let unRAID clear them.  I wake up this morning and unRAID seems to be "stuck" starting the array.  I can interact with other options of unRAID, but it just shows "starting" on the main page with the button disabled.  I wait.  Wait.  Wait.  15 minutes later I'm sure something is amiss.

 

I reboot the server, upgrade to 4.5.6 since I brought the server down, reboot again, then now unRAID wants to do the whole clearing process all over again.

 

The drives are fine and I don't want to waste another half day for it to clear:

That is not possible... the system does not know the drives are cleared (or partially cleared)  It either must clear them itself, or, you can pre-clear them before you assign them to the array.  (But the pre-clearing process takes as long as clearing them, or longer.  It is just that the array is available while the disks are being pre-cleared.)

1) Can it take a LONG time after clearing is completed to "start" the server?  That is, did I jump the gun by rebooting the server before it was complete?

It can take a fw minutes to format the drives.

2) How can I skip the clearing process?  I just want to get to the "format" part.  It seems it passed the first time around, but just got stuck trying to bring the server online.

Pre-clear them using the preclear_disk.sh script.

 

Also... before you do ANYTHING, post a syslog.  attach it to your next post.  Instructions under "troubleshooting" in the wiki.

You basically said "my car is making a funny noise, what part do I need to fix it?" without giving us the needed clues to what the cause might be.

 

Joe L.

1) Can it take a LONG time after clearing is completed to "start" the server?  That is, did I jump the gun by rebooting the server before it was complete?

It can take a fw minutes to format the drives.

 

So, after clearing it goes straight to formatting?  I thought that once it clears, the array starts and THEN you have the checkbox available to manually invoke the formatting.  Or did I misunderstand this process?  The main window had no message whatsoever that it was formatting it.  It simply said "starting array..." so that would lead me to believe it was attempting to mount the drives and whatever other process to start the array normally, which usually takes but an instant.

 

I will review, and post if it stumps me, the Syslog next time around if it seems to be "stuck" again, but my post was more to ask questions of the process and not necessarily to say "look at my system and help me troubleshoot!" tho, it is somewhat implied 

1) Can it take a LONG time after clearing is completed to "start" the server?  That is, did I jump the gun by rebooting the server before it was complete?

It can take a fw minutes to format the drives.

 

So, after clearing it goes straight to formatting?  I thought that once it clears, the array starts and THEN you have the checkbox available to manually invoke the formatting.  Or did I misunderstand this process?  The main window had no message whatsoever that it was formatting it.  It simply said "starting array..." so that would lead me to believe it was attempting to mount the drives and whatever other process to start the array normally, which usually takes but an instant.

No, you control it.  It will not do anything to format a disk until you press the "Format" button. 

 

But, it sounds as if you did not start the array.  (You need to check the box under "Start" to enable it.)  I know the screen says "Starting..." but that has fooled more than one person into thinking it was doing something before they actually enabled and pressed the "Start" button.

I will review, and post if it stumps me, the Syslog next time around if it seems to be "stuck" again, but my post was more to ask questions of the process and not necessarily to say "look at my system and help me troubleshoot!" tho, it is somewhat implied 

No problem.

Unfortunately, after spending the whole day letting it pre-clear the drives again, unRAID is stuck in the same position as this morning.

 

The MAIN screen, Command Area shows "Starting..." with Refresh button enabled, but Start button disabled.  The status of the two new drives are green (flashing for spundown) and the FREE column for all drives shows Mounting.  I can click on Refresh until my finger turns blue, but everything remains status quo.

 

I looked at the log and periodically through the clearing there would a pair of HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed errors, but clearing completed and syncing started, with spindown commands until BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at f85a6000, followed by what appears to be environmental runtime data.  I've attached the syslog.  This is really frustrating as I spent nearly two days on this and I'm leaving town tomorrow for a week to two weeks

syslog.txt

I might be wrong about this, but from what I've read, the HDIO error shouldn't be a problem, it has something to do with the driver not understanding how to get stats from the HD, but not really important.

 

The BUG error I think has to do with a possible RAM problem.  But again, I could be completely off the mark here, I'm learning all this now myself...

I Googled the HDIO_GET_IDENTITY and it appears to be a seemingly innocuous info request to the device.

 

The BUG error doesn't appear to be RAM related.  The server has been running just fine all these months.  If it was RAM error, then the machine would be having all kinds of fits and tantrums, whereas this bug seems to be specific to coding because it seems to hang at the same place the last two times I tried to get my 2 new hard drives cleared and ready for formatting.

I Googled the HDIO_GET_IDENTITY and it appears to be a seemingly innocuous info request to the device.

 

The BUG error doesn't appear to be RAM related.  The server has been running just fine all these months.  If it was RAM error, then the machine would be having all kinds of fits and tantrums, whereas this bug seems to be specific to coding because it seems to hang at the same place the last two times I tried to get my 2 new hard drives cleared and ready for formatting.

I tend to agree with you.  I sent Tom a quick note asking him to look at the syslog you posted.

 

Joe L.

In case it matters, the 2 drives in question are one of three attached to an AOC-SASLP-MV8 via breakout cable.  The 3rd drive was setup almost from the beginning on the AOC-SASLP-MV8 and has been working fine.

 

This is the first time I added 2 brand new drives simultaneously.

 

The "bug" first happened on 4.5.4, I upgraded to 4.5.6 in hopes it would resolve it, but no joy.

You can use the preclear_disk.sh script to clear the drives and work around the issue you are having.  Then, when they are added to the array, the array will only be down for a minute or so... (the time it takes to assign them and press "Start")

 

It might be that the "bug" is triggered because you have two drives being cleared by emhttp at the same time.

 

Joe L.

I was thinking about doing one at a time myself.  Because right now, I can't bring the unRAID online whatsoever, so it's completely dead in the water  :'(

 

EDIT: OH, since I've already "added" them to the array (and that's when unRAID started to clear them when I brought it online), how do I safely remove them from the array to run the preclear?

I was thinking about doing one at a time myself.  Because right now, I can't bring the unRAID online whatsoever, so it's completely dead in the water  :'(

 

EDIT: OH, since I've already "added" them to the array (and that's when unRAID started to clear them when I brought it online), how do I safely remove them from the array to run the preclear?

You would need to un-assign them on the devices page.  I think that would do it.

 

Since there are two you'll not be able to start the array with two "missing" so you'd need to initialize a new disk config without them by typing

initconfig

after you un-assign them.  The array will then go about a full parity check/calculation with them not part of the array.

 

Odds are it will just be writing to the parity disk what is already there, since it should not have changed since you started in the attempt to add them.

 

Joe L.

Now THIS is strange...

 

I was fiddling with a new IR power switch for the server, and so was turning the machine on and off via remote control several times (I made sure it was at the login prompt before shutting down), then when I finished I started up the server to start running the pre-clear script manually, separately on each drive, I discovered to my amazement that both new drives were up, the array was up and I was presented with the options of formatting the drives, FINALLY!

 

There is something definitely not consistent here, but heck, who am I to complain now that I'm where I wanted to be two days ago!