SOP Following Unclean Shutdown

[neush1]

We had a widespread power outage here yesterday and my unRAID server lost power and experienced an unclean shutdown. Upon restarting it has automatically begun a parity check which I understand to be normal behavior and something that I was planning to do anyway. Once the parity check completes is there anything else I should be checking to ensure that there was no data loss such as a filesystem check or file integrity test? What's the standard operating procedure after an unclean shutdown BEYOND the parity check part? My server has a cache drive and mover is only scheduled for once a day very early in the morning. There shouldn't have been any write activity to the array during the outage but I want to make sure I'm checking everything I can.

 

And yes, I am already researching UPSes to make sure this doesn't happen again :-)

 

Thank you for you help

[Frank1940]

I have never heard of a loss of data as a result of an unclean shutdown if the parity check finished without error.  However, that does not mean that it could not happen.  If you or some Docker/plugin) was in the process of transferring a file, it is conceivable that that file might be incomplete.  

[trurl]

Not directly related but just wanted to make sure you have Notifications setup.

[neush1]

19 hours ago, trurl said:

Not directly related but just wanted to make sure you have Notifications setup.

 

I have Fix Common Problems Notifications set up but no others. What should I be looking for here? Which notifications are you referring to?

[Squid]

Settings - Notification Settings.  Fix Common Problems uses those settings to send out whatever notifications you want.

[neush1]

3 minutes ago, Squid said:

Settings - Notification Settings.  Fix Common Problems uses those settings to send out whatever notifications you want.

 

Thanks Squid. After looking at this I'm assuming Array Status Notifications are something I should have turned on. What's a sane frequency for this notification? Is once a week sufficient for most?

[Squid]

TBH, I'm probably the last person to ask about are sane settings for notifications for most users.  I've got all my notification settings set to browser only, and have disabled Array Status notifications because I don't want to see that "Hey, everything is all good.  Nothing to see here" message.    The key is System Notifications enabled, and an appropriate email settings or another agent set up

[Frank1940]

2 hours ago, neush1 said:

Thanks Squid. After looking at this I'm assuming Array Status Notifications are something I should have turned on. What's a sane frequency for this notification? Is once a week sufficient for most?

 

I am having the 'Array status notification:'   and the   'unRAID OS update notification:'  sent once a day and the others on a weekly basis.  That way, I know that the server is up, running and healthy.  My thought is that getting the message means that it has not locked up and had any one of number of other bad things could happen to take the server or array off-line.  While some folks might look at getting a daily message per server is too much of a nuisance, I find it reassuring.  On the rare occasion when I  don't get the mail, I immediately attempt to log onto the server.  Two-thirds of the time, this is successful and the remainder of the time, I found the server has been shutdown because of power outage.  

[JonathanM]

The array status notification is a good way to keep a current list of your drive position and serial numbers should a catastrophic rebuild be necessary. Ideally you should have a current USB backup saved to another machine, but a current drive list is all you really have to have to get your array data available again with a brand new stick.