Unraid 6.6.6 - New Sata Controller - New Config

[ximian]

I have been having issues with my controller that controlled one of my disks (data) and the cache drive that was an SSD. I changed the controller to a different model and now unraid is not detecting the disks. I thought the OS would recognize the new controller but it does not seem to be the case.

 

I have 10 bays (2 parity) - 7 data disks (1 that is down on the new controller) and the last bay which was the cache drive which is also on the new controller. Each disks are 4 tb drives no need to state that I have a lot of data which I need to retain.

 

What do I do to get this working again?  Is the new config option the way to go? Do I preserve all assignments? 

 

Thanks

Edited February 1, 2019 by ximian

[JorgeB]

Please post the diagnostics: Tools -> Diagnostics

[ximian]

Here it is :

 

tower-diagnostics-20190201-1330.zip

[JorgeB]

No invalid or missing disks, only errors on disk7. Wrong diags?

[ximian]

Aaha... diag done after I removed the disk offline as I started loosing data.  Data/Parity check did not restore the data...after putting a new disk.

Let me put in the disk and redo a diagnostic once I receive error messages.

 

Edited February 1, 2019 by ximian

[ximian]

I had removed the new sata controller and put back the old. I will remove tonight and add the new controller and dump the diagnostics file tonight.

Edited February 2, 2019 by ximian

[JorgeB]

OK, but disk7 is failing, not controller related.

[ximian]

Disk 7 is failing because I believe of the controller. Unless I have been unlucky this is the 3rd replacement disk having the same issue. The ssd has also been replaced but only once.  The last disk 7 immediately after rebuild started having the same issues. 

 

This is why I am suspecting the controller card. 

[JorgeB]

1 minute ago, ximian said:

Disk 7 is failing because I believe of the controller.

No, it's a media error, i.e. read errors due to bad or unreliable sectors.

[ximian]

So your saying that I have been just unlucky? These disk are WD Reds made for a NAS environment. Disks are at 27 degrees Celsius (88 F).  The room is cooled so heat is not an issue. 

 

The only common denominator of any issues I have with the unraid server are Disk 7 and the Cache disk which sit on the same controller.

 

🙂

[JorgeB]

No way the controller will cause bad sectors/media errors, in some rare cases a bad power supply can physically damage disks, but yeah, in your case most likely just bad luck.

[JonathanM]

Or handling issues. Maybe your shipper has it out for you and is using your packages as footballs?

[ximian]

Well, back to square one, purchased a new disk instead of a replacement just to make sure carrier wise the packaging of the device would be better than Western Digital just a box shipment!  

 

The disk went well for 3 weeks and now it is back offline with parity errors. I am convinced it is the damn controller.

 

Here is my diagnostics file:

tower-diagnostics-20190218-0948.zip

Edited February 18, 2019 by ximian

[JorgeB]

Disk dropped offline, it's connected to a Marvell controller, and those are known to drop disks.

 

 

[ximian]

So if I change the controller this should solve the issue then? Correct.

[JorgeB]

Yes, get a non Marvell one, still check the SMART report for that disk, since it dropped offline there's not one in the diags, but likely it's fine.

[ximian]

Any suggestions for a card?  Right now I have 8 disks on the motherboard and the 2 disks on the card that is causing me issues.  I am thinking of buying a LSI00194 (SAS9211-8I 8PORT Int 6GB Sata+sas Pcie 2.0) so I would have 2 disks on the Motherboard and 8 on the LSI.

 

If I do go that direction what are the steps to do this without losing data?

 

Thanks for all your help!

Edited February 18, 2019 by ximian

[JorgeB]

Any LSI with a SAS2008/2308/3008 chipset in IT mode, e.g., 9201-8i, 9211-8i, 9207-8i, 9300-8i, etc and clones, like the Dell H200/H310 and IBM M1015, these latter ones need to be crossflashed.

 

If using one of the above controllers, or any non RAID controller, you just need to replace the controller, Unraid detects the disks by serial number.

[ximian]

Thanks, for the information. I just purchased the SAS9211-8I 8PORT. The card is a Raid card, so I guess I need to change the card settings for it to support JBOD? 

 

I also imagine I need to get a screen shot of the disk positions by serial number so they align in the right slots, as this will likely now change by connecting them in the new controller?

 

Thanks.

[JorgeB]

If in raid mode, you just need to flash it to IT mode, it's easy to do and you just need to download the package from LSI's (now Broadcom) website.

 

While a screenshot is always good to have you don't need one, as long as using the HBA in IT mode.

 

 

 

 

[ximian]

Thanks everyone for the input, well here is the latest to this story. As the motherboard I have doesn't have enough pcie slots to support the new LSI card, and the fact that I just replaced my desktop with a new system, I have an Intel i7-6700k on a Gigabyte Z170 as a spare. So I purchased a new rackmount case and an iStarUSA BPN-DE350SS.   I will be setting the motherboard into the new case and recovering the 2x5 disks array from old case to give me a 15 disk system.

 

My question is the following:

 

What is the migration path for this?  Do I just stick the unraid usb into the new system and place the disks?  I would think this is not the best path?

 

My other option is start from scratch and add the license key to the new usb? Flag the system with a new config to have the parity disks rebuilt with the information that are on the disks. Is this the proper way to go? Are both options viable?

 

Thanks for your help on this.

 

 

[JorgeB]

3 minutes ago, ximian said:

Do I just stick the unraid usb into the new system and place the disks?

Usually this is enough and the way to do it, you might need to reconfig the LAN, especially if there's more than one NIC on the new board.

[ximian]

So update:

 

New casing - RSV-L4500 (Roswell 4u) - Replaced all three fan cagess with Rosewill RSV-SATA-Cage-34

Added the new SAS9211-8I 8PORT controller

Added the new motherboard - Intel i7-6700k on a Gigabyte Z170

Moved the disk from the old system to the new ...

Moved the Unraid USB to the new system 

and then booted!!

 

Voila everything working as it should not one issue!! I am impressed.  Now to the next step.  I want to keep my data.. I have a backup of my dockers. I want to reset the OS (as some small error messages like modprobe for unexisting device) as if I am starting from scratch and then reinstall my dockers and then recover from the backups.

 

Apart from the dockers, which is easy to do, is the best step to create a new USB stick with unraid and then dump the license file ?

 

Thanks all for your support.

[JorgeB]

11 hours ago, ximian said:

and then dump the license file ?

You can also keep super.dat, that will keep your array assignments.