Hi,

 

I know there's a few topics out there on lost/defective flash drives, but I can't seem to find an answer for the case, where you don't know which drive is your parity drive...

Story is I've been travelling for a year, and when  I returned to my new place, the server had arrived, but both main USB and backup where gone!! (what are the chances).

I naturally have the backup files on the server, but guess that wont help me much?

 

The server was running version 6.x.x (last update May/June 2018) I have 4xHDDs and 1x 256GB SSD installed. I suppose the SSD was for cache, but not 100% sure.

The HDDs are named nnn(sdc), nnn(sdd), nnn(sde). Could this be an indication that the first one named nnn(sdc) could be the parity disk?

 

I do have some critical data on the drive, and would rather not appoint the wrong parity disk and loose all data. Any suggestion on how I map the drives to get back to normal?

 

The server is up on running on a backup registration key and is running version 6.7.2 

 

Any help is greatly appreciated

Edited October 7, 20196 yr by frank77
Solved

I would assume that the ssd is the cache drive.  (ssd are not recommended for array drives.)   

 

Assign all of the hard drives as data drives.  (Do not assign the ssd.)  Start the array. 

 

You should have one drive that is not formatted.  Do not format that drive!  See if you can get the backup of the flash drive off of the array.  Use it to rebuilt the flash drive.  

 

Btw, you can make a backup of your flash easily.  Main    >>>   Boot Device    Click on the 'Flash' under the "Device" column.  In the Flash Device Settings  section/tab, you will find a FLASH BACKUP button.  It will make a backup of the flash drive and store it in your bowser's Download directory/folder.  Of course, you do have to remember to do it...  

 

EDIT:  IF this all works out for you, I would do a correcting parity check to make sure parity is sync'ed to the data drives. 

Edited September 30, 20196 yr by Frank1940

Thanks for the help, it did work and I can access the content. Unfortunately I can't seems to locate my general backup folder? A bit odd, but as everything else is there, I must have moved it - probably to the computer which was in the same box as the USB flash - seems like Murphy's law is still alive and ready to wreck the day

 

Alright back to square one I suppose. can I assume the unformatted drive is the parity disk? 

 

Is it just a matter of assigning it an run the parity?

As long as there was only one drive showing as unformattted that will be the parity drive.   Make a note of Its serial number.    You now use Tools->New Config to put the array back into the state where you can assign drives.    This time when you go to the Main tab assign the drives as you want them (including the parity drive now that you know which one it is).   When you start the array it will start to rebuild  the parity drive based on the current data drives.

Good stuff, I managed to identify the parity drive based on your input and it has now been re-build. The critical items are backed up externally and I'm as happy as a pig rolled in shit.

Funny thing is that five shares have re-appeared together with the flashbackup (I knew it had to be there 🙂 ) after the parity re-build

 

The additional drives are listed as "not protected". 

 

Question is, would it safe to restore the system by copying the backup from May 2018 onto the new flash USB, restart into the old version and then update everything? 

9 hours ago, frank77 said:

The additional drives are listed as "not protected". 

What "additional drives"?  

 

9 hours ago, frank77 said:

Question is, would it safe to restore the system by copying the backup from May 2018 onto the new flash USB, restart into the old version and then update everything? 

That would depend on whether you have added any additional drives or changed out any drives since that backup was made.  

1 hour ago, Frank1940 said:

What "additional drives"?  

 

That would depend on whether you have added any additional drives or changed out any drives since that backup was made.  

Additional shares, sorry. 

 

The drives should all be the same. 

The additional shares (that I am aware of) are appdata and CommunityApplicationsAppdataBackup  neither of which are 'exported' via NFS or SMB and normally not seen unless one goes looking for them.  (There may also be some other shares for VM's that I am not aware of...) 

 

If you are absolutely sure that you have no new drives or other drive assignments, you could restore the backup.  However, I would make a copy of the present flash drive before I did that!   I would also edit the  config/disk.cfg  file and change the line    startArray="yes"  to   startArray="no"  as this will prevent any possible disk writing until you have had time to make a sanity check to see that the disks are assigned as you expect. 

The shares are Appdata, System, ISOS. But also my private backup folder and one more created by myself. 

 

I did add the cache drive after the parity drive was identified - as per you recommendation - and I expect that this could be the reason for shares suddenly appearing. I suppose this would also explain why the shares are un-protected. I'll look into why the cache has not been moved to the array and if it is the only source of the files once i return home. 

 

I have copied the template-user files to the flash to get apps up and running again, but I'm considering re-doing the settings manually to avoid rocking to boat more than necessary.

6 hours ago, frank77 said:

I did add the cache drive after the parity drive was identified - as per you recommendation - and I expect that this could be the reason for shares suddenly appearing. I suppose this would also explain why the shares are un-protected. I'll look into why the cache has not been moved to the array and if it is the only source of the files once i return home. 

 

Unless you have a cache pool, any share with files on the cache drive will be shown as unprotected.  (A Single cache drive is not protected by the array parity drive.) 

Problem solved and array is up and running. Backup folders are now also written to the array, templates are re-created and the joy of normal life is restored. 

Thanks to itimpi and Frank1940 for the swift and precise support.