I was attempting to add a new RAID card to my Unraid system and was experiencing BIOS issues. The card works in a different MB, so I decided to flash the BIOS in the existing system. Unfortunately it won't boot now  , so I ordered a replacement chip. But in the event that this does not solve my issues (board seems flakey), is there a way to know what drive belongs in what slot without access to the Device page? I saw some references in an old Syslog, but these may not be current. I found the disk config file, but it only contains the channel info, not the actual drive info.

 

TIA

The information you seek is stored in the super.dat file in binary format.

 

It is crucial to know which is your parity disk. When you get your hardware up and running the system should have kept a record of which drive it is expecting in which slot as indicated on the Main tab of the web interface (by referencing the super.dat file). If that information for some reason is not available the following steps will determine which is your parity disk.

 

Boot - Array should be stopped

Assign all disks to data slots on the devices tab of the web interface

Perform initconfig

Refresh the main tab of the web interface

All disks should appear as blue - there should be no drive assigned to parity slot

Start the array

All drives should mount - the parity drive will appear as unformatted - DO NOT FORMAT

Stop the array

Assign the known parity disk to the parity slot

Assign the other disks to data slots as you wish

Perform trust my parity procedure

 

The information you seek is stored in the super.dat file in binary format.

 

It is crucial to know which is your parity disk. When you get your hardware up and running the system should have kept a record of which drive it is expecting in which slot as indicated on the Main tab of the web interface (by referencing the super.dat file). If that information for some reason is not available the following steps will determine which is your parity disk.

 

Boot - Array should be stopped

Assign all disks to data slots on the devices tab of the web interface

Perform initconfig

Refresh the main tab of the web interface

All disks should appear as blue - there should be no drive assigned to parity slot

Start the array

All drives should mount - the parity drive will appear as unformatted - DO NOT FORMAT

Stop the array

Assign the known parity disk to the parity slot

Assign the other disks to data slots as you wish

Perform trust my parity procedure

 

I would NOT assign ANY drive to the parity slot at first.  I'd assign only data drives first.  Once ALL of them show as mounted and none show as un-formatted you can stop the array and assign the parity drive.

OK Thanks,

 

I found the device names in Super.dat, are they in any particular order? Just so I can reduce the number of permutations when assigning the data disks.

 

 

This is not so hard. Just connect the drives and boot. The array won't start if the drives are out of order. If the drives are not autmatically assigned to the correct slots then the main page will tell you which device is expected in each slot. There will be a line listing each drive it has currently assigned to the slot and a line below that listing the drive it expects to be in the slot. Go between the main tab and the devices tab and match the drop-down for each disk to the drive it expects. Once you do that, the drives will all have green balls and you can press the start button.

 

You only have to take extra steps if the flash drive has had issues.

 

Peter

 

This is not so hard. Just connect the drives and boot. The array won't start if the drives are out of order. If the drives are not autmatically assigned to the correct slots then the main page will tell you which device is expected in each slot. There will be a line listing each drive it has currently assigned to the slot and a line below that listing the drive it expects to be in the slot. Go between the main tab and the devices tab and match the drop-down for each disk to the drive it expects. Once you do that, the drives will all have green balls and you can press the start button.

 

You only have to take extra steps if the flash drive has had issues.

 

Peter

 

 

OK, that sounds pretty easy. I thought it was going to be like puttting Humpty back together. 

 

 

OK so I installed my RAID controller for my Parity drive and all the drives are back in the right device slots. But when UnRaid attempts to rebuild Parity nothing seems to happens. The re are no errors, no disk activity, no progress; just the big blue dot. The system was functioning before I changed over to the RAID Parity drive BTW.

 

So I assume my RAID controller is misbehaving or UnRaid is not interacting with it properly?

 

 

Well.... unRAID does not officially support what you are trying to do.... and it is basically un-needed unless you have a LOT of concurrent write activity to different data drives and need the absolute fastest performance.  (In which case unRAID might not be the best solution regardless)

 

You did not describe which version of unRAID you are attempting to use, or the chipset of the raid card you are attempting to use, or basically anything other than the "blue" indicator stating parity is not in effect and it thinks the "drive" is new.

 

All that said, without a syslog to use for analysis all we can say is, yes, something it not working as expected, probably involving your raid card configuration.

 

Joe L.