i have had a rock-solid 5.0beta2 server up and running the couple months and early this morning i ran into a problem. after rebooting my server the tower web interface showed up with blue dots next to every drive in the array (except cahce drive). syslog indicates that super.dat file is not accessible

 

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: could not read superblock from /boot/config/super.dat

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: initializing superblock

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk0: [8,0] (sda) ST31500341AS     9VS1JA3Q offset: 63 size: 1465138552

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk0 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk1: [8,16] (sdb) ST31500341AS     9VS0S1E3 offset: 63 size: 1465138552

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk1 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk2: [8,32] (sdc) ST31500341AS     9VS221XB offset: 63 size: 1465138552

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk2 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk3: [8,48] (sdd) ST31500341AS     9VS22NAD offset: 63 size: 1465138552

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk3 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk4: [8,80] (sdf) WDC WD1001FALS-0 WD-WCATR0090753 offset: 63 size: 976761496

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk4 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk5: [8,96] (sdg) WDC WD1001FALS-0 WD-WCATR0087038 offset: 63 size: 976762552

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk5 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk6: [8,112] (sdh) WDC WD1001FALS-0 WD-WCATR0074763 offset: 63 size: 976762552

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk6 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk7: [8,128] (sdi) ST31000528AS     9VP8AJPX offset: 63 size: 976762552

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk7 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk8: [8,208] (sdn) ST3500320AS      5QM065V7 offset: 63 size: 488385496

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk8 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: import disk9: [8,176] (sdl) WDC WD1001FALS-0 WD-WCATR0086587 offset: 63 size: 976762552

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower kernel: md: disk9 new disk

Dec  9 06:50:21 Tower init: Re-reading inittab

Dec  9 06:50:22 Tower unmenu-status: Starting unmenu web-server

 

i powered down the system and put the USB drive into my other pc so i could attempt to backup any config/scripts (just in case). when i did this, windows 7 prompted me to scan and fix the drive - it basically said the file super.dat was corrupted and attempted to recover it (it put the recovered fragments file into FOUND dir on flash drive).

 

now, if i try to start up the server, the system always freezes during bootup and i cannot access using terminal or webUI (or anything).

 

i have considered this might be a hardware failure..... but assuming it is just a problem with super.dat, how do i make unraid happy again? can i just delete the corrupt super.dat file and try rebooting without it?

 

Yes you can do exactly that.  It will be re-created for you.

 

You will be faced also with a full parity check.  Make sure the "parity drive" is set to the correct disk when you put the flash drive back in the unRAID server.  (If the disks.cfg file was readable it will be set correctly. If not you'll need to set your disks in the correct slots in the array.  The only critical one is the parity drive.)

 

Joe L.

okay, so i deleted the super.dat file from the flash drive then rebooted the server. when it starts up I see the following in the webUI:

 

 

and in myMain (via unMenu):

 

I confirmed (using a screenshot i took a few weeks ago) that the drive assignments shown are correct, including the cache drive.

 

So now I should press Start on the main page? i am just a little sketchy since the config seems to think all these disks are new, i worry that it will then ask me to Format the drives, which I know I do not want.

In the special case where all drives are new, and all have file-systems, it will not clear the drives. 

(besides it would never format drives... You would have to push the "Format" button for that)

 

I think you'll be fine.  The wording to the right of the "Start" button says nothing about clearing any drive.

alright, here goes..... (presses Start button)

 

 

WHEW! that's a relief, it's now recalculating parity, all my data is intact!

 

 

thanks a ton Joe L., you're a freakin unraid rockstar.

and thanks to Limetech for such a damn fine piece of software