EDIT/SOLVED!

Your first parity sync always shows as invalid until it is complete. DO NOT SPIN DOWN THE DRIVE or cancel the parity sync. Just wait for 100% completion. 

 

 

Hey folks,

 

I'm out of my depth and hoping for a little help here.

 

TL;DR: Just added my first parity drive (never had one before now) and it's showing a Parity Invalid error even though the brand new drive tests out fine in SMART and WDDiags.

 

LONG VERSION

My server has been running fine for 6 months. I'm running Unraid v6.8.3. SMART Tests Attached. 

 

Yesterday I added my first ever parity drive to my server.

 

Here is what I did:

1. I added 5 new HDDs to increase capacity and begin the parity process.

2. Tested all drives using the WD diag tools and the long test (took about 5 days).

3. Assigned the first 4 HDDs and started the array. Everything checked out fine. 9 HDDs working.

4. I stopped the array again and assigned the 5th HDD (12TB) as a parity drive.

5. Started the array and the parity drive started running a parity sync.

6. I shut down Radarr, Sonarr, and everything else except PLEX. The parity check was running and I let it run over night.

7. When I woke up I saw a single error message:

 

8. I also noticed that there was an alert on the drive:

 

9. As you can see here, UNRAID thought it was running Parity-Sync all night and had gotten to 61.4% complete and was still going.

 

10. I was tempted to allow it to finish the parity sync, but after reading some posts on Reddit and here, I cancelled the check. Stopped the Array. Unassigned the parity drive. And Started the array again. The status of the array was fine. No errors.

 

11.  The drive showed up as unmounted and unassigned:

 

12.  I stopped the array again. Assigned the parity drive. And started the array again.
I got the same Parity Invalid error as above.

 

There are so many posts that talk about parity invalid as a GUI issue, but I'm loathe to try any of those solutions since the things that led to the error are not things I'm seeing.

 

This is a fresh drive on a system that has never had a parity drive before. The drive tested fine under WD DIAG before I installed it in the server. The SMART tests (both long and short) were fine as well.

 

 

 

 

kennelfort-smart-20200324-0747.zip

Edited March 24, 20206 yr by kennelfort

The parity will show as invalid until you have successfully built parity.    It sounds as if you did not leave it long enough to complete.

Oh. Thanks!!! Now that seems like something that could be fixed pretty easily. Perhaps, instead of "Parity is invalid. Click to spin down device." it could say "Parity is invalid. Click for more details." And then have a help page that explains the valid reasons for having invalid parity. I'll go look for the right place to make this suggestion.

Hey @itimpi, my parity sync is up to 80% now.

 

Last night I got this error and I wondered if you think it's something I need to do anything about:

 

This morning my array shows as healthy:

Looks like your drive got hot while building parity.  Check air flow in your case/around your drives.  This is common to happen when building/checking parity but its not really a good thing for the drives life.

Will do. Thanks again!