I stopped the array.  I chose to unassign disk9.  i started the array.  It says disk9 is not installed and that the array is unprotected until i replace it. I am running 4.6.  Please help me! thanks

I stopped the array.  I chose to unassign disk9.  i started the array.  It says disk9 is not installed and that the array is unprotected until i replace it. I am running 4.6.  Please help me! thanks

 

Short answer - you can't easily remove a drive from an array.  Remember that all of the drives in the array work together to provide parity protection.  If you remove a drive unRAID will simulate its contents.  That is the behavior you are seeing.

 

There are two ways to accomplish what you want to do ...

 

1 - Remove the drive and re-initialize the array.  Parity protection will be lost until you re-build parity (which can take many hours).  It is best to do a full parity check before doing this to help ensure that one of the other drives doesn't croak while parity is being rebuilt.

 

2 - There is a way that you can zero out a drive.  See post HERE if you are interested in this technique.

 

From where you are now, you can press the restore button (or run initconfig with newer unRAID versions) to reinitialize the array.  Then rearrange your drives in the slots as you like to eliminate the gap you are leaving.  Then start the array and it will rebuild parity.  Your array won't be protected until parity is completely built.

I stopped the array.  I chose to unassign disk9.  i started the array.  It says disk9 is not installed and that the array is unprotected until i replace it. I am running 4.6.  Please help me! thanks

 

Short answer - you can't easily remove a drive from an array.  Remember that all of the drives in the array work together to provide parity protection.  If you remove a drive unRAID will simulate its contents.  That is the behavior you are seeing.

 

There are two ways to accomplish what you want to do ...

 

1 - Remove the drive and re-initialize the array.  Parity protection will be lost until you re-build parity (which can take many hours).  It is best to do a full parity check before doing this to help ensure that one of the other drives doesn't croak while parity is being rebuilt.

 

2 - There is a way that you can zero out a drive.  See post HERE if you are interested in this technique.

 

From where you are now, you can press the restore button (or run initconfig with newer unRAID versions) to reinitialize the array.  Then rearrange your drives in the slots as you like to eliminate the gap you are leaving.  Then start the array and it will rebuild parity.  Your array won't be protected until parity is completely built.

 

Thanks, but i dont see a restore option.  Do I have to phyically remove the drive? I only unassigned it.  The start/stop button was there, but no "check" for parity.

Run initconfig. It is the equivalent to pressing the restore button. Initconfig runs from a telnet prompt.

 

Your array is simulating a failed/removed disk. You can't run a parity check while in that mode.

 

You do not need to physically remove the disk. Unassigning removes the disk from unRaid's perspective.

Run initconfig. It is the equivalent to pressing the restore button. Initconfig runs from a telnet prompt.

 

Your array is simulating a failed/removed disk. You can't run a parity check while in that mode.

 

You do not need to physically remove the disk. Unassigning removes the disk from unRaid's perspective.

 

so i can just telnet in with my login?  are there any risks to running initconfig.....i dont want to lose my data. 

Run initconfig. It is the equivalent to pressing the restore button. Initconfig runs from a telnet prompt.

 

Your array is simulating a failed/removed disk. You can't run a parity check while in that mode.

 

You do not need to physically remove the disk. Unassigning removes the disk from unRaid's perspective.

 

so i can just telnet in with my login?  are there any risks to running initconfig.....i dont want to lose my data. 

There is only one condition under which running initconfig would cause data loss.  That would occur if you had a failed drive in your array and it was currently simulating the failed drive to supply you its data.

 

You've correctly performed the first step needed to remove a drive from the array when you do not intend to replace it.  That is to un-assign it logically.  The next is to set a new initial configuration without it, that is to use the "initconfig" command on newer versions of unRAID.  (or to press the button labeled as "Restore" on older versions)

 

When you do log onto the console (or log in via telnet) as "root" you will need to type:

initconfig

after you press enter following that command you'll get an "are you sure" prompt.  Answer "Yes" (capital "Y", lower case "es") Any other response will be considered as "no", even "YES" or "yes" since they are not a capital "Y" and lower case "es".

 

After responding "Yes" you can refresh your browser window on the unMENU web-management page.  All the drives will show a "blue" indicator.  When you next start the array, by pressing the "Start" button on the web-management page, unRAID will begin a new initial parity calculation based on the new disk configuration.  You'll not be protected from a disk failure until it completes.

 

Joe L.

thanks...parity is running. 

Run initconfig. It is the equivalent to pressing the restore button. Initconfig runs from a telnet prompt.

 

Your array is simulating a failed/removed disk. You can't run a parity check while in that mode.

 

You do not need to physically remove the disk. Unassigning removes the disk from unRaid's perspective.

 

so i can just telnet in with my login?  are there any risks to running initconfig.....i dont want to lose my data. 

 

Don't you hate it when you write a reply and then go to post it and someone beat you to the punch? ( ).  I've included more details below to help you (or future readers), along with one additional step at the end.

 

Good luck!

 

...

 

Alas, as in all things, there are risks.

 

When you removed your disk from the array, you lost parity protection on your array.  Should a drive fail right now, you would not be protected.  (Although there are numerous things we could try and recovery might still be possible).  I would not have suggested that you do what you have done, but it is not the end of the world either.  But just as it is not easy to remove a disk from an array, it is also not so easy to put a disk back in the array once you have disconnected it.

 

If you have not written data to your array since you removed the disk, there is a technique that could put your array whole again.  It is called the "trust" procedure.  The trust procedure automatically runs a parity check.  It is documented HERE.

 

I would suggest this procedure if you have any reason to believe that you have a failing drive, or if you haven't run a full parity check recently.  If you've got a drive making funny noises or have not run a parity check for several months, I would suggest it.

 

But if you are feeling like the drives are okay and you have run a parity check recently, you might consider skipping that step and just reinitializing the array.

 

To do so, you need to telnet into the server (login as root).  You can do this from the server itself (it should be sitting there waiting for you to log on), using Putty (a popular telnet client), or some other telnet client. 

 

First step is to stop the array from the Web GUI.

 

Then run the command

 

initconfig

 

It will ask you if you're sure, which you need to respond to in order for unRAID to do its thing.

 

Afterwards, go back to the Web GUI and hit refresh.  All of your disks will have blue ball icons, just like when you were initially configuring your array.  At this point you can go to the drive setting page and rearrange the disks (for example, you might want to arrange disks so there is no "gap" caused by removing one of the disks).  MAKE SURE YOU DON'T ASSIGN A DATA DISK TO THE PARITY SLOT.

 

Once you are happy with the drive assignments, go back to the main page and start the array.  This will set the array configuration and rebuild parity.

 

After the parity build, RUN A PARITY CHECK.  Only after you have run a parity check and gotten zero sync errors should you fully trust that your array is protected.

From where you are now, you can press the restore button (or run initconfig with newer unRAID versions) to reinitialize the array.  Then rearrange your drives in the slots as you like to eliminate the gap you are leaving.  Then start the array and it will rebuild parity.  Your array won't be protected until parity is completely built.

 

I'm way late here but anyways. If you want to re-arrange your drives by moving them to different locations, for example reassigning say disk10 to disk9 since disk9 was just removed,  then you should do that first. Then, use the initconfig command to reset the array. This is a good time to rearrange things if you're feeling so inclined.

 

I also agree very much with bjp999's comments. Do not do this until you have performed a parity check recently and feel good about the rest of your drives being OK. This does cause the loss of parity protection.

 

Peter

 

thanks again guys.  one other quick question...what is the best way to test each Hard drive for possible failures?  HDParm?

thanks again guys.  one other quick question...what is the best way to test each Hard drive for possible failures?  HDParm?

To test if a hard disk will respond at all you can use hdparm, or smartctl.

 

Smartctl will tell you of media failures it has already encountered, and it is probably the best single tool to use.  A smart "long" test is probably the best non-destructive test you can make. (it is a read only test)

 

The use of the preclear_disk.sh script will let you know of any issues reading or writing the disk by putting it through a burn in period of reads and writes.  It will overwrite everything on the disk with zeros, so only use it when the data on the disk can be safely erased.

 

Joe L.