Unassigned Devices - Managing Disk Drives and Remote Shares Outside of The Unraid Array


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@dlandon

 

I guess that explains it. I did not realize UD was designed for spinners only. Thanks for helping me get to the bottom of this. 

 

Update:  For anyone else who wants to use an SSD as an unassigned device, here's what worked. First, here is a link to a webpage that helped me.

 

http://ask.xmodulo.com/create-mount-xfs-file-system-linux.html

 

Essentially, you log into your unraid server via terminal and use two commands.

 

1)  sudo fdisk /dev/sdX    where the "X" is replaced with the correct letter for the drive you want to format. UD reports it in the first column.

 

This command requires that you make a few entries.  See the webpage linked above for an example.

 

2) sudo mkfs.xfs -f /dev/sdX1  again where the "X" is replaced, same as above. 

 

When this command is finished, UD will see the drive as formatted and will allow you to mount it.

 

 

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@dlandon

 

I guess that explains it. I did not realize UD was designed for spinners only. Thanks for helping me get to the bottom of this. 

 

Update:  For anyone else who wants to use an SSD as an unassigned device, here's what worked. First, here is a link to a webpage that helped me.

 

http://ask.xmodulo.com/create-mount-xfs-file-system-linux.html

 

Essentially, you log into your unraid server via terminal and use two commands.

 

1)  sudo fdisk /dev/sdX    where the "X" is replaced with the correct letter for the drive you want to format. UD reports it in the first column.

 

This command requires that you make a few entries.  See the webpage linked above for an example.

 

2) sudo mkfs.xfs -f /dev/sdX1  again where the "X" is replaced, same as above. 

 

When this command is finished, UD will see the drive as formatted and will allow you to mount it.

 

There's no reason it shouldn't work with SSD drives.  I've never tested UD with SSDs.  When I can get some time and an SSD drive, I'll do some testing and try to sort it out.

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1. You can get a smart report by clicking on the sdd text on the left side of the line for the drive.  Again, hover your mouse over the active area and it will display a tool tip of what that active area does.  It should display 'Disk Attributes on sdd'.  If it does not, the smart report is not available.

The sdd text is not active. There is a tooltip available for the two elements under identification, but neither the grey dot or the sdd text are interactive.

 

2. I cannot reproduce the format error but I am testing on a spinner.  I suspect you are trying to format an SSD drive.  Is the drive an SSD?

Nope, 2TB WD

 

ud.png.7f22faacba991a5ca51ee08cebc58a0a.png

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1. You can get a smart report by clicking on the sdd text on the left side of the line for the drive.  Again, hover your mouse over the active area and it will display a tool tip of what that active area does.  It should display 'Disk Attributes on sdd'.  If it does not, the smart report is not available.

The sdd text is not active. There is a tooltip available for the two elements under identification, but neither the grey dot or the sdd text are interactive.

 

Browse to the Dashboard and you'll see the smart report hand icon under the disk drive designation that is unassigned.  You should be able to see the smart report from there.

 

2. I cannot reproduce the format error but I am testing on a spinner.  I suspect you are trying to format an SSD drive.  Is the drive an SSD?

Nope, 2TB WD

 

I'll have to dig up a 2TB disk and do some testing.

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I'm trying to format a disk that was previously able to be format and mounted, but seems to no longer be able to. In between I ran the "preclear" plugin, as I was going to add the drive to my array but changed my mind and now want it mounted outside the array.

 

Apr 11 22:01:40 Clearing partition table of disk '/dev/sdc'.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Reloading disk '/dev/sdc' partition table.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Creating a 'gpt' partition table on disk '/dev/sdc'.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Creating a primary partition on disk '/dev/sdc'.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Formatting disk '/dev/sdc' with 'xfs' filesystem.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Reloading disk '/dev/sdc' partition table.

 

The UI now shows this, but it never changes state after the format to allow me to mount it or rename the mount point.

 

PykbnHL.png

 

(I've his "Rescan" and nothing changes either)

any ideas?

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Browse to the Dashboard and you'll see the smart report hand icon under the disk drive designation that is unassigned.  You should be able to see the smart report from there.

 

sdd is not visible on the dashboard.

 

There is a feature I implemented for a user who wanted to have a disk installed as a hot standby and didn't want UD to monitor the disk.  When this feature is used, it also disables the disk attributes capability.  The way it works is that if there is no script file, UD thinks the drive is to just sit there and be left alone so it does not monitor the disk temperature or check for idle status.  In some cases, monitoring for disk status will spin up disks.  That's why this feature was requested.  I'll update the second post about best practices to make a note about this feature turning off the disk attributes.

 

Go to the edit script and choose the default scipt (which does nothing) and you should then be able to get the disk attributes.

 

I don't understand why the unassigned disk does not show up in the Dashboard, and I don't have any ideas on what that problem could be.

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I'm trying to format a disk that was previously able to be format and mounted, but seems to no longer be able to. In between I ran the "preclear" plugin, as I was going to add the drive to my array but changed my mind and now want it mounted outside the array.

 

Apr 11 22:01:40 Clearing partition table of disk '/dev/sdc'.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Reloading disk '/dev/sdc' partition table.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Creating a 'gpt' partition table on disk '/dev/sdc'.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Creating a primary partition on disk '/dev/sdc'.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Formatting disk '/dev/sdc' with 'xfs' filesystem.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Reloading disk '/dev/sdc' partition table.

 

The UI now shows this, but it never changes state after the format to allow me to mount it or rename the mount point.

 

PykbnHL.png

 

(I've his "Rescan" and nothing changes either)

any ideas?

 

Your disk is a 3TB disk and there seems to be an issue with formatting disks 2TB and larger.  I found a 2TB in my collection and will do some testing to see if I can reproduce the issue.

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There seem to be two issues going on with formatting that I actually think are related.  One is that SSD disks cannot be formatted, and I think in the case of spinners, the common theme is that they cannot be formatted after being pre-cleared.

 

Has anyone had a formatting problem that is neither of these cases?

 

I can't reproduce the problem because I can't get preclear to work on my 6.2 test server and I don't have an SSD drive to test, but I have a theory that I am working on that I will implement in the next release for those having formatting problems to try.

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Please note that on the UD screenshots posted that are showing the problem that the Script button is missing, so no possible way of editing the script from a GUI button press.

 

Ok.  I see it.  The drive is not formatted, that's why the script button does not show.

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I'm trying to format a disk that was previously able to be format and mounted, but seems to no longer be able to. In between I ran the "preclear" plugin, as I was going to add the drive to my array but changed my mind and now want it mounted outside the array.

 

Apr 11 22:01:40 Clearing partition table of disk '/dev/sdc'.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Reloading disk '/dev/sdc' partition table.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Creating a 'gpt' partition table on disk '/dev/sdc'.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Creating a primary partition on disk '/dev/sdc'.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Formatting disk '/dev/sdc' with 'xfs' filesystem.
Apr 11 22:01:40 Reloading disk '/dev/sdc' partition table.

 

The UI now shows this, but it never changes state after the format to allow me to mount it or rename the mount point.

 

PykbnHL.png

 

(I've his "Rescan" and nothing changes either)

any ideas?

 

Your disk is a 3TB disk and there seems to be an issue with formatting disks 2TB and larger.  I found a 2TB in my collection and will do some testing to see if I can reproduce the issue.

 

I previously was able to successfully format it using this plugin (but before I used the preclear beta plugin). Is it an intermittent problem to not be able to format larger than 2TB disks?

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I think I have it sorted out.  Update the plugin and give it another try and let me know.  I may have to add some more extensive logging in order to track it down if this doesn't get it.

 

EDIT: This should also solve the SSD drive not formatting problem.

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I think I have it sorted out.  Update the plugin and give it another try and let me know.  I may have to add some more extensive logging in order to track it down if this doesn't get it.

 

EDIT: This should also solve the SSD drive not formatting problem.

 

I'm late to this thread, but just happened to run into this format issue.  I have an older 1TB drive that I added back into my system and was planning to use outside my array for TVHeadEnd DVR storage.  I pre-cleared the drive successfully and whenever I go to format it the button changes to "Formatting" and then quickly switches to "Formatting Failed".

 

I've tried the latest version of the plugin that you just updated and I still seem to be seeing the same problem.  Here is what the log shows for my latest attempt:

 

Apr 12 12:15:30 Clearing partition table of disk '/dev/sdn'.
Apr 12 12:15:30 Reloading disk '/dev/sdn' partition table.
Apr 12 12:15:30 Creating a 'msdos' partition table on disk '/dev/sdn'.
Apr 12 12:15:30 Creating a primary partition on disk '/dev/sdn'.
Apr 12 12:15:30 Formatting disk '/dev/sdn' with 'xfs' filesystem.
Apr 12 12:15:30 Reloading disk '/dev/sdn' partition table.

 

Am happy to provide more info if it helps debug.

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I think I may have a clue as to what is (isn't) happening. On the server where it's working (almost) properly, unassigned.devices.cfg contains sections for each detected drive. On the server that doesn't work, that same file only contains

[Config]
common_cmd = ""
destructive_mode = "enabled"
automount_usb = "no"

with no mention of the drive that is listed in the UD section.

 

Should pressing the "Rescan disks" button populate the .cfg file?

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I think I may have a clue as to what is (isn't) happening. On the server where it's working (almost) properly, unassigned.devices.cfg contains sections for each detected drive. On the server that doesn't work, that same file only contains

[Config]
common_cmd = ""
destructive_mode = "enabled"
automount_usb = "no"

with no mention of the drive that is listed in the UD section.

 

Should pressing the "Rescan disks" button populate the .cfg file?

 

To create the .cfg file entry, you need to make a change that applies to the drive in question.  Such as click on the serial number and change the mount point, or turn on and off the auto mount switch.

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I think I may have a clue as to what is (isn't) happening. On the server where it's working (almost) properly, unassigned.devices.cfg contains sections for each detected drive. On the server that doesn't work, that same file only contains

[Config]
common_cmd = ""
destructive_mode = "enabled"
automount_usb = "no"

with no mention of the drive that is listed in the UD section.

 

Should pressing the "Rescan disks" button populate the .cfg file?

 

To create the .cfg file entry, you need to make a change that applies to the drive in question.  Such as click on the serial number and change the mount point, or turn on and off the auto mount switch.

Since this is a precleared drive, the only available option is the auto mount switch.

[Config]
common_cmd = ""
destructive_mode = "enabled"
automount_usb = "no"

[]
automount = "yes"

This is the result, no serial number identifier is present like there is on the server that works.

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Sorry for butting in guys but should i be able to UD a drive and then preclear using the preclear plugin? I managed to start the preclear, drive was in an external usb enclosure (inateck) but the system immediately locked up and failed to respond so i opened the case and precleared with the drive internal to the array which kinda defeated the object of the exercise. Just wondering if i was trying to do something UD cant handle?

 

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

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Sorry for butting in guys but should i be able to UD a drive and then preclear using the preclear plugin? I managed to start the preclear, drive was in an external usb enclosure (inateck) but the system immediately locked up and failed to respond so i opened the case and precleared with the drive internal to the array which kinda defeated the object of the exercise. Just wondering if i was trying to do something UD cant handle?

 

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

Which version of unRaid?  6.2 beta preclear has an issue.

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I think I may have a clue as to what is (isn't) happening. On the server where it's working (almost) properly, unassigned.devices.cfg contains sections for each detected drive. On the server that doesn't work, that same file only contains

[Config]
common_cmd = ""
destructive_mode = "enabled"
automount_usb = "no"

with no mention of the drive that is listed in the UD section.

 

Should pressing the "Rescan disks" button populate the .cfg file?

 

To create the .cfg file entry, you need to make a change that applies to the drive in question.  Such as click on the serial number and change the mount point, or turn on and off the auto mount switch.

Since this is a precleared drive, the only available option is the auto mount switch.

[Config]
common_cmd = ""
destructive_mode = "enabled"
automount_usb = "no"

[]
automount = "yes"

This is the result, no serial number identifier is present like there is on the server that works.

 

The 'Auto Mount' switch should not be available in this case.  I have fixed that.

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Sorry for butting in guys but should i be able to UD a drive and then preclear using the preclear plugin? I managed to start the preclear, drive was in an external usb enclosure (inateck) but the system immediately locked up and failed to respond so i opened the case and precleared with the drive internal to the array which kinda defeated the object of the exercise. Just wondering if i was trying to do something UD cant handle?

 

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

Which version of unRaid?  6.2 beta preclear has an issue.

6.1.9

 

 

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

 

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Sorry for butting in guys but should i be able to UD a drive and then preclear using the preclear plugin? I managed to start the preclear, drive was in an external usb enclosure (inateck) but the system immediately locked up and failed to respond so i opened the case and precleared with the drive internal to the array which kinda defeated the object of the exercise. Just wondering if i was trying to do something UD cant handle?

 

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

Which version of unRaid?  6.2 beta preclear has an issue.

6.1.9

 

 

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

That should work just fine.  I am currently doing a pre-clear on 6.2 without any problems.  I fixed the preclear_disk.sh script to work properly with 6.2.

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I need some clarification from those of you that are experiencing disk formatting problems.  I'm hearing that you have pre-cleared the disks but I don't see the 'precleared' file system (FS) in any of the screen shots provided.  That designation will show when UD finds the pre-clear signature on a disk that is not formatted.  I am testing with a 250 GB disk and see the signature as I expect and I can format the disk.  I will test a 2TB disk next to see if maybe UD is having trouble with the larger disks.  Have you been using the Joe L. script to pre-clear the disks?  Do you see the 'precleared' file system (FS) designation when the disk is pre-cleared?

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