unRAID Server Release 5.0-rc6-r8168-test Available

[SergeantCC4]

Have you tried connecting a monitor up to your server and seeing what messages are being displayed on it?

[wheel]

That was actually one of the first things I did - unfortunately, the monitor was receiving no signal.  It's all pretty weird...

[jowi]

Or just connect using putty and do a nice controlled powerdown and reboot...

[wheel]

That sounds like a plan - I'll research the steps during lunch and implement as soon as I get home.  Thanks for the suggestion!

[Frank1940]

I almost hate to post this, as there's a chance it's a non-5.0-rc6-r8168-related issue (and it'll be hard to determine for sure until I get home tonight and force-reboot it, assuming that's the recommendation here), but just in case it's a bug:

I've been up and running without issue for well over a week now, transferring files and checking parity without issue since the last weird webgui-related crash (see earlier in this thread).

I decided to restart it this morning to hot swap a new drive, but never made it that far - after stopping the array, and selecting restart from the main webgui, everything hung.  I can't access the webgui anymore (hell, the entire tower is missing from my network list now), and my unraid-equipped USB stick is flashing nonstop (at regular intervals; one flash, nothing, one flash, nothing, one flash, nothing).

With that sort of activity on the flash drive, I'm loathe to force-reboot at this point - it seems like it's the only way to get a syslog, though.  If anyone has any ideas on how to handle without a force-reboot, please let me know; otherwise, I'll have a full syslog up tonight.

I realize that you never got that far, BUT I didn't think that unRAID supported 'hot swapping'.  If it doesn't, you could create a real mess!

[Joe L.]

BUT I didn't think that unRAID supported 'hot swapping'. 

It does not.

[wheel]

I probably used the wrong language (or I've been doing the wrong thing in the past) - I've "hot swapped" by placing a new drive in an empty hot swap slot and restarting the system (at which point it's picked up by the MARVELL cards and reported to unraid).

This time, I went for the reboot without actually placing the drive in the slot (even though that was my original plan - rough morning), so even if I've been doing this wrong, the "hot swap" itself shouldn't be a factor on this error... Hope this clears things up!

[PeterB]

You can 'hot-swap' in that if you 'Stop' the array, you can perform any disk movements and then 'Start' the array.  No need to reboot - unRAID will recognise new devices on starting the array.

I think that's what you are saying that you did.

[jowi]

You can 'hot-swap' in that if you 'Stop' the array, you can perform any disk movements and then 'Start' the array.  No need to reboot - unRAID will recognise new devices on starting the array.

Is that true? Can you just pull out drives if the array is stopped, and the os etc is still running? No need to powerdown first? I thought you should at least enable AHCI in the BIOS as well?

[wheel]

PeterB: that's exactly what I've been doing (plus reboot for drives on the MARVELL cards).  Thanks for the clarification!

[tyrindor]

You can 'hot-swap' in that if you 'Stop' the array, you can perform any disk movements and then 'Start' the array.  No need to reboot - unRAID will recognise new devices on starting the array.

Is that true? Can you just pull out drives if the array is stopped, and the os etc is still running? No need to powerdown first? I thought you should at least enable AHCI in the BIOS as well?

I do it all the time, it's been working great with the later 5.0 builds. I assume you should have AHCI enabled in the BIOS anyway, not sure why anyone would run on IDE mode.

There are very few reasons why you should actually shut the server completely down.

[wheel]

So, I managed a bit of research on PuTTY at lunch - it seems like my tower's missing IP address might be a deal-breaker for this approach (it's not showing up on the network at all).  Does anyone else have any other ideas before I go for the forced-restart in a few hours when I make it home?

[PeterB]

I thought you should at least enable AHCI in the BIOS as well?

I do it all the time, it's been working great with the later 5.0 builds. I assume you should have AHCI enabled in the BIOS anyway, not sure why anyone would run on IDE mode.

Exactly!

[wheel]

Forced restart, syslog attached - everything seems good... but what the hell could have caused this?  Definitely left field...  Hope the log helps development!

[Ice_Black]

Maybe in 5.1 - unRAID should support mirror features.. like in Raid 10.