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Removing a disk


ssbtech

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Perhaps this isn't a much needed feature, but is there a way to remove a disk from the pool without moving data around?

 

I had 4x 1TB disks in the pool which I've copied to a single 4TB disk.  I want to remove the old 1TB disks from the pool without moving data onto other disks.  It seems that this isn't possible.

 

Ideally I could just collapse the pool without doing anything to the individual disks but I don't see that either.

 

Thanks.

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Depends....

 

There is the "duplicate data later" option, which skips duplicated data on the drive (as long as there is a copy elsewhere, but it does have to check this). 

 

Otherwise, not really.

Well, there is a command line tool that can do this, but it's only in the beta builds, and it definitely "immediately" drops the disk from the pool.

 

Specifically, you'd want to run "dpcmd ignore-poolpart".   And the best way to get the PoolPart ID, is to find the "PoolPart.xxxxx" folder on the drive in question. That "xxxxx" is actually the ID.

 

 

 

As for "collapse" the pool, I am assuming you mean remove it completely.  

 

In that case, basically just remove the PoolPart folders on ALL of the disks in the pool.  First, move the contents out of the the folder, and then delete it (not just to the Recycling Bin, but completely).   This should update after a bit and then remove the pool drive completely. 

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I don't know if making this a "regular" feature is on the road-map, but it's one of the things that I have to fight with DrivePool over every time I replace a disk (which is actually quite frequently). I don't use any duplication features, when I remove a disk from the pool I move the data from it onto its replacement manually. I don't want DrivePool emptying the disk, I just want it dropped from the pool immediately. Typically what I have to do is physically remove the drive from the server, then remove the missing drive from the pool, and I can't re-install that drive into the server or it will be immediately re-added to the pool. So I have to install it in another computer and transfer the files over the network, or "break" the PoolPart folder so the server doesn't re-add it when I plug it back in.

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I don't know if making this a "regular" feature is on the road-map, but it's one of the things that I have to fight with DrivePool over every time I replace a disk (which is actually quite frequently). I don't use any duplication features, when I remove a disk from the pool I move the data from it onto its replacement manually. I don't want DrivePool emptying the disk, I just want it dropped from the pool immediately. Typically what I have to do is physically remove the drive from the server, then remove the missing drive from the pool, and I can't re-install that drive into the server or it will be immediately re-added to the pool. So I have to install it in another computer and transfer the files over the network, or "break" the PoolPart folder so the server doesn't re-add it when I plug it back in.

 

 

I'm guessing you're using SnapRAID?

 

And no, what you describe probably won't be added as a feature.  Sorry.

 

that said, the "dpcmd" utility will do what you want.  The "ignore-poolpart" option will immediately drop the drive from participation in a pool, and mark it as "removed" so that it won't automatically rejoin.   

 

The caveats are that it does not move files around at all. It just drops the disk.   Also, the disk will show up as "missing" in the UI and then needs to be manually "removed" from the UI.

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I'm guessing you're using SnapRAID?

The caveats are that it does not move files around at all. It just drops the disk.   Also, the disk will show up as "missing" in the UI and then needs to be manually "removed" from the UI.

 

Yes, I am using SnapRAID. So in my case, that's not a caveat at all, that's exactly how I'd like drive removal to work in the first place. As an option at least, considering other users might prefer it the way it is now.

 

 

 

What exactly is the syntax of that command? I can't get it to work.





>dpcmd.exe ignore-poolpart v:\ a4224137-e380-442c-acfc-a06af3669d99

dpcmd - StableBit DrivePool command line interface

Version 2.2.0.767

Field passed in is not a marshaled member of the type 'DrivePoolService.Pool.CoveFsDriver.NativeTypes+â–º'.
Parameter name: fieldName


Usage:

  dpcmd ignore-poolpart [parameter1 [parameter2 ...]]

Command:

  ignore-poolpart - Immediately disconnects a pool part from the pool and prevents it from participating in future pools by placing an ignore tag on it.

Parameters:

  poolPath - Path to the pool.
  poolPartName - The name (or UID) of the pool part.
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That should work.   But can confirm that it's not working here.

 

It looks like a somewhat recent change has broken the dpcmd utility.  Sorry about that, and flagging it now.

 

 

 

Normally, that should work.

 

 

Yes, I am using SnapRAID. So in my case, that's not a caveat at all, that's exactly how I'd like drive removal to work in the first place. As an option at least, considering other users might prefer it the way it is now.

 

 

 

That's understandable, but for a vast majority of people, that will not only remove the disk, but remove the CONTENTS of that disk from the pool.  That is not desirable behavior for the software, which is why it doesn't work that way.   

 

For your use case, the ignore-poolpart command sounds like it will do exactly what you want.  

 

 

 

And it sounds like the reason that you want this, is so you can use SnapRAID to recover the data in question to a new drive, rather than the normal method we use.  That's fine, but that's definitely outside the support use cases, hence why it's not a normal option.

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I suspect that a lot of people are using SnapRAID in conjunction with DrivePool. 

 

In my case where I was upgrading the 1TB to 4TB drives, I didn't have enough space on the remaining 1TB drives for the contents of the 1TB drive being removed to be redistributed across the rest of the drives.  I also didn't want to wait an hour for it to copy everything over. 

 

Now that I'm using 4TB drives, upgrading to larger drives later will be an even bigger challenge. 

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Yeah, we do have a good number of people using SnapRAID with StableBit DrivePool. But it's a small percentage of the whole user base, from what we can tell.

 

 

As for the issue, Alex has addressed it, and the latest build should work properly now:

http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.0.806_x64_BETA.exe

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As for the issue, Alex has addressed it, and the latest build should work properly now:

http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.0.806_x64_BETA.exe

 

I have updated to this beta version. I wasn't expecting such a quick fix for that dpcmd, I went ahead and did what I needed to do manually so I'm not able to re-test that function at the moment (though I will on my next failing drive replacement/capacity upgrade).

 

 

However I do notice that with this new beta the UI is far less responsive. It hangs for a few seconds every 15-20 seconds or so. Similarly, when I click "Re-balance Now", it takes around a minute before anything actually starts happening. Generally, and I don't know if it's just me and the increasing demands I'm placing on the software in the form of adding more drives to the server, but the UI for all three programs (Scanner, DrivePool, CloudDrive) appears to be getting less and less responsive from when I first started using them.

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Well, Alex is in rapid dev cycle for DrivePool, so most of the issues are likely going to get fixed rapidly.

 

 

That said .... Alex already has a fix for the performance issue.... He noticed this happening himself recently and has fixed the bug that was causing it.

 

http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.0.812_x64_BETA.exe

 

 

As for Scanner, if you're using the 3127 build, then let me know. otherwise update: 

http://dl.covecube.com/ScannerWindows/beta/download/StableBit.Scanner_2.5.2.3127_BETA.exe

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Well, Alex is in rapid dev cycle for DrivePool, so most of the issues are likely going to get fixed rapidly.

 

 

That said .... Alex already has a fix for the performance issue.... He noticed this happening himself recently and has fixed the bug that was causing it.

 

http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.0.812_x64_BETA.exe

 

 

As for Scanner, if you're using the 3127 build, then let me know. otherwise update: 

http://dl.covecube.com/ScannerWindows/beta/download/StableBit.Scanner_2.5.2.3127_BETA.exe

 

Installing that beta version of Scanner has drastically improved load times. However I'm still having some hangs and complete freezes (when it's not in foreground) in DrivePool.

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If it lasts long enough, please run the StableBit Troubleshooter when this happens:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Troubleshooter

 

Select the "http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Troubleshooter"option.

 

Select the "Submit a user interface memory dump" option, and let it run.

 

 

If you're having issues with it, or it definitely doesn't last long enough, let us know.

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It's uploading now, but I'm not sure if it will be of any use. When it hangs it only lasts for a few seconds, so I'm not able to collect the troubleshooting info during that time. It has only completely frozen 2 or 3 times (had to kill it with task manager) but I couldn't reproduce that just now.

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