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Quinn

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Posts posted by Quinn

  1. gj80,

     

    Nice solution to the path issue!  I also like the idea of creating an "archive" location for past reports and zipping them up to save on HDD space.  Since I now know there is at least some interest in keeping this going, what do you think of bring this to Phase Two: GUI?  I've been meaning to get going on it for quite a while, but have had no time...

     

    Here's my idea:

     

    GUI with three tabs

     

    Tab 1 (Drive Contents):

    • Drop-Down List of all CSV reports saved to archive folder (pick your date/time)
    • Drop-Down List of all drives identified from the above report (pick your drive, maybe the one that dies last night?)
    • Submit button, which shows a filtered list from the CSV of all files, locations, sizes, etc. from that drive.
    • Export button, to create a CSV of just those findings (this is your restore list, if needed)

    Tab 2 (File Locations):

    • Drop-Down List of all CSV reports saved to archive folder (pick your date/time)
    • Search Bar (type in a filename, and it auto populates in a results box underneath) - select the file, then -
    • Submit button, which shows the file information and known drives it was found on

    Tab 3 (Log Configuration):

    • Input Box for entering in a log folder path
    • Input Box for entering the DrivePool drive letter
    • Scheduling Input/Drop-Downs to select when/how often to run the log
    • Drop-Down List of how many logs to keep (maybe two weeks' worth?)
    • Submit button, which creates the scheduled task based on the parameters above

    Everything "under the hood" would derive from PowerShell and/or DPCMD...

     

    Any thoughts or interest?  I know this can be done with WinForms, but I have had no time to teach myself such things :)

     

    -Quinn

  2. In reference to not finding files on the first removed drive, this may shed some light on what is supposed to happen:

     

    http://stablebit.com/Support/DrivePool/2.X/Manual?Section=Removing%20a%20Drive%20from%20the%20Pool

     

    A couple of ways to prove DrivePool is duplicating properly:

     

    1. You can browse out to the drives themselves and look in the hidden 'PoolPart.XXXX.....' folder to see what is inside.  You could compare between the two drives to confirm files are on each drive

     

    2. You can run a utility that logs all file placements, to confirm individual files are indeed on two different drives.  If you're a PowerShell guy: http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/1865-howto-file-location-catalog/

     

    Hope that helps...

  3. It could be a driver issue on Hyper-V, but it's all essentially the same OS, with different chunks of GUI laid on top.  I could see an issue due to the fact that Hyper-V Server 2016 is still in development, but who knows.  I was wondering if it could have anything to do with the combination of the passthrough drives and DrivePool on the VM...I know the passthrough is supposed to be seamless, but who knows if that combination might create some type of conflict at some point...

     

    One thing I might try is to run HDD benchmarks across the different layers and see if a bottleneck becomes evident...on the host against the standalone drive, on the host against a drive on the controller, on the VM against a drive that is passed through but not in the DP pool, on the VM against the DP pool itself...maybe one of those results will point us in the right direction?

     

    I was actually planning on building a system similar to yours when I get the time, but I was planning on running Scanner, DrivePool and CrashPlan on the Hyper-V Server, and running multiple VMs on top of all of that...your findings may help me plan my server's future. :)

  4. I am recording live TV to my pool without issue.  My setup:

     

    Host OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit with Client Hyper-V running

    Recording VM: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit with WMC recording from 2x HDHomeRun CONNECTs

     

    I have DrivePool installed on the Host OS, and the VMs are running off pooled/duplicated disks.  I have recorded up to 3 shows at once, and I haven't seen any issues with the recordings.  I'll also be transcoding on the host via Plex at the same time, as all of the recorded TV gets moved from the VM back into the host to be served up to everyone in the house...so I could be working with 5+ read/writes of decent-sized media files at any given time.

     

    I know that doesn't help troubleshoot your issue, but the the software is capable...do you have Scanner installed so you can see what the disks are doing?

  5. From the FAQ on the support page:

     

    Q. What happens to my files on the pool when the trial license expires?

    Nothing at all. Your pool remains fully readable. The only restriction that goes into effect when the trial runs out is that you won't be able to create new folders on the pool.

    At this point you can choose to purchase a Retail license or move your data out of the pool and uninstall the product.

  6. If you add a drive letter to the "missing" disk from within Disk Management, are you able to see your data?  If the unduplicated data was previously added to the DrivePool drive, it'll be in a hidden PoolPart folder...

     

    Also, the screenshot shows that there is no data on the DrivePool volume (N:), just on the individual drives (everything appears as "Other")...have you moved/copied any data to N:?  

  7. Endure,

     

    When you install DrivePool and add your existing drives to it, DrivePool will see a pool size of 8TB (your total size across all drives added to the pool), but 4TB will be listed as "Other" (your existing files on the drives themselves).  As you move (not copy) your files from the drive(s) themselves into the pool drive, the files will be added to the pool itself, and the space will be reclaimed automatically to be used in the pool.

     

    You can also do something called "seeding", which will speed up the process.  You don't have to "seed", it's an option:

     

    http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489

     

    -Quinn

  8. wolfpac,

     

    If the cause is what I think it is (your folder/file name paths are over 255-260 characters long), there may not be a lot that can be done, except to fix that issue directly by renaming the file names/folders so they are shorter.

     

    You could use a utility like Bulk Rename Utility (http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php) to rename files (if there are too many to do manually).  You could also use the 'subst' command to temporarily create a drive letter shortcut to the file path, then use that drive letter to move/adjust as necessary.

     

    Hope that helps...maybe someone else can chime in if there's a better way?

     

    -Quinn

  9. I made the change to Scanner and restarted the service.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to reproduce the event, so IF it doesn't fix the issue, I may not see it happen again for months...I'll keep an eye on it :)

     

    Thank you for your quick and concise help, it is always appreciated!

     

    Would you be able to go a little in depth on why you think it's a WMI issue?  #LearningOpportunity :)

     

    Thanks again!

  10. Of course, it stopped sending the alerts, making it more difficult to troubleshoot now :)

     

    Yes, it showed the same incorrect information in the UI.  Last night I sat and watched it for ~15 minutes, and different drives flipped from "healthy" to "error" (or whatever it said...it was late...) and back again at random, every few minutes.  As of right now, they are all listed as "healthy"...

     

    Do you still want me to check the "NoWMI" option?

  11. I have a weird issue involving Scanner and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring that has happened in the past numerous times; I've just never caught it in time to troubleshoot...

     

    After a reboot of my server running StableBit, I am getting many alerts regarding the load cycle count...funny thing is, Scanner keeps telling me that it is reporting 2,336,668 load cycles on a single drive.  After a few minutes, it will report that EXACT SAME count on a different drive...again and again.  I have received 73 email alerts in the last 3+ hours, involving all of my 9 drives.  It seems like it picks one at random every few minutes...

     

    OS: Windows 10 64-bit Version 1511 (Build 10586.218)

    Scanner: 2.5.2.3103 BETA

     

    I'm pretty sure I don't ACTUALLY have 2,336,668 load cycles on ANY drive...I have had this happen in the past, but I can't think of anything that causes it.  It's not on every reboot, and it's been with different versions of Scanner...any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?


    Thank you ahead of time,

     

    Quinn

     

    Follow-up - I also noticed that I have multiple drives reporting a power-on time of 5 years, 62 days...I always buy drives one at a time, so I'm not sure why S.M.A.R.T. would be reporting this on multiple (but not all) drives at the same time...

  12. I've been seeing quite a few requests about knowing which files are on which drives in case of needing a recovery for unduplicated files.  I know the dpcmd.exe has some functionality for listing all files and their locations, but I wanted something that I could "tweak" a little better to my needs, so I created a PowerShell script to get me exactly what I need.  I decided on PowerShell, as it allows me to do just about ANYTHING I can imagine, given enough logic.  Feel free to use this, or let me know if it would be more helpful "tweaked" a different way...

     

    Prerequisites:

     

    1. You gotta know PowerShell (or be interested in learning a little bit of it, anyway) :)
    2. All of your DrivePool drives need to be mounted as a path (I chose to mount all drives as C:\DrivePool\{disk name})
    3. Your computer must be able to run PowerShell scripts (I set my execution policy to 'RemoteSigned')

    I have this PowerShell script set to run each day at 3am, and it generates a .csv file that I can use to sort/filter all of the results.  Need to know what files were on drive A? Done.  Need to know which drives are holding all of the files in your Movies folder? Done.  Your imagination is the limit.

     

    Here is a screenshot of the .CSV file it generates, showing the location of all of the files in a particular directory (as an example):

     

    post-1373-0-10480200-1458673106_thumb.png

     

    Here is the code I used (it's also attached in the .zip file):

    # This saves the full listing of files in DrivePool
    $files = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\DrivePool -Recurse -Force | where {!$_.PsIsContainer}
    
    # This creates an empty table to store details of the files
    $filelist = @()
    
    # This goes through each file, and populates the table with the drive name, file name and directory name
    foreach ($file in $files)
        {
        $filelist += New-Object psobject -Property @{Drive=$(($file.DirectoryName).Substring(13,5));FileName=$($file.Name);DirectoryName=$(($file.DirectoryName).Substring(64))}
        }
    
    # This saves the table to a .csv file so it can be opened later on, sorted, filtered, etc.
    $filelist | Export-CSV F:\DPFileList.csv -NoTypeInformation

    Let me know if there is interest in this, if you have any questions on how to get this going on your system, or if you'd like any clarification of the above.

     

    Hope it helps!

     

    -Quinn

     

     

    gj80 has written a further improvement to this script:

     

    DPFileList.zip

    And B00ze has further improved the script (Win7 fixes):

    DrivePool-Generate-CSV-Log-V1.60.zip

     

  13. All Hail PowerShell!

     

    I just scripted up some PowerShell to rip through all of my DrivePool-connected disks and save a .CSV file, listing the filename and its directory.  Now I have one file to go through that I can open up in Excel and sort by directory name (which includes what disk it was on).  I can share the script and an example output file, if anyone's interested (PowerShell is tough to get into for some, but once you learn, the sky's the limit on what it can do...)

     

    -Quinn

  14. I have been running a "server" for a number of years with both Scanner and DrivePool being an integral part of it all (I LOVE these products!!!).  I think it's time to redesign my current virtualization environment, and I wanted to know what you guys think:

     

    My current setup:

     

    "Host" (running Win10 Pro w/Client Hyper-V):

    - Scanner and DrivePool for media, backups, VMs, etc.

    - CrashPlan for offsite backups (~10 incoming clients)

    - Plex Media Server (doing occasional transcodes)

    - Multiple VMs (Win7 for WMC recording, Win10 testing, VPN appliance, UTM appliance, etc.)

     

    I feel like the current setup is getting a little too "top-heavy".  My biggest pain points are the fact that I have to bring down the entire environment every time M$ deploys patches, and a lack of clean backups for the VMs that are getting more-and-more important.  Being the budget is a big concern, I'm hoping to re-work my existing environment...

     

    My proposed setup:

     

    "Host" running Hyper-V Server, CrashPlan, Scanner and DrivePool

    VM for Plex Media Server, targeting shares on host

    VM for WMC TV recording, moving recordings to host share

    Etc., etc...

     

    I believe this design will allow the host to be more stable and help with uptime...what do you guys think of this?  I know I can install and run CrashPlan, Scanner and DrivePool on Hyper-V server, but I've never done any long-term testing...

     

    Also, can anyone recommend a good, free way to backup those VMs with Hyper-V Server?  If I can get a backup of those VMs onto the DrivePool array and sent offsite via CrashPlan, that would be perfect :)

     

    -Quinn

  15. Sounds like the OS drive may still be a bit wonky.  Are you able to access your files from within the drives themselves?  You would need to enable hidden files, then browse out to the individual drives, under the "PoolPart...." folders.  If you can see your files from there, you could try to reset DrivePool:

     

    http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2299585B

     

    It won't harm the data itself.

     

    (...and if you're not in a time-crunch, wait for Christopher's response; he's pretty quick on getting the right answer out :)

  16. To anyone having this issue, could you download the lastest beta version?

     

    WHS: http://dl.covecube.com/ScannerWhs2/beta/download/StableBit.Scanner_2.5.0.2971_BETA.wssx

    Windows: http://dl.covecube.com/ScannerWindows/beta/download/StableBit.Scanner_2.5.0.2971_BETA.exe

     

    Once installed, hit the "Settings" button, and select "Scanner Settings". On the default tab, there should be a "Show advanced settings" checkbox. Check it, and hit "Ok". 

     

    There should now be an "Advanced Settings" link in the Settings drop down menu.  Click on that. Find the "Scheduler" item in the list, click on it, Then select the "Verbose" option, and hit "OK".

    Wait till it launchers a scan when it shouldn't, then open the Advanced settings menu again, and click on the link to the folder. Then upload those logs to us here: http://stablebit.com/Contact/

     

    Issue still happening, log sent :)

     

    -Quinn

  17. I just installed the 2.5 BETA, and the same thing is happening.  I re-set the 'Server' defaults (3am-6am, 'Unless disk scans...' is checked), clicked OK, the clicked the 'Start/stop automatically' button (had that off so it would stop scanning).  A scan started on two differend disks within 10 seconds.

  18. I have Scanner v.2.4.0.2928, and it seems to be ignoring the scanning schedule.  I have it set to only scan between 3am and 6am ('Server' defaults), but it keeps scanning throughout the day.  The oldest scan date on the drives is one month ago, and I have the 'Unless disk scans are past due...' unchecked.

     

    Thoughts?

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