Christopher (Drashna)

You are very welcome. After moving the data over, see if Trend Micro is causing any issues. If it is, let us know and do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2159701 As for the service ... that's absolutely not normal. It should be starting automatically, always. If you could, open the event viewer (run "eventvwr.msc"), and check the application section for errors. There should be some for the DrivePool.Service.exe file. Export these and upload them to us (via https://stablebit.com/Contact). Also, could you grab the error reports from the system? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Error_Reports Because, yes, the DrivePool service should be running. This is what the UI connects to (the UI doesn't really do anything but provide you with a UI to the service, actually). And it is what controls the balancing, and other functionality. So it's critical.

You are very welcome. And I believe i've responded to you already. ANd if it's the ticket I think it is, ... just for others with the same or similar issue, the culprit here was the PCI Express Link State Power Management option, in the Power Plan settings, correct?

For anyone curious, the "CoveFs_WaitForVolumesOnMountMs" value should also fix this. Increase the value until you find one that works right for your system. http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings

Rules updated. It should appear in the next seven days, automatically. Or you can open up the SMART Details and manually update the interpretation. Also, Alex has posted information about this disk and what you're seeing publicly, so you can take a look, if you want: https://stablebit.com/Admin/IssueAnalysis?Id=13502

You posted a ticket about this already, and I've responded to that. However, is this Explorer that is freezing specifically, or the entire system? Either way, could you do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2159701 And do you have any antivirus loaded on the system? If you do have antivirus loaded, try disabling/uninstalling it temporarily, and see if that helps. If it's explorer that is crashing/freezing, could you do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection Reboot the system, do that, and reproduce the issue. If it's the entire system freezing up, do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_System_Freeze Worst case, try using this build, and see if it helps: http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.0.610_x64_BETA.exe

The pool is not seeded automatically. So you'd need to do this manually... but only the once. This is done, because we don't want to completely take over your disk. You can still use it for other stuff, but pool it as well. And again, once you've "seeded" it, you shouldn't need to do so again (unless something is adding files... then you need to update those programs to use the pooled disk). As for adding "new drives", it depends. If there is content on them, then yes, you'll need to seed them as well. If it's a blank disk, then no, just add it and you're done.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure. And this is with the throttling options checked? If so, then could you enable the "NoWmi" option for SMART and see if that helps? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Advanced_Settings Find the "Smart" section, check "NoWmi" and reboot the system (or run "services.msc" and find and restart the "StableBit Scanner Service"). And yes, please upload the logs. Go to https://stablebit.com/Contact and submit them there. If it's larger than 10MBs, then use this link: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_for_Windows_Error_Reports There is a Box.com upload widget at the bottom of the page. This handles large uploads, and should be able to handle it. Include either the ticket number or this link in the description.

Could you upload the logs to us, so we can take a look? ANd does the behavior stop after stopping the Scanner service?

Yes, in fact. The "Disk Usage Limiter" can do this. Open the settings for it, and you can uncheck both "duplicated" and "unduplicated" for the disks in question. This will not only start moving data off of these disks (which is great for prepping for removal), but it will actively PREVENT new files from being moved to the disks (depending on the exact balancer settings). As for Scanner, could you do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_for_Windows_Error_Reports But grab the entire folder, and not just the "Error Reports" folder? After doing that, resetting the settings may fix the issue with Scanner (and with the balancing). http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Q4200749 As for rescanning... you can mark the drives as "good". Click on the "+" next to a disk (or double click on it). There should be four buttons on the left side. Click on the forth one, and select the "Mark all unchecked as good" (or to that affect). But yes, this can be tedious for 40 something drives. And yeah, I have two of the Seagate 8TB drives now, and plan on picking up more as the budget allows. They're fantastic, and the speed I get on them is just amazing as well. (not SSD good, but better than the NAS drives I have).

If the issues are happening only over the network... then there are a few issues, but a bad cable or switch definitely could be one of them. Have you tried turnning on the "Network IO Boost" option in StableBit DrivePool? It may help. If it doesn't: These settings may help with network performance. Or at least, in my experience, have. A good test is copying files from an SSD to an SSD over the network. This way, you can be reasonable certain that disk throughput isn't the bottleneck.

Are the files that are not showing up... where are they located exactly? if it's on the disks in the pool... if they're not IN the PoolPart.xxx folder, then they won't show up in the pool. If this is the case, then you'll need to "seed" the pool: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489 Additionally, since the driver for the pool runs in "kernel mode", it will always see ALL files regardless of the permissions on the disks/folders/files. ALWAYS.

Are you using Avast, by chance? If so ... we've seen a few issues recently where the realtime scanner is doing stuff ... well, that it shouldn't and causing the system to hang. If you're not using Avast, it could be whichever scanner you're using. And could you do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2159701 Also, you may want to check this out: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489 This guide will let you move the data into the pool in a matter of minutes instead of hours (well, it may take 20 minutes, but that's better than HOURS and HOURS). And if you want help with this, just let us know, and we'll set up a remote support session to help you with this.

We use a background priority for duplication and balancer. This is why the process may be very slow. However, this uses the normal balancing and duplication engine, so it shouldn't be any slower than that. However, it is checking both duplication and file placement, as well as worrying about "locked" files (files being accessed). If needed, there is a setting that may speed this up: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings Set "FileDuplication_BackgroundIo" and "FileBalancing_BackgroundIo" to "false", save the file (make sure it's "drivepool.service.exe.config", no "default" in the name). And then restart the system. This should help. However, you may want to remove it after the fact... or just leave it, if you're okay with the potential performance hit. As for the balancer, yeah, that's the way that I remove disks personally, and recommend if you having issues. However, could you grab the logs from the system? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection If you want to reproduce the removal, then do all of it. Otherwise, just do steps #6-8 and upload the log files to us.

Unfortunately, properly not. The reason for that is that hard links only link files in between locations/files on the same "physical" disk. Because DrivePool is using a bunch of disks, it makes implementing this ... well, a nightmare. However, we have a workaround to this problem in the works, actually.

Okay, glad to hear it. And from the logs you posted, it did look like a permissions issue.

I'm sorry if I missed this, but does the behavior continue if you stop the StableBit Scanner service (run "net stop ScannerService" or "services.msc, find the "StableBit Scanner service" and stop it). If the issue persists with the service stopped, then something else is accessing the disk and causing it to wake. If it goes away, then Scanner is triggering it.

If you ignore the warning in StableBit Scanner, then DrivePool won't move the data off. It is specifically pulling the SMART status from Scanner. So if the drive shows up as "Healthy", it won't move data off. But as soon as it shows "SMART Warnings" (or similar), it would start moving the data off... according the balancing settings So "ignoring" the settings until the a value increases is pretty much what you want, along with the SMART Warnings in the balancer settings. As for the SMART errors... Reallocated Sector Count is a fairly bad one. It may not be critical, unless it's steadily growing, as this possibly denotes physical issues with the disk. But a lot of sectors can and most likely WILL degree performance of the drive, as the sectors have been remapped, meaning the read head takes longer when it hits these "patches". Spin Retry Count is a really bad one. As in, RMA or replace the drive, soon. It means that the disk was unable to properly spin up the disk to speed. Which means that there is definitely a mechanical issue with the disk, and ... could eventually cause the spindle to seize up, rendering the drive ... into a paperweight. Depending on what other SMART errors you're seeing ... well, let me know and I'll let you know how severe they may be. Also, you should definitely check to see which of your drives are in warranty. This is good information, and we provide at least an indicator. Additionally, the "Disk Details" lists the standard manufacturer warranty period. However, this period is usually from the manufacture date, not the sale date.

If you stop the StableBit Scanner service (run "services.msc" to do so, or "net stop ScannerService"), does this behavior continue? if it does, then StableBit Scanner isn't causing this, and something else is accessing the disk and causing it to wake up. If the behavior does stop, then Scanner is at fault here. Setting the SMART queries to be throttled to once every 60 minutes should actually fix this issue, for the most part.

Yup, that is what I thought. This would definitely correct any "partitions issues", as well as force VDS to update the disk info.

Depends on the speed you're seeing. If it's ~100-120MB/s over the network, then you're maxing out the network connection. You'll need to do something like teaming, or get 10Gbps cards and networking hardware to get better speed. If you're not seeing that, then enable the "Network IO Boost" speed. This uses additional system resources (CPU+Memory) to identify and prioritize network access of the pool. As for the teaming, what base OS are you using?

This is precisely correct. Specifically, new files are placed on the disks with the most (absolute) free space. that means that: Once the 8TB drives are 2TBs filled, the pool will start to use the 6TB drives. Once the 8TB drives are 3TBs filled AND the 6TB drive is 1TB filled, it will start to use the 5TB drives. Once the 8TB drives are 7TBs filled, AND the 6TB drive is 5TB filled, AND the 5TB drives are 4TB filled, it will ONLY then start to use the 1TB drive. Certain... well, actually, all of the optional balancers change this behavior. The SSD Optimizer places new files on the "feeder/SSD" disks and then to the other disks... but uses the same strategy, unless you use the "Ordered File Placement" option (don't use the SSD Optimizer and Ordered File Placement balancer at the same time, as there is an issue with that). The "Ordered File Placement" balancer completely changes this behavior. It fills up one (or two or more, depending on duplication) disk(s) at a time. Once the disk is ~90% full (IIRC), it moves to the next disk, filling that up. The order of the disks is specified in the balancer. The "Disk Space Equalizer" forces the pool to fill the disks equally, based on percentage, or size (your choice). you can download any or all of them from here: https://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Plugins

No, this is not. There are two recommended ways to do this. Both methods use the balancer feature. Find the StableBit Scanner balancer (Pool Options -> balancing -> balancers tab). There is are two options for SMART data. "move unduplicated data off of drives with SMART Errors" and "Move duplicated data off of drives with SMART Errors". Check one or both of these options. This will cause the pool to move the data off of ANY disk with any SMART errors (this includes LCC or temperature errors, so that's why it's off by default). Find the "Disk Usage Limiter 'balancer. Uncheck the "duplicated" and/or "unduplicated" options for the disks in question. This will automatically balance the data off of the disk. This is good advice as well. That way, if you are having issues with a disk, the unduplicated data, which is "vulnerable" from a disk failure will be moved out of problem disks. Also, this way, you can remote the disk and use the "duplicate data later" option, that way you can remove it immediately, after the unduplicated has been moved off.

Well, I'm glad to hear it. If you don't mind answering, what was the issue specifically?

Well, a majority of the issues with the pool tend to be the underlying disks. Though, it really shouldn't have unduplicated anything. As I said, the duplication info is stored on the pooled disks (as hidden NTFS metadata). That should be compatible with both versions of DrivePool. So unless there was some sort of issue with the disks... it shouldn't have happned (or some sort of very very rare issue).

I'm guessing that he used "diskpart" to do this (and the "clean" command). If so, then it may be that he partition information for the disks got screwed up. That could definitely cause the issue.