Christopher (Drashna)
-
Posts
11573 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
366
Posts posted by Christopher (Drashna)
-
-
huadiph,
I'm not exactly sure what's going on here, or why you're having so many issues with the drives. Have you had any unexpected reboots or power failures? And your computer is connected to a surge protector (at least, preferably, a UPS/battery backup that uses "true sinewave", aka supports Active PFC PSUs)?
In regards to the permissions issues, I've experienced similar when I've had damage to the drive (due to repeated BSODs). running a full disk check (the repair bad sectors option, or chkdsk /r x:, or ideally chkdsk x: /r /scan on Windows 8) and see if that helps.
And one of the drives didn't show up? At all? Did you check device manager? If it didn't show there, then there is something definitely wrong. That, along with all the other issues you've mentioned, I'd be inclined to suspect that you may have some bad wiring here. Either with whatever the computer is plugged into, or with your power supply.
And while it may be possible that your Promise card may be at fault, I've seen this before with a bad power supply (did the same, or at least very similar and killed 2 drives, and severely damaged 3 others). Which is why I am suspecting that as the issue.
-
As for "cloning" the drive. Do you have a Server Backup? If so, pop in the installation disk, and just the SSD and server backup drive, and run the repair option. I did that to migrate to a SSD, and had no issues (even aligned it properly). Once that was done, booted from the SSD with no issues.
As for if it fails, to recover the pool, you just reinstall DrivePool and reactivate. It will immediately see the pool, and assign it the original drive letter if it can. Though, If you do have to do this, I'd recommend downloading and running the WSS Troubleshooter utility we provide. First, run the "Reset NTFS Permissions on the Pool", to get rid of the old permissions (so they won't cause issues, just in case), and then run the "Repair Pooled Shares". This will change the shared location of the default shares, and create new ones for the rest of the folders. That way, you don't have to do anything but configure the user accounts and permissions.
http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities
As for the SATA ports: yes, not a problem. Specifically, DrivePool uses hidden files (Alternate Date Streams actually) to track the disks. So moving the drives to different ports, or even different controllers should never be an issue.
-
Glad to have helped.
As for drives... I've had good and bad luck. It's just a game of chance... but I also try avoiding new lines for six months or so, just to avoid issues. May be a good idea for the future.
As for Windows Easy Transfer, yeah, it doesn't get everything. Not unless you know exactly where to look. However, the activation ID for DrivePool, we can always reset that on our end. And if you're using the same hardware (and HDD, unfortunately for you), you may not even need to reset the activation.
And yeah, shared folders and the permissions stuff can be a real nightmare if you don't know exactly what you're doing here. Microsoft has taken steps to make it easier... but until they come out with something like WHS's wizard...
And if you don't mind command line, there is the "dpcmd" executable that you can manually change the duplication status for folders on the WHS version:
http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities
And as for the "nice, easy to manage long term solution", that's exactly what we aim for. Especially that nice and easy part.
I also run a Norco 4220, and am very happy with it. If you haven't already, you may want to consider getting a SAS card to hook up all the bays.
(my only issue is that the case was a demo unit and at least one of the "rails" is defective, as in only one HDD works on the one rail).
-
I'm not really sure what you mean here.
But all but one of my systems is running Windows 8, and one of those is an EFI system, and the boot disk is GPT.
As for backups.... There is no such thing as too many backups.
-
Even the data on wikipedia indicates that an increasing value for this attribute isn't a good thing (#11)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.#Known_ATA_S.M.A.R.T._attributes
It doesn't say that it is related to an outright failure, but that it is indicative of hardware issues.
-
I had (well, still have) a MediaSmart Server ex495. And yeah, even with the eSATA, not enough ports!
-
dslabbekoorn, Valdimarsson: This is definitely unusual. Like James has said, I'm also using Server 2012 Essentials and have the client backup database in the pool, with duplication on, and with no issue.
What version of DrivePool are you using?
Also, have you tried checking the disks in the pool for errors (chkdsk /r /f), as well as ran a memory test?
Also, there are logs in "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Server\Logs\". If you want to zip those up and send them (just the "backup" ones), I can take a look and see if I can figure out whats going on there.
Otherwise, enable "CoveFS_TracingEnabled" in the "advanced settings", run a backup (manually, or wait till they happen automatically) and submit the logs to http://stablebit.com/Contact
http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Advanced_Settings
-
Okay. That makes sense then. And is a good configuration, IMO.
As for that Samsung.... If it was me, I'd see about getting a different brand/model drive.
-
The drivePool disk isn't a "real" drive. It's a Virtual drive, and windows itself has some rather strict requirements (and they tend to be undocumented too) about what features will work on what drives (API, file system features, etc). For example: NFS. Both Alex and the Drive Bender team had issues getting the built in NFS Server to work on WHS2011. And Server 2012 changed something and now the built in NFS server doesn't want to work with the same settings that did on WHS2011...
But for the Symbolic Links... how would you create them? Where would they point to? I understand that it sounds like there are easy answers, but everything must be done within the confines of Windows API. Which while it may be very robust, it isn't exactly well documented. Nor is it as "fully featured" as many would like.
Either way, I've let Alex know. And if it's possible, and feasible...
-
If this setting increases, that's definitely not a good thing.
And no, this has nothing to do with Scanner. All scanner is doing is reading the SMART data, as reported from the drive. What this indicates is that the drive basically had issues powering on. So, like I said, if the count increases... you may want to replace the drive. But if this is the second drive of that model that you've gotten that has the same issue... It may be a good idea to go with a different model.
Also, any reason you're using a laptop drive here for the server backup?
-
lol. Definitely not. CHeck out the "my server" link in my signature. I was excited to get a Norco 4220 4U rackmount case for $55. (that's 20 hotswappable HDDs bays)
-
StableBit DrivePool will use the drives whether they are mounted (to a letter or folder) or not at all.
I believe you'll have to recreate the mount points on the new system (if you want to use them that way) but other than that, you should have no issues.
-
The "check for update" version is controlled on our end.
The newer updates haven't really been pushed due to a number of issues (mostly caused by Windows 8, actually). If you're not having issues, we would rather keep you on a more stable version than roll out a version that has issues. Even though v2 is a beta... we do care about trying to release a product that is as stable as possible and as free of issues/bugs as possible.
And all those settings look good. But yes, balancing and duplication can take a while, depending.
But not being able to add a new HDD is definitely a big deal. I mean, how do you expand your storage to obscene capacities otherwise!
And happy to help (and promptly too)
-
Well, first of all, there is a more up to date version of DrivePool available, and I'd recommend updating to it. (there are some important fixes for the Windows 8 kernel)
The first "calculation" can take a while, especially with a lot of small files.
As for "boosting", I assume you mean the process priority. Before you try that, check out the Balancing options (the arrow in the bottom right section of the pie chart), you can change when it balances. I recommend setting it to "Immediate", and "not more than ever 1 hour, as well as check the "Allow balancing plugins to force balancing immediately).
And if you still have issues with the UI and adding disks, definitely update. And if that doesn't help, do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Error_Reports
and submit the ErrorReports folder to http://stablebit.com/Contact and we will take a look at them and see if we can figure out what is going on.
-
@JazzMan: I've flagged this thread for Alex, so he can weigh in. But I'm pretty sure it's not possible, given how DrivePool work. It's a virtual drive that just passes the IO operations to the actually drives basically. (this is a vast oversimplification of how it works, though).
@Pal:
For Plex, do you mean it's local database/cache?
I've used plex before with DrivePool without issue. But I have manually scrapped the data (using XBMC metadata, and a 3rd party tool), and had it installed to the default location (C:\Program Files)
-
Vincent,
I've see a good number of people using FlexRAID with DrivePool without issue.
http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/720/dp-with-flexraid-raidf-comments#Item_30
Regards
-
Definitely don't delete the poolpart folders. That's where the actual data resides!
But it would be best to remove the drives first, just to make things easier. And then reconnect them after the OS is installed. Once DrivePool is installed, it will recognize the "old" pool immediately.
-
Beta's tend to be a bit more "in flux" when it comes to features. RC's are usually feature complete (and none will be added or removed unless necessary), but there may be some small bugs that crop up, or not completely fixed.
Other than that, that is pretty much spot on for the "standard naming practices" that most companies use.
-
If it's having issues balancing, then enabling trace logging would give a better indication of what's going on (or not).
(http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Advanced_Settings, CoveFS_TracingEnabled).
However, as for that log entry:
"Cannot balance. Requested critical only" is normal to have.
When you set up periodic balancing (such as daily balancing at night), you configure balancing triggers, such as:
- "Balance, if the balancing ratio falls below: [some percent]%
- OR if at lest this much data needs to be moved: [some value]GB
This is set up in balancing Settings.
The warning that simply indicates that the balancing time has passed, but none of the triggering conditions were satisfied.
Basically, in English is means that: "It's not time to balance".
Nothing to worry about.
As for manually triggering balancing, try remeasuring, and if it's pass any of the thresholds on the balancer settings, it should give you the option.
@DrParis, any particular reason to not have it automatically balance? Periodically, or "immediately"?
And like Henrik mentined, the "Disk Space Equalizer" plugin is the only way to ensure equally filled disks (either by percentage or space remaining)
-
DrParis, do this:http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Log_Collection
Namely, enable that (you may need to do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Advanced_Settings, and enable "CoveFS_TracingEnabled"), replicate the issue, note the time it happened, and submit a report via http://stablebit.com/Contact with the trace logs, and the approximate time it happened (when tracing was enabled).
I ask this, because I've experienced the same occasionally. Though, usually waiting a few minutes fixes it.
-
DrParis, Don't worry, I had to look twice before I realized what was going on myself.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to know how the software you're using works. Besides, just remember, the only stupid question is the one not asked!
-
2.0.0.263 added some text for the pool options, so it's more obvious.
As for the window size, you can resize the UI and get a lot more information, if needed.
As for the explorer shell integration, Alex has posted about that: http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/26-first-off-topic-new-competition-is-coming-to-town/&do=findComment&comment=206
(Which is to say, he's not a fan)
The rest are definitely good suggestions, and ones that have actually been considered, if not added to the "To-Do list".
-
Jeff, that's pretty much exactly right, on both.
And yeah, Mick is right about that.
On the plus side, if you have purchase DrivePool, you would get the discount on both copies of Scanner, at least.
-
You're welcome.
I haven't kept up with OwnCloud in a while, but it was pretty good last year. I'm sure it's gotten better since.
Constant intermittent errors: You May Not Have Permissions to Use This Network Resource ... Not Enough Server Storage is Available to Process This Cmd
in General
Posted
Ah, yeah, defective rails.
I have one partial (only one drive bay works), and I think I have another rail that doesn't work at all. There are 2 that I know work (I have 8HDDs attached). But, considering it was a demo unit, and I got it for just the shipping, I'm not complaining. Just wish it wasn't $50 to replace a rail. Norco does sell replacement RAILs. I can get you a link if you want. But like I said, it's around $50 per, IIRC.
As for the 4TB drives, they've been out for a decent while, so they should be pretty good by now (worst case, check for firmware updates before using the drives). Personally, I prefer Seagate Drives, they run a bit warmer, but I get better performance out of them.
As for the expansion card, thanks for the info. I use a HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL card actually. Fairly cheap, and a decent card. I only use it to pass through drives, but it supports 8 bays. I have another PCI express slot, and will be getting another one of these cards eventually. But it also needs a firmware update to read 3+TB drives too. But drivers and firmware are the first things I check with new stuff. It's just a good habit.
(though if you really want to contribute there is this: http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/36-how-to-contribute-test-data/) Add some data for StableBit Scanner.