2012R2 Essentials Pool and drives missing from DP

[tjgriffin1]

I'm beyond frustrated with DP.  New install on new 2012R2 Essentials.  From Dashboard DrivePool tab, the pool and the pooled drives are missing.  On the Storage tab, the individual pooled drives are listed but the Virtual pool/drive is missing.  The individual drives have the requisite Pool folders.  Event log is reporting VDS errors - changed service to "automatic" from "manual" and rebooted with no changes to problem.  Deleted the pool and re-added the drives to the pool - did not resolve.  I have stopped and restarted the VDS and Drivepool service with no change.  Just prior to the pool disappearing, migrated the default server folders to the pool.  I have attached the DrivePool Service logs and the Error Reports.

 

 

Hardware:

AMD Athlonx2 620 (2.5ghz quad)

4GB DDR3

WD Black 500GB system drive (partitioned into 120GB and 380GB)

2xWD Red 3TB drives (drive pool)

2xWD Red 3TB drives (external RAID0) - Server backup

Seagate 1TB - non-pool drive for Security cameras (Blue Iris)

 

 

 

Thanks,

Todd Griffin

DrivePool.Service.zip

ErrorReport.zip

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Okay, thanks for confirming that. I've let Alex know and hopefully, we can get this fixed for you soon.

 

As for the Disk Management console, that's normal. This doesn't represent the size of the pool at all, in fact. It's just a place holder number. Literally, everywhere else, the size should be reported properly.

[tjgriffin1]

Christopher,

What is the status?  My server is still down hard.  I need an answer soon, or will have to move to other methods within next couple of days.

 

Thanks,

Todd

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Alex is actively looking into the issue, actually.

 

I'll be taking to him directly later today, and inquire upon the status.

 

However, we're not exactly sure what is causing this issue, as ... well, it shouldn't be happening. 

 

 

But to double check, did you have any antivirus software installed on the system?

And could you do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2159701

 

I'd asked before, but I'm not sure if you answered it.

And the reason I'm making a point to ask here, is because of how they work. They can cause issues with the pool, up to and including this.

 

 

And I'm sorry that this has taken a while. 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Additionally, do you automount disabled on the system?

(it's a diskpart command, so it's not a simple option).

 

And if you run "cmd /k mountvol", does it properly list all of the volumes (disks) in your system?

 

 

 

 

Also, I have sent you a PM here, so, check your inbox.

[tjgriffin1]

Christopher,

I am not running anti-virus at the moment since this is a new server (actually an upgrade from a bad WHS2011 install).  I did submit the fltmc within a zip file previously, on the 19th I believe.  (Can you recommend a good anti-virus for 2012R2E?).  The install is a "standard" installation of 2012R2E, so I doubt the automount status is "disabled."  I am not able to check at the moment, or verify the mounted volumes. 

 

I have started the process of a hardware upgrade... new MB, FX8320, 8GB DDR3, PS, video, etc.  The HD are not changing.  Unfortunately, the video card was DOA, otherwise the upgrade would be done.  During the tshooting of the video card issue, I used a known working video card to boot the (upgraded) server.  After the boot and driver updates, the DP pool and pool drives were still missing from DP.  I will uninstall and re-install DP tonight to see if that resolves the issue.  I will also submit the log files, etc.  If after re-install the pool and pooled drives are missing, this completely eliminates hardware as the cause since everything (except HDs) has been changed (different hardware brands as well).

 

THanks,

Todd

[tjgriffin1]

One more thing, I closely followed the We Got Served 2012R2 Essentials book for the server install.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Ah, okay, you did submit the fltmc output.  And that looks clean.

 

As for a good antivirus .... that's a tricky question, as by their very nature, they can interfere with how the pool driver works, actually.

As for ones that we've tested and seem to work well, AVG, ESET (requires the "File Server" edition, which is more expensive), Avira, BitDefender.   

Avast has issues frequently, and Malware Bytes can cause weird behavior.  ForeFront and System Center Endpoint Protection have issues as well. 

 

 

And nothing in the WGS eBook should cause issues here. 

[tjgriffin1]

Christopher,

I have completed the HW upgrade and reinstall.  Unfortunately, the issue is still occurring.  I have uploaded 4 files:  1) Service logs and Event Viewer logs following reboot after resetting - prior to reinstall.  2) Service logs and Event Viewer logs following reinstall after HW upgrade.  At this point, it is not a hardware problem.

 

Thanks,

Todd

[tjgriffin1]

After HW upgrade, server consists of the following:

 

Asus M5A99FX PRO2.0 board

AMD FX8320

Crucial 8 GB DDR3 1600

EVGA 750wB2

1x WD Black 500GB - system

2x WD Red 3TB - "pool"

1x Seagate 1TB - Blue Iris non-pooled

2x WD Red 3 TB (RAID 1) - server backup

[tjgriffin1]

Christopher,

Alex was able to successfully resolve my problem.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Todd

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Christopher,

Alex found that software (not sure what) was overwriting the GPT.  Alex ultimately made the physical disk read only so that it will not be overwritten.  Currently, the pool is functioning as designed.  Therefore, the issue appears to be resolved.

 

 

Yup, Alex let me know (there is a lot of communication that happens "behind the scenes").

 

And he did say that this was a very odd case. But I'm very glad to hear that.

And he made a change to DrivePool specifically to help prevent this from happening in the future.