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Wrong smart info for Microsoft Storage Space


Grant

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I have an system running Windows Server 2012R2.

It has 2 drives on onboard SATA ports (the OS drive, and one more), and 8 drives connected to an LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i.  Four of the drives on the SAS controller are SATA drives used with DrivePool, and they all work perfectly and get smart data normally (after enabling unsafe IO).

 

The other 4 are 15k SAS drives used to make a mirrored windows storage space.  These no longer show up as normal disks in windows.  In Stablebit Scanner, it simply shows the name "Microsoft Storage Space Device" on the "Microsoft Storage Spaces Controler".  This is expected.

 

What's not expected is the SMART data I see for the storage space device.  Under disk details, it shows the serial number, firmware, rotation speed, port, capability and smart data of the OS drive.  The Smart window for the storage space shows all the data for my OS drive as well.

 

I'm not sure if storage spaces emulate smart data, or provide some other useful mechanism to check their state - but showing the SMART data from another drive probably isn't a good thing.  It would be better to show no smart data than incorrect data, in my opinion.

 

Of course, the BEST option would be for it to show the underlying drives...but that may not be possible with windows hiding them.

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That's definitely unusual.  Normally, it shouldn't show any SMART data, or other information for the Storage Spaces array.

 

Could you open the SMART details for any disk (right click on it and select the options). At the bottom, there should be a "Submit to BitFlock" option. Check that, give it a minute or two, and then post the ID it generates here. 

 

 

 

 

As for the underlying drives, we absolutely want to do that. We know it's possible (however, Microsoft significantly changed the underlying API/method for accessing this information.  And ideally, we'd want denote that the drives are part of a Storage Spaces array (and even which array, if possible).  However, that takes time to implement and test, and Alex (the developer) has been very busy.

 

Regards

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To make sure, on the Storage Spaces you're definitely seeing the SMART data and disk details from the System drive?

 

The reason that I ask, is that the BitFlock information doesn't reflect this at all, so if it is happening, it's a UI bug.

 

What version of StableBit Scanner are you using (it's in the Scanner settings, or in the control panel).

And if you're not on the beta build, could you upgrade to that and see if it helps?

https://stablebit.com/Scanner/Download

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Thanks for looking into it.

 

Minor side note:  Installing the beta version cleared all my manually set locations for the disks.  Is that normal?

Based on a comment that Alex to me, could you enable the Smart "NoWmi" option and see if that helps?

To do so, use this link:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Advanced_Settings

Find the "Smart" section, and check the "NoWmi" option.  Reboot the system (or restart the "StableBit Scanner Service" manually), and see if that helps.

 

 

As for the resetting metadata..... unfortunately, we've had two cases of this reported so far (myself, which I chalked up to a fluke because ... I do too many weird things to scanner.... and one other person).  

Do you have a backup of the system at all?

Specifically, I'm looking for a copy of "C:\ProgramData\StableBit Scanner" (the entire folder) before and after you installed the upgrade. If you do, we can use this for troubleshooting, and see if we can figure out what happened here, so we can fix the issue.

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I enabled NoWMI, then tried restarting the service.  Didn't change anything.  Tried rebooting the entire server, still didn't change anything.

 

For the resetting metadata - no, I don't have any backups of the ProgramData folder.  But I would be willing to completely uninstall and go through the whole process of upgrading to see if it happens again and get you the files before and after installing the beta, if that would help.

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I enabled NoWMI, then tried restarting the service.  Didn't change anything.  Tried rebooting the entire server, still didn't change anything.

 

For the resetting metadata - no, I don't have any backups of the ProgramData folder.  But I would be willing to completely uninstall and go through the whole process of upgrading to see if it happens again and get you the files before and after installing the beta, if that would help.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure, about the NoWmi option. I didn't expect it to change anything, but you never know, sometimes.

 

 

As for the bug, (un)fortunately, it's very rare, and appears to be hard to replicate. It's happened on my system, but I was never able to reproduce it. 

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I panicked this morning because I got alerts that a drive was failing.

 

Turns out it had started scanning the storage space drive.  As far as I can tell, the storage space is NOT failing, but Scanner was trying to scan it's supposed 1TB of space - it only has 200GB.  I've turned off the checks for that drive for now.

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I panicked this morning because I got alerts that a drive was failing.

 

Turns out it had started scanning the storage space drive.  As far as I can tell, the storage space is NOT failing, but Scanner was trying to scan it's supposed 1TB of space - it only has 200GB.  I've turned off the checks for that drive for now.

Are you using the thin provisioned option (where you're able to specify a larger capacity than it's actually using)?

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Are you using the thin provisioned option (where you're able to specify a larger capacity than it's actually using)?

 

Nope, only thick provisioned.

 

I didn't let the scan actually finish, so I'm not sure what it would have done if I let it scan the whole disk.  But looking at the drive map, it looks like the scanner starts testing at the end of the disk, and scanner shows the drive as being 932GB (actual size is 201GB) so I'm guessing scanner did something like this:

 

Scanner:  Hey storage space drive, read whatever is at 932GB for me.

Storage drive:  I don't have a 932GB...

Scanner:  Hmm, that block must be defective.  Read what's at 931GB...

Storage drive:  There is no such block!  Dude, I'm only a 200GB drive!

Scanner:  Hmm, must be defective.

 

My guess is, if I let it run, it would show the blocks that actually exist as good - I can test that hypothesis if you think it would be useful information.

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No, it should be "fine".

 

Specifically, Scanner appears to be getting the wrong information, completely... and is trying to scan areas of the disk that don't actually exist in Storage Spaces. Since it's unable to read them, it gets an error back, and flags that sector as damaged. Rince and repeat for the other 732GB of capacity above and beyond it's actual size.

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Talking with Alex some more, it sounds like the WMI database on your system may be corrupted. That's why it's having the issue.  The NoWMI setting only affects SMART data, so that is why it's still mis-reporting the size.

 

 

Try running "sfc /scannow" on the system, and see if that helps.

 

If that doesn't, then try doing the following to repair WMI on your system:

 

  1. Boot into Safe Mode (run "shutdown -r -t 0 -o" if you're not sure how. Select the "Troubleshoot" option, then the "Advanced Settings", and then the "Windows Startup Settings". Then you should get the option to reboot into safe mode.
  2. In the start menu type "cmd" (without quotes) and on the top search result, right click the program icon and choose Run as administrator
  3. Type "net stop winmgmt" (without quotes) and press Enter to make certain the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service is not running.
  4. Open a Windows Explorer and locate the path to C:\Windows\System32\WBEM\ folder and rename the Repository folder to something else like RepositoryOLD (right click and choose 'Rename Folder').
  5. Reboot and restart as normal.
  6. In the start menu type "cmd" (without quotes) and on the top search result, right click the icon and choose Run as administrator
  7. Type "net stop winmgmt" (without quotes) and press enter to stop the WMI service.
  8. Type "winmgmt /resetRepository" (without quotes) and restart the computer.

 

 

If that doesn't help, then  try running: "dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth"

 

 

If none of these help, then it may be worth reinstalling the OS.

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I tried sfc, and the resetrepository part.  Neither fixed it.

 

However, uninstalling scanner, moving it's files in ProgramData, and reinstalling seems to have fixed it.  Disk details, size, everything shows up properly now (except smart data isn't available at all).

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Ok, more information.

 

It works properly, showing the right size and data for the storage space drive, until I enable Unsafe under DirectIO (needed for it to work with my LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i controller).

 

Once I enabled Unsafe DirectIO, and restarted the service, I started getting SMART data for the drives on the LSI controller, but the storage space started showing all the properties of my OS drive again. 

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  • 5 months later...

Hi,

 

Im just wondering if there is an update on getting SMART/individual disk info through a storage space?

 

I know its possible because Western Digital's drive diagnostics still see the individual disks which comprise my storage space.

 

Thanks

 

Chris

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Hi,

 

Im just wondering if there is an update on getting SMART/individual disk info through a storage space?

 

I know its possible because Western Digital's drive diagnostics still see the individual disks which comprise my storage space.

 

Thanks

 

Chris

It is possible, and we are aware of how to do so.  

 

However, this is a significant change, and requires testing before it can even be released.

 

Additionally, Alex is busy finishing up StableBit CloudDrive, and once that's released, we do plan on going through StableBit DrivePool and StableBit Scanner, fixing bugs and going through feature requests (such as this). 

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OK, thats great, the sooner the better!

 

I've got a 10 drive storage space and at the moment i cant even monitor the drive temps, but i'd love to have the re-assurance of a monthly surface scan on them too :)

Well, the surface scans still work, at least. 

 

The big issue here is how to display both the "logical" disks displayed (the storage space), and the individual disks, as well. 

And that's even considering if all the same information about the disks is provided.  So this is a complicated request.

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