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Help - DrivePool UI hanging when adding drive to pool


ep-CCforums

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Hi,

 

I'm a new user and I need help.  Every time I attempt to add a Seagate 3TB drive to my pool, the GUI hangs and has to be killed in Task Manager.  Then the server must be rebooted because the GUI can not be correctly restarted... just spawns multiple background processes.  The issue is not the hdd.  I know it's good as tested w/ SpinRite 6.  I think somehow I screwed up DrivePool by changing a drive letter for one of the hdd's already in the pool.

 

 

my config.

 

OS: Server 2012 Essentials R2

running the latest release version of DrivePool (2.xxx ) x64

 

hdds in pool:

  E:  - Toshiba 3tb

  F:  - Toshiba 3tb

  G:  - Hitachi 2tb

  H:  - WD 2tb 

  I:   - WD 1tb

 

 P:  "virtual" pooled drive

 

I don't know if this level of detail is necessary, but these are steps I took before the problem happened

.

My aim was to add a new Seagate 3tb drive to pool, remove the WD 1tb drive, let DP evacuate the drive, then extract the WD 1tb from the server.

 

This is what I did.

 

Added Seagate 3tb drive as a non-pooled drive, D:\

Manually copied data off Seagate 3tb drive to the pool (P:)

Used diskpart to clean the Seagate 3tb.  Drive reinitialized as GPT disk, formatted, & given a drive letter of D:\

Used Disk Management to change drive letter of WD 1TB drive from I:\ to J:\

    (got standard warning that some apps my stop functioning properly if they use drive letters...)

Rebooted the server

Used Disk Management  to change drive letter of Seagate 3TB drive from D:\ to I:\

    (got standard warning that some apps my stop functioning.....)

Rebooted the server

Opened DrivePool gui and ran "Re-measure" successfully. (just in-case the drive letter change to the WD 1TB wasn't recognized)

 

Now....

Attempted to add the Seagate 3tb via the gui's "ADD" button.

Press the button the gui hangs.  Must reboot.

Tried multiple times.  Even let server sit overnight hoping the add process would complete.  Nothing...

Checked the Seagate hdd and saw that no "poolpartxxxxxx.xxxxx" was created.  The drive is completely untouched.

Tried multiple reformats anyways without luck.  Gui hangs every time.

 

Decided to "undo" the drive letter change of the WD 1TB.  Changed it back from J:\ to I:\

Reformatted Seagate 3tb as J:

Rebooted server

Re-ran Re-measure successfully.

Attempted to "ADD" the Seagate via the Gui.  Gui hangs.  Must reboot server.

 

I'm out of ideas.

 

Do I have to rebuild my server from scratch???  That would suck!

Any HELP!!! would be appreciated.

 

thx,

-ep

 

 

 



LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WTH ?????????????????????????????????????????

 

On  whim, I just tried adding that drive for the MILLION-th time and it worked!!!  IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!

I've been at this for 3 freaking DAYS!

I have no idea what changed, but it worked.

 

I'm happy now but also a bit worried.  Up until now, DP has been rock solid.

 

Any ideas why this happened????

 

thanks,

-ep

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Sometimes I run into issues adding new disks to the pool and it is actually Scanner that is causing them.  I am not sure if you have Scanner installed too or not.  Pretty much every time I add a disk, I have to restart the Scanner service.  I am running Scanner 2.5.0.2968 BETA with DrivePool 2.0.0.420 which doesn't hang the dashboard like happened with previous versions of Scanner, but it will crash the dashboard every time I try to access DIsk Settings for any disk; I can access Disk Details fine though, and sometimes DrivePool will show the wrong serial number for newly added disks.  It shows some disks twice in the UI, doesn;t show the temperature for the newly added disks, and doesn't show that it is scanning them until after I restart the Scanner service.

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Hey Otis.  No, I am not running Scanner.  Just running DrivePool release version.  I wanted to keep my server as clean possible.  Plus I already use Spinrite twice a year for disk maintenance.  The idea of running Scanner in the background continually thrashing my hdd's didn't sound like a good idea. 

 

So are you saying this Add-Disk issue is common/known problem?

 

I must say your reports of other problems are not reassuring.  Up until now, I've had ZERO problems with DP and was very happy with my purchase.  Adding drives, removing drives, relocating drives, renaming drives, etc.....  So far it's been bulletproof.  Now I'm a bit worried.  It sounds like DP still has teething problems I've yet to encounter.  I decided against using the built in Storage Spaces technology for the exact same fears.. plus its horrible write performance (~ 3-5mb/s).

 

Is there something SPECIFIC I need to avoid to prevent future problems?  And what FIXED THIS problem?

 

thx,

-ep

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No, I am not saying this is a common problem at all.  It is just something I have been dealing with.  I think it works great for most everyone, and I still love it even with the small quirks I have dealt with!  It has saved me from losing data on numerous occasions.  I think everyone has different software and configurations on their systems, and there are a lot of factors to consider.  You should probably check out the Troubleshooting page and submit a case with logs attached.

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ep,

 

You said this is a clean server, right? No antivirus, disk imaging tools or the like? 

 

If so, this is VERY odd.

 

If this happens again (I hope not though), get a memory dump of the DrivePool.Service.exe process and submit it to us.

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Dashboard_Freeze

 

In the meanwhile, could you submit the Error Reports (if there are any), so we can see if there were any reported issues?

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Error_Reports

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drasha,

Yes a clean server except for SQL Server & Visual Studio Team Foundation running in VMs.  I've since done a bare metal restore and recreated my DP just incase I screwed something up with all the drive letter/partition renaming.  The sever seems to operating just fine.  I think I'll leave it alone from now on.  Thx.

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