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Have Scenario - Need Help


Sonicmojo

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I awoke today to a weird beeping sound coming from one of my servers. Also heard a disk thrashing away in the case so I immediately remoted into the box and checked Drivepool. Sure enough - a disk is reported missing. Disk Management confirms some is up as well. 

This server has 3x2TB using Drivepool. I have identified the disk with the problem and judging by the sound the disk it's making - it's not long for this world so I have to move fast.

I have new disk on hand but want to make sure I deal with the data in the most efficient manner and hopefully get it back.

First thing I did was power down the server. My plan is to remove the troubled drive and plug it into my workstation and see if I can at least work with it and hopefully copy data off it.

Assuming I can get the data off - what are the steps to get this data back into the pool AND reduce the pool to just 2x2TB? If I can do that successfully - I want to move all data off the two remaining drives, delete the pool, ditch these old drives and start a new pool with the new 2x2TB disc.

But I want to proceed carefully and not compromise any data if possible. I know that Drivepool has locked the pool as soon as it see the disc missing

What are my next steps to handle this properly and hopefully be up and running with new disc?

Sonic.

 

 

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I assume you have no duplication. I would, provided I have enough ports:

  1. Physically remove the faulty HDD (you have done this already)
  2. Remove it through the DP UI -> This should stop DP complaining about a missing disk and unlock the Pool.
  3. Add the two new HDD to the Pool
  4. Remove the two old HDDs from the Pool through the UI -> This will move all files to the new HDDs
  5. Remove the two old HDDs physically from the Server
  6. Then see what you can recover from the faulty HDD and copy that back to the Pool.

I would consider to keep the two performing old HDDs in the Pool and use x2 duplication.

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3 hours ago, Umfriend said:

I assume you have no duplication. I would, provided I have enough ports:

  1. Physically remove the faulty HDD (you have done this already)
  2. Remove it through the DP UI -> This should stop DP complaining about a missing disk and unlock the Pool.
  3. Add the two new HDD to the Pool
  4. Remove the two old HDDs from the Pool through the UI -> This will move all files to the new HDDs
  5. Remove the two old HDDs physically from the Server
  6. Then see what you can recover from the faulty HDD and copy that back to the Pool.

I would consider to keep the two performing old HDDs in the Pool and use x2 duplication.

Update: 

I pulled the faulty drive and I believe it is completely screwed. I messed with everything I could think last night including opening the drive case - the heads are in the "park" position and while the drive will power up and the platters spin - the heads simply rock back and forth to the disc edge exactly 11 times (beeping each time) and then the drive powers down.

I do not think there is anything else I can do outside of sending it to the pros - but given what is on this server - that is not really cost effective.

Next question - given the locked pool state - is there anyway to get a file listing of what is on this missing drive - before I start adding new discs etc? 

It would be ideal to know what I am chasing here before I get too far into it. The pool on this server was primarily just housing WSUS, WDS and a few other minor things that I should be able to repopulate without too much trouble.

Cheers!

Sonic.

 

 

 

 

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Update - I was able to get the new drives in place and DP did exactly as described - it moved everything over to the new drives without a hitch.

I pulled all the old drives and will move forward with the two new 2TB. Duplicates are now turned on for everything. Taking no chances.

However - we really need the ability to at least create a text file or something of the files on each drive. I never really gave it much thought until this situation happened - but a guy is truly flailing in the dark here without any ability to see what's on each drive.

I know I lost some files and have replaced most everything that I believe was there - but it would be nice to have some basic ability to create a file list.

Would also like to shout out that Scanner did not recognize or alert me to anything regarding my drive failure either. While I was not expecting a 24 hour countdown to the death of a drive - I was hoping Scanner would at least tell me that a drive that was there a minute ago - is now not there. I believe I have everything set that I can for alerts?

What am I missing or does Scanner not offer this most basic of alerts?

Sonic.

 

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I think that if a HDD suffers a sudden death then there is no way Scanner could have warned you beforehand and if it simply went missing then it should be DP giving notice, not Scanner (as Scanner reports on issues with HDDs it does see). It sounds like a sudden mechanical failure to me but I wouldn't really know.

You can create filelists, sort of, with the dmpcmd thing

but it may be cumbersome for your purpose. An alternative might be

And then there is the option of having actual backups.

 

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