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Could not remove drive, had to do it manually


xliv

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So I had the first issue with DrivePool.

I noticed this morning that one of my HDD had a SMART status of 53% using HardDisk Sentinel (Stablebit Scanner did not detect it since it's connected through a SAS controller, and as I understand, Scanner cannot get SMART data through SMART).

So I did what I thought was recommended: remove drive from pool

Attempt 1:

I started the process, ticking all 3 options because I urgently needed it to complete without blocking on first error (btw should be default I guess?). It started, but somehow after few minutes I decided to empty the recycle bin, to make sure that deleted files were not moved over. The process was interrupted with an error. The pool start re-measuring. I rebooted. I don't know if the interruption was caused by the fact I emptied the recycle bin.

Attempt 2:

The drive was now showing 52% in HD Sentinel. I launched the process again. But, as it started and got to 1.5% after 10-15mn, I opened HD Sentinel and clicked on "Repeat Test". The process was again interrupted with an error, The pool started re-measuring again, but suddenly indicated that the drive was missing. No idea if SMART status test did interrupt the process.

Attempt 3:

The drive was now showing 48% in HD Sentinel. I was then determined to run the process without any other interaction. I clicked again on remove, but after 30mn, the status was showing 0.0%, and "Write to pool" was at 0MB/s. I interrupted, rebooted.

Attempt 4:

I decided to do it manually, I don't trust the process anymore. So I did the reverse of the seeding guide: closed DrivePool interface, stopped the service (stopped Scanner as well), went to the failing drive and to its PoolPart folder. I'm now moving files out of the pool, it works so far at a speed of 100MB/s. Status shows 43%, so I hope that I'll be able to move files out before the disk burns.

I'll then disconnect the drive, reboot and indicate to DrivePool that the disk is gone. Moving files back to the Pool will be kind of painful, as I'll have to merge directory structure.

So I guess

  • Is what I faced normal? Is there a recommendation when doing a "remove drive" (shut down all other servies, shut down access to the pool?)
  • Any reason why on my third attempt the process did not even start?
  • Why is SAS not supported? It really means that the Scanner piece is pretty useless for me. I guess we're a lot using SAS extender cards, this is pretty key to make of Scanner a good alternative to other more specialised (but not integrated to DrivePool) solutions.

 

 

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Moving files back to the Pool will be kind of painful, as I'll have to merge directory structure.

I am assuming you are copying everything from the failing drive. Merging the structure is easy. From the (copy of) the Poolpart.* folder, copy the contents to the Pool and it should work out fine. e.g., if you have a folder in the Pool, say, P:\SomeData, you may have on the backup/copy drive (let's say that drive is Y:) a folder like Y:\PoolPart.*\SomeData. You can simply select everything in Y:\PoolPart.*\ (and I mean "in", do not select the PoolPart folder itself, just the contents) and copy tp P:\.

Removing drives typically does well, except possibly for locked files or unduplicated files that are corrupted. Personally, if a HDD is starting to show serious wear _and_ you have no duplication _and_ at the first attempt it does not run smoothly then I would:
1. Stop the DP service (to ensure no file replacement due to a possible rebalancing occurs);
2. Copy the data from the failing drive to another drive;
3. Physically remove the failing HDD
4. Start DP
5. Copy from another drive to the Pool.

I have an IBM 1015 SAS controller in IT mode and Scanner reads SMART fine. But I did have to select a setting (something like Unsafe) in the Advanced Settings. Funnily enoughm that option is not active right now and it still reads my SAS connected HDDs. Not sure how that came about. But there are threads here that discuss this.

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