Win Server essentials filter managment error, then drive missing from the pool...

[EBD]

Hi everyone... started getting these errors on my server filter management failed to attach to volume\device\harddisk volume 21... then one of my drives went missing from the pool...  or at least I think it was in that order... is there a way to tell when a drive goes missing... can I tell what day?.. I'd like to know if the drive died and that caused the error... or if it has something to do with stablebit...

Thanks for any advise you can offer,

EBD

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well, StableBit DrivePool does keep text logs that may indicate when the drive went missing.

It's in "C:\ProgramData\StableBit DrivePool\Service\Logs\Service".

However, these longs are rather verbose and can contain a lot of information, making it harder to go through.

 

 

Additionally, if you check the "System" section of the Event Viewer ("eventvwr.msc"), find any "disk" or "controller" issues, and that should indicate when it occurred.

 

 

Also, StableBit DrivePool should never cause issues with the drive. Other than normal "access" issues, as it does use the drives. 

However, it can trigger heavy loads on the disks, which can crash some controllers (such as any controller from Silicon Image, eg Sil3132). 

 

 

Also, does rebooting bring the disk back?

[EBD]

Christopher,

Thank you for your reply...sorry to say that a reboot does not restore the drive... also I did remove the drive from the pool... I will check on the controller in use on the server... will this mean that stablebit is usable with this type of controller?...  my other problem is that because the client did not want to spend the extra money on the server build.. the missing drive/partition is on the system disk...I was thinking of adding another drive and letting stabebit rebuild the pool from there... it doesn't appear to physical problem with the drive as I would think the whole drive would have gone belly up... Sorry about the rambling thoughts...

Thanks Again for your help,

Gene

[Christopher (Drashna)]

As for the controller: no, it should be usable. However, any drive you have on the controller may have issues, be it in a pool or otherwise.

So you know which controllers are in the system?

 

Also, if you can get us the logs from the system (both the Windows Server logs and the event viewer logs), we can take a closer look at exactly what is going on here.

[EBD]

Chris, I wont be back to the server site until later this week... I will check on the controller and get the logs at that time... should I also disable shadow copies on the drives in the pool as a rule?... I have 2 other servers running Drivepool with no problems...is there a work around for the controller issue?...And one other question if I may... can I take a server with 2 mirrored drives and convert them to Drivepool?

Again Thanks for your help,
Gene

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well, Shadow copies won't work on the pool. So it shouldn't make a difference. But if it lets you disable it on the pool drive, then that is fine.

As for the drives in the pool, honestly, it shouldn't matter. If you want to, go ahead.

 

 

As for the controller issue... if that is indeed the problem, then it depends. 

 

 

As for the mirrored drives, that ... well also depends on how they're mirrored.

Both on how they're mirrored and if you're using a card, the firmware on that card.

 

If you're using dynamic disks, we don't support those.  You'd want to remove one of the disks from that array, convert it to a basic disk, add it to the pool, and then copy the contents over. Once that's done, convert the other disk to a basic disk and add it to the pool as well.

If you're using a RAID card, it depends on the card. Some will let you break the array, and access both disks normally. Some will not. 

If it does let you access the disk normally, then format one disk, and then add the other (with data still on it to the pool). Then add the newly formatted drive to the pool. Then you can use the "seeding" guide to quickly add the data to the pool.

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489

[EBD]

Chris,

Sorry for the delay I've been sick the last few days.. The controller in question is a Intel 8 series /C220 Series SATA AHCI Controller 8C02....  I've been checking the windows and server logs... it appears that the drive was somehow added to the server backup and as a result  removed from the pool... not sure how this could happen without human intervention... I suspect one of the admins on site... I removed the drive from the backup and added it to the pool and will check on it today.

Thanks Again,

Gene 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well, ... that would do it.

In theory, it shouldn't happen spontaneous. But if it was added to server backup... if it was dedicated to backups, it would have formatted the drive, removing the DrivePool folder structure, and making it appear as missing. That sounds like EXACTLY what happened here. :-(