Jump to content
  • 0

Issue When Working With Folders


GavinCampbell

Question

I have a strange problem and don't have any clue as to where to start. 

 

I'm running the latest version of drivepool (2.1.1.561) on Windows Server 2012 Essentials R2 with 4 WD Red drives and a SSD drive for the cache.

 

When working with folders with a number of subfolders and files (via a network share or directly on the box) the folders seem to get locked and I am not able to delete them.  It's almost like the pool is very slow to catch up.  Sometimes I may reboot and they may unlock and let me delete them but sometimes I have to actually go to each drive and delete it directly from the pool parts. 

 

It only happens when I try to delete the top level folder.  If I manually go through every sub directory and delete the files before deleting the folder they are in it works.  But this is not practical.

 

To help eliminate other programs that may be interfereing I started up the server with nothing running on it just to ensure it is still happening and it is.

 

Any ideas as to where I can start troubleshooting this?  Logs? Monitoring?  Anything?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recommended Posts

  • 0

Yes file indexing needs to be on that might be the cause of the lag you have. I haven't used whs2012 r2 so not sure where the setting is to turn it on other op's you could find it by typeing index on the search bar

 

Ok, so I tried turning it on and no lock.  Working with folders is still difficult.  Moving, renaming, deleting all causes errors as if its still running behind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

You are very welcome. Hopefully, it's a simple issue and can be fixed quickly.

 

Also, just in case, could you run "fltmc" from an elevated command prompt and post the results here?

 

Here you go.

C:\Windows\system32>fltmc

Filter Name                     Num Instances    Altitude    Frame
------------------------------  -------------  ------------  -----
SiFilter                                        429998.99   <Legacy>
FsDepends                              90       407000         0
DfsDriver                               1       405000         0
DfsrRo                                  0       261100         0
luafv                                   1       135000         0
npsvctrig                               1        46000         0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

If that's the case, check the event viewer when this happens.

 

Look for "Plug and play" errors, and disk errors. Chances are, you may see a "unexpected removal" or similar when you're experiencing the issues. 

The reason for this is that the USB spec (including v3) allows for random disconnects, and this can cause issues long term. 

If you have the option, use eSATA. It's a lot more stable, and should appear as a normal drive in the system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Actually, it looks like it pointed out a rare, race condition when deleting folders with contents. 

 

Alex has taken a look at it and fixed it. Please download the newest build whenever you can:

http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.0.586_x64_BETA.exe

 

This should fix the issue. If it doesn't, let us know.

 

 

As for the eSATA and randomly going offline, that's very odd.

We've had reports of some enclosures doing that with StableBit Scanner.

But if you're were using the Silicon Images card for eSATA... that could have been why as well.

If you want, we can help track that down as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Actually, it looks like it pointed out a rare, race condition when deleting folders with contents. 

 

Alex has taken a look at it and fixed it. Please download the newest build whenever you can:

http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.0.586_x64_BETA.exe

 

This should fix the issue. If it doesn't, let us know.

 

 

As for the eSATA and randomly going offline, that's very odd.

We've had reports of some enclosures doing that with StableBit Scanner.

But if you're were using the Silicon Images card for eSATA... that could have been why as well.

If you want, we can help track that down as well.

 

Excellent.  So far it looks like it is working but I will report back in a few days once I have a chance to really try.

 

As for the eSATA issue.  I don't think its an issue with DrivePool.  It was doing this when I was testing other products as well.  I was able to troubleshoot and reduce the frequency of it going offline by disabling the link state power management.  But when the enclosure was under really heavy load (like when scanner was running) it would still drop off randomly.  I just switched over to usb3 and everything was working great so figured it was either the enclosure or the card.  I was using the silicon image card for esata.  From what I read that had issues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Excellent.  So far it looks like it is working but I will report back in a few days once I have a chance to really try.

 I'm really glad to hear that!

I've actually experienced similar issues, but when I had anitivirus and defraggers installed, so I chanlked it up to that. I haven't had a chance to test it, but either way.

 

And as I said, this was a very weird, obscure issue. But thank you for grabbing the logs!

As for the eSATA issue.  I don't think its an issue with DrivePool.  It was doing this when I was testing other products as well.  I was able to troubleshoot and reduce the frequency of it going offline by disabling the link state power management.  But when the enclosure was under really heavy load (like when scanner was running) it would still drop off randomly.  I just switched over to usb3 and everything was working great so figured it was either the enclosure or the card.  I was using the silicon image card for esata.  From what I read that had issues.

To be clear here, I mean StableBit Scanner. 

 

However, the behavior you're describing is EXACTLY the Silicon Images chipset problems what we've experienced.

If you are indeed using a card with this chipset, that is why you are experiencing the problems. 

ESPECIALLY that crashing under heavy load (or DPC WATCHDOG BSODs).

 

I've owned this card personally, have see the exact behavior you're describing. They're pretty much garbage.

If you want to replace the card, then look for "ASMedia ASM1061" chipset. These are the best consumer grade cards that we (well, mostly Alex) have found and tested.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

 I've owned this card personally, have see the exact behavior you're describing. They're pretty much garbage.

If you want to replace the card, then look for "ASMedia ASM1061" chipset. These are the best consumer grade cards that we (well, mostly Alex) have found and tested.

 

So doing a quick search for that chipset and I ended up on mediasonics page.  They actually sell a 2 port card with that chipset on it.  For 20$ I may just have to look into it and see if I can get ahold of it in Canada.  I have another external box that works off esata without USB3 that I would like to use as well but always had issues with the dropping out.  This will solve that issue as well.  Thanks.

 

On another note I've also run across another problem too.   Not related to this issue.  But wonder if you have seen it.

 

If I have have two computers with explorer open to the same share and copy a file over to that share on one computer, sometimes it takes a really long time (10's of minutes or more) for that file to show up on the other computer.  Even if I shutdown explorer and open it back up it still doesn't show.  But if I go to a 3rd computer the file is there. 

 

Its almost like the cache or something is not updating.

 

Does this sound like a drivepool thing or should I be looking at something else?

 

PS.. if you want to start another thread let me know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

You can use Marvell chipsets as well, but ASMedia is the most reliable we've seen.

 

 

 

As for the file window... I've seen that, but with Folder Redirection. But that's handled completely different.

It's cached to the disk, and then sycned to the network. So, definitely not the same.

 

However, I think somebody has reported similar to what you are describing. 

Could you ... well, you know the drill. Could you grab file system logs from when this happens.

 

Also, do you have Network IO Boost enabled?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

 

As for the file window... I've seen that, but with Folder Redirection. But that's handled completely different.

It's cached to the disk, and then sycned to the network. So, definitely not the same.

 

However, I think somebody has reported similar to what you are describing. 

Could you ... well, you know the drill. Could you grab file system logs from when this happens.

 

Also, do you have Network IO Boost enabled?

 

I do have network IO boost enabled.  I will leave it enabled for now so I can grab some logs and hopefully duplicate the issue.

 

This is a tricky one because it doesn't happen all the time, so replicating it will be hard.

 

Let me see if I can do some tests to duplicate the problem and get the logs to you.  May take me some time depending on how easy it will happen.  Of course it happened this morning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

We are in luck.  Was able to easily reproduce it.  Just creating two text files ("new text document.txt" and "new text document (2).txt") on the share ("projects") and it wouldn't show up on the other computer.  But browsing to the d: drive on the server they are there. 

 

Hopefully the logs show something.

 

Let me know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Answer this question...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...