Forgot to ask previously. This system is attached to a UPS isn't it? -- Stan On 7/2/2013 2:44 PM, Stan Hoeppner wrote: > On 7/2/2013 10:48 AM, Barrett Lewis wrote: >> After sending the last email I went out and bought 2 new WD reds, and >> a new motherboard. I came back and in those 2 hours all but 1 of my >> drives failed to the point of being unable to read the superblock so >> it really seems like my array is ended > > The drive may be ok. They all may be. > >> On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 8:57 PM, Stan Hoeppner <stan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>>> I noticed one drive was going up and down and determined that >>>> the drive had actual physical damage to the power connecter and >>>> was losing and regaining power through vibration. >>> >>> This intermittent contact could have damaged the PSU. You've continued >>> to have drive and lockup problems since replacing this drive with bad >>> connector. >> >> I hadn't thought of it until you said so but I bet you are right about >> the iffy connector. It certainly seemed as if I never had an issue >> with the array for 8 months, and then suddenly everything got unstable >> at once, and since then I've lost atleast 6 hard drives. > > Your drives may not be toast. Don't toss them out, and don't throw up > your hands yet. > >>> The pink elephant in the room is thermal failure due to insufficient >>> airflow. The symptoms you describe sound like drives overheating. What >>> chassis is this? Make/model please. If you've installed individual >>> drive hot swap cages, etc, it would be helpful if you snapped a photo or >>> two and made those available. >> >> It is also possible that there were cooling issues. The case is an >> NZXT H2. It has some fans blowing directly on all the hard drives, >> but there were a few times I have to admit I took the fans off to work >> on things and forgot to put them back on for a few days, coming back >> to find them very hot to the touch. I would have mentioned that >> earlier, but a data recovery place told me that it was unlikely that >> would be a culprit (after they had my money). > > I checked out the chassis on the NZXT site. With the front fans > removed, you have only 2x120mm low rpm, low static pressure, and low CFM > exhaust fans, one on in the PSU, one top rear. With 8 drives packed in > such close proximity and with other lower resistance intake paths (the > perforated chassis bottom), you won't get enough air through the front > drive cage to cool those drives properly over a long period. > > However, running with the two front fans removed for a couple of days on > an occasion or two shouldn't have overheated the drives to the point of > permanent damage, assuming ambient air temp was ~75F or lower, and > assuming you were not performing long array operations such as rebuilds > or reshapes--if you did so the drives could get hot enough, long enough, > to be permanently damaged. > >> Maybe thats all academic at this point. I guess i'll have to rebuild >> my server from scratch since all my disks seem destroyed and I can't >> trust the mobo, cpu, or psu. > > Don't start over. Not just yet. Leave everything as is for now. > Simply replace the PSU. Fire it up and see what you can recover. > >> The psu wasn't dirt cheap, Thermaltake TR2 500w @ $58. > > The price isn't relevant. The quality and rail configuration is, and > whether it's been damaged. I checked the spec on your TR2-500 > yesterday. It has dual +12V rails, one rated at 18A and one at 17A. I > was unable to locate a wiring diagram for it. On paper it should have > plenty of juice for your gear when in working order. My assumption here > is that something internal to it may have failed. > >> Should I buy all new >> everything? > > I wouldn't. Most of your gear is probably fine. Get the PSU swapped > out and see if that fixes it. You may still have to wipe the drives and > build a new array. You should know pretty quickly if the PSU swap fixed > the problem, as drives will not continue to drop, or they will. You > already have a new mobo in hand, so if the PSU isn't the problem, swap > the mobo. That's a good chassis design with good airflow assuming you > keep the front fans in it. Why you'd leave them removed is beyond me. > >> If so, while I'm at can you suggest a set of consumer >> level hardware ideal running a personal mdadm server. Powered but not >> overpowered, reliable not bleeding edge. If I need 6-8 sata ports, >> should I do onboard or get a controller? > > A new HBA shouldn't be necessary. But if you choose to go that route > further down the road I'd recommend an LSI 9211-8i. > >> I still have one backup allthough I'm very nervous now since it's on a >> 3 disk RAID0, just asking to implode (created in an emergency). > > I assume this resides on a different machine. > > Swap the PSU. Recover the array if possible. If not blow it away and > create new. If no drives drop out you're probably golden and the PSU > fixed the problem. If they drop, swap in the new mobo. At that point > you'll have replaced everything that could be the source of the problem > but for the remaining original drives. They can't all be bad, if any. > Always run with those front fans installed. > -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
