Disk has errors but pool is not degraded.

[rs225]

The problem with UI is that it doesn't jolt the user. If you want attention, you take them out of the flow. One way to do this is (which I have suggested before) is to make them type into a text box. Something mildly insulting is nice. People will think twice before doing something that they know is going to make them look stupid if they do it. "Of course I just made a full backup" "Yes, this is a bad idea"

If you backup to a USB device, it is always a good idea to verify the data after it is written. An error to a zfs send stream that is recorded to a file would be very bad, as I think it makes the stream invalid. If you zfs receive it into the USB device, at least you can scrub to verify, and if you don't, at least you only lose a little data.

 

[Redcoat]

I don't know either - but from the fact that I see this lament so often I conclude that the Volume Manager page's words just aren't clear enough, perhaps particularly so when someone is stressed over the failure of a disk.

Maybe add some more red words to the top of the page, say: "Do not use this function to replace a failed disk! Click here to go the the Volume Status page and select the "Offline" disk to Replace."?

 

[danb35]

The problem with UI is that it doesn't jolt the user. If you want attention, you take them out of the flow.

I get that, but the current process should jolt the user. The user simply can't add that disk from the normal volume manager screen. He has to go into a completely different screen (the "manual setup" page), and there he can kill his pool. He can't simply click through the warning. But even so, it keeps happening.

 

[Stux]

but I'm honestly mystified how people continue to blow through this warning screen

I think the warning actually needs to state "WARNING: ", not just be red text.

 

[Stux]

He can't simply click through the warning

It's not a warning, it's just telling the user what they're trying to do, in red text, which they say "yes, that's right! Now let me do it"

 

[danb35]

yes, that's right! Now let me do it

They may be saying that, but they obviously aren't reading the message before they're doing so. And really, shouldn't bold red print (at least to someone who isn't colorblind) be enough to point out that "hey, there's probably a problem here"? That's pretty much automatically a warning, even if it doesn't contain the word "warning."

I'm kind of conflicted, really. It's hard to have a lot of sympathy for someone who won't take advantage of the extensive documentation already provided (heck, it's even a section heading; it isn't like you have to go digging for this), and who will work to actively circumvent (without understanding) a message telling him that what he's trying to do almost certainly isn't what he wants to do. But I'd like to better understand the thought process that sees that screen, and decides the thing to do is click on Manual Setup to add the disk. Because the only one I can come up with is "there's some red words here, I don't know or care what they mean, but they're stopping me from doing this, so let me find another way without so much as glancing at the manual."

 

[rs225]

He has to go into a completely different screen (the "manual setup" page), and there he can kill his pool.

Then call it the "Pool Self-Destruct" page. Manual setup is something smart people do.

 

[Stux]

That's pretty much automatically a warning, even if it doesn't contain the word "warning."

To you, and me, yes, but to others perhaps they're reading it as "this dialog can't do that, best try the manual option"

 

[Inxsible]

I feel that would be way too much hand holding.

I come from Archlinux where we expect users to have the basic understanding of their system. We have a reputation as being very unwelcoming on the Arch forums. But it's not that we are unwelcoming, we just expect users to know their systems so that they can solve issues that WILL arise in the future.

If you don't have the basic understanding or the willingness to find out, maybe the OS (Archlinux or otherwise) is not for you and we politely let the user know that.

Plus as far as FreeNAS is concerned, it should be fine to fnck up once in a while. Isn't that why we keep stressing on having multiple backups?