smart-ing a volume

[Chris Stankevitz]

Please correct any false statements:

1. my drives have a prefix of "da" (e.g. da0, da1, da2...)

2. I have two volumes A and B. A has 11 drives, B has 1 drive

3. The "da" names associated to each drive are not predictable. Sometimes the volume B drive is da3 and sometimes it is da12.

4. Sometimes I have the volume B disk in the computer and sometimes I don't.

5. I cannot create a SMART task to scan the disks of volume A because I do not know what will be the "da" names of the disks that make up volume A.

Thank you,

Chris

 

[cyberjock]

Yep. Problem is solved by not pulling disks out regularly. You really shouldn't be doing this as that little SATA port on your hard drive is only rated to be "used" like 200 times. So you can quickly exceed the engineering design by pulling it regularly. You should keep it installed in the server permanently if you are wanting to use it in the server.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

5. I cannot create a SMART task to scan the disks of volume A because I do not know what will be the "da" names of the disks that make up volume A.

FALSE. Although the GUI displays the da names when you're setting up the tasks, internally FreeNAS uses IDs that are unique to each disk.
COROLLARY. If you replace a disk, you have to revisit your SMART test settings to add the new disk. Otherwise, only the disks you didn't replace remain in the list to be tested. I think this is how some people who thought they had all their SMART tests taken care of end up with unexpected disk failures.

 

[Chris Stankevitz]

FALSE. Although the GUI displays the da names when you're setting up the tasks, internally FreeNAS uses IDs that are unique to each disk.

Robert,

Thank you for your reply. This is indeed good news. My /etc/local/smartd.conf shows the 'da' names. Does this contradict your understanding?

Thank you,

Chris

Code:

[root@milli] ~# cat /etc/local/smartd.conf
################################################
# smartd.conf generated by /etc/ix.rc.d/ix-smartd
################################################
/dev/da0 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da0 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da1 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da1 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da2 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da2 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da3 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da3 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da4 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da4 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da5 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da5 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da6 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da6 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da7 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da7 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da8 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da8 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da10 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da10 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
/dev/da11 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(02)
/dev/da11 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -s L/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/(24)/(1|2|3|4|5|6|7)/(03)
[root@milli] ~#

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Does this contradict your understanding?

Yes, it does :(

Which makes me wonder what the heck is going on when a replaced disk drops out of the SMART tests.

 

[titan_rw]

If you do any customizations to the smart fields on a per disk basis, this needs to be done to disks that you add.

When I replace disks in either of my freenas's I always go into the disk section to see if there's any that are showing up 'new'. Also a good idea to double check your scheduled smart tests to see if the disk selection needs to be tweaked.

If you're constantly changing the disks that is connected to freenas and you don't want to do the above steps each time, then I guess you'll have to live with the defaults.

The file /etc/local/smartd.conf is generated at boot, so I assume /dev/[a]daX mappings are taken care of at that time.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

OK, now I'm thinking /etc/local/smartd.conf has nothing to do with the FreeNAS SMART Tests Tasks, it's just about checking the SMART data, i.e. SMART Service settings. So I think I was right before, the SMART Tests Tasks use unique IDs internally and will persist when a disk's device attachment changes, but not when a disk is replaced.

 

[rogerh]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but is so apposite. I have replaced all four data disks and SMART tests are no longer happening. If I delete my SMART tests and rewrite them, will this pick up the new disks, or do I have to delete the tasks and reboot to reset the IDs indicated by the 'adax' names in the SMART test task GUI?

Many thanks to anyone who can help.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I have replaced all four data disks and SMART tests are no longer happening.

Every time you replace a disk, you have to select the new disk in each SMART test task. FreeNAS remembers disks by ID but lists them by device name, which is less than intuitive.

 

[rogerh]

Every time you replace a disk, you have to select the new disk in each SMART test task. FreeNAS remembers disks by ID but lists them by device name, which is less than intuitive.

Thanks! Just select them with the mouse and save? I'll see if that works!

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Yes, and you can click & drag to select more than one.

 

[rogerh]

Yes, and you can click & drag to select more than one.

I thought that was what I had done. How soon should tasks set for every 6 days happen, immediately or in 6 days time? If nothing happens soon I'll set them for the next day and see what occurs.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

How soon should tasks set for every 6 days happen

I have mine set for specific days each month, so make sure they don't clash with each other or with scrubs.