Volume No Longer Recognized after Hardware RAID Issue

[John08]

I'm running and have been running a FreeNAS server at my home since 2012. I am on vers 8.04 and recently had a hard drive issue. In the process of repairing it, I installed a new hard drive in a hardware (adaptec 2420SA PCI) into the wrong drive bay. This caused the raid array to no longer be recognized. After trying a number of things to recover the array, I finally have it back. Since it's a FreeNAS ZFS, I have no idea if it's good or totally corrupted. FreeNAS sort of recognizes it and shows it as "Error getting available space" under the the active volumes.

I have tried re importing as another volume but it says "The selected disks were not verified for this import rules."

What should I try next? or is this drive a goner?

 

[dlavigne]

Were you using hardware RAID or a RAIDZ*? What is the output of zpool status?

 

[John08]

I was and am using a hardware raid 5 via adaptec pci raid card.
zpool status returns -"Sorry, an error occurred"

 

[Darren Myers]

aww man, this is gonna be rough.... did the HW RAID rebuild at all?

 

[John08]

I don't think the Raid began a rebuild as I put in a new hard drive in the wrong bay. At that point he raid only thought it had one good drive and couldn't rebuild. this is when the array totally disappeared. My problem then was to figure out how to get the raid card t again recognize the array, which I did by establishing the original parameters and re-initializing them per the procedure from adaptec. - http://ask.adaptec.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17012/~/can-a-failed-array-be-recovered?
However, after doing this, and having the array back up and running, I really have no idea if there were any corruptions. FreeNAS wold not recognize it or import it.

The other thing I did while trying to recover the array set-up settings was to run reclaime raid recovery software on the three drives and it outputted onto a new drive, the array result, which I have no way of reading as it should be based on the FreeNAS file directory structure.

I have no open SATA port on the PC to plug the drive created by reclame into. I thought I could plug this in and see if it could be imported.

 

[cyberjock]

Ok, so you've got probs bro. I'll see if I can help you...

1. Get another boot device (USB or whatever). Install 9.3.1 on it. Once installed (no configuration necessary unless you want to setup the networking stuff). Don't try to do any zpool importing from the GUI or anything.
2. Get a debug file (system -> Advanced -> Save Debug). Attach it to this ticket.
3. Post the output of "zpool import".
4. Wait for further instructions. :)

 

[John08]

OK, this will take me a little bit as it isn't something I can fit in while I'm at work. I'll do this tonight. How do I attach to the ticket? Pardon my rookie moves.

 

[BigDave]

Here's a visual for you.

When you have saved the tgz file, just use the *Upload a File* button at the bottom of your reply window.

 

[John08]

Thanks
I see the hardware requirements for the newest version are at 8G RAM, I only have 4G, will it run?

 

[cyberjock]

EEw.. it will boot. Anything else is a big question mark.

Can you upgrade the system to 8GB of RAM? Even just temporarily?

Not having 8GB of RAM can create more problems and since we're trying to solve an already messy problem it would be ideal to have 8GB of RAM for this.

 

[John08]

The motherboard maxes out at 4

 

[INCSlayer]

what motherboard only supports 4GB of ram?

 

[Darren Myers]

what motherboard only supports 4GB of ram?

whatever he has....which has to be like 775 socket era...or AMD equivalent

 

[sfcredfox]

You guys must all be in a REALLY good mood since I'm not seeing a massacre here with missing all the hardware requirements.
I'm following along to see if any of you can help him recover this.

 

[HoneyBadger]

You guys must all be in a REALLY good mood since I'm not seeing a massacre here with missing all the hardware requirements.
I'm following along to see if any of you can help him recover this.

To be fair the OP was running 8.04 initially, so the 8GB RAM wasn't a requirement then. The RAID card though, ouch.

 

[cyberjock]

When 8.0.4 was out the minimum was 6GB of RAM with ZFS. :P

Yeah.. at this point I think you need to find better hardware before we continue trying to troubleshoot the issue. Sorry, but there comes a point where you're fighting hardware limitations while trying to solve other problems. :/

 

[John08]

First, for what it's worth, I'm not an IT professional and have limited knowledge. The system was a freebe and replaced my first FreeNAS running 0.7. which was suggested by my son as a way to re-purpose an old PC.

OK, I am running a Supermicro P8SCT MoBo (socket LGA775) with a Pentium P4 and 4 GB of Ram (max for this board). WHen I first started doing this I chatted a bit about my hardware config with FreeNAS 8 and was told it probably run OK, but more memory would be good.

As I only use it around the house for central file sharing and a central location for scans, it has served me well. In fact, If I had replaced the drive CORRECTLY, we wouldn't be discussing this. And by the way, I do appreciate all of you trying to help me recover this data.

Additionally, I have three other newer desktops in the household and none of them have a PCI-X slot that the Raid card requires. What I do have is a 160GB hard drive that has an image made from the raid array by a program called ReclaiMe RAID Recovery. I could try this drive in another PC with the regular opsys drive and storage unplugged and run 9.3.1 with the appropriate hardware. Would this be of any value, or does the drive need to be in the original system?

Also, is there any consensus on whether or not the existing system would run at all in the P4 and 4GB Ram system with the 9.3.1?

 

[John08]

SO I see and now have read that RAID cards are frowned upon, I guess after I have this taken care of I'll be buying a more appropriate system from ebay for my FreeNAS.

 

[Darren Myers]

SO I see and now have read that RAID cards are frowned upon, I guess after I have this taken care of I'll be buying a more appropriate system from ebay for my FreeNAS.

do us and yourself a favor and check with us before buying an ebay system, even some of the premade stuff isnt recommended. But we'd be happy to help and point you in the right direction, and if you have a price range we can help you further.

Also, is there any consensus on whether or not the existing system would run at all in the P4 and 4GB Ram system with the 9.3.1?

As stated with 9.3.X 8Gb RAM is minimum...16Gb would be preferred.

Additionally, I have three other newer desktops in the household and none of them have a PCI-X slot that the Raid card requires. What I do have is a 160GB hard drive that has an image made from the raid array by a program called ReclaiMe RAID Recovery. I could try this drive in another PC with the regular opsys drive and storage unplugged and run 9.3.1 with the appropriate hardware. Would this be of any value, or does the drive need to be in the original system?

I've never heard of the software, and i would hate to give you bad info...as much as id love to help

 

[John08]

Understand.

What do you think the risk is in trying the other hard drive? I should also correct myself, it's not an image file, it is supposed to be actual output from the raid array.