RAID 5 - Think I messed up...

[3s-gtech]

I don't think there's any value in backing them up separately. The backup would need to be of the array as it is. As separate disks, the parity would be gone. I recommend that you back up the (broken) data that you have now, then attempt file recovery on the original array.

[jmak]

I don't think there's any value in backing them up separately. The backup would need to be of the array as it is. As separate disks, the parity would be gone. I recommend that you back up the (broken) data that you have now, then attempt file recovery on the original array.

This question is because I don't know why, not because I'm challenging your advice:

 

I would have expected to try any recovery in the backup on the basis that the less I interfered with the original, the higher the chances of someone else succeeding should I fail.

 

When you say backup, do you mean use something like robocopy to just copy exactly what's there or use Windows backup or similar?

[3s-gtech]

I’m not sure what’d be the best choice - whether a file level or disk image backup. I’d be more inclined towards an image which should contain all of the data on the RAID, including broken data.

[mavhc]

Cheap HW raid is worse than no raid half the time.

 

CPUs are fast. Do software raid, do raid 6, don't buy refurbished drives from ebay.

 

ZFS Raidz2 is what you want.

[Planehazza]

Cheap HW raid is worse than no raid half the time.

 

CPUs are fast. Do software raid, do raid 6, don't buy refurbished drives from ebay.

 

ZFS Raidz2 is what you want.

 

I had to go HW RAID due to the server mobo only supporting SATA. I would have gone SATA but I was given three brand new 4TB SAS drives...

[mavhc]

Should be able to not raid them in hw still though. Now you have x drives the BIOS sees, instead of 1.

[Planehazza]

Should be able to not raid them in hw still though. Now you have x drives the BIOS sees, instead of 1.

 

That's what I'm hoping, but not sure how to do it on the existing controller without risking writes to the drives...

[mavhc]

unplug the drives, delete the raid, set it to just passthrough the disks as default, check with a random spare disk, then plug disks back in

[Planehazza]

unplug the drives, delete the raid, set it to just passthrough the disks as default, check with a random spare disk, then plug disks back in

 

Hi, I cannot see any obvious way of doing this on the P410 RAID controller. There is an option to create indivudial RAID 0 arrays for each physical disk, however I'm concerned that that will wipe the disks. Any ideas?

[mavhc]

You want to put it in HBA mode, do it when the drives aren't connected. But that wasn't a suggestion on how to save your data, more how to avoid it breaking next time.

 

Is it a P410 or a P410i? P410i https://github.com/im-0/hpsahba

 

In general get a LSI card/clone, and don't bother with HP servers.

[Planehazza]

You want to put it in HBA mode, do it when the drives aren't connected. But that wasn't a suggestion on how to save your data, more how to avoid it breaking next time.

 

Is it a P410 or a P410i? P410i https://github.com/im-0/hpsahba

 

In general get a LSI card/clone, and don't bother with HP servers.

 

It's a P410. I'm at the point of just giving up to be honest. I'm still gutted that the data is gone, but I don't know if I can be bothered with the hassle/stress of going through all the steps to find that the data is still unrecoverable. Tempted to just ditch the server entirely and go to a 2TB SSD and rely on cloud backups.

 

I've just booted it up again and it's saying the array needs to recover; this is probably because I booted up to the 410's config with just one of the three drives plugged in. I wonder if it's worth just putting back the original, failed disk in, and letting it do a recovery. I fear that all the writes will just make it properly dead though.

 

Another lesson learned; don't bother using enterprise grade stuff at home, especially if I can't afford to repair/maintain it...

[mavhc]

Build your own, I've got a server with 20 drives in using ZFS, it's great. Motherboard with 10 ports, 2 8 port LSI cards, xcase case.

 

If you don't want to do that I hear that QNAP QTS Hero will do ZFS, coming soon to midrange NAS devices.

 

Low end server stuff is a bit crap really, and really out of date too, hw raid 5 is 90s tech. Half the point of RAID is the Inexpensive part, so how did SAS drives get in there?

[Planehazza]

Build your own, I've got a server with 20 drives in using ZFS, it's great. Motherboard with 10 ports, 2 8 port LSI cards, xcase case.

 

If you don't want to do that I hear that QNAP QTS Hero will do ZFS, coming soon to midrange NAS devices.

 

Low end server stuff is a bit crap really, and really out of date too, hw raid 5 is 90s tech. Half the point of RAID is the Inexpensive part, so how did SAS drives get in there?

 

They were unused and spare at work, so the boss said I could have them. Saved me spending a few hundred quid on SATA drives.

 

Would this LSI card do the trick? Trying to find ones that are IT mode is difficult when I don't understand this type of hardware that well...

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LSI-9200-8E-Logic-SAS-Controller-Card-PCIe2-SATA-6GB-2-Ports-6GB-LSI2008/283601486220?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item4207f7418c:g:L7MAAOSwcRxc4OW9&enc=AQAEAAACQBPxNw%2BVj6nta7CKEs3N0qVSYmb6JtN%2BnAEq4aoehBa%2FSKRneoA6jYIj0Q%2BNKkyqwyyhuzRxiSvJ0HHZi9IKwzc9Zybtk5OGYnyK6JxhNHTWxfLPmftVE15%2Fna0l25g77DaSFzx%2FBU0G4s2hjWjSSRAfM80GzBTfU1M2WeEmEg3dg1r%2FRXHpnN%2B2%2F0h7a8xXpP%2FCZOu1POaSUTzOP7akub7Yc4FB%2F9wnqHHv8rVx6471i9fM9jBfv19jbQYn1k20rEtv9TFG0N54O5goyMxmOkwVsOarytmCN9u4yaSRyWC8Y24NLUtP0e%2FbBMkeC5hj69d9U9KTeI1AJfN2Zar0Zub6Q1D9Ag7lILT8G8tNdvuDJxEPvR6BJGyUmu9SDc7KqZXDpH6wlWcYYYoJlEBziYtAKCMZXKoxbGUEVSYy5OY%2F6qgXB2oe%2FlsVbCJx5uUSSWZUCqeS7N%2F1e6yNluJXGBZMnclLrxp%2BzQ9eplgzS4n%2BxCcOXanvOUGMPLGo6OMESgYl5pIGqOdfdCMh6zvnuNx9MrmkRGjur9Lp9clzLwRUL8nPtJw%2B0M1d3fYaaMYadYZiVXzi1YS9%2B0iCdJzl9cMH5c8yQRvEom690u%2FFFzhmlLSFVXywF0%2B2mbpBDm9b%2F%2B1451Wu1xiKFoVsrzVFd5Xl5jDsJuhhWHYRuO9JuVsrCC%2BgcMUWSak36rre9mtasJ8TN06j%2FfAqxEoTqXBValaE6aid5OSLBekJNdNFDPcCwJy%2F95utlAqvXTtmix0Y7w%3D%3D&checksum=2836014862202f188efc36e64573a9b9a8490443286d&enc=AQAEAAACQBPxNw%2BVj6nta7CKEs3N0qVSYmb6JtN%2BnAEq4aoehBa%2FSKRneoA6jYIj0Q%2BNKkyqwyyhuzRxiSvJ0HHZi9IKwzc9Zybtk5OGYnyK6JxhNHTWxfLPmftVE15%2Fna0l25g77DaSFzx%2FBU0G4s2hjWjSSRAfM80GzBTfU1M2WeEmEg3dg1r%2FRXHpnN%2B2%2F0h7a8xXpP%2FCZOu1POaSUTzOP7akub7Yc4FB%2F9wnqHHv8rVx6471i9fM9jBfv19jbQYn1k20rEtv9TFG0N54O5goyMxmOkwVsOarytmCN9u4yaSRyWC8Y24NLUtP0e%2FbBMkeC5hj69d9U9KTeI1AJfN2Zar0Zub6Q1D9Ag7lILT8G8tNdvuDJxEPvR6BJGyUmu9SDc7KqZXDpH6wlWcYYYoJlEBziYtAKCMZXKoxbGUEVSYy5OY%2F6qgXB2oe%2FlsVbCJx5uUSSWZUCqeS7N%2F1e6yNluJXGBZMnclLrxp%2BzQ9eplgzS4n%2BxCcOXanvOUGMPLGo6OMESgYl5pIGqOdfdCMh6zvnuNx9MrmkRGjur9Lp9clzLwRUL8nPtJw%2B0M1d3fYaaMYadYZiVXzi1YS9%2B0iCdJzl9cMH5c8yQRvEom690u%2FFFzhmlLSFVXywF0%2B2mbpBDm9b%2F%2B1451Wu1xiKFoVsrzVFd5Xl5jDsJuhhWHYRuO9JuVsrCC%2BgcMUWSak36rre9mtasJ8TN06j%2FfAqxEoTqXBValaE6aid5OSLBekJNdNFDPcCwJy%2F95utlAqvXTtmix0Y7w%3D%3D&checksum=2836014862202f188efc36e64573a9b9a8490443286d

 

I really just want to take an image of the disks so I can visualise the recovery process. Once I get the data back, I don't really care about using the server again if I'm honest, or I'll at least get some SATA disks and set up RAID6 or 10 with an online backup...

Edited November 11, 2019 by Planehazza

[mavhc]

Yes, although a) that's external connector, and b) either way you'll need a special cable

 

You can reflash IT mode firmware to switch modes.

[Planehazza]

Yes, although a) that's external connector, and b) either way you'll need a special cable

 

You can reflash IT mode firmware to switch modes.

 

I think I've abandoned that idea now. I'm just going to be adding more untrusted components into the mix; whose to say the LSI card isn't fault or I do something wrong with flashing it.

 

I'm using R-Studio demo now, to capture an image over to our file store at work, from which I'll run data recovery on so I'm not bashing the disks constantly. If this doesn't work, it's just going to have to be one of the annoying, "could have easily been avoided, but I'm stupid...", gutting life lessons.

[Planehazza]

After 4 days, R-Studio finished capturing an image of the array. Another 24 hours of scanning yeilded a load of files marked as green 'good' chance of recovery. All mp4/mp3/jpg files test thus far are corrupt.

 

Apart from a few tiny 1KB albumart files, I'm looking at 100% data loss. I can't bring myself to admit it's gone, but I'm at a loss as to what else I can do now.