Really need help with a failed RAID5 Migration.

[leebaldock]

Hi,

I'm using a Thecus N5200Pro, firmware 2.04 - 5 disks - Samsung 500GB HD501LJ's

I recently attempted going from a RAID5 disks 1,2,3 with hot spare 4 to RAID5 disks 1,2,3,5 and hot spare still 4.

From the Raid page I entered "Migration" and there was only only one migration option to select: Raid5 -> Raid5 so I clicked on that. I selected the disk 5. So the result should have been 4 disks (1,2,3,5) in RAID 5 and 1 (4) disk as Spare.

It ran all night and then in the morning was complete. However it will not mount the RAID5 array.

Everytime I restart the N5200 it tries to force Assemble the "old" RAID5 array but fails.

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2008/02/08 10:51:15 N5200 : Can't mount data volume, and you can do filesystem check try to recovery your data.
2008/02/08 10:51:15 N5200 : Assemble RAID [md1] from [ /dev/sde2 ]
2008/02/08 10:51:14 N5200 : mdadm: /dev/md1 has been started with 3 drives and 1 spare.
2008/02/08 10:51:14 N5200 : Assemble RAID [md1] from [ /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2 /dev/sdc2 /dev/sdd2 ]
2008/02/08 10:51:12 N5200 : Can't mount data volume, and you can do filesystem check try to recovery your data.
2008/02/08 10:51:12 N5200 : Assemble RAID warning, try to force assemble RAID
2008/02/08 10:51:09 N5200 : mdadm: /dev/md1 has been started with 3 drives and 1 spare.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I set the 5th disk up as a JBOD so that I could install SSHD and SYSUSER.

File System Check shows the RAID5 array is still "there" (somewhere) but is not mounting.

I have screenshots but because I haven't done 5 posts yet I can't post URLs here.

I will post them ASAP

I tried running the e2fsck -b 8193 command

root@127.0.0.1:/sbin# e2fsck -b 8193 RAID5
e2fsck 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007)
e2fsck: No such file or directory while trying to open RAID5

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

root@127.0.0.1:/sbin#

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really don't want to have to start from scratch if I have to. I would rather fix this and get the learnings from this.

Is there anyone out there that can help me?

I can follow instructions and I also have setup port forwarding to the N5200 so if you want to log into it you can (via the net).



I REALLY NEED HELP.

I have a ticket with Thecus support but they are taking AGES to respond and because they are in the US and I am in Australia it's like 24 hours between emails.

I don't want to just give up and rebuild from scratch. There MUST be something else I can try. I just don't know enough about Linux/N5200 to know what.

Kind regards

Lee

[leebaldock]

Here are my screenshots...

[leebaldock]

This is all listed under Thecus Ticket ID: AJL-64363-618 but for some reason I cannot add anymore to the Ticket information. I have sent emails and replied on the support site itself.

[rhumba]

Up! Up! Up!

[unclebobuk]

Post removed. (was trying to explain about superblocks and the realised of course we're using s/w raid here, ie. /dev/md1 device so i don't belive standard ext2 fsck commands will work). You'll probably need to use specific tools like mdadm (from linux raidtools) to fix this and i don't feel qualified enough to advise in that regard.

There's plenty of stuff on the net about mdadm and raidtools (i'll let you google)..

I'll leave for someone with more experience (or Thecus support if they get around to your ticket!)..

regards,
Bob.