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RN214 Potential errors and solutions

Alexjccim
Apprentice

RN214 Potential errors and solutions

Hello There,

My RN214 has two 6TB & two 4TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration.  I was told the 2 6TB drives were bad.  I backed everything up and re-formatted both drives and ran Disk Test on them.  The test showed them healthy.  I did a factory reset, formatted all 4 drives and  started from scratch.  I have my apps and data loaded up and everything's working well.  At RAID 5, my data usage is at 6.29TB with 4.62 TB free space.

 

The Disk Status reads:

Disk 1x1 - ATA Error:36 (6TB)

Disk 2x1 - ATA Error: 57 (6TB)

Disk 3x1 - ATA Error: 8 (4 TB)

Disk 4x1 - ATA Error: 0 (4TB)

 

These are my questions:

1) Should I be concerned about my drives?

2) Are the ATA errors sign that I need to replace them?

3) What are acceptable ATA errors levels?

4) Why isn't the ReadyNAS Disk Test telling me something is wrong?

5) Can I hot swamp the bad drives with new ones?

 

I appreciate your help.

 

-Alex

 

 

 

 

Model: RN21400|ReadyNAS 214 Series 4- Bay (Diskless)
Message 1 of 6

Accepted Solutions
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN214 Potential errors and solutions

Thanks for posting the disk info.  This is why your helper said the disks needed replacing:

 

Device:             sdb
  ATA Error Count:                36
  Reallocated Sectors:            193
  Reallocation Events:            193

Device:             sdc
Health Data:
  ATA Error Count:                57
  Reallocated Sectors:            176
  Reallocation Events:            176

FWIW, I agree with that.  I replace disks before the reallocated+pending sector counts reaches 50.  Though different folks have different ideas on how many reallocated sectors are ok.

 


@Alexjccim wrote:


  • What error count level should I be looking for?

I was thinking looking for any increase in the ATA counts.  Though as noted above, I'd replace the 6 TB Ironwolfs, because of the reallocated sectors.  Then keep an eye on the 4 TB drive that also has some ATAs.  Those might be side effects of disk errors on the main drives.

 


@Alexjccim wrote:

How hard is it for me to buy a new one and hot swap them?

It's not difficult to do the swap.  You just remove one of the disks with the NAS running, mount the new one into the tray, and reinsert it.  Then check to see that the resync has begun.  You'd want for the resync to fully complete before swapping the second one.

 

One caution - your data isn't protected by RAID redundancy during the process.  And since you have two disks with bad sectors, the resync might fail (due to errors on the second disk).  So it is particularly important for you to have a backup of your data before you do the swap. 

 

Generally speaking, RAID redundancy isn't enough to keep your data safe even when the disks are healthy.  So you should begin by putting a backup plan in place.  Using USB drives for backup is one approach (usually the least expensive).

 

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Message 4 of 6

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StephenB
Guru

Re: RN214 Potential errors and solutions

Have you looked at the disk SMART stats?  Download the full zip file, and look in disk_info.log

 


@Alexjccim wrote:

 

These are my questions:

1) Should I be concerned about my drives?

2) Are the ATA errors a sign that I need to replace them?

 


You are seeing errors, so there is some reason for concern.  I did have a drive that was causing problems, even though the only error stat was ATA errors.

 


@Alexjccim wrote:

 

3) What are acceptable ATA errors levels?

 


It's hard to say.  I suggest watching it for now, and see if the error counts increase.

 


@Alexjccim wrote:

I was told the 2 6TB drives were bad. 

 


Did they tell you why? 

 

What model drives do you have (both the 4 TB and the 6 TB ones)?

Message 2 of 6
Alexjccim
Apprentice

Re: RN214 Potential errors and solutions


Stephen,

I appreciate your help.  In response:

@StephenB wrote:

Have you looked at the disk SMART stats?  Download the full zip file, and look in disk_info.log

  • Attached

You are seeing errors, so there is some reason for concern.  I did have a drive that was causing problems, even though the only error stat was ATA errors.

  • Do I need to replace now?

It's hard to say.  I suggest watching it for now, and see if the error counts increase.

  • What error count level should I be looking for?

Did they tell you why? 

  • No.  They just said it was bad, I needed to replace them.  They stopped helping after that .

What model drives do you have (both the 4 TB and the 6 TB ones)?

  • Seagate 6TB Ironwolf NAS SATA 6GB/s NCQ 128MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare/OEM Hard Drive (ST6000VN0041) (2)
  • Seagate 4TB IronWolf NAS SATA 6Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive (ST4000VN008) (2)

How hard is it for me to buy a new one and hot swap them?

 

Thanks,

-Alex


 

Message 3 of 6
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN214 Potential errors and solutions

Thanks for posting the disk info.  This is why your helper said the disks needed replacing:

 

Device:             sdb
  ATA Error Count:                36
  Reallocated Sectors:            193
  Reallocation Events:            193

Device:             sdc
Health Data:
  ATA Error Count:                57
  Reallocated Sectors:            176
  Reallocation Events:            176

FWIW, I agree with that.  I replace disks before the reallocated+pending sector counts reaches 50.  Though different folks have different ideas on how many reallocated sectors are ok.

 


@Alexjccim wrote:


  • What error count level should I be looking for?

I was thinking looking for any increase in the ATA counts.  Though as noted above, I'd replace the 6 TB Ironwolfs, because of the reallocated sectors.  Then keep an eye on the 4 TB drive that also has some ATAs.  Those might be side effects of disk errors on the main drives.

 


@Alexjccim wrote:

How hard is it for me to buy a new one and hot swap them?

It's not difficult to do the swap.  You just remove one of the disks with the NAS running, mount the new one into the tray, and reinsert it.  Then check to see that the resync has begun.  You'd want for the resync to fully complete before swapping the second one.

 

One caution - your data isn't protected by RAID redundancy during the process.  And since you have two disks with bad sectors, the resync might fail (due to errors on the second disk).  So it is particularly important for you to have a backup of your data before you do the swap. 

 

Generally speaking, RAID redundancy isn't enough to keep your data safe even when the disks are healthy.  So you should begin by putting a backup plan in place.  Using USB drives for backup is one approach (usually the least expensive).

 

Message 4 of 6
Alexjccim
Apprentice

Re: RN214 Potential errors and solutions

Stephen,

Once again, your advice is sage and your explanations are thorough. I will start the hot swaps immediately. Now you see why I was so concerned about the integrity of my USB data when setting up Rsync in the other post.

Thank you,
-Alex
Message 5 of 6
Alexjccim
Apprentice

Re: RN214 Potential errors and solutions

Stephen,

I want to report that the hot swaps were successful for both drives and the Rsyncs have completed.  I appreciate your support and advice.

-Alex 

Message 6 of 6
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