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Disks ejecting while in use

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(@bermie)
Posts: 7
Member
Topic starter
 

Hello,

 

A few days ago (see Sun Oct 3 about 7am in report below) I had 4 of my 6 raid 5 disks eject while copying images from a memory card in Lightroom. This was all 4 disks in a single enclosure (1 of 2 OWC TBay2). Rebooted, Softraid said needed to rebuild, during rebuild same happened, all disks in that enclosure ejected. Shutdown, unplugged & replugged all cables, startup, got "you shut down your computer because of a problem" message. Reboot a couple more times before that message goes away. Remount disks, Softraid 'rebuilds' and all seems ok.

 

I've used the array quite a lot past couple days but this morning the same happened, all 4 disks in that enclosure ejected. Though not while writing anything and didn't get a rebuild error. But it happens some time after they've mounted successfully and been in use for a time. I think they even reconnected themselves immediately after. Of course I then shut down. Nothing physically happened, no jarring of enclosures or pulling on cables.

 

Rebooting repeatedly now I was getting "you shut down your computer because of a problem" message (array not connected). I don't like that message and always reboot again when I see it. Logged into my admin account (not used before) and got that message again plus a panic report from Apple referring to the Oct 3 7am problem. I've not attached that report as I'm unsure if it includes personal information? I can send if needed. Key line looks to be:

 

Kernel Extensions in backtrace: com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID(5.8.4)[D7D1A553-AAAE-33DD-8344-

D23C859380A5]@0xffffff7f9f275000->0xffffff7f9f2b0fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily(2.0)[D0ABB996-2084-3A05-A166-

5951D925EF80]@0xffffff7f9f247000

 

I'm now hesitant to use the array. But I do really need to use it.

 

After admin login, switching back to user account, the "shut down...error" message is now finally gone. The enclosure that ejected was the 2nd in the chain (2x OWC TBay2). So I've just swapped out the thunderbolt cable connecting that to the 1st enclosure and its working for now.

 

I've attached the softraid report below. Curious if there's anything you guys can figure??

 

I'd certainly appreciate any help and suggestions.

 

NOTES:

Still using Yosemite & Softraid 5.8.4, planning to upgrade to Mojave & Softraid 6, just need a gap in projects!

You'll see a separate firewire drive with failing smart status in report. I'm well aware and replacing shortly. Thanks to Softraid I'm aware of this, nothing else on my mac told me of the 'smart' failure.

 

Thanks so much. Cheers,

 

Chris

 

 

EDIT NOTE: I re-generated the softraid report to attach here without my full name but see the version with my full name it still here and I can't delete it. Please remove before this topic is posted publicly. Thanks.

 

 

This topic was modified 2 years ago 2 times by Bermie
This topic was modified 2 years ago by SoftRAID Support
 
Posted : 06/10/2021 10:06 am
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8005
Member Admin
 

The trigger for these eject issues is a thunderbolt chipset is crashing/resetting, which instantly powers off the drives, causing the chaos.

You are correct to suspect a cable issue, it could be a faulty cable, or slightly loose connection. Sometimes just interference on the Thunderbolt bus, but since this just started, it is more likely to be the loose cable, or failing cable.

 

See if things settle down now.

 
Posted : 06/10/2021 11:24 am
(@bermie)
Posts: 7
Member
Topic starter
 

Thanks so much for the quick reply and insight!

 

So, if its the cable, great. I've replaced it already.

 

Second question now knowing its a thunderbolt chipset crashing.

Basically to summarize - is there a chipset for each of the 2 thunderbolt ports on one enclosure? Meaning, is is possible for 1 port on an enclosure to crash while the other still works?

 

Detailed reason I ask:

So it was just the 2nd enclosure in the chain (lets call it "B") that was ejecting. The first, enclosure "A" was not. However I've recently had problems with A that OWC says is likely the power supply failing (I'm ordering a replacement but live in a remote location).

It will not fire up with more than 2 disks in the enclosure (4 disk OWC TB2) and for a while would not even fire up with 2 disks. Its been a weird a finicky problem for a time and after playing around with the configuration, I managed to get it working as the 1st enclosure in the chain and powering it on before the other. Don't know if those matter, but its been stable in that sense for a bit now. I'd prefer not to rearrange for fear of reigniting that problem.

But if it could be a problem with one of the ports in A (that connects to B), while the other port in A (that connects to the computer) still works, I can reconfigure. Even sacrifice my 2nd monitor and connect each enclosure to its own TB port on the computer if needed. (I have an old apple 30" displayport dual-link monitor and not sure it would work chained off one of the enclosures).

 

Thanks for your help. Really appreciate it. Cheers,

 

Chris

 

 
Posted : 06/10/2021 12:46 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8005
Member Admin
 

@bermie

In brief how Thunderbolt works, is every contact point has a thunderbolt chip on each side. So yes, every port on an enclsure has a chipset, each end of the cables and each port on the computer.

So you could possibly have both issues a power supply and a chip problem. So it may require trial and error.

These can be hard to figure out.

Good luck!

 
Posted : 06/10/2021 1:37 pm
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