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I'm been using a pair of new Thunderbay 4's in a RAID 1+0 for a couple of weeks. I'm getting repeated dialog box warnings of disks disappearing without warning while in use. These warnings are often followed by subsequent dialogs about drives in the volume not being connected to my Mac and something about replacing cables. The drives, enclosures and cables are all brand new.
When this happens, I unmount the volume, switch off the enclosures and switch them on again. SoftRAID does a rebuild, and everything is fine again for a few hours until it happens again.
Seems like this shouldn't be happening. Could this be a problem with one of the Thunderbays? The drives affected are in the same enclosure every time.
Any thoughts?
Posted : 15/06/2018 9:28 pm
There are two different possible problems:
Disk all eject and show up again right away. This is an Apple/intel bug. We collect data on these. (SoftRAID support files)
Disks eject (1 or 2 only) and do not appear immediately until a restart or power cycle on the enclosure.
In the latter case, check to see if the LED light is on for the missing disk(s). In that case, it may be an enclosure issue.
Posted : 15/06/2018 11:12 pm
Topic starter
There are two different possible problems:
Disk all eject and show up again right away. This is an Apple/intel bug. We collect data on these. (SoftRAID support files)
Disks eject (1 or 2 only) and do not appear immediately until a restart or power cycle on the enclosure.
In the latter case, check to see if the LED light is on for the missing disk(s). In that case, it may be an enclosure issue.
It's definitely the latter scenario – just one or two drives. I'll keep watch next time for what the LED light is doing.
So just to be clear, if the light is on for the missing drive, that indicates an enclosure issue. If the light is off for the missing drive, then it may be a drive issue. Correct?
Posted : 16/06/2018 9:24 am
If a light remains on, it is most likely an enclosure issue.
If the light is off, the disk does not show up, then more investigation is needed before saying definitively it is a disk or enclosure.
Posted : 16/06/2018 12:58 pm
Topic starter
Understood.
I'm considering switching the affected drives to the other Thunderbay and seeing what happens. Would this be worthwhile to identify potential trouble with the enclosure?
Posted : 16/06/2018 2:34 pm
You mean the other Thunderbolt connection? (port)
You can certainly try as sometimes cleaning all connections with isopropyl alcohol helps.
Apple recommends this and resetting NVRAM in cases where an OS update starts triggering this behavior.
Posted : 17/06/2018 11:46 am
Topic starter
You mean the other Thunderbolt connection? (port)
You can certainly try as sometimes cleaning all connections with isopropyl alcohol helps.
Apple recommends this and resetting NVRAM in cases where an OS update starts triggering this behavior.
I actually hadn't considered switching ports, although that's not a bad idea. I just meant trying to isolate the problem by putting the affected drives (it seems to be the same 1 or 2 each time) into my other Thunderbay (I have two in a RAID 1+0). If the problem persists in that case, then it's probably not the enclosure, right?
Posted : 17/06/2018 12:19 pm
Topic starter
I should clarify what I meant in my last post:
The problem is currently affecting drives X and Y in Enclosure A, bays 2 & 3. If I swap those drives into Enclosure B and the problem persists with drives X and Y, now in a different enclosure, then the issue is likely specific to the drives themselves because the problem is following the drives.
But if I swap drives X and Y to Enclosure B and the problem persists in the same bays of Enclosure A, now containing different drives, then the issue is more likely related to the enclosure and not the drives.
Does this make sense, or am I missing something?
Posted : 17/06/2018 12:33 pm
A simpler test is also to swap the drives in the same enclosure. Do the drop outs follow the disks, or the slots. I suspect the slots.
Its worth swapping ports/cables, whatever you can, also. Once you isolate the issue, then you know what is causing the problem.
Posted : 18/06/2018 12:13 am
Topic starter
Good idea. Thank you! I'll try that and report back after the next failure.
Posted : 18/06/2018 7:41 am
Topic starter
Ok, update: Another drive hung during use today in the same enclosure as previous instances. The light stayed ON, at least for a few minutes until I got the following dialog from SoftRAID:
"An error occurred reading the partition map on a disk. This disk hung during a read. This disk should be replaced. You may have to restart your Mac before this disk will respond again. Disk with error: disk 7, SATA bus 0, ID 7 (Thuderbolt), 6 TB" (see attachment)
The light blinked off after this message appeared. After that, as usual, I unmounted the volume, switched off the Thunderbays, restarted them and SoftRAID did a rebuild.
So is this an enclosure issue or what?
Posted : 19/06/2018 4:00 pm
Seems to be, yes.
Make sure you can report whether it was the same slot, or a different one, when you call in customer service.
Posted : 20/06/2018 12:17 am
Topic starter
Will do! Thanks for your help here.
Posted : 20/06/2018 8:23 am
