Second volume validation updates parity blocks, want to know why - Functionality Issues

RE: Second volume validation updates parity blocks, want to know why

SoftRAID Support — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 05:53:14 +0000

@wfiveash

These are "parity" blocks, so there is no data corruption. Attach a SoftRAID tech support file, so I can take a look.

RE: Second volume validation updates parity blocks, want to know why

wfiveash — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 20:57:43 +0000

Today I'm running SR validation on the same RAID 5 volume I mentioned at the top of this thread and while it hasn't finished, it is reporting it has updated 13 blocks. Note, all the drives are still the same. Above you wrote: "

I don't have an explanation for the 18 updated blocks. They could have been on a (so far) unused part of the volume.

But the documentation states once the initial validation run is done, subsequent validations should never update any blocks. Given I'm concerned about filesystem corruption, do I need to be worried about this? Does the documentation concerning volume validation need to be updated?

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RE: Second volume validation updates parity blocks, want to know why

SoftRAID Support — Mon, 05 May 2025 19:21:08 +0000

@wfiveash

I don't have an explanation for the 18 updated blocks. They could have been on a (so far) unused part of the volume.

When we run tests, we have tested for as long as 18 months (on HDDs) without seeing a single parity block needing updating, once the entire volume has been rebuilt (a full rebuild one time) and validated.

RE: Second volume validation updates parity blocks, want to know why

wfiveash — Sat, 03 May 2025 15:35:00 +0000

@wfiveash

The validate in question was your January validation. So far on this validate, zero blocks were updated. Correct?

Were there any kernel panics from January, through April? Generally, even kernel panics won't result in any parity bits out of sync, though.

If you look at the screenshot I attached to my original message you will see that when I did a second validation run around Feb 22, 2025, the previous validation run that completed was Jan 13, 2025. The Feb validation showed that 18 parity blocks were updated. Note, I recently did another validation run and no parity blocks were updated.

RE: Second volume validation updates parity blocks, want to know why

SoftRAID Support — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 21:30:20 +0000

@wfiveash

The validate in question was your January validation. So far on this validate, zero blocks were updated. Correct?

Were there any kernel panics from January, through April? Generally, even kernel panics won't result in any parity bits out of sync, though.

RE: Second volume validation updates parity blocks, want to know why

wfiveash — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:31:09 +0000

SR tech support file attached.

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RE: Second volume validation updates parity blocks, want to know why

SoftRAID Support — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:21:34 +0000

Attach a SoftRAID tech support file and I can take a look.

Second volume validation updates parity blocks, want to know why

wfiveash — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:08:24 +0000

What does it mean when validating a volume a second time indicates it has updated some RAID blocks? According to this knowledge base article, https://software.owc.com/knowledge-base/validate-certify-verify-failures/ :

"The first time you validate a volume, you will see many blocks have updated parity. This is normal.

After you validate an HDD based volume once, you should never see additional parity blocks updated. This is because SoftRAID tracks all data written to the volume and calculates parity constantly."

Note that the RAID 5 volume being validated shows no errors for any of the associated drives.

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