I'm new to RPI and OMV so I'm testing out how reliable is the RAID 1 mirroring function. I have two 750 GB drives and I was able to set it up as a RAID 1 mirror for SMB/CIFS share fine. I thought to remove the RAID 1 disk and delete the share folder in the File Systems. Basically, I wanted to revert back to two drives operation and no longer want a RAID. Afterwards, I expect to see two physical drives, but I only see one?! I was getting really strange results, OMV seem to see only one physical drive no matter which one is powered on. Here are some testing results:
Let's call these drives A & B.
- If I power down A drive, OMV sees the powered B physical drive. Same serial #.
- If I power down B drive, OMV sees the powered A physical drive. Same serial #
- If I power down both drives, OMV does not see both physical drive. This is the correct behavior.
- If I power both A & B on, OMV sees only ONE physical drive. Same serial #.
It seem after setting RAID 1 OMV is latching on one drive and one serial #. Even though I have deleted the RAID 1 and its share file folder, it seem to remember only one drive.
As a different test, I remove 750GB drives A & B entirely. I then try a 100 GB drive, OMV sees it. If I put in a second USB 250 GB drive, OMV sees it but now that 100 GB drive is missing (even though it's powered on).
Basically OMV after RAID 1 is setup, it latches to one 'physical' drive and one serial number. I can have two USB docking stations and insert different size of drives, it does not matter, OMV sees the last one powered on. It will report different drive GB size. It does not matter what size of drives I connect to the USB ports, OMV sees only one physical drive with one serial #. That serial number does not change no matter what. The biggest problem is that OMV is no longer usable. If I try to add new file system and try to mount, OMV kept gave me errors. Its internal disk table structure seem completely confused.
The only way I know how to make OMV to see two physical USB drives again is basically re-image OMV start from ground up. This is obviously not a desired operation.