RAID Creation Fails Every Time With Failed to Execute Command On New Installation

  • I am trying to set up a simple mirror between 2 identical (same size and model) new 500G external hard drives. Each time I try to create the RAID I receive the following error. My linux skills are fairly limited so this error may be simpler to figure out than my interpretation. I can say that disk will not contain the boot loader since I am using a raspberry pi 3 and booting from the latest OMV 4 image.


    Any clarification, and testing steps I can take from here would be appreciated. The snap of the error is attached.


    Thanks

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    TBH that's not an error I have seen before, but a Raid on a Pi is about as reliable as chocolate teapot.


    Any USB drive connected to the Pi needs to be powered and not rely on the power from the usb ports, another option is to plug the drives into a powered usb hub, I have seen this suggested, but have no idea if it works.

  • another option is to plug the drives into a powered usb hub

    Please not if the drives attached to this hub should build a RAID array. Putting an USB hub in between is recipe for disaster and/or data corruption (and there is always one or even 2 internal USB hubs on any RPi). And the primitive mdraid-1 doesn't even allow to detect for data corruption until it's way too late.


    I asked @votdev already over a year ago whether we can simply disable all this RAID stuff if the platform is RPi since the whole try is just insane and those who try obviously misled :(

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    those who try obviously misled

    So you're implying I'm misleading the OP, because you take part of what I posted and try and turn it around so that you can add a totally unnecessary, unhelpful comment. I know the limitations of a Pi I do not need to be reminded, I have two they have specific roles.
    I have already said to the OP that doing this is about as reliable as a chocolate teapot.

  • So you're implying I'm misleading the OP

    Sorry, misunderstanding.


    It was only about why people start to even think about RAID-1. It's the most useless RAID mode of all and totally useless with such unreliable hardware like any RPi. It doesn't provide any benefits other than availability which again is a joke with unreliable hardware like those RPi.


    But it doesn't help that 'we' know that RAID is not backup and that the 'RAID-1 behind USB' kind of redundancy is just fooling yourself. Since for whatever reasons new users again and again come up with the idea of risking their data with this attempt (almost all of them favor RAID over backup).


    In my opinion we shouldn't help users loosing their data or run into data corruption issues and that means disabling all of this RAID functionality on platforms where it can not work. Since some users are immune to advise given here in the forum and will follow any silly advise they found on the Internet (that's the 'misleading' part I was referring to) just because OMV allows to do so.

  • Ok, so let's go a different route by explaining what I am attempting to accomplish. I understand from both of you that a RAID 1 on a Pi is not going to perform satisfactory and is a recipe for failure. I guess my mind sprang to a RAID 1 (Mirror) because I originally thought I was looking for a 1 off redundancy. Since I have delved into this more thoroughly I may be looking for more of a backup solution where one drive is just a normal share where I move a file from my Win10 and the second drive would contain an initial full backup and incrementals there after. This may even be too elaborate for what I really need.


    I am willing to accept any additional advice, this is the simple break down.


    I use a Win10 laptop for work. I have a raspberry pi 3b and 2 500G (western digital I believe) drives with nothing on them. All I really want is to have multiple locations of the same set of files for redundancy just incase I lose access to one of the drives due to failure or if one of the drives needs disconnected and sent to my home office quickly. Obviously, I prefer not to have to copy file manually everywhere. In my mind I see 2 different workflows which would be reasonable. 1) Any file I deem important for my situation could be copied to the first drive on the Pi and then an automation to perform its sync/backup/copy to the second drive. 2) I maintain a folder or set of folders where the master files are located on my win10 computer and use some sort of windows backup/sync/copy to send to both of the drives connected to the pi.


    Opinions and solutions from either of you would be appreciated.


    J

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    @votdev & @tkaiser


    TBH I know the limitations of the Pi, the real problem is that most users do not, it's available in the market place and there are number of distros that run on the Pi, but OMV is the most attractive.


    What we should be doing is helping them understand those limitations otherwise this is going to appear again and again. I have been in process of trying to put something together explaining this and include links to parts of the forum where they can get guidance such as @TechnoDadLife videos.


    Then if a user came up with a problem on a Pi, because this is not going to go away, they can be pointed to, please read this, instead of informing a user that the Pi is useless, which it is not if you work within it's limitations.


    Just my twopennyworth :)

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    1) Any file I deem important for my situation could be copied to the first drive on the Pi and then an automation to perform its sync/backup/copy to the second drive. 2) I maintain a folder or set of folders where the master files are located on my win10 computer and use some sort of windows backup/sync/copy to send to both of the drives connected to the pi.

    Now that is sensible and I can understand why you want to do it that way, I'm going to tag @flmaxey he's good at this, I have tried a number of things including remote mount plugin, macrium reflect free, but with macrium I have only ever cloned my windows 10 drive and not just backed up folders. What you want to achieve is to backup the files to one drive then rysnc to the other, which in essence gives you three copies and should be doable. The initial setup would be slow due to the Pi but after that it should be fine.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I use a Win10 laptop for work. I have a raspberry pi 3b and 2 500G (western digital I believe) drives with nothing on them. All I really want is to have multiple locations of the same set of files for redundancy just incase I lose access to one of the drives due to failure or if one of the drives needs disconnected and sent to my home office quickly. Obviously, I prefer not to have to copy file manually everywhere. In my mind I see 2 different workflows which would be reasonable. 1) Any file I deem important for my situation could be copied to the first drive on the Pi and then an automation to perform its sync/backup/copy to the second drive. 2) I maintain a folder or set of folders where the master files are located on my win10 computer and use some sort of windows backup/sync/copy to send to both of the drives connected to the pi.

    This sounds like something for Rsync to me. There's two routes that come to mind.


    - A local drive-to-drive Rsync copy (fairly easy to setup, can be fully automated, easy to restore)
    This is far better than RAID1. If the source drive dies (or is dying) you have a chance to intercede before all data is lost.


    - The RSNAPSHOT plugin (simple to setup, multiple layers of backup with file versions, not as easy to restore - decisions would have to be made)
    _______________________________________________________


    The question I'd ask is, are you looking for automation in coping from a share on the Win10 Laptop, onto an OMV share? Or, would you do this manually?
    _______________________________________________________


    one of the drives needs disconnected and sent to my home office quickly

    Do you have a PC at the office, that recognizes Linux file formats? If not, I'd take the R-PI (set for DHCP), drives and all, in, and plug it into the network at the office.

  • Then if a user came up with a problem on a Pi, because this is not going to go away, they can be pointed to

    That's nice for those people having fun spending their time on the forum and answering the same questions again and again. But not really helpful for those people who not visit the forum and ask (more than 2000 downloads per week for the RPi image -- how many of these users turn up here?)


    I would prefer to help users avoid losing or corrupting their data by disabling the RAID stuff on all those SBC that are unreliable by design due to

    • all USB ports used for storage behind an internal USB hub
    • prone to underpowering problems due to using an insane powering scheme (Micro USB or USB-C in dumb mode with 5V powering)

    This applies to

    • Rasperry Pi
    • ODROID C1/C1+
    • ODROID C2
    • NanoPi M4
    • partially ODROID XU4


    On all these SBC an internal USB hub is used that very often simply disappears from the bus once the board gets underpowered. In any RAID situation this is lethal for the array since all drives will disappear at once and all the redundancy people are after simply is an illusion with such a 'single point of failure' positioned between host and disks.


    I would like to see all RAID functionality on these boards to disappear but unfortunately @votdev disagrees: Unexpected RAID Rebuild?

  • Okay, I would really like to thank geaves and flmaxey for intervening and providing helpful information.


    A quick response to flumaxey. I would be fine with an initial manual copy from the windows laptop to the raspberry pi.


    Now for tkaiser, I realize this will most likely get me kicked but it is something that needs to be said. You have a piss poor attitude and you are arrogant and ignorant. You have NO business being a moderator on any forum no matter how much knowledge you have because you do not have the ability to respectfully interject useful information with valid explanation in a way that the user can consume. You are VERY opinionated and restate that opinion in MANY threads on this forum.


    After seeing the posts today, the most striking thing that I noticed after you have acted in the manner that you have is that the administrator of this forum comes to your defense. Disgusting... And sad for anyone else whom has to deal with you. You always seam to want to pick a fight with anyone as they try to give any explanation. Take a little advise... take a good hard look in the mirror. You are not as good as you think you are.


    Aside from all of this I have determined that openmediavault is a substandard application with many flaws to yet be debugged. I have went with windows IOT and written a custom backup system in c# since software development is my expertise. I thank all that were helpful and hope others reconsider how they interact with members on this forum in the future. A note to the administrator... I would keep a close eye on this one in the future. He is NOT the correct representation for this product. I am sure there are others which would be much more qualified.


    J

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    If you're interested in drive-to-drive Rsync, the setup is in this guide, starting on page 61. This setup will create a full mirror on a second drive. Please read the cautions carefully and consider leaving the --delete switch out of the command line, until you have two full copies on your hard drives. (Depending how much data is in the initial copy, it may take some time.)
    After the initial copy is complete, if automating the Rsync job AND using the --delete switch, consider using a backup interval of a week or more to allow time to intercede if something goes wrong on the source drive. Otherwise, running the job manually from time to time will provide backup - something RAID1 doesn't do.


    On copying from Windows to a share; it would probably be best to do this manually.
    @geaves reminded me of when he attempted to do something similar (automated laptop to network share copying). Remote Mount needs the remote source to be on-line when OMV boots. This doesn't lend itself to portable - in and out - operations.
    ______________________________________________________

    Now for tkaiser, I realize this will most likely get me kicked but it is something that needs to be said. You have a piss poor attitude and you are arrogant and ignorant. You have NO business being a moderator on any forum no matter how much knowledge you have because you do not have the ability to respectfully interject useful information with valid explanation in a way that the user can consume. You are VERY opinionated and restate that opinion in MANY threads on this forum.

    Well, he gets this a lot. :) Don't worry, since you've showed restraint and refrained from using colorful language, you're not going to be booted for expressing your opinion. Don't let our friend chase you away. Supporting OMV is a community effort which is similar to family, and anyone from a truly large family knows there's at least "one" of them.
    _______________________________________________________


    While nothing is perfect, I don't think you're going to find a better product for what you're trying to do - easy to use NAS functionality on a SBC platform.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    UrBackup is a good option. Depending on the use case.

    Ok I'm listening...what I was trying to was connect a usb to W10, then rsync my OMV shares to that usb using remote mount, which worked until the W10 machine was shut down, then there were constant monit alerts as the remote mount had been removed.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    rsync my OMV shares to that usb using remote mount

    So that is share to Windows. Then UrBackup is not an option I suppose. I understood it is the other way around: from Windows to share

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I understood it is the other way around: from Windows to share

    So UrBackup would work in that scenario, but remount mount plugin would error when the windows machine was shut down.


    UrBackup to one drive (A) from windows, then rsync (A) to (B) on OMV would be option. But for me I was trying from OMV to windows.

  • I second this idea. Most of the questions I get are Pi questions on YouTube.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    But not really helpful for those people who not visit the forum and ask (more than 2000 downloads per week for the RPi image -- how many of these users turn up here?)

    @votdev :


    @tkaiser has a legitimate point - most SBC users won't visit the forum looking for information on what not to do. The assumption would be, if it's possible to create a RAID array, it's OK.


    However, there's a middle ground. Rather than stop the RAID creation process, a WARNING dialog could be popped up much like the box for deleting a shared folder. Something to the effect;


    Using RAID on (certain) SBC's is not supported and comes with the risk of data loss. Continue?

    Much like "delete" warnings, the above is fair notice before performing an operation that's known to be risky. This would be a service to unsuspecting users, while allowing hobbyists to do as they please.


    Regards

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