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Day: September 16, 2008

SMART Issues

Published September 16, 2008

When I got home I started running SeaTools, Seagate’s disk diagnostics utility for Windows, on the ad4 which had begun failing earlier. It reported back that it, and the other hard drive, were just fine. However, when booting into FreeBSD after using them I found that both drives were now indicating that Seek_Error_Rate was past threshold. The OS booted very slow, then kicked ad6 out of the mirror set.

I tried connecting the drives to another, standalone SATA controller (some plain old Maxtor bundle-in one) with new SATA cables and same problem.

So, I’m not sure what to do. Here’s every issue I’ve had with the new server and its resolution:

Issue: Server locking up hard, unexpectedly. MCEs on console.
Resolution: Ensure that only matched RAM is used and that all RAM tests good during burn-in.

Issue: Slow performance / absurd latency while using 3ware disk controller.
Resolution: Identified GIANT-LOCK on driver, moved to using software mirroring.

Issue: One of the original two Western Digital disks used, which were part of a gmirror set, has started giving block errors.
Resolution: Replace disks with brand new Seagate pair.

Issue: Both of the new Seagate drives began failing with excessive Seek_Error_Rate within a few hours of each other after extensive burn in.
Resolution: Unsure.

I can’t help but wonder if one of the Seagates beginning to fail was contributing to the latency observed with the 3ware controller, but as neither was throwing SMART errors at the time, so I discount this.

My current thought is that I should order a pair of server-grade disks, burn them in as before (~50 hours of constant activity), copy the data to them, then see if things will keep working. The failed disks and the unwanted 3ware controller will go back to Newegg, and hopefully things will work right.

I don’t know what other option I have besides scrapping the whole idea of moving servers, but I really rather not do that. If anyone else has any ideas, I’d love to hear them…

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New Hard Disk Is Failing

Published September 16, 2008

root@banstyle:~# smartctl -H /dev/ad4
smartctl version 5.38 [amd64-portbld-freebsd7.0] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
Failed Attributes:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   013   012   030    Pre-fail  Always   FAILING_NOW 38293929828058

root@banstyle:~#

I can’t win. Now one of the brand new hard disks in the server is getting a bunch of seek errors.

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Stony Creek Mountain Bike Videos

Published September 16, 2008

I mounted my old Coolpix 5400 on the handlebar of my bike in order to get some video of bike rides.

Yesterday I decided to go for a bike ride at Stony Creek, but before doing that I grabbed some small pieces of non-slip foam and some cable ties and strapped my old Nikon Coolpix 5400 to the handlebars of the bike. (This is how it looked when riding.)

The resulting videos aren’t great, as being mounted on the handle bars made the video jerky and noisy, with every little movement, bump, and vibration translating into shake, blur, and noise. However, I think they are interesting enough, and in one of them you can even watch me fall.

These videos are only short, couple minute segments of what I feel are some of the more interesting pieces of single track at Stony Creek. Length was limited by the recording time of the camera.

Here’s the videos on YouTube in high res, including the one of me falling (#3):

· The Pines #1
· The Pines #2
· Roller Coaster #1
· Roller Coaster #2
· Roller Coaster #3 & Me Falling
· Roller Coaster #4
· Roller Coaster #5
· Marker 26 to 25
· Back to Parking Lot

The original, and thusly higher quality, MOV files straight out of the camera at https://nuxx.net/videos. Just be warned, they are large:

· stony_creek_15oct2008_pines_1.mov (46.3 MB)
· stony_creek_15oct2008_pines_2.mov (46.4 MB)
· stony_creek_15oct2008_rollercoaster_1.mov (45.9 MB)
· stony_creek_15oct2008_rollercoaster_2.mov (25.5 MB)
· stony_creek_15oct2008_rollercoaster_3.mov (24.8 MB)
· stony_creek_15oct2008_rollercoaster_4.mov (45.7 MB)
· stony_creek_15oct2008_rollercoaster_5.mov (38.8 MB)
· stony_creek_15oct2008_to_parking.mov (46.6 MB)
· stony_creek_15oct2008_up_mount_sheldon_26_to_25 (22.5 MB)

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More Broken Bike Stuffs

Published September 16, 2008

Today while riding one more go through the Roller Coaster at Stony Creek (after recording videos, to be posted later) I fell pretty hard on the right side, and hurt my shoulder. I was going around a slow-ish switchback and my front wheel skidded to the left and I just went down.

I’d thought the only thing damaged was my shoulder, but after getting back on the bike it didn’t shift right. I just put it on the stand to sort it out so I could ride tomorrow and while it initially appeared to be a cable tension issue, which was wholly possible seeing as I’d just replaced the rear derailleur, that wasn’t it. The bottom of the rear derailleur appears to be cocked inward, and after checking to be sure it wasn’t another broken mounting bolt, I noticed that the derailleur hanger appears to be a bit off. After removing it from the bike and checking it with a straightedge it does appear that I’ve bent it slightly.

When I removed the wheel I also noticed that the rear axel / hub / bearings aren’t turning very smoothly at all. I suspect that when I had to do the half-assed single speed conversion during which the chain would occasionally climb to the next ring there was too much pressure on the bearings, or something. So, I guess I’ll have to fix that before I ride next too. Hopefully it just needs some adjustment and I haven’t destroyed the races.

I need to learn to ride better and stop being so rough on my bike.

Since I’m already buried in working on problems with the server and getting it up and going again I’ll have to put this off for a bit.

Also, in that fall I scraped my leg and bruised my right nipple. I have never before bruised a nipple.

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