Very long start of Starwind Virtual SAN Service

[Vladcat]

How long should it take to start Starwind Service after a standard server reboot. I've got it stuck in "Starting" mode for ages. Is there any way to fix that?
Thanks

[Dmitry (staff)]

Hello Vladcat,
Could clarify, what StarWind version you are using?
You can find this information in the StarWind Management console in the top drop-down menu, Help, About StarWind Management Console.
Thank you.

[Vladcat]

Hello Vladcat,
Could clarify, what StarWind version you are using?
You can find this information in the StarWind Management console in the top drop-down menu, Help, About StarWind Management Console.
Thank you.

Hi Dmitry,
Verison is 8.0.8730.0
BTW, I discovered that the culprit is a USB backup drive. Straight after drive's plugged in the host disconnects from the management console, diskpart hangs on starting and all sort of things like that. It is impossible to stop or start Starwind Service if this disk plugged in. If I stop the Starwind Service and then plug the drive in it is identified by the system without any problem and diskpart starts just fine, however Startwind Service can't be started.
The drive is 4TB USB3 Seagate portable
Here is a Startwind log part related to this drive:
4/30 12:42:41.099 1604 Srv: Found SPTI device '\\?\storage#disk#{0f296441-279e-11e5-8126-001517b8f919}#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}': 'Msft Storage Space 0.1'
4/30 12:42:41.099 1604 SPTI: '\\?\scsi#disk&ven_seagate&prod_expansion#000000#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}': DeviceType 0, VendorId 'Seagate', ProductId 'Expansion ', ProductRevision '9300', SerialNumber 'NA8305CE', BusType 7.
4/30 12:42:41.099 1604 SPTI: '\\?\scsi#disk&ven_seagate&prod_expansion#000000#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}': 'Seagate Expansion 9300': adapter 4, bus 0, target 0, LUN 0; maxTransferLength 524288, alignmentMask 0x3
4/30 16:38:50.270 1604 SPTI: '\\?\scsi#disk&ven_seagate&prod_expansion#000000#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}': scsiPassThrough failed: The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error. (code: 1117).
4/30 16:38:50.270 1604 SCSI: ReadCapacity16 failed. The device \\?\scsi#disk&ven_seagate&prod_expansion#000000#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b} is not allowed.

Service start is stuck after this line (or if it was running Host disconnects from the console)

Hopefully it can shed some light on how to fix this issue. 2TB Seagate USB3 Portable does not cause this problem.
Regards,
Vlad

[Oles (staff)]

Hello Vladcat,

This is a very interesting issue you have faced. Could you please submit a support ticket providing a link to this thread as well as all the log files so that we can start the investigation asap.

All the necessary log files can be collected by following this guidance:
https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware. ... ogs-bat-2/

Thank you very much.

[Vladcat]

Hello Vladcat,

This is a very interesting issue you have faced. Could you please submit a support ticket providing a link to this thread as well as all the log files so that we can start the investigation asap.

All the necessary log files can be collected by following this guidance:
https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware. ... ogs-bat-2/

Thank you very much.

Thanks Oles,
Support case logged, log files attached.
Regards,
Vlad

[Dmitry (staff)]

Hello to all,
We`ll keep community updated about solution of this problem.

[KevinR]

I have this exact problem as well on both nodes of my 2-node cluster although with Seagate 3TB USB drive. Any update would be appreciated.

[Dmitry (staff)]

Hello Kevin,
Could clarify, what StarWind version you are using?
You can find this information in the StarWind Management console in the top drop-down menu, Help, About StarWind Management Console.
Thank you.

[KevinR]

Hi Dmitry,

Same version as Vladcat 8.0 build 8730. All plugins are 8.0, but there is also a 2nd deduplicated disk v5.8 plugin. (Both nodes are the same)

I have the same errors in the starwind log when the Seagate backup disk is attached to the USB port: code 1117, and readcapacity16 failed with "not allowed". After that last line is logged, anything to do with querying disk/volume properties within windows deadlocks the shell, or cmdlet. Starwind management console disconnects and can't be reconnected. Windows event logs something like: "timeout 30000ms waiting for service "Starwind Virtual San" to connect". All remote clients can no longer access iscsi targets. As soon as the usb drive is disconnected, everything resumes functioning without further intervention. Drive works ok when starwind service is stopped.

[Dmitry (staff)]

Hello Kevin,

Could you please submit a support ticket.
You only need to write an email with your issue to support@starwind.com

Thank you.

[KevinR]

Following Vladcat's note that the 2TB version worked fine, I returned the 3TB drive and picked up a 2TB model. I can confirm that one works fine so the issue is definitely related to capacity. My issue is resolved, so no point for me to open a ticket, but hopefully the info provided will help you track down the culprit for anyone else using USB disks for staging or D2D backup.

Kevin

[Dmitry (staff)]

Thank you Kevin, we are really appreciate it.
Feel free to ask any additional questions.

[Vladcat]

Thank you Kevin, we are really appreciate it.
Feel free to ask any additional questions.

Hi Dmitry,
Have you been able to replicate this issue? Any suggestions on how to resolve it? I would really appreciate if I could use larger than 2TB USB drives for a backups.

[Dmitry (staff)]

Hello Vladcat,

Did you submit a case?

Please write to support@starwind.com

And I will handle your case.

Thank you.

[Vladcat]

Hello Vladcat,

Did you submit a case?

Please write to support@starwind.com

And I will handle your case.

Thank you.

Hi Dmitry,
I have submitted this issue on the 9th of May, following Oles's suggestion, uploading the log. Basically, it is the same behaviour as KevinR noted. Seagate USB drive bigger than 2TB stuffs the SW service up. Exactly the same log messages as KevinR mentioned etc. I haven't checked this with other brands of USB drives. I think, it should be very easy to replicate, just source 3-4TB USB drive from somewhere and plug it into the SW server, you'll see the issue straight away.