Tools > File Systems > Check File System

This operation checks for and repairs StorNext file system metadata corruption due to a system crash, bad disk or other catastrophic failure. If the file system is unmounted and stopped, a full check is done and repairs can be performed, if the file system is active, it may only be checked in a Read-only mode. In this mode, modifications are noted, but not committed.

This operation could take a significant amount of time depending on the size of the file system, so plan accordingly. Also, this operation could consume a significant amount of space on the local file system. For example, for large file systems you should allow at least 20GB of free space on the local file system for temporary files.
Method Description

Checking while the file system is offline

When the file system is offline, you can run the check in either traditional mode or read-only mode. Read-only mode typically completes faster, but is not as thorough.

Checking while the file system is active

When the file system is active, you must run the check in read-only mode. The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to take the file system offline to run the check.

Note: Running a check on an active file system could result in false errors which occur because you are running the check while the file system is still running.

Whenever you run the check in read-only mode, Quantum strongly recommends also running the Recover Journal step before you check the file system. Running Recover Journal ensures that all operations have been committed to disk, and that the metadata state is up to date.

Regardless of which method you choose to check the file system, you should plan carefully when to run a file system check and plan accordingly.

If you plan to run the check while the file system is offline, before you begin the following procedure you should first stop that file system as described in Tools > High Availability > ManageTools > High Availability > Manage .

  1. Choose Check File System from the Tools > File Systems menu.
  2. At the Temp File Directory field, enter a new directory if the specified directory does not have enough space to perform the check. (The checking process on large file systems can take hundreds of megabytes or more of local system disk space for working files.)
  3. Select the file system you want to check. You may need to click Refresh periodically to see if progress has changed.
  4. If you plan to run the check in read-only mode, Quantum recommends running Recover Journal by clicking Recover Journal. When a message asks you to confirm that you want to run Recover Journal, click Yes to proceed or No to abort.
  5. Do one of the following:
    • If the file system you want to check is active, click Check Read-Only to check the file system in read-only mode.
    • If the file system you want to check is offline, click Check to check the file system in “regular” mode, or Check Read-Only to check in read-only mode.

After you have run at least one file system check, information about the process appears at the bottom of the page: file system name, the time the check was initiated and completed, and the status of the check. To view details about a specific check, select the desired check at the bottom of the page and then click Report. When you are finished viewing the report, click Done to return to the previous page.

To delete a check report from the list, select the check you want to delete and then click Delete. To delete all previously run checks listed, click Delete All.