When the Array Forgets Itself — The Vanishing Volume Syndrome
Everything looked normal at first: the rebuild counter climbed slowly, the drives spun evenly.
Then the dashboard refreshed — and the entire virtual disk disappeared.
It wasn’t deleted. It was lost in translation — a controller that no longer remembered where its data lived.
This isn’t a total loss; it’s a metadata collapse, and it can be reversed if handled correctly.
What You See
- Controller begins rebuild, then the volume vanishes mid-process.
- BIOS or utility lists No Virtual Disks Found though all drives are detected.
- Event logs record Metadata Reset, Epoch Mismatch, or Config Version Change.
- OS boot halts at no boot device or shows an uninitialized disk.
- Foreign configuration prompt may appear even on previously stable drives.
Why It Happens
- A metadata epoch reset occurred when the controller lost parity synchronization.
- NVRAM cache corruption invalidated the virtual disk header.
- Controller rebooted mid-commit, writing partial configuration tables.
- Mixed firmware versions between new and existing drives introduced structure conflict.
- Parity map references physical drives, but logical identifiers were rewritten.
What NOT To Do
- Do not reinitialize or create a new array using the same disks.
- Do not import foreign configurations without imaging each drive first.
- Do not update firmware during an unstable state.
- Do not run file-system tools that expect valid headers.
- Do not assume controller failure and swap hardware until logs are secured.
What You CAN Do
- Export the controller configuration before power-cycling again.
- Capture an NVRAM dump if the controller allows it.
- Image all drives in raw sequence; order reconstruction may depend on it.
- Compare drive identifiers (S/N, slot, WWN) to the last known layout.
- Contact ADR support for parity map reconstruction before re-import.
Diagnostic Overview
- Array Type: RAID 6 — Virtual Disk Configuration
- Controller State: Rebuild Interrupted / Virtual Disk Missing
- Likely Cause: Metadata Desync or Cache Epoch Reset
- Do NOT: Reinitialize or Import Foreign Config Before Imaging
- Recommended Action: Export Config, Preserve Memory Dump, Rebuild Map via Parity Analysis