# OPEN OBSERVATION — the `backup_target_*` pair stopped firing under rapid detach/reattach cycling

**Not filed as a finding yet.** The system was still being hammered when this was observed, and a
verdict taken on a system mid-abuse is worth little. The disposition below says exactly what would
settle it.

## What was observed (2026-08-02, run 2b, cycles ~30-32)

Three violations in ~5 minutes, all of the same shape — the expected event simply absent:

    04:36:55  I1-pair  mentes return -> got=None sev=None   (want backup_target_restored/info)
    04:39:27  I1       mentes absent -> got=None sev=None   (want backup_target_absent/error)
    04:41:42  I1-pair  mentes return -> got=None sev=None   (want backup_target_restored/info)

## It is NOT hub-side suppression, and NOT a truncated log

The hub pod has **0 restarts over 43 h**, so its log is intact, and the controller's own log matches
the hub's line for line — the events were **never emitted**, not emitted-and-dropped:

    controller  02:32:34  Event pushed: backup_target_absent (error) — … Mentes …
    controller  02:32:38  Event pushed: whole_guest_backup_failed (error) — … felhom-backup tier …
    controller  02:35:32  Event pushed: health_degraded (warning) …
    controller  02:42:08  Event pushed: storage_disconnected (error) — … Adatok      <-- generic path STILL WORKS
    (no backup_target_restored, and no second backup_target_absent, at any point after 02:32:34)

So this is controller-side emission, and it is **specific to the `backup_target_*` pair**: the generic
`storage_disconnected` / `storage_reconnected` pair for the *other* drive kept firing normally
throughout the same window (02:16:02, 02:18:21, 02:27:38, 02:29:35, 02:42:08).

## The internally inconsistent state alongside it

Sampled while it was happening:

    backup-target:  {"degraded": false, "known": true, "label": "Mentes", "target": "felhom-backup"}
    drives:         adatok  bound_under_parent=False  backup_target=None
                    mentes  bound_under_parent=False  backup_target=True

`mentes` is the backup target, reads **not bound**, and the target state simultaneously reports
**`degraded: false`**. Those two cannot both be right. If that survives quiescence it is the more
serious half of this observation — a **false healthy** on the backup target, which is I5/I6's
failure mode and worse than a missing event.

## What is NOT yet established

- Whether the pair recovers once the cycling stops. The harness detaches and reattaches roughly every
  two minutes; a real customer does not. Rapid cycling may be outside the design envelope, in which
  case this is a robustness note rather than a defect.
- Whether the controller restart at 02:25:37 is implicated. In this controller instance there was
  **1 `backup_target_absent` and 0 `backup_target_restored`**; the previous instance emitted complete
  pairs (02:13:21 restored). That is suggestive, not established.
- Whether the `degraded: false` reading was a transient mid-flux sample or a stuck state.

## Disposition — how to settle it

After run 2b ends, let the box **quiesce with both drives attached**, then:

1. confirm `bound_under_parent` returns to `True` for both drives and the target still reads healthy —
   if it does not, the false-healthy is real and this becomes a finding;
2. do **one** slow detach/reattach of `mentes` with several minutes either side, and check the pair
   fires. If it does, the observation is "the pair does not survive rapid cycling"; if it does not,
   the target alarm has silently stopped working, which is severe — an alarm that never fires again
   after its first firing is worse than no alarm.

Only then does it earn an `R-n` or a retraction.