I bought this Snake plant last fall (was told it was a whale fin but from online research it looks more like a sansevieria scrimitariformis) - I decided to repot this weekend but the roots look very woody, almost like they have a thick layer of bark. can anyone tell me if this is normal for this kind of plant? It doesn’t really look like any pictures I’ve found online of sansevieria rhizomes. I‘m worried it might be scale because of the way it’s growing up the base of the plant, but I’ve never seen it completely encase roots like this.

I decided to repot because I’ve been noticing a mildew smell when I water the plant. When I took it out of the pot, I realized that the smell was also coming from the roots! I cut off a couple of the root tips to make sure that they weren‘t rotten and causing the smell, you can see the white ends in the photos below (they look pretty good except for the weird bark?). Not sure how to deal with the smell, any advice?

Thanks!