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ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

jokeruk
Aspirant

ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Hi folks, one of my ReadyNas Ultra 6 devices keeps losing its password - admin and others.

Losing might not be the right word but symptoms are can no log in to the web interface using admin or any account.

Shares continue to work as do scheduled backups.

The only fix is an OS reinstall which obviously resets the password to default.

I've even (as a test) tried leaving it on the default password and after a random period of time (1 week/1 month..) log in access to the UI will be lost.

 

I can still telnet in to root using the admin password in all cases.

 

I'm running OS 6 (on both NAS boxes) with all latest official updates but this only happens on one of them.

I took the rash step of a complete factory wipe and rebuild but that has not stopped the problem occurring.

 

Just a thought as I type this question - could this be a battery issue?

 

Regards

 

Steve

 

 

Message 1 of 23
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password


@jokeruk wrote:

 

Just a thought as I type this question - could this be a battery issue?

 


No.

 


@jokeruk wrote:

 

I can still telnet in to root using the admin password in all cases.

 


Do you mean ssh?  Telnet connections are refused unless the NAS is in tech support mode - and that uses a different password.

 

If you can use ssh, then see if it also works using admin as the user name.  

 


@jokeruk wrote:

 

I've even (as a test) tried leaving it on the default password and after a random period of time (1 week/1 month..) log in access to the UI will be lost.

 


The symptoms sound more like a PC issue than the NAS.

 

Have you tried

  • connecting both using the NAS hostname and its IP address?
  • a different browser?
  • using incognito mode?
  • a different PC?
  • rebooting the NAS from the front panel?
Message 2 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Ah yes sorry, SSH, 

 

using admin and admin password does not work via gui but ‘root’ ad admin password works via SSH

Message 3 of 23
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password


@jokeruk wrote:

Ah yes sorry, SSH, 

 

using admin and admin password does not work via gui but ‘root’ ad admin password works via SSH


Ok.

 

Have you tried the other tests I suggested?

Message 4 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Once the problem occurs nothing will help until an o/s reinstall.

after that I can log in as usual from any pc or  ipad using factory log on details.

 

we have a mix of o/s and browsers - just tried this morning with a windows xp machine (used for legacy software for vehicle programming) 

 

We’ve tried: Edge, Safari, Chrome, Firefox over windows xp, 10,11 - don’t have a win7 build at the mo although could spin up vm

 

 

Message 5 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Tried both direct ip and nas name

just as an fyi the other NAS is fully accessible from all devices 

 

ok sorry by incognito do you mean private browser?

Message 6 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Rebooting from the fp makes no difference - although i have noticed just recently that shutdown from the fb can take ages

Message 7 of 23
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password


@jokeruk wrote:

 

ok sorry by incognito do you mean private browser?


Yes.  Chrome calls it "incognito", other browsers use different terminology.

 

Basically I want to be certain that the browser isn't automatically supplying the wrong credentials.  That can result in taking you to the password recovery page.

 

What exactly happens when the problem starts?  Are you unable to reach the web page at all?  If not, are you getting the account/password prompt?

 

If it isn't the PC, then it would have to be something specific to the apache webserver on the NAS (since other services work).  But I'd expect rebooting the NAS would clear it in that situation.

Message 8 of 23
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Any chance your OS partition is full?  If it is, you should have log entries saying it is.  Once the OS partition is full, the NAS can't re-write configuration files, which can lead to a host of different, seemingly unrelated problems.  An OS re-install does not clean up the OS partition because it doesn't know what you or an app might have put there and needs to stay,

Message 9 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Ah interesting - I will look tomorrow once we are home

Message 10 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

It's official my linux skills are rubbish!

I'm not sure what comprises just the OS partition but assuming everything but data

Using du command from root I get
6.4M ./bin
0 ./boot
8.0K ./dev
10M ./etc
33M ./lib
4.0K ./lib64
0 ./media
4.2M ./opt
du: cannot access './proc/11837/task/11837/fd/3': No such file or directory
du: cannot access './proc/11837/task/11837/fdinfo/3': No such file or directory
du: cannot access './proc/11837/fd/4': No such file or directory
du: cannot access './proc/11837/fdinfo/4': No such file or directory
0 ./proc
20K ./root
56M ./run
11M ./sbin
0 ./srv
0 ./sys
808K ./tmp
446M ./usr
2.8G ./var
0 ./mnt
7.0G ./apps
2.1T ./data
0 ./home
30M ./frontview

 

Are there any obvious areas I should look?

 

Message 11 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Apologies, should have started my previous email with:

1. carried out O/S reinstall but got an error  "Err: Could not properly extract"   Have not seen that before But reinstall reset the log in capability so

2. Logged in to UI

3. Checked the logs and saw a warning re:

volume: LOGMSG_SYSTEM_USAGE_WARN

4. Logged in via Putty from Windows to investigate

Message 12 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

OK, I tried private browsing connections and that does not seem to make any difference - but I think the os partition space looks to be the problem.

I am only using the box for standard file-shares and Plex (although Plex is a pain due to the number of manual updates required)

Message 13 of 23
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Try again with ssh.  Make sure you log in as root using the NAS admin password.

 

Start with this command:

 

 

mount --bind // /mnt

 

 



This temporarily mounts the root folder as /mnt.  The reason this is helpful is that there are several folders in the root (OS partition) that are "mount points" - where other file systems (including some folders in your data volume) are mounted.  These make it hard to see exactly what is in the root.

 

Then you could try

 

 

du -d1 -h /mnt

 

 

to see how full each of the subfolders are.

 

On my own RN526, I see this:

 

 

6.4M    /mnt/bin
0       /mnt/boot
24K     /mnt/dev
12M     /mnt/etc
0       /mnt/home
33M     /mnt/lib
4.0K    /mnt/lib64
0       /mnt/media
4.7M    /mnt/opt
0       /mnt/proc
40K     /mnt/root
0       /mnt/run
11M     /mnt/sbin
0       /mnt/srv
0       /mnt/sys
0       /mnt/tmp
331M    /mnt/usr
538M    /mnt/var
0       /mnt/mnt
0       /mnt/data
0       /mnt/apps
30M     /mnt/frontview
964M    /mnt

 

 

 

Your problem appears to be in /var, so maybe try again with 

 

root@NAS://# du -d1 -h /mnt/var
0       /mnt/var/opt
109M    /mnt/var/backups
0       /mnt/var/local
60M     /mnt/var/log
4.0K    /mnt/var/spool
0       /mnt/var/mail
53M     /mnt/var/cache
287M    /mnt/var/lib
0       /mnt/var/tmp
4.0K    /mnt/var/www
8.0K    /mnt/var/netatalk
0       /mnt/var/cores
0       /mnt/var/ftp
29M     /mnt/var/readynasd
538M    /mnt/var
root@NAS://#

 

 

Often a full root is caused by third-party apps you've installed on the NAS.  So it would be useful if you gave us info on what apps (if any) you installed on the NAS in the past.  You did say plex is installed now - it could have left behind some transcoding files.

 

BTW, in order to undo the mount at the beginning of this post, you enter this:

 

cd //
umount /mnt

 

Note the spelling of "umount" - it's not "unmount".

 

Message 14 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Thanks for the response Stephen,

As far as I know I have only installed Plex - originally from the main UI and then periodically patched via the UI  update route.

 

OK for the first part I have:

6.4M /mnt/bin
0 /mnt/boot
24K /mnt/dev
10M /mnt/etc
33M /mnt/lib
4.0K /mnt/lib64
0 /mnt/media
4.2M /mnt/opt
0 /mnt/proc
20K /mnt/root
0 /mnt/run
11M /mnt/sbin

 

 

Then for var I have:

root@NAS1:~# du -d1 -h /mnt/var
0 /mnt/var/opt
6.4M /mnt/var/backups
0 /mnt/var/local
50M /mnt/var/log
4.0K /mnt/var/spool
0 /mnt/var/mail
4.3M /mnt/var/cache
2.7G /mnt/var/lib
0 /mnt/var/tmp
8.0K /mnt/var/netatalk
4.0K /mnt/var/www
36K /mnt/var/cores
0 /mnt/var/ftp
7.9M /mnt/var/readynasd
2.8G /mnt/var



0 /mnt/srv
0 /mnt/sys
0 /mnt/tmp
446M /mnt/usr
2.8G /mnt/var
0 /mnt/mnt
40K /mnt/apps
0 /mnt/data
0 /mnt/home
24M /mnt/frontview
3.3G /mnt

Message 15 of 23
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password


@jokeruk wrote:

 

Then for var I have:

root@NAS1:~# du -d1 -h /mnt/var
2.7G /mnt/var/lib


So the problem is definitely in /var/lib.

 

You can then repeat the process, and look a level deeper.

root@NAS:/mnt/var/lib# du -d1 -h /mnt/var/lib
0       /mnt/var/lib/initscripts
12M     /mnt/var/lib/dpkg
0       /mnt/var/lib/nut
0       /mnt/var/lib/misc
0       /mnt/var/lib/urandom
0       /mnt/var/lib/dbus
0       /mnt/var/lib/insserv
0       /mnt/var/lib/update-rc.d
4.0K    /mnt/var/lib/mdadm
43M     /mnt/var/lib/apt
12K     /mnt/var/lib/ucf
0       /mnt/var/lib/snmp
24K     /mnt/var/lib/pam
128K    /mnt/var/lib/systemd
2.6M    /mnt/var/lib/samba
16K     /mnt/var/lib/nfs
0       /mnt/var/lib/ftp
0       /mnt/var/lib/vim
8.0K    /mnt/var/lib/replisync
12K     /mnt/var/lib/connman
222M    /mnt/var/lib/clamav
0       /mnt/var/lib/apache2
0       /mnt/var/lib/logrotate
8.6M    /mnt/var/lib/readyNASVault
287M    /mnt/var/lib


My guess is that your issue is with clamav (the NAS antivirus service), but let's make sure of that.

Message 16 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

Hi again Stephen,

Thanks for you perseverance!

 

0 /mnt/var/lib/initscripts
11M /mnt/var/lib/dpkg
0 /mnt/var/lib/nut
0 /mnt/var/lib/misc
0 /mnt/var/lib/urandom
0 /mnt/var/lib/dbus
0 /mnt/var/lib/insserv
0 /mnt/var/lib/update-rc.d
4.0K /mnt/var/lib/mdadm
864K /mnt/var/lib/apt
12K /mnt/var/lib/ucf
0 /mnt/var/lib/snmp
24K /mnt/var/lib/pam
124K /mnt/var/lib/systemd
2.6M /mnt/var/lib/samba
0 /mnt/var/lib/nfs
0 /mnt/var/lib/ftp
0 /mnt/var/lib/vim
0 /mnt/var/lib/logrotate
8.6M /mnt/var/lib/readyNASVault
0 /mnt/var/lib/clamav
100K /mnt/var/lib/replisync
20K /mnt/var/lib/connman
2.7G /mnt/var/lib/plexmediaserver
2.7G /mnt/var/lib

Message 17 of 23
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password


@jokeruk wrote:

2.7G /mnt/var/lib/plexmediaserver


So not Antivirus, it's clearly Plex.

 

The plex servers built for ReadyNAS put the plexmediaserver in the apps folder - which is actually on the data volume (.apps).  That prevents filling up the OS partition.

 

Where did your plex media server install come from?  You should be using the x86 build from https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/?cat=nas&plat=netgear#plex-media-server

 

The best way to fix this is to uninstall plex, and make sure that var/lib/plexmediasever is fully deleted.  After that, downgrade to 6.10.9 and reinstall using the build from the link above.  Then you'd need to reconfigure plex and set up your media libraries again.

 

There is another path that is less work. That is to copy the plexmediaserver to the data volume (personally I'd put it in .apps there), and then delete the folder in /var.  After that you'd create a soft link to the new location on the data volume.  We can give you the commands if you want to try that path.  This would eliminate the need to reinstall anything, but you could run into trouble when updating plex in the future.

 

Note it can be tricky to fully recover from a full OS partition, as config files in the partition can get corrupted (since they can't be saved).  If that becomes an issue for you, the safest path would be to do a factory default, and set up everything on the NAS from scratch (including restoring all the files from backup).  But we can cross that bridge later on, if we come to it.

 

Message 18 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

OK - Thanks again Stephen.

 

 

I've moved my plexdata from var   to the /data drive

I created a custom override file for plex pointing to the new location (google is a great tool) 

restarted everything and plex seems to work

I ran the du size check and the /var folder has dropped to 91M

Rebooted the NAS

 

It's started ok and the shares still seem good

Plex seems to have vanished from the installed apps list - but is running (which obviously adds credence to your observation on an incorrect installation (although it was there before)

Plex is also missing from the list of available apps 😕

 

Also many of the GUI menus seem to have strange/different names

 

I'm still on 6.10.8 - is this an issue?

 

Question - can I /should I extend the system partition size ?

 

I will restart and carry out an OS reinstall

Message 19 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

OS reinstall has fixed the menus!

Message 20 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

So thanks for your assistance with this problem - I will wait and see if it reoccurs but fingers crossed

Message 21 of 23
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password


@jokeruk wrote:

 

Also many of the GUI menus seem to have strange/different names

 


Plex menus?  Or are you talking about the NAS web ui?

 


@jokeruk wrote:

 

I'm still on 6.10.8 - is this an issue?

 


No.  You could update to 6.10.9, but you'd need to install it manually from system->settings->update

Avoid 6.10.10, as it will remove the ability to install apps.  You can get rid of the update check on system->settings->update if you haven't done that already.

 

Message 22 of 23
jokeruk
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNas keeps 'losing' password

The problem was lack of space on the OS partition.

all sorted after the great help and advice received here

Message 23 of 23
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