Beta Tester Wanted (new Windows app for ReadyNAS)

emoacht wrote:
I will appreciate it if someone take time to test it and report the result with the name of ReadyNAS system. Also, any comments or suggestions will be welcomed.

Some time ago, I reported that my Pro Pioneer's CPU and System temperatures were swapped by NAS Herder -- CPU temperature was reported as "System" temperature, and System temperature was reported as "CPU" temperature (see my comments above from 26 and 27 January 2013).

Today I think I have found the reason:

In the RAIDar packets sent by the NAS, temperature values are identified only by number, not name. For example, here are the temperature-reporting portions of the RAIDAR packets from an Ultra 2 Plus and a Pro 6:

Ultra 2 Plus
temp!!1!!status=ok::descr=67.0C/152.6F::expected=0-80C/32-176F
temp!!2!!status=ok::descr=36.0C/96.8F::expected=0-65C/32-149F

Pro 6
temp!!1!!status=ok::descr=58.0C/136.4F::expected=0-65C/32-149F
temp!!2!!status=ok::descr=23.0C/73.4F::expected=0-85C/32-185F

Unfortunately, the numbering is not consistent across all products: For the Ultra 2 Plus, CPU temperature is temp1, but for the Pro 6 it is temp2. This information exists in the /frontview/conf/enclosure.db database, but it is not transmitted directly via the RAIDar protocol.

So NAS Herder must decide which temperature value is the CPU temperature. To do this, it looks at the "expected=" temperature range and assumes that the CPU's maximum expected temperature will be greater than the System's maximum temperature. In the examples above: For the Ultra 2 Plus, the CPU temperature is the one which is expected to be in the range [0-80C], not [0-65C]; for the Pro 6, the CPU temperature is the one which is expected to be in the range [0-85C], not [0-65C]. So NAS Herder's algorithm works, at least on those two products.

But it fails on the Pro Pioneer because that product -- although it has the same hardware configuration as the Pro 6 -- has a different CPU. And the high end of the CPU's expected temperature range is lower than the high end of the System's expected temperature range. This is a Pro Pioneer in the same environment as the Pro 6 above:

Pro Pioneer
temp!!1!!status=ok::descr=58.0C/136.4F::expected=0-65C/32-149F
temp!!2!!status=ok::descr=22.5C/72.5F::expected=0-60C/32-140F

See? Temp2's expected high temperature is only 60C for the Pro Pioneer, not 85C as on the Pro 6. So NAS Herder mistakenly chooses Temp1 as the CPU temperature value for the Pro Pioneer.

The algorithm will fail for any product whose maximum expected CPU temperature is lower than the maximum expected System temperature.

This bug could be quickly worked around by providing a "swap CPU and System temps" checkbox in the NAS Herder settings... But of course a nicer fix would be for NAS Herder to do something like read the "model" string from the RAIDar packet and then automatically choose the correct temperature labels from a lookup table. Here is the information from enclosure.db:

Note1 - The four "rev" numbers appended to the names of some products in the list are, in order: PCB ID, Board Revision, System Revision, and VPD Version. I do not own any of those products, so I cannot say how that information is transmitted in the RAIDAR packets.
Note2 - Some of these products do not report all the temperature values that enclosure.db assigns to them. For example, the Pro Pioneer (which identifies as "ReadyNAS Pro" in the RAIDAR packet's "model" string) reports only two temperature values, SYS and CPU; the third temperature sensor, AUX, is disabled in that product.
Note3 - I have checked this list against enclosure.db and I believe that it is an accurate copy. I have verified that it accurately describes the labeling of the temperature sensors for the Ultra 2 Plus, the Pro Pioneer, and the Pro 6, but I do not own any of the other products so I am not able to verify it further.


• ReadyNAS Pro, ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus, ReadyNAS Pro 6
  
  1 = SYS
  2 = CPU
  3 = AUX


• ReadyNAS NVX, ReadyNAS 1500, ReadyNAS 2100 (rev -1,-1,-1,1), ReadyNAS 3200, ReadyNAS 4200 (rev -1,-1,-1,2)
  
  1 = SYS
  2 = CPU


• ReadyNAS 2100 (rev 1,2,2,1), ReadyNAS Ultra 4, ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Plus, ReadyNAS Pro 4, ReadyNAS Ultra 6, ReadyNAS Ultra 2, ReadyNAS Ultra 2 Plus, ReadyNAS Pro 2
  
  1 = CPU
  2 = SYS


• ReadyNAS 3100
  
  1 = SYS1
  2 = SYS2
  3 = CPU


• ReadyNAS 4200 (rev 1,2,3,1)
  
  1 = SYS
  2 = CPU
  3 = SYS2