A sad tale of ProSupport woe with ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer!

Update on Sept 7th "drive dead"

Data consistency was built (on swapped drive - same as "dead" drive) Thu Sep 8 16:42:13 EDT 2011 but due to re-racking servers and equipment (to avoid consistency re-build interrupted by power outage) the new drive was not added until 9/12 and consistency was rebuilt and conpleted Tue Sep 13 05:35:11 EDT 2011

Swapped previously used but test OK Seagate ST31500341AS out and New Seagate ST32000641AS in and will continue to monitor the drive stats for any abnormalities.

9/18- Received notices from Esxpress - Backup still running - Determined ReadyNas is not responding to CIFS/HTTP - multiple short button pushes on front of device did not "wake it up" or produce any results
Pro Support is West Coast and does not start until 9:00 EST (6 AM PST)

Called back @ 9:25 and answered by - Agent #5105 - French accent
Asked to power off unit (hard off) and when I expressed concern about loosing log data helpful to resolving the problem I was told not to worry that we would be able to recover that once restarted.
Did as requested and emailed log bundle for review.
------------FROM REVIEW OF LOGS-------------------------------------------
Claimed we were running Beta 4.2.19 when running gold since Sept 7th
Told everything was fine with device but when pressed for why it was locked and non-responsive no explanation
Asked about network topology and other filler issues
Was told that the problem was a CIFS file transfer was too large and that is what caused the problem
Advised to wait and see what is the problem since it is "working now" but will not escalate - Told him that this behavior is the same as prior ticket #16458558 and after reviewing he said that was not the case.
When I reiterated that it was and asked to be escalated he said said no, that the unit was responding properly now and I would have to wait for the next occurrence of the problem. I asked to know when Agent #5040 was on shift and was told he was already but was unavailable and I should try back in an hour or so. I requested that he update the case with his notes and pass a request to #5040 to call me when he was available. #5105 said he would and the call was ended with niceties @ 10:37 (~70 minutes)

So now I have someone who is clearly a top support/engineering individual working on the problem. He roots around the NAS and makes a couple of simultaneous changes (listed at bottom) and asks me to make a backup so that in the future we can reset the device. Backup is a four day process for Full and when it completes his and Sr. Manager, Support Engineering email server rejects my mail (multiple times) but only when sent from my domain, Gmail has no problems. Sr. Manager, Support Engineering replies that top support/engineering individual is busy and will respond shortly. Three days later top support/engineering individual contacts me and asks that I send the backup logs. After some back and forth I am told:

Would you like to monitor it for a few weeks and then, if there are no further issues, we can likely say that the original issue was that the backup logs had filled the OS partition? If that does end up being the case, I’ve already spoken with the developers regarding this issue and they are working on the best way to address it.

So now we are six weeks and two days from then and device is back to not responding to CIFS requests and FrontView is not accessible beyond the username/password prompt.



1. Logging has been moved from the hidden partition on the disk to a varlog volume to provide more space to log issues to avoid overwriting but running out of space may have been the cause of the lock.
2. You have removed the two PHP add-on's that I did not need and was unable to remove. The Teaming add-on also does not show on the Add-on's page but the NIC configuration still shows as teamed.

I poked the Support Manager to have your issue looked at by more eyes.

History Review
07/14/2011 - Ticket# 16134961 - Cause: Dead volume in FrontView but no notice sent - Result: RMA chassis
07/15/2011 - Ticket# 16143235 - Cause: Migrate drives from old chassis to new after update of firmware - Result: Failed to move/Instructions incomplete
07/15/2011 - Ticket# 16144283 - Cause: Migrate drives from old chassis to new after update of firmware - Result: Migration complete and 24 hours later resync complete
08/19/2011 - Ticket #16458558 - Cause: System not responding & dead drive - Result: Replace drive and watch for issues
09/07/2011 - Ticket #16632897 - Cause: Firmware update reboot & dead drive - Result: Senior L3 Tech wants to monitor it after getting it to work again
11/09/2011 - Ticket #Same as above - Cause: Unit is not responding - Result: Senior L3 Tech changed departments but will get L2 Tech to get log files
11/23/2011 - Ticket #Same as above - Cause: Unit is not responding - Result: L2 Tech was able to get bock back in service but no reason for lockup found
02/22/2012 - Ticket #17972459 - Cause: Unit is not responding - Result: RMA new unit but still no NAS access for five days and no word on when there will be.

Repeated calls trying to spur L3 support to at least provide some update of progress or timeline of resolution answered by silence.

Emails sent to company management regarding case and issues since that seems to be the only thing that has spurred a response in the past!

ensign.fodder

I have reviewed every post and understand the frustration that you are experiencing. I have reviewed the related cases and notified the L3 support team of the inconvenience that has been caused in this situation with your ReadyNAS. Please make sure that the Tech Support Mode is not interrupted at this time.

readysecure1985 wrote:
ensign.fodder I have reviewed every post and understand the frustration that you are experiencing. I have reviewed the related cases and notified the L3 support team of the inconvenience that has been caused in this situation with your ReadyNAS. Please make sure that the Tech Support Mode is not interrupted at this time.

There was no reason that the Tech Support mode would have been interrupted from my side. Unit still showed same port and IP when I returned to my office. As an FYI the only reason I knew the unit was off-line to the support team is that I called looking for an update and the L1 tech mentioned the issue.

I have received a direct email from a tech and have been told that the flash/disk/partition levels did not match - known since Monday - and that he "corrected" that issue by updating the disks.

Waiting to see if issue resolved.

So I could go into all the issues discovered and the little bit of improvement, but for now just let it be said that I am shopping for a NAS and NetGear is not on the considered list.

I have a functional NAS at the moment and it is now stable but all I want to do at this stage is get my data off it so that I can retire it of the roof of the building.

Soldiering on!

Would still suggest keeping the Pro Pioneer for backups. Data stored on a single device is not backed up.

If you don't want to keep the Pro Pioneer you should be able to sell it either via the ReadyNAS Marketplace (http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=33) or on a site such as eBay.