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Remove inactive volumes to use the disk. Disk #3.
Hi,
I have my RN524X setup like this:
- volume "data": X-RAID (disks 1 and 2)
- volume "medias1": JBOD, disk 3
- volume "medias2": JBOD disk 4
I wanted to migrate disk 4 to a bigger disk.
I did what I usually do:
- NAS off
- removed disk 3 "medias1"
- boot
- NAS off
- change disk 4 "medias2" to slot 3
- boot
- NAS off
- put new disk in slot 4
- boot
- create a new volume "medias2.1" on new disk 4
- create the shares and backup from medias2 to new volume medias2.1
- turn off the NAS
- remove old disk 3 "medias2" and put back my "medias1" volume I previously removed
This last step usually works, but I also usually do it in two steps. This time I forgot and did not boot a first time after removing the old disk 3 "medias2"
Now, my healthy volume "medias1" doesn't mount and I have this message:
Remove inactive volumes to use the disk. Disk #3.
It detects the volume name medias1, but refuses to mount
Please any help so that I can remount it without a restore ?
I avoided the external USB because internal backup/restore is much faster and I get the checksums from BTRFS
This is really urgent. Hope it can be fixed
I am comfortable using SSH and advanced linux commands by the way, but I couldn't find any clue in the logs
Thank you
chopin70 wrote:
I removed all disks, factory reset, boot without disks in new GUI, setup password
That was a waste of time. The NAS boots from the disks, and a factory reset formats the disks and does a fresh install of the system. The volume configuration is saved on the OS partition on the disks.
So to start over, you'd need to do a factory reset the disks installed. Then switch to flexraid and destroy the volume (which you can do while it is syncing).
On the original issue, the NAS simply isn't designed to handle the remove disks/reinsert disks sequence you've been using. While you obviously did find a path that worked, you've been playing in the cracks of the piano. A better path would be to format a USB drive as btrfs, and enable checksums on that drive using ssh. Then use backup jobs to copy the data. Or just don't worry about the checksums.
I'd also suggest re-considering the use of volume encryption. It clearly factors into the problems you are having. IMO, the security benefit is small - it only defends against the threat of someone physically stealing the NAS (or just the disks) w/o stealing the key. If someone has the entire system (including the key), they can do an OS reinstall to reset the admin password, and access all the files through the network.
Alternatives to volume encryption include setting up veracrypt or vhd/vhdx containers on the NAS. These IMO offer stronger security, since they also defend against network access threats. The main downside is that you'd only be able to access the encrypted files from one machine at a time.
18 Replies
Did you export medias1 before removing it?
Do you see the old medias2 volume if you power down, reinsert that disk, and then boot up?
I did not use export as I read about its issues
I also understood that we can change disks after NAS off from one unit to another
So, I just changed from one unit to same unit. And things went fishy :mansad:
I put back the old medias2 volume disk, same error message to remove the inactive volume. The disk shows the volume is there, that data is encrypted, but refuses to mount
I even put back the very first medias1 volume I had around and it did not mount with same message.
Looks like the NAS does not accept any disk from another unit (well, or from its self). I don't want to pull out any other working volumes since it seems that that part is really buggy.
So, is there a way I can get it mounted without a whoel restore. Restore would be from an NTFS and I really wanted to keep the BTRFS checksums during migration
Thank you for any help
On further testing this morning:
I put a new formatted disk in slot 3: what happens is that the NAS gets stuck at looking for encryption key for that slot and never finds it. I have to wait for the time-out of 10mn
Same was happening when I insert the medias1 volume I want to recover.
Seems like the NAS now has an issue with that slot whatever disk I put in there.
I will wait for it to timeout, format the new disk and create a new volume not encrypted inside the NAS FrontPage, try to reboot and see if the issue is fixed. Clean up any mess in the fstab if there is one and try to reboot with the medias1 I want to get back online.
Meanwhile, any help would be really valuable.
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