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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. ...
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.
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.
Ok, I narrowd it and could get the volume active.
I basically followed instructions in another thread to fix teh bug where the NAS was insisting to look for the encryption key of the non exitsing volumes:
- check systemd-journal.log to see which volume is causing the problem
- delete volume
- create new volume with the same name and encryption enabled
- delete new volume
- create new volume with the same name without encryption
Now, my medias1 volume shows this error:
Volume: Failed to activate encrypted volume medias1-0. Insert an external storage device with the encryption key for this volume and reboot to activate the volume medias1-0
As you see, it got some how renamed from medias1 to medias1-0 !
I tried to rename the pass key on the USB flash, but it doesn't work and same error not finding the key
Anyway to fix it ?
I removed all disks, factory reset, boot without disks in new GUI, setup password
Poweroff the NAS
Reinstall 4 disks
Boot NAS
Now all my volumes refuse to get the password from the USB key:
Volume: Failed to activate encrypted volume data-0. Insert an external storage device with the encryption key for this volume and reboot to activate the volume data-0 Volume: Failed to activate encrypted volume medias1-0. Insert an external storage device with the encryption key for this volume and reboot to activate the volume medias1-0 Volume: Failed to activate encrypted volume medias2.1-0. Insert an external storage device with the encryption key for this volume and reboot to activate the volume medias2.1-0
Well, I am done with a complete restore which would take me a few days...
How can one move from one NAS to another if the moving to same NAS after a factory reset is broken ?
Please help me recover my data and mount teh encrypted volumes
Best regards
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.
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