Easiest RAID configuration to recover data if ReadyNAS fails

Thanks, that eases things a little.

The NAS has been unresponsive for a day now. I expected it would begin resyncing but be responsive. I'm a little worried that something might have gone wrong. Should I wait more?

It's currently on with all normal lights lit. "act" blinks now and then, but not much. The LCD display remains always off. I tried pushing the power button once (normally that lits up the LCD) but nothing happened. When I try to access the network interface, it asks me for login and password, makes me wait some time while trying to do the login, then shows a message saying that "the device is offline". When I click the details button, it shows "the device is offline, please wait".

You may wish to contact support and post your case number here.

Hi, I've just opened a support case. The number is 24076318.

Do you have an update to this case?

The last update for case #24076318 was the agent requesting the logs zip file from the NAS (System > Logs > Download Logs)

Hi, I've just done a forced shutdown and after powering it back on, it was accessible again. It seemed to not have started the rebuilding process previously, so I probably could've taken away the 4th hdd before powering it on, disabled x-raid and continued on. Since I couldn't know before reading the logs, there was nothing to be done. It's now rebuilding. I'll have to wait, make a backup and start from scratch :(

Earlier today, when I woke up, the rebuilding process restarted (it was at more than 50% when I went to sleep). The only new entries on the logs (that you can see on the web interface - I didn't look at the log files) were snapshot entries. I assume those triggered the restart of the rebuilding process. I'm not sure, however, because there were 10 hours between the log entries and the time I saw the rebuilding at 0.xy%, and that's very odd. I've sent the new log files to the support staff and am waiting now. I've also changed the snapshot interval from daily to weekly on all shares.

I'm a bit worried about all this. I want to try and backup my data, but I guess I can't remove one hdd while it's rebuilding. I am also wary of simply copying what I can to my computer, since I would be accessing hdds a lot and that would at the minimum slow the rebuilding process.

Alright I took a look at the log files. It seems the snapshots had nothing to do with it. Exactly when I was waking up, the rebuilding (the log calls it a reshape) finished but the NAS then detected a capacity change (it grew larger). That triggered another rebuild (this one called a resync by the log). I guess this one will be the last, but I'll wait for the support answer.

Hi mdgm, it seems that I'm better getting support from you and fellow users than from the support team. After reporting what I told here, here's the response from the support person (I put the special part in bold):

"I have checked the logs you attached, I did see any errors on your drives you inserted to your NAS. With this, I suggest you to perform a factory reset. I believe the drives does not have any data, so it would be best to do the reset. Please click the link below and follow on how to reset the unit:

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detai ... -or-314%3F
"

This is the second support ticket I open and the second time the support person (a different one) replies me without ANY knowledge about what I wrote. I wrote repeated times about the data on the NAS. I linked this thread, which I am sure was not read. I know there are probably a lot of support cases but thats no excuse, there must be a minimum of professionality when you do any work. If the working conditions are unsuitable to it, then the fault is with the company itself too.

I also asked specifically for the cause of the initial error and the re-rebuild and no response was given about that. I am a user without knowledge about netgear software, no access to RAID experts / ReadyNAS experts that work inside the same company, and yet in literally less than 5 minutes I found the causes by myself just taking a look at the logs. Mind you, I'm not a linux expert either - I just used common sense and english.

Sorry about the rant here, but you've been the most useful person I've talked to in the entire company. Even more than the level 3 support guys I talked to in my previous problem (although one of them was at least very courteous and professional, but replied me way too late, I waited for weeks). I hope you can at least relay these problems to someone who cares about support training and the company image, as well as its customers satisfaction.

You can still backup your data while a resync is taking place, but it will be slower.

Looking at your current case that wasn't escalated to L3 level yet. Our L2s always ask for logs (in cases where they can be downloaded) before reviewing the logs to consider whether the case needs escalation to an L3.

When you add disks to an existing array it will add one disk to the array at a time. So there will be a few rebuilds.

As for why it hanged that may show in the logs depending on why it hanged, but also depending on when it happened those entries may no longer be in the logs. Do you recall the date and time roughly when it happened?

The SMART stats look O.K.

If you continue to have issues then checking the disks using SeaTools (power down, remove disks - label order - and connect to PC) as well as running the memory test boot menu option would be advisable.

As for your previous case the admin password provided wasn't working for the L3 initially assigned to the case. It was then picked up by a second L3 who was busy on some other cases and unfortunately had to delay working on your case. By the time he was able to work on it you had discovered the cause of the problem which was the MTU setting.

I will pass on your feedback. We value feedback on what we are doing well and where we can improve. That is a key reason we have surveys for most support cases.