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Forum Discussion
Network connection issues with ReadyNAS RR4360X
My company purchased a ReadyNAS RR4360X a while back and we just put it into production recently in the hopes of eventually replacing a smaller capacity ReadyNAS 4312. The RR4360X is similar to the 4312 with the exception of having many more drive bays.
The new RR4360X seems to be sporadically dropping its network connection, which is causing havoc with our backup jobs that are using the RR4360X as their target. The drops are also evident when I try to manually copy large files from a Windows server to the RR4360X - the transfer speed is around 200 MB/s then suddently drops to 0 bytes/s for 10 or 15 seconds before going back up again - I even notice the ReadyNAS web interface page reload at times (pages changes to "Connecting to the ReadyNAS Admin Page..."). This never happens on the 4312. Both the 4312 and the RR4360X have dual 10G ethernet connections to the same switch. I swapped switch ports and the Cat6 cables with the 4312 but the issue persists on the RR4360X. I compared setting by setting between the 2 ReadyNAS - here are the only differences I noticed:
- Firmware on the 4312 is 6.9.4 Hotfix 1 and the RR4360X was at 6.10.1; I updated the RR4360 to 6.10.5 but that didn't help.
- Volume Type: 4312 is RAID 6, RR4360X is RAID 5
- X-RAID: Seems to be missing from the RR4360X (no button on the System > Volumes tab)
We are past the 90-day complimentary support period and since we are a very small company, we are trying to avoid purchasing a service contract. Any help is very appreciated!
9 Replies
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emedeiros wrote:
The drops are also evident when I try to manually copy large files from a Windows server to the RR4360X - the transfer speed is around 200 MB/s then suddently drops to 0 bytes/s for 10 or 15 seconds before going back up again - I even notice the ReadyNAS web interface page reload at times (pages changes to "Connecting to the ReadyNAS Admin Page...").
Do you see this when you copy large files from the RR4360x to the Windows server? Or only when the NAS is the destination?
What form of link aggregation are you using? Is the MTU set to the default 1500?
Have you downloaded the full log zip file, and looked for errors in there (from around the time you do the transfer test)? system.log and kernel.log are good places to look for disk or file system errors that might be related to the pauses in the transfer speed.
If you enable ssh, you could also look at the network stats before and after (ifconfig will give you dropped packets, overruns, etc). It's also pretty easy to install iperf, and use that to test the network connection separately from the RAID performance.
What disks are you using?
Have you enabled antivirus or file system indexing?
I'm not surprised the XRAID button is absent. XRAID can't handle multiple volumes in the same chassis, and a 60-drive single volume would be a really bad idea (if Netgear even wanted to program in all the expansion possibilities). So I don't think that's anything related to your issue.
Sandshark wrote:I'm not surprised the XRAID button is absent. XRAID can't handle multiple volumes in the same chassis, and a 60-drive single volume would be a really bad idea (if Netgear even wanted to program in all the expansion possibilities). So I don't think that's anything related to your issue.
Thanks for the feedback. I just found it odd that the button is completely missing because in the context help for RAID, it still mentions X-RAID. And it's referenced in the Volume settings too (see ReadyTIER screenshot attached). We have another ReadyNAS configured with a single RAID 10 volume so since X-RAID isn't possible, the button is there but grayed out although to your point, that NAS only has 12 drive bays. I would think it would be the same for this NAS even with the extra bays since you don't have to use all of them.
You mentioned that a 60-drive single volume would be a really bad idea. Right now, we have 24 12TB drives in a single volume. What are best practices for number of drives per volume with ReadyNAS? I believe my manager wanted to add additional drives to this same volume eventually.
StephenB wrote:
emedeiros wrote:The drops are also evident when I try to manually copy large files from a Windows server to the RR4360X - the transfer speed is around 200 MB/s then suddently drops to 0 bytes/s for 10 or 15 seconds before going back up again - I even notice the ReadyNAS web interface page reload at times (pages changes to "Connecting to the ReadyNAS Admin Page...").
Do you see this when you copy large files from the RR4360x to the Windows server? Or only when the NAS is the destination?
Yes, I see this happen when copying both to and from the NAS.
What form of link aggregation are you using? Is the MTU set to the default 1500?
We aren't aggregating the links but for failover purposes we have Active Backup set as the Teaming Mode. Yes, the MTU is set to the default 1500.
Have you downloaded the full log zip file, and looked for errors in there (from around the time you do the transfer test)? system.log and kernel.log are good places to look for disk or file system errors that might be related to the pauses in the transfer speed.
I downloaded and looked at the suggested logs today after conducting a test where the speed dropped down to 0 bytes/sec but there are no errors in either log around the time of the test.
If you enable ssh, you could also look at the network stats before and after (ifconfig will give you dropped packets, overruns, etc). It's also pretty easy to install iperf, and use that to test the network connection separately from the RAID performance.
We haven't enabled ssh. I was going to after reading your reply but decided not to after a pop-up warned "Note: NETGEAR might deny support if you enable SSH access." just in case we end up having to purchase support, especially considering I don't have much Linux experience. I would need to get approval from my manager plus a bit of hand-holding to work through that type of testing.
What disks are you using?
We are using 12TB Seagate disks, 24 in total right now in a single volume (12 are ST12000NM001G and 12 are ST12000NM0007).
Have you enabled antivirus or file system indexing
No.
Thanks again for the assistance!
Can you duplicate the problem from a different PC (not necessarily a server)?
Also, is this happening with a share or with an iSCSI Lun?
emedeiros wrote:
What form of link aggregation are you using? Is the MTU set to the default 1500?
We aren't aggregating the links but for failover purposes we have Active Backup set as the Teaming Mode. Yes, the MTU is set to the default 1500.
Have you downloaded the full log zip file, and looked for errors in there (from around the time you do the transfer test)? system.log and kernel.log are good places to look for disk or file system errors that might be related to the pauses in the transfer speed.
I downloaded and looked at the suggested logs today after conducting a test where the speed dropped down to 0 bytes/sec but there are no errors in either log around the time of the test.
Network_settings.log are also a good place to look (errors, dropped, overruns, etc).
Do you have flow control enabled in the switches? That also could result in variable transfer rates.
emedeiros wrote:
We haven't enabled ssh. I was going to after reading your reply but decided not to after a pop-up warned "Note: NETGEAR might deny support if you enable SSH access." just in case we end up having to purchase support, especially considering I don't have much Linux experience. I would need to get approval from my manager plus a bit of hand-holding to work through that type of testing.
There is a clarification on that here: https://kb.netgear.com/30068/ReadyNAS-OS-6-SSH-access-support-and-configuration-guides
The specific things I suggested shouldn't void your ability to get support. But I think it be best to have someone experienced with linux do that troubleshooting, as it is easy to do damage with ssh.
emedeiros wrote:
We are using 12TB Seagate disks, 24 in total right now in a single volume (12 are ST12000NM001G and 12 are ST12000NM0007).
There should be no issue with those.
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