NV+ V2 stalling when 80%+ full (20047616)

Still no joy, the patch did nothing. Only hope is that this joke of a support desk will come up with something else. I won't hold my breath.

Are you able to pass a copy of that fix along to me so I could try it?

Otherwise I think I’ll attempt to see if they will agree to have access via a method of my choosing to a computer here that's accessible only whilst I’m in front of it, and have the NAS reset to factory defaults prior to granting them access to the unit. That provision of “attempt” to keep data safe is a joke.

I agree, how they can get away with that is beyond me. No problem, send me a private message with your email address and I'll send you the patch over.

Heres the response from the so-called level 3 engineer, what a joke. He's now trying to say that the unit crashing at 90% full is by design and that its bad practice to use more than 80% of your NAS units space?!!! Where did he become a L3 engineer? Disneyland?! I love the way he patronises me by giving me an IT lesson in spindle drives and then says 'Your vision of the ideal solution may not be practical' - so to expect to be able to copy data to a data storage unit is not practical. What planet are these jokers from. Sooooooo unprofessional its ridicuous, in my company this guy would have been fired.

Robin,

I have taken ownership of your case.
I will be the point of contact between you and engineering.
I, just now, finished reading the notes logged by you and the several people who have tried to help.

There are a few things, I feel, must be clear before proceeding.
· You need to know that we want your issue resolved as much as you do.
· We want to know if your issue is systemic, or one that afflicted 2 users-out-of-thousands.
· If it is just 2, we still wish to find a solution for you.
· Your vision of the ideal solution may not be practical.

From our perspective the issue is related to EXT4 and not uniquely the NV+V2, I will explain.
As files are copied and deleted and new files are added, fragmentation occurs. As the system becomes fragmented, the metadata handling and the blocks free to write data may become insufficient to continue writing data. Particularly if the later data is in the form of large files.
All spindle drive systems are recommended to be used at less than 90% capacity, unless they hold archival data and fragmentation is virtually nonexistent; in which case you may risk going to 95%.
Generally, 20% empty space is recommended to remain trouble free on drives with platters. This is common understanding in the technology world.

Having said that;
Keep in mind that we sincerely want to find a proper solution.

Engineering is working on finding a possible solution from their side and I have already initiated contact with them. As things develop I will communicate them with you.

If you have concerns or questions feel free to email me directly.

Sincerely,

Omar

NETGEAR technical support engineer L3

holly hell... what a loser...

yes 10-15% free is nice IF you wish to defrag the volume with speed. but at worst you might loose some read/write speed the unit should not crash or refuse to write data.

I've been doing my own research into the issue and have found a few settings that I'm currently trying out. Some of the info I’ve come across is from 2011 or earlier. NETGEAR are using kernel 2.6.31.8.nv+v2 for these units. So for some reason they've had to customise a very old kernel that is no longer supported by kernel.org.

http://administratosphere.wordpress.com ... -sync-bug/ suggests that to work around this same kind of issue that you should upgrade to kernel 2.6.37... and that was 2011! we are up to kernel 3.8.5 in the stable branch... I'm sure IFit's a kernel/ext4 fs bug that it should be fixed within the newer kernels.

Also other NAS provider THECUS came across this same issue and came up with a workaround that help with their units http://forum.thecus.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3959 even they were using newer kernel back then than NETGEAR are currently using on this device.

Currently I'm waiting for my NAS to fill up to faulty point again to see the effects of changing the IO Scheduler on the dm-0 disk device and the max_writeback_mb_bump setting.

I shouldn't be having to do this to a device that has been sold “fit” for a purpose of saving files. I've got another NAS unit here from iomega that allows me to fill the drive to 100% without any issues, why can't NETGEAR??

robclarke41 wrote:
I agree, how they can get away with that is beyond me. No problem, send me a private message with your email address and I'll send you the patch over.

i think i sent a PM but it's staying in the outbox instead of going to the sent items, wonder if it even works in these damn forums. anyway i've setup this address you can send it to: JVUILojX8PvRnkKy@mail.isabelladesign.Co.CC

Edit: updated tempory email address.

PMs remain in the outbox until they are read.

HOLLY HELL... FINNALY someone in L2 perhaps with half a brain.... THANK U EDDIE!

3/29/2013 11:05:00 AM
From Agent ID: 56031
Case Number: 20047616

Dear <name>,

This is Eddie again from NETGEAR 2nd Level Technical Support and I am following up on your support case.

We sincerely apologize for all the inconvenience you have experienced. NETGEAR engineers are already aware of the problem and currently is working on a fix. We will update you as soon as the fix is available however we do not have an ETA when it will be released.

Sincerely,

<name>
Level 2 Technical Support
NETGEAR, Inc.
http://support.netgear.com

[StephenB] EDITED OUT netgear support's personal information.

WOHA!! Wddie's on the ball today!

Sorry StephenB, forgot to edit out his full name below previously. Was too excited that I'm actually getting intelligible responses from L2 Support.

3/29/2013 11:15:00 AM
From Agent ID: 56031
Case Number: 20047616

Dear <name>,

This is Eddie again from NETGEAR 2nd Level Technical Support and I am following up on your support case.

At the moment there is an add-on in testing that potentially fix the problem however we are still waiting for feedback to verify the effect of the add-on. We thank you for the understanding.

Sincerely,

<name>
Level 2 Technical Support
NETGEAR, Inc.
http://support.netgear.com

Not a problem. I figured it was unintentional.