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OS 6.6 on Ultra 6:. Not ready for prime time? Do I need more memory? Or...?
TL;DR version: OS 6.6 is worryingly unpredictable/unstable on my Ultra 6. Do I just need to expand the memory past the stock 1 GB, or is OS 6 still not ready for prime time, at least on these older b...
Final update (I hope): I re-ran the upgrade from 4.2 to 6.6.1. The NAS has been working perfectly for over a week. What was different this time? (a) all disk were in place already, so no RAID expansion was needed; and (b) I went straight to 6.6.1, not 6.6.0.
I did order more memory, but haven't installed it; I'm still running the stock 1 GB. I wanted to replicate my previous issues first so I could verify whether increasing RAM alone would fix it. But the box has resolutely failed to show any issues at all: no hangups, no unexpected slowness, no failures to respond. I've tried things like running a scrub while launching backups and hitting the NAS with clients, and the system reacted more slowly when all that was going on, but even so: it all worked, and the scrub of 8.8 TB finished within 48 hours (as did the initial full backup, before I started the stress test). Incremental backups run as quickly now as they did on OS 4.
So I either had a subtle corruption during the initial upgrade, or stuffing two new disks in and expanding the volume triggered the problems. But it wasn't low RAM, apparently, and OS 6 seems to be running fine despite my best attempts to break it. I'm going to label it "bug report closed: cannot replicate."
As for the apparent mislabeling of the System and CPU temperatures? I edited /etc/frontview/sensors/ULTRA6.conf and swapped the "System" and "CPU" labels for temp2 and temp3, ran "systemctl restart readynasd", and now the readings in the web UI match the values I expected from version 4.2 (I got the idea from this thread: <https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS/ReadyNAS-4200V2-OS6-6-1-fan-control/m-p/1219655#U1219655>).
Another hang, after half a day of operation: front panel display frozen, power button inoperative, can't restart or shutdown from web UI, no updates to performance graphs since about 2:50am. Yet resync continues, shares are accessible (though very slowly) and backup jobs ran, completing at 5:21am. Swap topped out at 42196 KiB. "reboot -f" restated the NAS.
If the system is swapping a lot then more RAM may help. It shouldn't crash if it's using swap but performance would drop.
On all of my 6-bay systems (which includes one Ultra 6) the temperatures have always seemed swapped to me, on 4.2.x as well as 6.x. Or at least I think they all were. The Ultra6 has only ever been a backup system, so it may have been reversed and I never noticed. They are quite similar to what you are experiencing with 6.6. Since my Ultra6 is just a backup, I booted it up 10 minutes ago to watch what happens. Drives are at 33°C to 35°C, CPU at 30°C, and system at 55°C. The system temperature started at about 43°C and rose quickly to the current temperature. I have only one 6-bay system not running 6.x. It's an Ultra6Plus. I booted it a couple minutes after the Ultra6. Note that it's not co-located, the environment may be a bit cooler, and it's got some older Seagate enterprise drives where the Ultra6 has WD reds.. The drives are 39° or 41°C, CPU at 24°C and system at 55°C. But here is the kicker -- the chart on the U;ltra6 OS6.6.0 system and the reported current temperature don't agree. The chart says the CPU temp stared at 0°C and is now at 27°C. The reported current CPU temperature has not moved from the original 30°C.
30°C may be a valid CPU temp at the point it took the first measurement. 0° clearly is not, nor is 27°C likely. And it's not that there is a single bad reading at 0° and it jumps to something valid -- it has been slowly rising. There is definately something amiss with the reporting of Ultra6 CPU temperature in OS6.6.0. The reported current temperature stays fixed at the boot temperature and the charted temperature has the wrong scale factor and bias. Yes, it's "unsupported", but I thought they had this right at some point.
Could I interject for a moment and ask a dumb question? where is the sensor or what does the "System" temp represent
I have a Pro 4 on OS 6.6.1
Two more hangups today, with frozen front-panel display, inop power button, cessation of data to performance graphs (and, I discovered, changing fan setting does nothing in these cases). Web UI still runs, resync runs (48% done, and only 160 hours to go!), shares still served on the network, SSh works, but no updating of fan speed or temperatures, no shutdown via front panel or web UI, no dowloading of logs from the web UI. I can still start/stop backup jobs from the web UI, though.
In the latest case, no backup jobs had run and no swap was ever used. Between that and mdgm's response, I'm ruling out low memory as the culprit.
kekesgm: I ran the memory test for 6 passes today; no errors. On my Ultra 6, setting the fan to "Cool" does ramp up the fan (as long as the box hasn't hung up, that is) and cools down "SYS" to 39º or 40º, but "Balanced" and "Quiet" either set the same condition around 43º or so, or are reversed (e.g., Balanced runs quieter and hotter than Quiet does), but I wasn't able to repeat my testing to see which was the case before the most recent hangup occurred.
Jophus: My disks run 35º–38º; SYS varies from 39º to 50º depending on fan setting and workload; CPU is, like yours, fixed at 35º no matter what.
Sandshark: On my Ultra 6 the CPU temp reading and the CPU temp graph agree: both are as fixed to 35º as if they'd been nailed there, and then had Gorrilla Glue poured over them to be on the safe side.
bedlam1: there are no dumb questions, only dumb answers (grin). I have no idea where the "System" sensor is on a Pro 4; that's a very different box than the Ultra 6, and whatever we learn here may or may not apply there. Mind you, I have no idea where the System sensor is on an Ultra 6 either.
I'm going to leave the hung system running until resync finishes or it locks up completely, just to see what happens, but my gut feeling at this point is that OS 6 isn't solid enough yet on an Ultra 6 to be trusted for deployment. :-( Stay tuned...
Try to test memory in a PC. Or just try to put back the original 1GB. It need to be enough, maybe slower. (at my workplace we have a half dozen of 8bay and 4pcs 12bay NAS from another brand, they both use 1GB Ram, enough for Fileserver, DNS server, Backup server, everything.)
Check the hardware. Is your PSU cleaned? My was full with dirt, the full is real full,after clean I can feel the PSU lighter (the weight). Not a joke, the hoover tray was half full after the cleaning. (didnt tried with compressed air, because a global warming start, if it goes into the atmosphere...)
Do you have antivirus ON? Maybe try without it.
Quiet-balanced-cool: On my box, it is mad. Sometimes the Quiet work on full RPM, Cool work on slow (700RPM, warning in frontview). Sometimes the opposite. Weird... It needs a fix in an update. Maybe Quiet is 7V for fan, Cool is 12V for fan, Balanced can be an automatic, by temperature.
CPU temp: If you see my config file, what i wrote, there is a line (compute....), what set a default minimum to the cputemp (35Celsius by factory default.) It is bad. the Atom CPU-s have the own sensor, if a PC or netbook can use it, a NAS can too, i am sure. Just the OS doesnt handle it fine.
I already thought to use the Arctic F12 TC fan, with own temp sensor (this one), but it can sense on the heatsink only, not in the core of CPU. But I think, a good fan and a good placement enough for keep the NAS in life. If you worry about the temp, a 40x40x10mm fan (like my Noiseblocker XM2) can help some degree.
System Temp Sensor is in Northbridge, I think. (not sure). I touched the chips, when the NAS worked on a big copy. (yeah, i am an extreme and horroristic sysadmin, beyond borders, checker T-shirt, drink cola&coffee, StarWars-fan, etc). The Northbridge was hot, all other warm or roomtemp.
I ordered a heatsink to Northbridge already (this one), and the conductive glue (this one), if I arrive, and used and tested, I will write the results.
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