ReadyNAS Pro unresponsive on 4.2.21 - first time in years.

So, almost 6 months later, I'm still experiencing the same issue. I have five VMs that are hosted on the ReadyNAS via iSCSI, and this morning, the ReadyNAS Pro 6 became unresponsive again. ReadyNAS' interface plugged into my LAN switch does not respond to pings. The other ReadyNAS interface plugged directly into my ESXi host is still working because the virtual machines are alive even though they are actually on the ReadyNAS datastore.

I have a Windows VM also hosted on the ReadyNAS datastore, which has a virtual NIC on the e-switch that is on the ESXi physical interface connected directly to the ReadyNAS. I tried to HTTP to FrontView from that VM, and I can see FrontView's frame but no content inside of the frame - so the normal FrontView menu items are not there. I also tried to SSH to the ReadyNAS via that Windows VM"s interface bridged to the ESXi host's interface plugged directly into the ReadyNAS, and I can get the "login as" and the "password" prompts but I never get to the ReadyNAS' shell. Strangely enough, the ReadyNAS is still operating as the ESXi datastore. To me it sounds as some sort of memory leak. Besides the ReadyNAS being used as a file server and an ESXi datastore, it is also running the Logitech Media Server v 7.7.2. One of these services is what causes the ReadyNAS to become unresponsive. My suspicion has been from the get go that this is an issue with iSCSI. In the past, the behavior was very similar, but I was able to HTTP to the ReadyNAS via the direct link between the ESXi host and the ReadyNAS secondary interface (from the Windows VM) and then toggle the ReadyNAS primary interface (by changing the duplex setting from auto to 1000/full and then back to auto). This would fix the unresponsiveness and the ReadyNAS would continue working fine. This time around, I can't get to the ReadyNAS in this manner either via HTTP or SSH, so I will have to power down all of my VMs and then physically reset the ReadyNAS.

The way I usually notice that the ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive is the fact that my Squeezebox devices stop streaming music. This is exactly what happened today.

I had two tickets open with Netgear support on this issue starting back in June of 2012. The first ticket was closed without resolution. The second ticket was opened for about 3.5 months. Netgear asked me to open SSH access for them to troubleshoot the problem, and then their engineer disappeared. I left the SSH access open thinking that they are working on this issue behind the scenes. As a result of SSH access to the ReadyNAS having been open from the Internet for several months, my ReadyNAS was hacked into and infected with a Trojan, which started attacking other servers on the Internet. It became a soldier in the army of bots attacking a company in Europe, and after the company complained to their ISP, and that ISP forwarded the complaint to my ISP, Time Warner shut off my Internet access. This happened twice within a month, and after the second time, I started investigating in earnest which host was infected on my network, and was very surprised to find out that it was the ReadyNAS. I was able to unmount all of my personal data and then wiped out all other files, and then did the factory reset with software reinstall. I was able to restore the ReadyNAS back to the normal functionality back at the end of 2012, and I was hoping the saga with my ReadyNAS was over. However, as I learned today, the saga is still ongoing.

So, I decided that I have had enough. I am abandoning the ReadyNAS ship (the sinking ship), and I'm switching to a competitor. This is no longer a viable platform for my computing needs. After the Jedi left, this line of products is heading for a crash of galactic proportions.