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Solved
RN102 NAS has bricked
My ReadyNAS RN102 will not boot up - I think that the battery has died - but it looks like I have to do a complete disassembly of the NAS to get at the battery to check it and replace it. However th...
Edmundcramp wrote:RAID pretty much gaurentees day to day functionality but NAS systems do occasionally die - in the old days it was not a big deal, I could just build a new one but these days commercial NAS system "upgrades" often render the older disks unreadable.
The ReadyNAS uses Linux software RAID via MDADM and BTRFS, neither invented nor altered by Netgear. Nothing in the file system is proprietary or dependent on specificf hardware. XRAID is "just": a set of algorithms that adds some automation to managing the RAID so owners that don't want to mess with that don't have to. While there have been some changes along the way, they were changes in BTRFS for all users. So, you certainly can build a Linux based NAS that will read ReadyNAS drives, assuming the RAID array is intact, not damaged. Hardware RAID, while usually faster than software RAID, can create a problem if the controller dies. I don't know if any of the current NAS manufacturers use hardware or other proprietary RAID, but Netgear does not.
You didn't really give your 102 a chance. You reached a conclusion before really assessing the conditions properly, having assumed (incorrectly) that a battery issue would be a likely cause. But it does have a very limited CPU and small amount of RAM, so has limitations that will likely only get larger as time goes on. So using this as an opportunity to move to something newer, even if not a ReadyNAS, could be a good idea. And if you already had a solid data backup, then resurrecting the 102 wasn't a necessity.
I recently had to power down the RN102 NAS, the first time in a year or two, it said that an update was available when I shut it down but I didn't install it. When I powered the NAS back up again all the front panel LED lights turned on, the fan runs but the NAS does not appear on the network although the lights are on the network connector. This would be a typical backup battery issue on many machines. I have finally managed to disassemble it and check the battery, it's fine, the PSU is fine and the disks work OK although I can't read them - the unit does not respond to any of the buttons and RAIDar doesn't see it. Removing the disks doesn't help so basically it's dead.
About the only thing that can be replaced in the RN102 is the power adapter.
The disks can be migrated to another OS-6 NAS (though if you were to get an x86 NAS some apps would need to be reinstalled).
Problem Solved - it's in the recycle bin. I've used RAID systems for years now and don't trust them because this is not an uncommon problem. RAID pretty much gaurentees day to day functionality but NAS systems do occasionally die - in the old days it was not a big deal, I could just build a new one but these days commercial NAS system "upgrades" often render the older disks unreadable. So I run multiple NAS systems backing up each other, the ReadyNAS backup system has some excellent features so I use RSYNC to back up the working drives to other drives that do not appear on the network giving us no worries about malware infections.
Edmundcramp wrote:RAID pretty much gaurentees day to day functionality but NAS systems do occasionally die - in the old days it was not a big deal, I could just build a new one but these days commercial NAS system "upgrades" often render the older disks unreadable.
The ReadyNAS uses Linux software RAID via MDADM and BTRFS, neither invented nor altered by Netgear. Nothing in the file system is proprietary or dependent on specificf hardware. XRAID is "just": a set of algorithms that adds some automation to managing the RAID so owners that don't want to mess with that don't have to. While there have been some changes along the way, they were changes in BTRFS for all users. So, you certainly can build a Linux based NAS that will read ReadyNAS drives, assuming the RAID array is intact, not damaged. Hardware RAID, while usually faster than software RAID, can create a problem if the controller dies. I don't know if any of the current NAS manufacturers use hardware or other proprietary RAID, but Netgear does not.
You didn't really give your 102 a chance. You reached a conclusion before really assessing the conditions properly, having assumed (incorrectly) that a battery issue would be a likely cause. But it does have a very limited CPU and small amount of RAM, so has limitations that will likely only get larger as time goes on. So using this as an opportunity to move to something newer, even if not a ReadyNAS, could be a good idea. And if you already had a solid data backup, then resurrecting the 102 wasn't a necessity.
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