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Forum Discussion
Solved
RND2000 Frontview Not Working After Removal of Failing Disk
Model: RND2000
Firmware: 4.1.16
RAIDar: v6.5.0
Scenario
I have had the above RND for many years without significant difficulties. It is configured with 2 2TB disks, mirrored by XRAID. The root/ssh package is also installed.
At the moment I cannot invoke Frontview from RAIDar or by browser. Neither can I action a backup to a USB disk.
Background
Some while ago the disk in slot 1 started to indicate that it was failing. So I removed it from the RND so that no problems would be caused by it while I obtained a replacement. In this condition the LED for disk 1 is slowly flashing as expected and the LED for disk2 is on. RAIDar correctly displays the status of the system. The directories and files on the RND can be correctly accessed from the PCs on the network.
Before installing the replacement disk I wish to backup the system in the way that I normally do. I plugged in the USB disk to the front port, and after a little activity on both the USB disk and the RND I pressed the backup button. Nothing happened. The button should activate a configured backup of the disk(s). At this point I attempted to connect to Frontview from RAIDar and got the following message in the browser window:
Unable to connect
An error occurred during a connection to 192.168.*.**. (I have masked the full IP address)
I can successfully login to root from Putty, which seems to indicate that the USB disk is not mounting. Copy of df -v and ps -eaf in attached file.
Can somebody please advise on how to get Frontview and backup working again. Thank you.
I'm delighted to report that I'm back up and running! đ
On consideration of my previous post it struck me there were file(s) missing from the OS and RAIDiator software. This was seemed to apply to some of the Apache system too. I was hesitant to do a full factory reset (for which I had managed to answer most/all of the questions I was considering), and decided to go for a software reinstall. There was the chance that some of the config was missing/corrupt (along with some of my files!), but if that became apparant and I had to go for the full reset then that would have to be done. So here are the steps undertaken.
1. Backup the data over my network to a USB HDD on my PC.
2. Perform software re-install.
After this the system recovered. Frontview and the USB HDD were working again, along with the log emails.
3. Conduct a full check of config on Frontview - all seemed to be correct.
4. Backup up data to the directly connected USB drive.
5. Insert new HDD to replace previously faulty one.
This has been detected and automatically synced with the running disk.
How the system got into this mess I shall probably never know, but at least I know how to get out of it should it happen again, and if this thread is help to anybody else who gets into similar trouble I'm happy!
Thanks to StephenB for his helpful pointers.
8 Replies
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Jewells2 wrote:
(I have masked the full IP address)
No need, as 192.168.x.x is reserved for private networks, and these addresses cannot be used to access your NAS over the internet.
Jewells2 wrote:
At this point I attempted to connect to Frontview from RAIDar and got the following message in the browser window:
Unable to connect
Can you give more details on the error? In particular, are you seeing the SSL protocol/cipher mismatch error???
Jewells2 wrote:
I can successfully login to root from Putty, which seems to indicate that the USB disk is not mounting. Copy of df -v and ps -eaf in attached file.
How is the USB drive formatted?
Have you tried to mount it manually?
Jewells2 wrote:
The directories and files on the RND can be correctly accessed from the PCs on the network.
The simplest option is to connect the USB drive to one of the PCs, and copy the files over the network. Maybe use something like FreeFileSync instead of drag-and-drop.
Hi Stephen. Thanks for picking this up. Here are my responses.
StephenBwrote:
No need, as 192.168.x.x is reserved for private networks ...
I know, but it's good practice.
StephenBwrote:
Can you give more details on the error? In particular, are you seeing the SSL protocol/cipher mismatch error???
I'm afraid there's nothing more on the browser pane (apart from a few generalised tips) than:
Unable to connect
An error occured during a connection to 192.168.*.**.
The Tab header is "Problem loading page"
StephenBwrote:
How is the USB drive formatted?
Have you tried to mount it manually?
The disk is formatted as ext3 from the RND (using Frontview).
I haven't tried to mount the USB disk manually. It's worth a try, but I need some assistance with the mount command to be used, please.
I probably ought to give you a bit more detail about the USB disk arrangement. The disk unit that I use is a Thermaltake BlacX HDD Docking Station. A have a number of HDDs that I cycle round for backup purposes. It's probably not the way I would choose today, but it was ideal at the time I bought the RND, and has served me well.
Now, it;s always possible this BlacX unit faulty, but I can't easily tell at the moment. I suspect the reason the USB is not mounting may also be the same reason that Frontview is not running. I suspect that there may be some processes that are not running on the RND.
If I can quickly get hold of a more modern USB HDD the I might see if this will mount.
If I manage to get a USB HDD mounted I'm not confident that the front button will activate the backup, so I shall need to know what commands the button initiates. But lets see if we can get an USB HDD mounted first!
StephenBwrote:
The simplest option is to connect the USB drive to one of the PCs, and copy the files over the network. ...
I agree this sort of thing is possible, but I couldn't use the current HDDs because of the formatting differences bewteen ext3 and the windows ntfs.
Did I mention that the RND has been rebooted/shutdown a number of times (using init 0 or init 6)? To no avail!
Thanks again.
Jewells2 wrote:
StephenBwrote: The simplest option is to connect the USB drive to one of the PCs, and copy the files over the network.
I agree this sort of thing is possible, but I couldn't use the current HDDs because of the formatting differences bewteen ext3 and the windows ntfs.
Well, you have full access to the files at the moment from the PC. That might not last, and you don't know whether you have a functional backup or not.
You could reformat the current HDDs, and copy the files over the network. The risk here is that the copying might fail.
Or pick up a new one (2-4 TB external drives being pretty inexpensive). Then you'd preserve your existing disks.
A similar option would be to purchase some cloud storage. Google, Apple, and Dropbox all offer 2 TB of cloud storage for $9.99 per month. Once you know the data is safe, you can resume troubleshooting. You can of course cancel the cloud storage once the NAS is back on line (or just use it as a replacement for your 10+ year old NAS).
Jewells2 wrote:
Now, it;s always possible this BlacX unit faulty, but I can't easily tell at the moment.
Maybe try booting with it disconnected, and see if the behavior changes. But the problem might also be that the second disk is also failing.
Frontview runs at a lower priority than the SMB server, and if something is causing the NAS to struggle, Frontview often fails before SMB does.
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