NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Ultra 2 Plus won't boot - support case #18604734
I've been running a ReadyNAS Ultra 2 Plus for about four months now without any problems. A few days ago I upgraded it to the new 4.2.20 firmware, during which I think the system rebooted successfully...
Hi StephenB!
Actually, Bonnie (like IOzone) is a fairly useless tool. It measures your PC RAM and not the storage. You have to work with a target file that is at least 2x the size of your PC RAM to outsmart it. The best tools to use are Vdbench and IOmeter or SPECsfs (NAS specific). Also, note that the maximum lab rate for a single GigE connection for reads is about 108 MB/s (large block seq reads). For writes it is about 90-100. Anything higher is coming out of server buffers.
A Single RAID-0 disk is faster than a RAID-1 pair since all writes are duplexed, and the write completion ACK is not returned to the host until both are complete. Most entry level RAID controllers (what inexpensive NAS units and RAIKD cards for PCs are) do not read from both disks of a RAID-1 pair but only the primary. So reads are the same as one disk. For a 4-disk RAID-0 stripe, 4 disks should be (but many RAID controllers are poor quality and don't perform as expected) much faster than a single disk, but there would be no point in using RAID-0.
(Just tossing all this in since others will read this and may not know much about storage mechanisms.) When testing random small block performance, the metric to use is IOPS (not MB/s since that is for throughput - sequential loads). Random will never achieve the rates that large block (64KB - 8MB) seq can achieve due to the inefficiency of all the overhead to manage each tiny (2KB, 4KB, 8KB) I/O. Seq moves more data and the subsystem (should) perform prefetch upon seq detection of a stride pattern.
Anyway, on my Ultra 2 Plus problem (upgraded the firmware to 4.2.20 and after one successful reboot it is hosed), I heard back on yesterday's ticket (18617389) that I should try the boot menu and do a Factory reset - but the boot menu will not execute any choice made. So back the unit goes to Fry's tomorrow. The "level 2" techs at Netgear don't bother to read the details in the tickets it seems.
Actually, Bonnie (like IOzone) is a fairly useless tool. It measures your PC RAM and not the storage. You have to work with a target file that is at least 2x the size of your PC RAM to outsmart it. The best tools to use are Vdbench and IOmeter or SPECsfs (NAS specific). Also, note that the maximum lab rate for a single GigE connection for reads is about 108 MB/s (large block seq reads). For writes it is about 90-100. Anything higher is coming out of server buffers.
A Single RAID-0 disk is faster than a RAID-1 pair since all writes are duplexed, and the write completion ACK is not returned to the host until both are complete. Most entry level RAID controllers (what inexpensive NAS units and RAIKD cards for PCs are) do not read from both disks of a RAID-1 pair but only the primary. So reads are the same as one disk. For a 4-disk RAID-0 stripe, 4 disks should be (but many RAID controllers are poor quality and don't perform as expected) much faster than a single disk, but there would be no point in using RAID-0.
(Just tossing all this in since others will read this and may not know much about storage mechanisms.) When testing random small block performance, the metric to use is IOPS (not MB/s since that is for throughput - sequential loads). Random will never achieve the rates that large block (64KB - 8MB) seq can achieve due to the inefficiency of all the overhead to manage each tiny (2KB, 4KB, 8KB) I/O. Seq moves more data and the subsystem (should) perform prefetch upon seq detection of a stride pattern.
Anyway, on my Ultra 2 Plus problem (upgraded the firmware to 4.2.20 and after one successful reboot it is hosed), I heard back on yesterday's ticket (18617389) that I should try the boot menu and do a Factory reset - but the boot menu will not execute any choice made. So back the unit goes to Fry's tomorrow. The "level 2" techs at Netgear don't bother to read the details in the tickets it seems.
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
