ReadyNAS have shown SMART data from the very beginning. In OS6, hover over the green dot for the drive on the System/Performance page of the GUI, and you'll see the SMART data. You can scroll it with the mouse wheel. It's also available in the downloaded log .zip.
FWIW I wish they'd change that - doesn't work well when I'm using my laptop (since I'm not using a mouse).
However, downloading the log zip gives you more info, and it is useful to look in system.log and kernel.log for disk or btrfs errors from time to time.
I have had Netgear stuff for over a decade and I did not know the answer. My comment, intended for Netgear management, is that the documentation for Netgear ReadyNAS devices really sucks.
I just purchased a 626 system in anticiptation of a comming upgrade. What I got was the device and a 9 page manual approximately 3" x 4". No web URl, no help, no nothing.
I called and asked a technical suport representative (yesterday) a series of questions. The phone interaction lasted for longer than an hour and the gentlemen often consulted with his colegues before answering my queries. On this topic, he informed me that S.M.A.R.T. data was useful and he would submit a product improvement recomendation. I could not believe the answer, hence my question on this forum. I have other questions as well.
Netgear management should undertake a project to actually produce and improve their documentation. There are lots of features and capabilities not documented in any useful way. The forum is good but customers should have some base reference document.
Just think -- more than an hour of telephone consultation could have been avoided with better documentation. Multiply that times thousands of systems sold. On top of that the customer loyalty index would likely improve.
Thanks again for the answer. I have little hope for response to my more general lament.
Good reference. Thanks for pointing my nose into it. I admit that I have not looked at that document for a long time -- I just kept using the Netgear merchandise.
The manual did not answer my question but that is to be expected -- every quesiton cannot be answered at day one. Over time if the manual is updated based of forum requests, tech support question, etc. it will become more robust.
Here are my current questions that I asked the technical support fellow...
Once bit-rot is enabled to you have to copy data to get it operational? I believe I understand the answer but asked anyway. The CSR did not know the answer.
Will a 'scrub' action have the effect of the requisite copy after bit-rot is inabled? The CSR did not know the answer. I believe the answer is no.
Will a rsync copy satisfiy the requisite copy needed to actually implement bit-rot protection? I believe the answer is yes but again the CSR deferred.
Will an export action satisfy the requisite copy needed to actually implement bit rot protection? The CSR deferred
Does the system have specific hardware to do the bit-rot checksums or is that function done with firmware. The CSR speculated on the answer.
The CSR recomended against bit-rot since the performance impact would be high. Hence the question regarding CPU utilization.
The intention is to get someone at Netgear to pay more attention sao some of these questions and update thedocument as they are raised and answered
The CSR recomended against bit-rot since the performance impact would be high.
It shouldn't be all that high in an RN626x. Unless it's actually repairing something, the overhead is just creating and verifying BTRFS checksums. Do you have checksum enabled in the volume (check the settings wheel on the volume tab)?
If you do, I think you can just turn bit-rot protection on and off as you like. But I'm not really sure what it takes to create checksums for blocks if checksums were off when the data was written. Nothing turned up in a casual search of the btrfs wiki (rather surprising actually). However, if BTRFS checksums are on then they will be generated whenever data is written. So copying data back into the share after bit-rot protection is enabled would certainly do it.
FWIW, I do have bit-rot protection enabled in my shares on my RN526x. But it's not something I worry too much about. I depend on backups for keeping my data safe. Perhaps just turn it on, and not worry about files that are already written to the NAS??? And if you see a problem with performance afterwards, just turn it off again.
