I'm having some problems with Replicate. I have the following setup: A new ReadyNAS 314 running OS6 as primary NAS and a legacy Pro4 with the community-ported version of OS6, acting as backup NAS. The backup NAS is located off-site, both NAS have encryption enabled. OS6 is working perfectly on the Pro4.
I performed an initial sync where both NAS were in the same network, so the job was executed over LAN. Worked flawlessly. I then moved the backup NAS off-site. It had to stay turned off for a few weeks. After switching it on, both NAS could be seen from the Replicate website, so the connection seems to be working. However, backup jobs kept failing. Not a single replicate job completed, they fail in one of two ways. Either there is no connection at all ("unable to connect to nas-27-59-16", connect error code -300) or the job times out after approximately 2 hours ("copy failed", exit code 30, data send/receive timeout). The problem seems to be similar to this issue: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=138&t=58968. It appears that, when the job never starts ("unable to conneto to nas-27-59-16"), it will continue to give this error until I reboot the primary NAS. The jobs will then start, but will fail again after ~2 hours. nas-27-59-16 is the primary NAS.
In another post (http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=138&t=73292) it was recommended that creating a new job in Replicate might do the trick. I first renamed the existing job, errors continued. I then disabled the job and created a new one. Same errors.
Netgear support is refusing to support this issue because an old Pro4 with OS6 is involved, so an unsupported system. 😞 They did hint at a bad internet connection as the job completed via LAN.
In the log files of the primary NAS I came across the following:
Jul 21 03:24:01 sheldon /USR/SBIN/CRON[26081]: (root) CMD (/bin/bash /opt/replication/etc/init.d/watchdog.sh) Jul 21 03:24:01 sheldon CRON[26080]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user root Jul 21 03:25:01 sheldon /usr/sbin/cron[1899]: (*system*replication) CAN'T OPEN SYMLINK (/etc/cron.d/replication)
The "can't open symlink" seems a bit unusual. /etc/cron.d/replication links to /opt/replication/etc/cron.d/replication, which does not exist. I would guess that this, in turn, should execute /opt/replication/etc/init.d/replicate (there is a parallel setup for watchdog.sh, which makes me think so). However, I haven't tried to manually create this potentially missing file. I'm certainly no expert and so I am only looking, not altering. I am not getting the same error on the backup NAS, but as it is located off-site I have not been able to check if the file is present on the backup NAS.
Here two Replicate logs from the failed backups.
Log: 2014-07-15 02:00:03 Job updated from server 2014-07-15 02:00:04 Replicate version: 1.2.0 build R6 2014-07-15 02:00:04 Starting backup job "Sheldon Backup" 2014-07-15 02:00:04 Locking target folder: /AmyVolume1/backups/Sheldon Backup 2014-07-15 02:00:05 Resume folder is "/AmyVolume1/backups/Sheldon Backup/2014-07-10 21-54 (failed)/data" 2014-07-15 02:00:06 p2p connect to nas-27-59-16 in 3428910 network 2014-07-15 02:00:42 p2p connect to nas-27-59-16 in 3428910 network 2014-07-15 02:01:19 Unable to connect to nas-27-59-16 2014-07-15 02:01:19 Connect error code: -300 2014-07-15 02:01:19 Unlock target folder: /AmyVolume1/backups/Sheldon Backup 2014-07-15 02:01:19 Job finished
Files:null
Summary:null
Log: 2014-07-22 02:00:06 Job updated from server 2014-07-22 02:00:06 Replicate version: 1.2.0 build R6 2014-07-22 02:00:06 Starting backup job "Sheldon Backup" 2014-07-22 02:00:06 Locking target folder: /AmyVolume1/backups/Sheldon Backup 2014-07-22 02:00:07 Resume folder is "/AmyVolume1/backups/Sheldon Backup/2014-07-21 18-32 (failed)/data" 2014-07-22 02:00:15 p2p connect to nas-27-59-16 in 3428910 network 2014-07-22 02:00:51 p2p connect to nas-27-59-16 in 3428910 network 2014-07-22 02:00:57 Connection method: 0 2014-07-22 02:00:57 LAN connection not available 2014-07-22 02:00:57 Using p2p connection 2014-07-22 02:00:57 Initializing source device 2014-07-22 02:00:57 Sending task to source device 2014-07-22 02:00:58 Awaiting task report 2014-07-22 02:01:02 Received success report 2014-07-22 02:01:02 Device initialization finished 2014-07-22 02:01:02 Copy in progress 2014-07-22 04:50:19 Copy failed 2014-07-22 04:50:19 Deinitialize source device 2014-07-22 04:50:19 Sending task to source device 2014-07-22 04:50:28 Unable to send task 2014-07-22 04:50:28 Device deinitialization failed 2014-07-22 04:50:28 p2p disconnect with nas-27-59-16 in 3428910 network 2014-07-22 04:50:29 Unlock target folder: /AmyVolume1/backups/Sheldon Backup 2014-07-22 04:50:29 Job finished
Files: [omitting list of files that were copied]
Summary: Copy start time: 2014-07-22 02:01 Total files processed: 21674 Total files transferred: 842 Total files size: 8.66 GB Total files size transferred: 2.92 GB Average speed: 301.17 KB/s Exit code: 30 (Data send/receive timeout) Copy end time: 2014-07-22 04:50 Copy end time: 2014-07-22 04:50
By the way, the DSL modem is set to perform a re-connect once a day in order to prevent disconnect by the ISP. It was a default setting I did not bother to change. This re-connect took place on 2014-07-22 at 04:30, so during the Replicate job. A new IP was issued by the ISP after re-connecting. It appears that this didn't affect the backup job. In any case, the situation is exactly the same if no such reconnect takes place during backup.
Does anyone have an idea what is causing this? Any idea how I could at least determine the root cause: wheter it is an internet problem, something caused by OS6 on Pro4, or something entirely different? Can someone, who has a working replicate job, tell me if the "system" log file of the primary/source NAS contains the same errors on missing symlink? Any help would be appreciated!
Re: Replicate timeout/no connection - Case #23506807
Hi Marto, thanks for your response. I must admit, this is disappointing. I already mentioned in my post that support is refusing to help because of OS6 on OS4 platform, so when you responded nonetheless I had my hopes up for a short while. Can't you at least give a statement regarding the error (missing symlink) that I'm receiving on the RN314?
I'm really not sure what to do now: - According to Netgear, I shouldn't use replicate in mixed environments, e.g. with OS6 on one device and OS4 on another - Netgear is not willing to provide OS6 for old devices - Replicate is not working and Netgear won't give support (not even for problems that appear to involve only the RN314, i.e. connection not at all possible). - And regular backups in a LAN are also not working, see here: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=77118. If they were, I could just set up my own VPN between the two networks.
Re: Replicate timeout/no connection - Case #23506807
It seems to me that Netgear has put you in a catch-22 on OS4/OS6.
aegir wrote:
...What form of backup DOES work on a Netgear NAS?
I use RSYNC on my local LAN to back up my pro6 (OS4) to smaller NAS (an RN102 running OS6, a duo v1 and nv+ v1 running OS4). This is with Frontview backup, and runs very reliably. I run the backup jobs on the destination system(s)
Occasionally I have gone the other direction (from OS6 to OS4). These are "one-of" copies of shares, not part of my normal backup plan.
I also have CrashPlan running on the pro6, and it works well. Though I haven't needed to do a major restore (and it is something else Netgear doesn't support). CrashPlan might not be available to you (or might have slow connection speeds) if you are not in the US. Egnyte has a service you could check out as well. In my opinion it is expensive for home users, though my guess is you are a business user.
I also use Acronis TrueImage to back up PCs to the NAS on schedule. On some PCs there is a post-backup cmd script (using robocopy) that backs up some NAS shares onto internal PC drives. That works quite reliably.
I don't use disk encryption on the RN102, do not make OS6 snapshots user-accessible, and don't use home shares on any system.
Re: Replicate timeout/no connection - Case #23506807
Hi Stephen, thanks for your advice. Don't want to use a cloud service. I had initially considered it, but preference was to keep full control over files. I might look into RSYNC when I have completely given up on Replicate, but I am not quite there yet.
I just had a period again where no connections were possible at all ("Unable to connect to nas-27-59-16"). I installed the ReadyNAS Remote client for Windows, which I hadn't used at all so far. It connected to the old Pro4, but the RN314 was shown as offline in ReadyNAS Remote. It could be reached through LAN though, and device status on readycloud.netgear.com was also "online". Only after restarting the RN314 could it be reached through ReadyNAS Remote. As the two services, Remote and Replicate, use the same underlying technology this doesn't really come as a surprise. Now I just need to wait until the device is unreachable again, and will then open a ticket regarding the problems with ReadyNAS Remote. No more unsupported products involved :wink:
