ReadyNAS Pro 6 Pioneer Edition cannot boot after OS4 to OS6 upgrade
Greetings!
I had upgraded my ReadyNAS Pro 6 Pioneer Edition to OS6, and when it first rebooted, all appeared well. The hard drives were building a new RAID set, and Raidar saw the device on the network, I had a backup of the data that had been on the ReadyNAS prior to the upgrade, and built that backup on a ReadyNAS314 (running OS6), so that I could attempt to move the RAIDset from the 314 to the upgraded Pro 6. When I put the drives in and booted, i saw a message about "No IP" and that the device was booting into safe mode. Since the device had no IP I could not troubleshoot across the network. I put the original disks back in, and got the same result. I tried the reset button and I tried booting with an OS 6 recovery USB. Finally the device would no longer boot, and only showed the ReadyNAS logo on the front.
I'm thinking that I lost the same data that the person in that thread had lost as well.
Can anyone help me getting this ReadyNAS back up and running with any OS version? It's a 12-year-old NAS, but had been functioning perfectly. I just wanted to move to larger drives.
Re: ReadyNAS Pro 6 Pioneer Edition cannot boot after OS4 to OS6 upgrade
Yes. Actually, the RAID set was created in a EDA500 connected to a RN314. Once I replaced the drives into the EDA500, it "rebuilt" for a short while and is now fine.
Yes. Actually, the RAID set was created in a EDA500 connected to a RN314. Once I replaced the drives into the EDA500, it "rebuilt" for a short while and is now fine.
Did you export the volume before you removed the disks?
I've never used the EDA500 - @Sandshark has, and likely knows the expected behavior if you attempt to migrate an EDA500 volume in this way.
Re: ReadyNAS Pro 6 Pioneer Edition cannot boot after OS4 to OS6 upgrade
No, I did not "export". I had created a volume on the EDA500 and used robocopy to mirror the raidset on the Pro 6 to the volume on the EDA500. That took a week! I do have another backup, just in case.
I had created a volume on the EDA500 and used robocopy to mirror the raidset on the Pro 6 to the volume on the EDA500. That took a week!
Not surprised. Robocopy was likely the bottleneck - RSYNC or NFS backup jobs would have run faster. Still, Robocopy is very robust.
Thanks. I may try one of those other options next time.
The other thread I cited had mentioned some data regarding the RN model and serial number being missing, and preventing the device to go past the ReadyNAS logo. I do understand that the OS upgrade is not supported by Netgear, but anyone that could provide a procedure to get RN Pro 6 back up and running would be greatly appreciated.
Re: ReadyNAS Pro 6 Pioneer Edition cannot boot after OS4 to OS6 upgrade
If you want to move the volume from an EDA500 to be the primary volume on another NAS, don't export it. An exported volume cannot be made into a primary volume (at least not by any automatic process nor any manual one I've discovered).
I've run some experiments like what you did, and it worked for me. I did nothing special for that to happen. But you'll see a few things happen on their own. Since the EDA volume wasn't included in the swap partition RAID, it'll have to build one in the new system. The OS partition on both systems will also have to re-sync with the proper number of drives. It will create a place for user shares (though it won't create the shares themselves right away) and apps. Once booted, it'll show the old primary volume as missing, and you'll need to delete it.
Of course, you didn't get there, and it's hard to say why, but one of the processes I listed may have failed. If you have apps installed, that could be your problem. Many apps make changes in configuration files in the OS partition (which is duplicated on the EDA drives), but the app files are in the apps partition of your primary volume and don't move with the EDA volume. So it hangs on one of the changes with no app to support that change. I had no apps installed whan I ran my experiments.
If you had succeeded, you'd now have two systems with the same UUID, and I'm not sure if that could ever cause any issues.
There is one other thing you can try since the EDA volume is 5 drives max. You can create a primary partition with a single drive on the Pro, then (with power off), insert the exported EDA volume as a secondary one. It'll then import as a secondary volume when you apply power. Note that the new one-drive volume must have a name different than the EDA volume and contain no shares with the same names as on the EDA volume. Once all that works itself out (OS and swap partitions synced, which should only take minutes), you can destroy the primary volume and the one from the EDA should become primary. I've had problems with apps not properly migrating when you do that, but you won't have created any on the Pro yet. User folder contents also don't migrate, in fact the user has to log in for the share to be created (or you can do it manually from SSH with the mkhomedir_helper command). But again, you'll have none except for admin on the new volume.
If you want to move the volume from an EDA500 to be the primary volume on another NAS, don't export it. An exported volume cannot be made into a primary volume (at least not by any automatic process nor any manual one I've discovered).
I've run some experiments like what you did, and it worked for me. I did nothing special for that to happen. But you'll see a few things happen on their own. Since the EDA volume wasn't included in the swap partition RAID, it'll have to build one in the new system. The OS partition on both systems will also have to re-sync with the proper number of drives. It will create a place for user shares (though it won't create the shares themselves right away) and apps. Once booted, it'll show the old primary volume as missing, and you'll need to delete it.
Of course, you didn't get there, and it's hard to say why, but one of the processes I listed may have failed. If you have apps installed, that could be your problem. Many apps make changes in configuration files in the OS partition (which is duplicated on the EDA drives), but the app files are in the apps partition of your primary volume and don't move with the EDA volume. So it hangs on one of the changes with no app to support that change. I had no apps installed whan I ran my experiments.
If you had succeeded, you'd now have two systems with the same UUID, and I'm not sure if that could ever cause any issues.
There is one other thing you can try since the EDA volume is 5 drives max. You can create a primary partition with a single drive on the Pro, then (with power off), insert the exported EDA volume as a secondary one. It'll then import as a secondary volume when you apply power. Note that the new one-drive volume must have a name different than the EDA volume and contain no shares with the same names as on the EDA volume. Once all that works itself out (OS and swap partitions synced, which should only take minutes), you can destroy the primary volume and the one from the EDA should become primary. I've had problems with apps not properly migrating when you do that, but you won't have created any on the Pro yet. User folder contents also don't migrate, in fact the user has to log in for the share to be created (or you can do it manually from SSH with the mkhomedir_helper command). But again, you'll have none except for admin on the new volume.
Thank you for that explanation. I did not have any apps installed (I have no apps installed on my 3 other ReadyNAS devices either).
Re: ReadyNAS Pro 6 Pioneer Edition cannot boot after OS4 to OS6 upgrade
Have you upgraded the memory to at least 2GB? Some users have had issues with OS6 beyond 6.9.x and only 1GB on a legacy system, and the processes needed for the migration may be struggling with too little.
Have you upgraded the memory to at least 2GB? Some users have had issues with OS6 beyond 6.9.x and only 1GB on a legacy system, and the processes needed for the migration may be struggling with too little.
Thanks. I did not upgrade the RAM. I will give that a try. TBH I was waiting to see an "out of RAM" error before I thought about any upgrades.
Re: ReadyNAS Pro 6 Pioneer Edition cannot boot after OS4 to OS6 upgrade
I've had no issue with any PC2-5300 or faster, so long as it's of 1Rx8 construction (which it will be unless you try to go for a 4GB stick, which may be 2Rx4 and not work). If you have already, or may in the future, upgrade the processor for a CORE2, then going with PC2-6400 is recommended. Note that it's not dual-channel RAM, so there is no need for both slots to have the same size. But that RAM is so cheap, you mght as well put in two 2GB sticks.
