My ReadyNAS Pro6 periodically stops responding to the network. When that happens I can push the button to shutdown it but it will sit on "shutting down" forever and then I'll have to power cycle it.
The thing is that it happens every several MONTHS - however on this occasions it's happened yesterday and now today again.
Logs are never complete when that happens, I see a jump until it's rebooted. I have downloaded the logs if they're required.
We thought it could have been a DHCP issue but I am now on a static IP.
Some time ago I ran an overnight memtest and no issues were reported.
It's rare but I don't like to have to power cycle my NAS. Any further pointers please? This has been happening on several software versions, I am now on 6.10.8.
8GB is the max, but the right kind of 4GB DIMMs are a bit pricy for older memory. 2GB ones are available pretty cheap. But 2GB is typically sufficient. But I don't know how much memory iDrive uses. Some backup software that does a constant sync can require quite a lot if it's dealing with a lot of files.
iDrive only runs overnight and past two days shouldn't have been heavy tasks. I see from iDrive logs that backups have all completed succesfully over the past few days. To be honest I feel the issue has been happening since I was on Crashplan.
I don't mind adding some RAM - chances are I have it in my box of RAM sticks! Can you help me identifying the type of RAM required for this board? Is it DDR2 PC2-6400? I think you're right, 4GB DDR2 are not common, but I think I have some 2GB ones somewhere around.
At the moment though, RAM seem to be happy. Is there a log file where I can see how much RAM is being used? Or maybe set a logger which logs it on a file so I can check next time?
Edit: wait. Not really happy! The system shows 1.8GB being used! What is using my memory? TOP doesn't seem to know. (attached)
the ReadyNAS has crashed again, third day in a row, I can hear the fans spinning louder than usual and the box is now inaccessible. iDrive does not run during the day and I haven't updated or changed anything recently so I am a bit at a loss here.
This time the display was dark, no response when button is pushed. I hold the power button for 4 seconds and it powered off.
When back, all works properly. TOP reports the attached.
the ReadyNAS has crashed again, third day in a row, I can hear the fans spinning louder than usual and the box is now inaccessible. iDrive does not run during the day and I haven't updated or changed anything recently so I am a bit at a loss here.
Can you test with iDrive disabled?
Maybe also try doing a disk test from the volume settings wheel - the challenge there is that the NAS needs to stay up for a day or more, otherwise the test won't complete.
Disks tests run every 4 months - I think you recommended that! 🙂 Last disk tests was January 1st and was successful. I have initiated another one now.
I can try with iDrive disabled but I am confident this won't happen again for weeks/months now and I'm not so happy to disable my backup for so much time. I could keep it disabled and run a backup manually every now and then maybe, what do you think?
The fact that the NAS crashed this morning when iDrive is basically idle, makes me think iDrive is not guilty - but I see your point.
Is the amount of virtual memory allocated to readynasd ok for this system?
Right, I might have a bigger issue here as the NAS has gone offline again while testing disks. The display still says "testing disks" so I'll wait overnight before power cycling it.
It's never been like that so I'll disassemble it and clean the memory slots etc.
The NAS managed to shut down via front panel this time - I guess it still had enough resources to do so.
I took it to my workshop and "serviced" it even though I replaced all the fans a while back so nothing horrible inside.
I found two 2GB memory sticks in my stash so I also upgraded it. They are PC2-6400, do I need to worry about anything else? The system sees 4GB now.
I removed the CPU heatsink, removed the CPU, inspected the pads, cleaned them with dry contact cleaner and reinstalled. Thermal paste replaced. Cleaned RAM sockets and re-seated a few times. All HDDs removed, dusted with compressed air (case too) and re-seated.
I've scoped the 12V and 5V lines with my scope, nothing major I can see, noise is below 200mV. Obviously the PSU could have issues after a while but I would expect the system to fully freeze, not to respond to a shutdown via front panel.
It's working now, we shall see for how long.
Unfortunately iDrive cannot be disabled, only removed. I'll test this way for now, if it happens again I'll remove it.
Thank you. So probably the RAM update was not necessary after all 🙂
The NAS disappeared from the network again yesterday (third time in a day). I went ahead and removed iDrive and also Plex (which was disabled).
This time, as the previous time, I was able to gracefully shut it down via front panel. I know we've been there before but I'm thinking whether I have a network issue. That would not explain the NAS hanging when shutdown via front panel though.
If it happens again I would like to do a software reinstall, can someone please remind me how it's done on OS6? If memory serves, that would just wipe the OS partition. What about all my settings (FTP, shares etc)?
I might also want to re-seat the PCBs which take the network signal from the motherboard to the network sockets just in case.
If that still doesn't work, I might have a HW failure - I guess I could start with using an external ATX PSU to make sure it's not that one.
A friend of mine has looked into the logs for me and advised that the Kernel used by this FW has a known bug when handling files - I'm trying to find out more details about that but I'm sure I don't need to tell Netgear about these things!
I can answer this already as I had TOP running the last two crashes. Yes, SSH drops. I did not take a screenshot but I don't remember seeing any unusual things. The NAS has been running heavily for several hours now (doing some backups!) and I have an SSH window with a continuous ping.
However, the NAS doesn't normally crash when it's in use - at least it's never happened to me. I have my Blu Ray collection on it so the NAS regularly streams high bitrate content (as a file, not as a stream) and never had glitches.
If it happens, it's when it's idle; then I try to access it and it's gone.
Looking at the OS reinstall, it looks like I might need the USB recovery rather than the OS reinstall if not mistaken? That wipes the OS partition if I understand correctly. What kind of settings should I expect to reset?
Looking at the OS reinstall, it looks like I might need the USB recovery rather than the OS reinstall if not mistaken? That wipes the OS partition if I understand correctly. What kind of settings should I expect to reset?
USB recovery rewrites the flash in the NAS. It doesn't directly affect the OS partition on the disks. Not indicated in your situation, as there is no evidence the flash has been corrupted.
OS reinstall does a partial reinstallation of the OS on the disks, but it does not rebuild the entire partition. It will
change the admin password back to admin
reset the IP config to DHCP with no bonding
disable volume quota (which can be re-enabled from the volume settings wheel).
If you want to completely rebuild a new OS partition, you will need to do a factory default, and then reconfigure the NAS and restore all the data from backup.
I don't have an easy way to restore my NAS, it's 12TB of data which are more or less backed up somewhere but only for emergencies.
If you can live w/o the NAS for a while, you could try powering down and removing the disks. Then do a fresh install on one or more spares. Then put some of your data on, and see if the problem still occurs.
To be fair, I guess that removing the whole partition would also remove the configuration of the RAID, shares etc. Probably that's why it only comes with a full reset.
Yes, I was thinking the same thing, remove the drive, install a couple of spare drives and test.
IF it keeps crashing on a daily basis, sure. But if it stops and it crashes every 2 months, that's more complicated. Today, so far so good and it's been pretty active transferring stuff. Finger crossed.
Mildly unrelated question, I see the OS is on Debian 8 which is the extended support version. How come it's still on 8.3 when the last version is 8.11? I know those things are never the latest but 8 is not the latest 🙂
I guess that removing the whole partition would also remove the configuration of the RAID, shares etc. Probably that's why it only comes with a full reset
Yes.
Netgear support can rebuild it, but I've never seen a procedure. Getting ReadyNAS support seems pretty impossible (and you wouldn't get it anyway on Pro-6 converted to OS-6).
Sad to hear about Netgear support - not that I am expecting support as you say.
I was checking out TrueNAS and I see they are on the latest FreeBSD version available. I understand why Netgear doesn't want to move things too fast, but it feels there is not much development going on - or is it just my impression?
I understand why Netgear doesn't want to move things too fast, but it feels there is not much development going on - or is it just my impression?
Netgear hasn't said, but many of us are thinking that they have been quiet-quitting the NAS business for some time. They haven't introduced a new ReadyNAS platform since 2017. And they removed ReadyNAS from the product list on the main website last summer.
I see. Indeed all new NAS announcements I see around are QNAP or Synology.
Thanks, I'll bear that in mind. I'll start looking into options - software options even though the Pro6 is getting old so less and less people would feel the need to have an option.
Are we aware of anything available for it? TrueNAS and similar?
The good news is that my NAS is still online. I hope I don't have to get in touch with iDrive to report an issue with their plugin as they've never been too helpful. The plugin has recently received an upgrade to support OTP. But not so recently to explain the crashes, it was many weeks ago.
You can find threads on the web about installing a more generic Linux based server on a ReadyNAS. The Pro6 has an internal VGA header, and the installation requires you get the proper cable to attach a monitor, but it's not too hard to find. That actually makes it a better platform than some newer ReadyNAS. Every solution I've seen changes the BIOS to boot directly from the drives instead of the boot PROM, but you ought to be able to build a small OS on the boot PROM that then chain-loads the one on the drives, just as ReadyNAS OS does. (But don't ask me how, I'm more of a hardware guy.). You should also be able to install Xpenology, though there are legality issues with it. I can see where using Xpenology would be beneficial if you are looking for a Synology as your new main NAS.
For those with a Pro BE or Pro Pioneer that have not upgraded the processor and added RAM, I'd do that upgrade before trying to install any other OS on it.
