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ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

jhyland
Tutor

ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

I own a ReadyNAS 104.  I currently have four 3TB drives in it in X-Raid.  (5.86TB free of 8.17TB total).  I have a 5TB USB 3.0 drive plugged into the front USB Drive.  It is formatted as EXT4.  I am only running SMB, HTTP and HTTPS services.  I have 8 backup jobs to run each day (full refresh every 4 weeks). 4 are from shares on the ReadyNAS, 1 is a home directory on the ReadyNAS and 3 are remote: Windows/NAS (Timestamp).  Everything was working fine.
 
I applied the 6.4 upgrade.  When the ReadyNAS first boots it works fine.  Note that it did take about 3 days to complete the volume sync after the upgrade. However, after running for a while the unit stops working.  I think I've narrowed it down to when one of the bigger backup jobs starts.  The sympoms are as follows: I cannot access the admin page.  It gives me the message that the unit is not responsive.  The shares are also unavailable when this happens.  There is no message on the display of the unit.  The 4 drive lights are solid blue.  The light on the button is flashing.  I've left it this way for 2 days and it does not improve.  I've tried pressing the power button on the unit and it has no effect.  The only thing I can do is to unplug the readynas and plug it back in.  Then it works ok, until another backup starts.
 
Any suggestions?  Anyone else experiencing similar issues?
 
Thanks for your help.

 

Message 1 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi jhyland,

 

Welcome to the community!

 

Can you confirm if your backups are pointed to the external USB device plugged in to your NAS? If you will disconnect it, will it still freeze or lockup while you're using it? I also suggest to check if both disk spin down and power timer feature are enabled, have them disabled and see if the behavior continues.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

Message 2 of 35
jhyland
Tutor

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi Brian,
Yes, my backups are pointed to the external USB device plugged into my NAS.  I just tried to access from my windows machine a share to the external USB device plugged into my NAS and it caused the unit to lock-up.  I have not tried disconnecting the external USB drive yet.
So a common thread seems to be when the external USB drive is being accessed through/from the NAS it is causing it lock up. (whether from a backup job or from a share).  Note that a very small backup job that may not have any files to backup that day does not cause the unit to lock up.
 
Hope this info helps.
 
Thanks.

 

Message 3 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi jhyland,

 

Thanks for the information that you have provided. Also, can you confirm if this external USB hard drive uses an external power supply?

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

Message 4 of 35
jhyland
Tutor

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi Brian,

Yes there is a separate power supply for the USB hard drive.  It is a Samsung D3 Station 5TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive.  I unplugged the external hard drive, unplugged and replugged in the NAS to get it working again.  I manually started the backup jobs.  They all failed as I would expect since the external HD is disconnected.  The NAS is still responding.  The common thread still seems to be when the NAS is trying to access the external HD.   As I mentioned before, I wasn't having this issue before the 6.4 upgrade.  Any ideas for me to try?

 

Thanks for your help.

Message 5 of 35
sviiimue
Aspirant

Betreff: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Same here. Since Upgrade to 6.4.0 the device is unavailable when a backup job is started - this is very annoying!

 

Device is a 1 week old RN314!

 

Backup location is a SMB share on an other RNDU4000.

Message 6 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi jhyland,

 

I appreciate the information that you have provided. I believe it would be better if you will contact our support team to create a ticket about this issue that you have reported.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

Message 7 of 35
jhyland
Tutor

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

For those that may be experiencing a similar issue:  I opened a support ticket as requested.  Here is the latest status:

 

"Your case is assign to me, As with this case and I would like to inform you that we are also trying to replicate this case in our end

We got an update form our engineering that this might be a bug on the firmware, However they are diligently working on this issue, We might need to released latest firmware soon to fix this problem. I will get back to you once I have an update myself.

We truly appreciate your patience and we will leave this case open and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible."

Message 8 of 35
Scads
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Just to make it quite clear that your problem is not an isolated occurrance. I have an RN102, backing up onto a Seagate 5TB UHB Drive. The NAS works fine on its own, but locks up immediately I restart it with the UHB Drive attached. The UHB Drive works fine in other circumstances, and had previously been a reliable backup mechanism. I can only conclude that it is the FW6.4 that is to blame. The problem occurred immediately I upgraded.

It seems to me that the advice slip on OS6.4 does not cover this, but that many may be blaming the unresponsiveness of their RN on the wrong thing.

Message 9 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi jhyland & Scads,

 

While waiting for a fix from our support team, a beta Firmware has been publicly available (check it here). Download the Firmware and ensure that your external USB hard drives are unplugged when doing the update. Once the Firmware has been successfully installed, try to plug them in and see if the device will lockup again or not.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

Message 10 of 35
Scads
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

This didn't solve my problem, though it may solve others. My RN102 still operates perfectly on its own, but siezes up as soon as I connect my UHB Drive. I'll have to await the proper firmware upgrade, but I hope that my problem will be included for consideration.

Message 11 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi Scads,

 

Thanks for letting us know that the Beta firmware didn't fix your USB problem. I have some questions before I refer you to contact our support team.

 

1. What is the file format of your external USB hard drive?

2. Can you tell us the brand and model and if its using an external power supply?

3. Have you tried plugging in a different external storage or USB hard drive?

 

Looking forward to your response.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team 

 

Message 12 of 35
Scads
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Many thanks for your reply, BrianL. 

The answers to your questions:

  1.  The UHB Drive is formatted NTFS. Originally this was reformatted through the previous version of NAS firmware, and it was working fine for some time. Then, when this trouble started, I decided to reformat it through my Windows 10 machine. It works with my Windows machine no problem, or as a network storage on my modem.
  2. Its a Seagate 5TB drive, Model SRD0NF2.
  3. No, I don't easily have access to one, but I'll try to borrow one today.

I know that my support has run out, which it why I was posting here.

What are your thoughts?

Message 13 of 35
sviiimue
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

it is not only a issue with usb hard drives. backup to smb also becomes unresponsive.

 

It is after the Update to 6.4.0 on two ReadyNAS Devices!

 

Don't format your USB Drive! And don't fall in cost for 'try this and that'-Netgear-"Support". They have a firmware issue!

Message 14 of 35
Scads
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Replying directly to BrianL, but this is relevant to sviiimue as well.

I borrowed a UHB hard disk - an old StarTech caddy with  a seagate drive inserted. Bingo! Was immediately recognised!

I can only surmise that, during the upgrade to FW6.4, something untoward happened to my Seagate UHB drive. Any ideas, or, more important, any solutions?

As I said, the Seagate works fine elsewhere and has been successfully reformatted and refilled with backups since this all started. Of course, I'm having to backup manually, without the excellent facilities of the NAS. I might ask the community exactly how to back up to a hard drive either on Widows 10 or on \\ readyshare later. So far this has foxed me.

So:

  • Main issue relevant to this thread is solved
  • Problem with Seagate Drive remains to be solved
  • Problem with backups needs to go to another thread, I think.

Regards and many thanks

Message 15 of 35
Scads
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Later:

 

Thanks Sviiimu, I think you're right! However help here is working out the size of my problem and focusing on the essentials.

I've found out that the problem is not relevant to all UHB Drives, only the one that was plugged in during the Firmware update. Subsequently, I've put my Seagate drive though the Seagate diagnostics, and so far it's coming up completely clean. So, in my view this suggests that the NAS FW upgrade dismounted my drive in an unothodox manner and that yes - the problem is with FW6.4.0. Also that 6.4.1 doesn't solve it.

I hope that BrianL will look at my conclusions here. Am I right?

Message 16 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi Scads,

 

Thanks for the feedback. Try these steps:

 

1. Eject or safely remove this 5TB SEAGATE external USB hard drive from your ReadyNAS and connect it in your PC.

2. Run disk error-checking (here's a sample article).

3. Once its scans and fixes the errors, connect it again to one of USB ports of your ReadyNAS and run your backup jobs.

 

Let me know what happens.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

 

Message 17 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi sviiimue,

 

Try to load the latest Beta Firmware available then toggle off/on the SMB service. Try again to transfer files via SMB or through Windows File Explorer.

 

Let us know what happens.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

Message 18 of 35
Scads
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Success!

Had already loaded Beta firmware and NAS itself was working. Then checked the Seagate UHB Drive with all their diagnotics, which showed it ok. So the problem was that, although everything was working apart, it wasn't when put together. A borrowed Seagate UHB Drive did work with the NAS.

The difference came when I toggled the SMB Service. Immediately after a restart the UHB drive showed up and since then all has been plain sailing. My backups are working as I write.

Thank you so much  for your help and advice!

Message 19 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi Scads,

 

You're welcome! Thank you for updating the thread. Hopefully, it will help more members who have experienced the same issues you had.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

Message 20 of 35
Scads
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

I spoke too soon!

This morning I found that the ReadyNAS had locked up again.Yesterday I had left it happily doing a number of backup jobs. It will have shut down for an hour at midnight, but then I'm not sure what will have happened.

I have restarted the NAS and, on its own, it appears to work well. The 5TB UHB Drive doesn't show in the admin GUI any longer, no matter what I do. I've toggled RSync with no response.

Any ideas?

Message 21 of 35
sviiimue
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Will probably buy a new device.

 

That's just embarrassing and unprofessional.

 

The backup function is essential for the semi-professional use!

Message 22 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi Scads,

 

I am sorry to hear that. It would be better if you will raise a ticket from our support team for additional help regarding this problem.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

Message 23 of 35
Scads
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Haven't bothered the Support Team, but these are my conclusions, for information:

  1. The UHB problem was definitely caused by FW 6.4.0 and not all the other Beta FWs do work for me;
  2. 6.4.1 -T21 No HD even when RSync is toggled;
  3. 6.4.1 -T147 the same
  4. 6.4.1 - T29 will work, if RSync is toggled before the UHB Drive is replaced.

So, at present my NAS is backing up onto UHB.

 

Thanks to all.

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message 24 of 35
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: ReadyNAS becomes unresponsive - could it be tied to FW6.4 and backups?

Hi Scads,

 

Thanks for providing feedback. Does this mean that with Beta 6.4.1 - T29, USB backup is working fine?

 

 

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

Message 25 of 35
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