Troubles ReadyNAS 102 to show correct diskspace

[crz357]

Helly everybody,

I've been experiencing some troubles with my ReadyNAS102 lately. I've been moving some data to the NAS and deleted some other data on the NAS to free up some space. However, whenever I deleted files, the diskspace wouldn't update. I found out that this has to do with the snapshots that are being taken and that through Readycloud the snapshots can be deleted and that problem would be solved.

Edit: I've just deleted my NAS from Readycloud and I added it again, I can now access the NAS again through Readycloud. I could use some help how to delete a snapshot and to be sure I don't delete anything crucial or data. And of course if this truely is the right solution to having the NAS display the correct free diskspace!

Many thanks in advance for all your help, much appreciated.

Best regards,

Chris

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

First, it almost certainly is showing you the correct disk space - since the snapshots do use space.

Also, there is no need for ReadyCloud - you can directly log into the NAS web ui by browsing to https://nas-ip-address/admin or https://nas-name/admin (using the real IP address or name of your NAS).

You can then delete them by going into the shares page.  Click on the Snapshots control in the upper right of that page, then select a share.  You'll see a list of the snapshots for the share.  That screen will say "recover files", but ignore that bit.

You can select more than one, and then right-click - you'll see "delete" there.  Be careful not to select "rollback" at the bottom of the page.

To free up space, you'll generally get the best results by deleting the oldest snapshots (or just delete them all).  The space is freed in the background, so it can take a while.  If you see no space savings, you can follow this up by running a balance.  Go to the volume page, and click on the volume settings wheel.  You'll see balance as an option there.

Overall, I suggest switching from "smart" snapshots to "custom" snapshots.  The reason is that you can explicitly set retention in the "custom" snapshots.  That gives you a good automatic way to keep the snapshot disk usage reasonable.

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

First, it almost certainly is showing you the correct disk space - since the snapshots do use space.

Also, there is no need for ReadyCloud - you can directly log into the NAS web ui by browsing to https://nas-ip-address/admin or https://nas-name/admin (using the real IP address or name of your NAS).

You can then delete them by going into the shares page.  Click on the Snapshots control in the upper right of that page, then select a share.  You'll see a list of the snapshots for the share.  That screen will say "recover files", but ignore that bit.

You can select more than one, and then right-click - you'll see "delete" there.  Be careful not to select "rollback" at the bottom of the page.

To free up space, you'll generally get the best results by deleting the oldest snapshots (or just delete them all).  The space is freed in the background, so it can take a while.  If you see no space savings, you can follow this up by running a balance.  Go to the volume page, and click on the volume settings wheel.  You'll see balance as an option there.

Overall, I suggest switching from "smart" snapshots to "custom" snapshots.  The reason is that you can explicitly set retention in the "custom" snapshots.  That gives you a good automatic way to keep the snapshot disk usage reasonable.

[crz357]

Hello Steven,

First of all, many thanks for your extensive reply. Using the web UI is a great tip and also setting custom snapshots is very useful.

I have been moving data around the past couple of weeks, adding data to the NAS and also removing data. I used TotalCMD for this operation and that is showing 172kb free of 2.72TB (2x 3TB in RAID1). Even when I delete files, it still shows 172kb free, in TotalCMD but also in the web UI. 

I found the pages with the snapshots and I now know how to remove them. Just to make sure: removing snapshots does not delete data, right?

What I find very interesting is the balancing option you mentioned. That might be just the thing I am looking for actually. I went to the explanation for that option on the Netgear website and it looks like that might be the solution. So I've just started that process and I'm hoping for the NAS to display the correct diskspace again. I will report back once that process has finished.

Again, thanks for your help, much appreciated.

[StephenB]

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@crz357 wrote:

Just to make sure: removing snapshots does not delete data, right?

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Correct, removing them won't change anything in the main share(s).

[crz357]

Thanks Stephen. After balancing the volumes it now shows that I have 7.96GB of free space, so that did the trick. 
Much appreciated!

[StephenB]

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@crz357 wrote:

After balancing the volumes it now shows that I have 7.96GB of free space, so that did the trick. 

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That is good to hear, but IMO not enough free space for most volumes.  Personally I maintain at least 15% free space on my btrfs volumes.  

[crz357]

I am trying to clean up now, but when I delete stuff, the diskspace is still not being updated. Balancing the volume again doesn't restore that.

Any ideas perhaps?

[Sandshark]

And you have no snapshots that would cause the data to be retained?

Snapshots don't start off duplicating data, they point to the same data as what's active.  If you delete data from the active volume, but one or more snapshots still point to it, it doesn't free up space.  That saves on overall space allocation, but can be a souce of confusion in figuring out how to reclaim it.

[crz357]

I deleted a snapshot of the video folder and quite shortly after that a lot more diskspace showed up. So ultimately that would be the solution if balancing doesn't help. It does make sense what you mentioned about those snapshots. I learned quite a lot in just a couple posts, thanks.

[StephenB]

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@crz357 wrote:

I deleted a snapshot of the video folder and quite shortly after that a lot more diskspace showed up. So ultimately that would be the solution if balancing doesn't help.

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It's better to think of this the other way around.  Deleting the snapshots is the first thing to do in order to reclaim space.  Balancing is what you do if the space isn't reclaimed after you delete them.

Custom snapshots with explicit retention makes this a lot simpler to manage.  Back when I used the default smart snapshots I ended up manually deleting old ones every few months.  Now I never need to touch them.

[crz357]

Thanks again Stephen, will set up custom snapshots real soon. What kind of interval is recommended?

[StephenB]

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@crz357 wrote:

Thanks again Stephen, will set up custom snapshots real soon. What kind of interval is recommended?

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That's really up to you.  Here is what I use (which is daily):

I recommend against setting "allow snapshot access", as for some reason Netgear will allow files in the snapshot to be changed if you do that.

There are some cases where you should just leave snapshots off - in particular if you have a share where files are frequently modifed in place or which is used for temporary storage.  One common example is a share that is used for torrent downloads. The main share ends up very fragmented, and the snapshot space grows very quickly.   

[crz357]

Thanks, that helps a lot. It's not being used for temporary data so I'll probably go for something that is quite like your settings.

[Sandshark]

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@StephenB wrote:

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I recommend against setting "allow snapshot access", as for some reason Netgear will allow files in the snapshot to be changed if you do that.

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Wow, I never realized that.  I don't use it, but that sounds like a huge blunder.  They should be read-only, or at least take an explict action by the admin to allow write access (not that I can figure out why anyone would want that).  That could allow a bad actor to delete both the contents of a share and all snapshots.

[StephenB]

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@Sandshark wrote:

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@StephenB wrote:

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I recommend against setting "allow snapshot access", as for some reason Netgear will allow files in the snapshot to be changed if you do that.

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Wow, I never realized that.  I don't use it, but that sounds like a huge blunder.  They should be read-only, or at least take an explict action by the admin to allow write access (not that I can figure out why anyone would want that).  That could allow a bad actor to delete both the contents of a share and all snapshots.

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I agree.

@rn_enthusiast pointed this out here: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/Scripting-the-snapshots-RN626X-RN51...