I haven't used it for 6 months and I suddenly became aware of that none of my network shares were available. After some investigation I found that this was not the only thing not working.
I'm not gonna say that "I have no backup!!!!", because I think I do, at least of the most critical stuff (family pics and videos), but I still have 4TBs of other data on these drives I would like to keep (or else I wouldn't post here 🙂 ).
The good:
The NAS seems to boot fine, going through quota-check and ending up displaying the IP. All LEDs are OK.
The IP is pingable
The RAIDar sees the NV+ and gives green lights on all disks, fans and temp. Disk models, usage and temperatures are displayed.
In the Win10 network overview my NAS appears as a storage device and media device. However, clicking on the icons is a dead end.
The bad:
Frontview is unavailable (says "connecting" for a while and then times out . ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT)
No file shares are available
No SSH or Telnet available (as I've understood from reading this would have to be enabled in frontview (which it hasn't))
FTP isn't working
The strange:
When pinging, I get at 1ms response time 4/5 times, but every 5th ping has a delay ranging from 100ms to "Request timed out"
On the front of the NV+, all disk LEDs are solid green (no blink). Every few seconds the "act" light blinks, followed by the blue power button pulsating 5-6 times. Then a short break, before the "act" LED blinks again and the cycle repeats. I've not been able to find out if this corresponds with the prolonged ping-reply. I've neither found any match in the "led-language-list" for the NAS.
Some times, a while after boot, RAIDar looses sight of the NAS and can't find it again before i reboot the NAS. (The ping still works though)
Other info:
I've done the OS reset. This succeedes, but there seems to be no change after it completes.
The NV+ frontview has always been sloooooow. My initial thought when it wasn't working was that "something" has made the NV+ so slow that it doesn't respond (fast enough).
Maybe no need to say, but multiple resets and powering the unit down for a day etc. have been tried.
Altough I've not been using the NAS, my dlink ipcams have. They upload images on any movement from my back porch or garage through ftp to the nas. (which can be 100-1000 files a day, not that much isolated, but over the course of a year it's quite a few.)
I've read about USB boot and TFTP boot, but the instructions are usally preceeded by "don't do this unless instructed to by netgear support".
I'm not sure if I'm a few years to late to get any hints or tips regarding this unit, but any help is appreciated.
I think the next step is to power down, and test the disks in a windows PC. Use vendor tools (lifeguard for western digital, seatools for seagate), and label the disks by slot so you can return them to the proper position later on.
You can get in via telnet (in tech support mode), but you won't be able to get in with SSH unless it was enabled before.
When you say "test" the disk, excatly what results would you expect to explain what I'm experiencing? I'll try it, but as all 4 disks are reported "ok" by RAIDar I dindn't think this could be a problem.
(I have 3 samsungs and 1 WD, all 2TB configured in xraid.)
I'll do that and return, unsure if I'll be able to do it this week.
One more thing I noticed now when looking at the disks in RADIar. RAIDar displays a blue dot at the beginning of the line for my NAS (it's blinking in the help-file, but solid in my RAIDar). From the RAIDar help file this is:
RAIDar Help
*blue dot*
Background task active
A lengthy background task such as a system update is in progress.
When you say "test" the disk, excatly what results would you expect to explain what I'm experiencing? I'll try it, but as all 4 disks are reported "ok" by RAIDar I dindn't think this could be a problem.
It is very possible for disks to fail without the NAS "noticing", so it is good to rule out disk issues early.
Another possible cause for your issue is a filling OS partition. Paid netgear support (my.netgear.com) could fix that (ask about per-incident support). Or if you are comfortable with linux commands, you could try to mount the OS partition in tech support mode, and see if it is full.
Sorry about the late answer. My desktop has been out of bussiness, so I had to "awaken" it this weekend before i could proceed with the disk-testing.
I first tried your 2nd suggestion (the log files) since this didn't require any preparations. I'm not exactly what I would describe as "comfortable" with linux commands, but I know the basics and google is my friend so based on other similar threads I gave it a go.
To trace back what I did
1. Started techsupport, holding the power button for 15 sec when turning on
2. Logging in using root/fr8ntview (i think)
3. Found an instruction, telling me that
# /bin/start_raid.sh # mount /dev/hdc1 /sysroot
would be the way to go
4. Did these:
# /sysroot/bin/df -h
# /sysroot/bin/df -i
# /sysroot/usr/bin/du -csh /sysroot/var/*
# /sysroot/usr/bin/du -csh /sysroot/var/log/*
5. Found that sysroot/var/log/upnp-av.log is 1.2 ?B and full of:
[2017/08/11 17:39:22] minidlna.c:1294: error: accept(http): Too many open files
It had been filling up since 2013 until 2017 (11 aug, which might very well be when the NAS failed)
(**Right now I'm kicking myself, cause I'm actually not sure wether the file was 1,2GB or 1,2TB. In my head at the time it was 1.2TB which could explain the disk beeing full, but in my notes I've written 1,2GB which is "nothing". I did though recall that it reported the disk as 99% full before I emptied this file, but I'm not entierly sure. I do however don't think that this affects the current state, as I now know that "right now" the drive isn't full****)
6. Did a
#echo > upnp-av.log
to empty the file
7. Rebooted the server, did an OS-reinstall, but no luck.
This weekend tested my disks. Two of the samsungs and the WD completed the test in 5,5 hours (each) with no errors. The last samsung (which is the disk in slot 1) failed, giving a log of LBA errors (failed sectors). I think the whole test took about 10 hours (although it's identical to the other samsung disks).
So - I'm just speculating - Is the OS located on the disk in slot 1? Could the situation I'm seeing with the LEDs be that the NAS is neither capable to load or update the OS due to disk-failure? If I did a low level format of this disk and reinserted it in slot one, should the NAS reinstall the OS and rebuild the disk from the XRAID?
I the above is the way to go, I could of course buy a new 2TB disk to be safe, but as the NAS is old and I'm considering a new one, this would be wasting money on a disk it's unlikely to ever use for anything else. Even worse, it's a complete waste of money if this doesn't fix my problem (that's why I would try formatting the disk before buying a new one)
Sorry about the long post, just trying to provide as much information as possible, any input is appreciated.
Regarding the size of the log-file - the OS partition is 2GB, right? So then 1.2GB was probably the correct size, I forgot that the OS had it's own partition when i wrote the previous message..
Regarding the size of the log-file - the OS partition is 2GB, right? So then 1.2GB was probably the correct size, I forgot that the OS had it's own partition when i wrote the previous message..
Yes. Normally clearing out the logs is enough to bring it back - but sometimes there is collateral damage when the OS runs out of space. And of course you also have the disk failure...
The next step is to try booting up the system w/o disk 1 (leaving disks 2-4 in their original slots). The OS partition is mirrored on all disks (RAID-1), but the system itself boots off of one disk. If it's trying to boot from the failed disk 1, that of course might fail.
Making progress, two steps forward and one step back 🙂
If I only knew a week ago that removing a disk would let me boot normally 🙂
The NAS boots, frontview starts and I can see the network shares.
The logs are telling me that while I was blindly trying to get the thing working a week ago (status-old.log):
1!!Fri Oct 20 23:34:15 CEST 2017!!root!!RAID sync started on volume C. 2!!Fri Oct 20 23:35:42 CEST 2017!!root!!Disk 1 did not pass SMART self-assessment test. Please replace this disk as soon as possible.\n\nGrowing SMART errors indicate a disk that may fail soon. If the errors continue to increase, you should be prepared to replace the disk.
However, the shares are not working, and the first warning i get when i log into frontview is a list of all my shares and that they can't be located.
Also, the frontview tells me that "Volume C: offline, Raid Level, disks 0% of 0 MB used".
The NAS tells me that volume C is a RAID Level X, 0MB of 0 MB (0%) used.
Also, the Volume setting can be seen in the attached picture. The disk usage displayed here worries me a little.
As I explained, I'm not a linux user, but the dmesg is the print of the last boot? Here it looks like drive 0 (which is removed from the NAS) is online, but i guess that's not what it actually means. Anyway, i guess the last line says it clear.
I was hoping that the NAS would chive on using the remaining three drives, but is it correct that the 1st disk will have to be replaced and the RAID rebuilt before the shares are available?
If so, I'll have a go at formatting DISK 1 and reusing it.
If you have any other advice I'm all ears.
Also, MDGM, thank you for your input. This may be a stupid question,but should I still check the files for damage, or does it look like I'm clear?
