Readynas 6.4.1 RN102 boot issue - OS reinstall did not help.

[piet8stevens]

I have powered down my RN102 from the admin page system menu. Upon reboot, it just sits there with the power led flashing. Act, Disk 1 and Disk 2 LEDs are lit as well as a red/amber light at the back of the unit, below the USB ports. I have encrypted hdds.

Tried to restore functionality by doing a OS reinstall from the boot menu.  This does not seem to have any effect. LEDs behave as per the hardware manual in that I am able to cycle through all combinations of power, LED 1, LED 2 and backup. But after OS reinstall, it still sits there with a blinking power LED and permanently lit Disk 1 and Disk 2 LEDs and a red/amber light in the back. No change.

Anything else I can do short of restoring it to factory default?

I have 2 units. One I had to do a factory default restore on for a fail during OS upgrade. Now with this one failing as well, I am starting to have serious doubts about how trustworthy these units are.

All help would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Piet

[piet8stevens · Accepted solution]

A big thank you to mdgm. I am very favorably impressed with the quality and speed of the support.

Problem is a change I made using ssh and not a ReadyNas hardware or software problem.

[JennC]

Hello piet8stevens,

• What was it FW version prior to the update?
• Does the RAIDar still detect the NAS? If so, what does it show?
• What happens when you try to get to the admin page?
• Do you have full backup

Regards,

[mdgm-ntgr]

There are definitely steps that can be taken before resorting to a factory default. That's a last resort.

In addition to what JennC asked, I would add that in some cases the volume read-only boot menu option can be quite useful.

I don't see any support cases for your systems so I assume you didn't contact support before doing the factory default last time. Once a factory default is done there is nothing we can do to investigate what happened beforehand.

[piet8stevens]

Thank you for your questions.

1. FW prior to the update - not sure, I guess the one released before 6.4.1. In any case, that problem has been solved by doing a factory reset.

2. I cannot ping the NAS with the blinking blue light. RAIDar only reports back 1 NAS (the one that works) and not the one that is blinking.

3. When I try to go to the admin page, Firefox replies it cannot connect to the server.

4. I have 90% backed up. Some stuff I can re-download.

Best regards,

Piet

[piet8stevens]

One more thing: it would still be nice to recover the data on this NAS. I note in the boot menu there is a data recovery option. What does it do and can I use it?

thank you, Piet

[mdgm-ntgr]

The volume read-only option boots the NAS up but mounting the data volume read-only. This is useful in cases where the data volume fails to mount read/write, but can be mounted read-only as you can then copy the data off.

If you can boot into that mode you may wish to send me your logs (see the Sending Logs link in my sig).

[piet8stevens]

I have tried to reboot in read only mode, but no difference. Still red light at the back, blinking power LED and LED1 and LED2 lit.

Any other things I can do?

Thank you,

Piet

[mdgm-ntgr]

I have sent you a PM.

[mdgm-ntgr]

It looks like use of SSH has caused this problem.

There is a symlink that shouldn't be there that is preventing an OS Re-install from working.

[piet8stevens · Accepted solution]

A big thank you to mdgm. I am very favorably impressed with the quality and speed of the support.

Problem is a change I made using ssh and not a ReadyNas hardware or software problem.

[piet8stevens]

I am very grateful to mdgm about the support he has provided.

It does raise a few questions about access and privacy. I have agreed to give mdgm access to my NAS, but to my surprise, (s)he was able to access it without my having to change anything in my  network, maybe through some form of ssh.

So, does anyone know

a. whether there is a special tech support user account in the Readynas OS? I can no longer access the nas myself through ssh because of a change I had made to the software, but mdgm is able to tell me some things (s)he has seen in the nas.

b. how support can find the Readynas on my network behind my router? All I provided was the debug code provided by RAIDar. Would that include in some form its network location?

I am fine with giving tech support access to my equipment but find it spooky it can happen without my making any change to my network.

[StephenB]

Did you boot into tech support mode and give him the code?

Alternative, did you set the "secure diagnostic mode" on system->settings?

[piet8stevens]

Yes, I booted into tech support mode and provided a code.

[StephenB]

---

@piet8stevens wrote:

Yes, I booted into tech support mode and provided a code.

---

In tech support mode, the NAS connects outbound to a netgear support server, so it passes through firewalls with no configuration changes needed in the router.  

The code gives provides additional security (since it is sent independently to the support team, and is needed to access the NAS).