Re: reconstructing a ReadyNAS 212 when I don't know which drive went in which bay

aber_16 · ‎2018-09-21

Hi All,

Bit of a unique situation, and complex - will make it as clear as possible.

During a recent project I had two RN212 NAS systems, believed to be set to RAID 1, set to collect a high volume of incoming data from two different channels - one channel to each NAS system. It was assumed that at the end of the project, two copies of each channels data would exist, and one drive of each channel could be sent with client, the other set with the project manager (hence back ups). It has since been realized that as far as Im aware, you can not access those drives independant from the RN212 NAS system (Please correct me if im wrong and this has been done - I tried Windows, Mac OS X, Linux). Additionally, there is now some confusion if in fact the NAS were set up in RAID 1 or 0.

So we are moving to get all 4 hard drives back in the same place (city) and are going to reconstruct each of these NAS systems. However, I think we are treading on pretty thin ice, especially considering at this point we are unsure if we are dealing with Raid 1 or 0. The one certianty is I know that the 2 10Tb drives came from one NAS, and the 2 6 TB drives from the other.

My question - is it absolutely critical that I get the drives in the exact bays they came out of? I have a 50/50 shot...

If I was to put them in the wrong bays what would happen? Would the drives be reformated? Would an error be thrown? Would I be able to just take them out and switch them? How would I even know if I got the bays wrong?

Thanks in advance!! Cheers, Robin

bedlam1 · ‎2018-09-21

Do you have a set of System_log's you may have downloaded for each NAS prior to sending the disks away?

If you do boot_info.log will show the NAS serial number (also shown on the rear label of the NAS) and disk_info.log will show the serial number(s) of which disk was in which slot of the NAS (0 being slot 1 left to right).

The drive serial number is of course on each drive label.

(as a p.s. I am not sure it is crucial that each pair of disks go into the correct NAS nor even in "correct" slot, but don't take that as gospel, perhaps someone else may chime in, perhaps @StephenB)

aber_16 · ‎2018-09-21

Thanks @bedlam1! That would be awesome if that was the case, and I have asked. As I am just catching up with these systems, and not the one who set the system up, would the system_logs been saved via the ReadyNAS software on the PC managing the NAS systems? Thanks, R

bedlam1 · ‎2018-09-21

Not unless somone physically downloaded them

StephenB · ‎2018-09-22

@aber_16 wrote:

(Please correct me if im wrong and this has been done - I tried Windows, Mac OS X, Linux). Additionally, there is now some confusion if in fact the NAS were set up in RAID 1 or 0.

You can mount them under Linux, but you do need mdadm and btrfs-progs installed. Something like

# mdadm --assemble --scan
# cat /proc/mdstat
# mount -t btrfs -o ro /dev/md127 /mnt

If it is RAID-1 you can certainly reverse the drives (and you can try mounting in linux with only one, since they are mirrored).

I believe that is also the case with RAID-0, but I've never tried it. Perhaps @JohnCM_S @Marc_V or another Netgear mod can confirm.

But it should safe to use the commands above with RAID-0 also.