Resync and "Vol C Lifesupp!"

[Arnaud73]

Hi,

I just got a problem with my ReadyNas Ultra 4 at the worst time.

My Ultra 4 was equiped with 4 drives :
- 1 : WD20EARS
- 2 : WD15EARS
- 3 : WD20EARS
- 4 : WD15EARS

A few weeks ago, I discovered a SMART+ warning in the journal regarding drive 1. I was planning to go and purchase another drive.
2 days after, drive 4 was dead. Apparently, I don't see any reason to link it to the previous event.
I decided to switch the NAS off until I have some new drives.

I waited a few weeks so that drive price decrease a little. At the time of the failure, HD were around 400% of the price I paid them...

Yesterday, I came back with WD20EARX drives.
I replaced drive 4 (WD15EARS) with a brand new WD20EARX and restarted.

Everything strarted fine, I had access to all my shares, drive 4 was being initialized. I still had a new SMART+ warning for drive 1 as I was expected.

Vol C was being resynched. I saw it reached 88%, and one hour later, it just displayed "VOL C LIFESUPP!". I don't know if it reached 100%, but I don't think it did, it was not going up fast enough.

I haven't tryed to do anything to fix the problem yet. I prefer to have some guidance before I do something definitive.

I don't mind spending some time rebuilding the NAS, however, I need to have access to the files before I do : in addition to have a problem with 2 of the disks of the NAS, the HD of my laptop also broke last week and the backup of some data I really need to recover is on the NAS... Call me unlucky...

Can anyone help me to restore access my shares ?

By the way, I checked the french support forums at Netgear France, but since nobody was facing that kind of problem, I prefered to post here so that I don't receive some "please change your drive and reformat your volume" answer...

[Thomas-xh]

1. How many capacity used of the C volume?
2. Please contact netgear support and reboot the unit to "tech support mode".

It seems the disk 1 failed.
If the C volume usage is <=50%, maybe only rebuild the array, you would access you data.
If the C volume usage is >=80%, you need clone the disk 1.

Anyway, please reboot this unit to tech suppor tand contact Netgear Support engineer, or PM me.

[Arnaud73]

Many thanks for your answer.

As far as I remember, the capacity used was 45 or 46%.

I found the procedure to reboot in "tech support mode" at http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how_do_i_use_the_boot_menu

Before I call or contact some tech support agent, which other elements should I make ready in order to facilitate operations?

• I already have a new spare disk to eventually replace disk 1(one WD20EARX to replace one WD20EARS)
• Does support need any information from "tech support mode" before the call?
• Do I need to expose the NAS on the Internet so that it could be accessible by tech support?
• Do I need to have external drives ready to make a backup during the time someone will assist?

[PapaBear]

Unless your Ultra 4 is less than 90 days old or have purchased a support package, do not call tech support open an on line ticket. Before they will help on the phone there will be a charge. If you are willing to pay the service charge go ahead (on line support is free as long as the unit is in warranty).

Do not put the unit in tech support mode until they ask you to. It will return a code you will have to send to them, and then they will access the unit remotely.

This situation is why we beat the backup drum. Hopefully, you will avoid data loss.

[Arnaud73]

I restarted in Tech Support Mode.

It not displays :

DebugMode[50902]
0.0.0.0

[Thomas-xh]

Sorry, I cannot login the unit with port 50902, so please forward the port 23 to internet and PM the IP address to me.

[mdgm]

Not sure, but from that it sounds like the unit might not be receiving an IP address.

Does it show in RAIDar?: http://www.readynas.com/downloads

[Arnaud73]

I will modify my network setup later on tonight.

I guess I will have to provide a way to give access to the NAS to a tech supp guy.

I plan to reinstall a Linux box with SSH access, plug the NAS in dedicated LAN with DHCP addressing. Thus, someone may be able to SSH/telnet the box.

Is a HTTP access from a web browser required ?

[mdgm]

When the NAS is in tech support mode it needs to pickup an IP address (be assigned via DHCP). Then if the secure tunnel doesn't work port 23 needs to be forwarded to the IP address of the NAS as Thomas-xh mentioned above. If you can do that PM him the IP address.

[Arnaud73]

When the NAS is in tech support mode it needs to pickup an IP address (be assigned via DHCP). Then if the secure tunnel doesn't work port 23 needs to be forwarded to the IP address of the NAS as Thomas-xh mentioned above. If you can do that PM him the IP address.

Thanks for the update.

In addition to having problems with the ReadyNas, I could not boot my old Linux box that was put to storage... This means that I don't have a simple solution right now to forward a port of my ADSL connection to the ReadyNas.

If I change the network configuration, I can have the ReadyNas get an internal IP address directly from the (basic) router. In that case, will the ReadyNas initiate the secure tunnel with Netgear ? Or will I really have to have port forwarding?

Thanks in advance!

[Thomas-xh]

What is show in the LED when it booting in tech mode?

[Arnaud73]

Hi,

Things are almost OK for accessing the NAS from outside.

I've replaced the router, setup internal DHCP and port forward (for port 23). It now works. I can boot the ReadyNas in tech support mode and access it from outside via telnet.

I've also added a brand new 1.5 TB disk on one of the rear USB ports. This might come handy in case some space is required during the salvage mission

Last thing to do : have dyndns up and running with this airport extreme... It seemed easy in the documentation, but does not work as advertised.
Since my ISP updates the IP address once or twice a day, I really need that. As soon as I manage to get that working, we'll be ready to go!

[Arnaud73]

Thanks to ReadyNas support, the problem has been fixed and the unit finally rebooted with one less disk and all data recovered!

I could backed up everything and reinitialize the unit.

Needless to say that NetGear ReadyNAS support deserves kudos here!