NSA-325 v2: Problems with disk1 in two different systems

myZyxel

Hello,

I use my NSA-325 just as Backup and not running 7x24.

I own four NSA-325 v2 an two of them use 2x 4TB WD40EZRX drives (JBOD).

For the first time I did a volume scan which failed on both systems with disk1 ("failed to scan volume") and checks disk 2 on both without any problem.

Is there a known problem with 4TB drives in slot one and volume scan?

Another question I have: Can I use all available disk space on JBOD-disks or should I keep some space free?

Thanks a lot for your help and stay healthy

Mijzelf

Is there a known problem with 4TB drives in slot one and volume scan?

e2fsck can fail on large filesystems due to lack of memory when in repairing mode. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that it can also fail when in scanning mode.

You can try to run it manually to see how it ends.

On a 325 e2fsck is renamed to e2fsck.old (or e2fsck.orig? Don't have a 325 at the moment), so the command would be

e2fsck.old -n /dev/md0

Can I use all available disk space on JBOD-disks or should I keep some space free?

I suppose you are talking about filesystem space? When you fill it to the rim the performance will drop significantly.

myZyxel

Hello mijzelf,

thanks for your quick answer.

e2fsck.new -n /dev/md0 did the job:

e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)

Warning!  /dev/md0 is mounted.
Warning: skipping journal recovery because doing a read-only filesystem check.
/dev/md0 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
/lost+found not found.  Create? no

Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Free blocks count wrong (961121019, counted=961121018).
Fix? no

Free inodes count wrong (244160638, counted=244160637).
Fix? no


/dev/md0: ********** WARNING: Filesystem still has errors **********

/dev/md0: 1922/244162560 files (0.1% non-contiguous), 15508229/976629248 blocks

Can I repair the system using e2fsk?

Thanks a lot.

Mijzelf

Yes. But it's a bit clumsy. To repair the filesystem, it has to be unmounted, but you can't unmount it because several daemons are using it. But you can let the firmware do the heavy lifting. On shutdown everything is unmounted, so if you can inject code behind that...

Edit the file /etc/init.d/rc.shutdown. The box has one usable editor, vi. It's a nasty editor. You can get to edit mode by pressing i. After having made your adjustments, press <ESC>:wq to save the file and exit the editor.

Search for '# swapoff'. Below that line add

/sbin/telnetd

/bin/sleep 999999

Save the file, and shutdown the box (command poweroff). After you lost your ssh connection, you should be able to login again over telnet.

Now execute

umount /dev/md0

e2fsck.new -f /dev/md0

When it's done execute

killall sleep

to continue the shutdown.

myZyxel

I did a backup of the disk but can't delete it to format it later on. Any idea how to do this?

"Plan B":

-shutdown the NSA-325.

-Detach the hdd.

-Attach the hdd to a pc with linux and a sata-port/external USB-drive or use a windows pc with gparted?

Mijzelf

Delete what?

myZyxel

I want to re-format disk 1.

Because scan isn't working and I don't want to do the repair via commandline my idea is to "get rid" of the disk an add the volume again as if using a new drive.

Mijzelf

Deleting the partition table can be done using any partition manager. 'Plain Windows' can do it. Just delete all partitions. It doesn't matter that Windows can't read the contents of the partitions.

But you can also do it in the NAS, using parted. Of course make sure you've got the right disk.

myZyxel

I feel much safer in windows environments.

The software packages like Metarepository or Twekas are saved on one of the two drives so does it matter which drive I remove to repartition it?

Mijzelf

Yes. The packages are on the system volume. In most cases that is the first volume you created on that box. If you remove the disk containing that volume, your packages are gone. And if you reinsert the disk after having run without, the packages won't come back, as the other volume meanwhile is promoted to system volume.

myZyxel

Thank you very much.

So repartitioning with parted would have the same effect namely removed packages. Is there any way to save the packages including the configuration or do I have to install them again in any case?