NASLite Network Attached Storage

Howdy, I have been running V2.06 for over a year now and suddenly after a power fail where my )(&&&*&(( UPS did not carry the load I notice the NAS box is offline. Hummm....
Hook up a monitor and let it boot and I get the message:

Detecting Configuration Device..........................FAILED

The set up is this is a DELL P486 with a HW Raid controller and 2 500 GB drives in a MIRRORed RAID.

NASLite was installed on a 1GB USB drive that was acting as the boot loader and also as the configuration device.

Now, even though it will boot the kernal from the USB device it appears to NOT be able to write back to it or read the configuration from the USB drive.

I looked through the CMOS expecting some kind of problem but didn't see any. I did not try booting the USB from any other computer, don't know what it would have done to the HDD in those computers.
Tried to read the USB drive from another computer (Windows XP) but that was not sucessful, but then again I doubt it would.

I downloaded the V2.11 iso image and burned it to CD and booted it. Same thing, could not see a configuration device.

I formated the USB drive on my Windows machine and it checks out OK, so booted the V2.11 CD and ran the installation utility and it only shows HDD-0 which I believe is the HDD/Raid, the description said so.

Why am I unable to see the USB drive now?

I guess if I can't get that back then I'll probably just use the BOOT from CD and put the configuration onto a floppy <GASP> unless someone else has a better idea. I'd hate to GOOF up and install the NASLite over top of my 500GB HDD's

Thanks for your help.

First off go and reset the CMOS/BIOS in your machine. From time to time it can get scrambled and cause issues. After be sure to disable all the devices that are not needed by NL. The serial, parallel, extra USB controlers, even the PATA and SATA controller since you are using the RAID card.

Second, rebuild and configure the USB key. You will also have to get an unlock as well, adds about 1 Minute to the process that should take no more than 5 minutes.

Third, it may take some time after boot for the drive/s to become available due to the non graceful way that the machine was brought down. NL will run a FS check on them to check the consistency of the file system and repair issues if needed.

After this you should be working again.

NOTE: Most UPS systems use cheep batteries and the older they are the less run time you will have. An UPS that is rated at say 500VA load for 15 minutes when new may give as little as 2 minutes 3 years later. Also remember that the ratings are in VA and as such power factor will have a large influence in the efficiency of the prowe delivered to the load. What I mean by this is that a 500 Watt light bulb with a PF of 1.0 will run for 15 minutes ate rated load where as a computer with a PF of 0.8 may only run for 12 minutes. DO NOT TRUST THE MARKETING BS IN THE BOX!

Mike

Mike that sounds like an excellent idea to reset the CMOS. I'll do that and also will disable everything that is not needed.

I'm not sure what you mean by "rebuild" and "configure" the USB key? Do you mean run the install utility off the cd-rom? I formated the USB drive from windows, to see if it was the drive that may have been messed up. I was thinking maybe it got "WRITE PROTECTED" or something, but it checks out OK.
Also, I'm not clear on the "unlock"... Is this on the USB drive?

I'll hopefully give this all a try tonight if I get a chance, otherwise I may have to wait until midweek as I'll be out of town.

Thanks again, in advance!!!
Mark
ps: Roger on the UPS, I understand exactly your points!

Yes I mean boot the CDROM and reload the USB key with a fresh install.

By unlock I mean that you will have to get a new code from Server elements to activate the full functionality of the server.

Mike

Thanks Mike. Ok, understood and I have the new unlock code. But I ran out of time. I'll have to work on it mid-week.
Mark