NASLite Network Attached Storage

naslite sure is eating up my drives
looks like i may have lost another one... ideas anyone? this drive is accessible by smb, but there are no contents in the drive, tried to run a check using telnet console, and it says device busy, can't dismount, then running efscheck will be bad if it's not dismounted...

i had a spate of these errors from Feb 21 - Mar 3
# Mar 2 22:15:39 HomeNAS user.warn kernel: hdb: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
# Mar 2 22:15:39 HomeNAS user.warn kernel: ide0: reset: success

and they went away (!!!) so i thought the disk was OK. apparently not.. I was just using the disk yesterday note that there are no furthre warnings/error on this disk in the sys log, only the following when i look at the disk from the web interface...

Disk-2 S.M.A.R.T. Status

smartctl version 5.0-45 Copyright (C) 2002 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

Warning! Drive Identity Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: DC WDq6p0JBm0pEVAp ` ` `
Serial Number: DmWMAEKr2u5y55
Firmware Version: 15.05R15
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: Unrecognized. Minor revision code: 0x00
SMART support is: Unavailable - device lacks SMART capability.
A mandatory SMART command has failed: exiting. To continue, turn on the -P option


I haven't rebooted the machine yet, it's been running for 80 days straight so far... and i'm afraid to... any advice or help?

and now the disk says...


Disk-2 Initialization Messages

1. Checking for Disk-2
2. Disk-2 is not available

Disk-2 Hardware

* WDC WDq6p0JBm0pEVAp ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `, ATA DISK drive
* attached ide-disk driver.
* host protected area => 1
* 1386340016 sectors (709806 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=86295/255/63, BUG DMA OFF

NOTE: Disk-2 is installed and can be configured for use with NASLite+.


looks like i'm screwed AGAIN. This is the 2nd disk i've lost... it's actually at 160GB HDD... anyone know how i can recover contents? this is soooo frustrating.

found some log entries... anyone can help me decode?


....
# Apr 27 09:53:40 HomeNAS user.warn kernel: hdb: WDC WDq6p0JBm0pEVAp ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `, ATA DISK drive
# Apr 27 09:53:40 HomeNAS user.warn kernel: blk: queue c0349280, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
# Apr 27 09:53:40 HomeNAS user.warn kernel: blk: queue c03493bc, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
...
# Apr 27 09:53:40 HomeNAS user.warn kernel: hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
# Apr 27 09:53:40 HomeNAS user.warn kernel: hdb: host protected area => 1
# Apr 27 09:53:40 HomeNAS user.info kernel: hdb: 1386340016 sectors (709806 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=86295/255/63, BUG DMA OFF
....
Apr 27 09:53:40 HomeNAS user.info kernel: /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
....


would i be able to boot knoppix and recover the disk?

Hello jkkw,

The problem that you are having can be caused by a number of issues. It is probably wise to make the necessary adjustments when you see errors like this:

# Mar 2 22:15:39 HomeNAS user.warn kernel: hdb: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
# Mar 2 22:15:39 HomeNAS user.warn kernel: ide0: reset: success

What that means is the kernel encountered IDE interface CRC errors and is resetting the IDE controller for the appropriate channel. That is not a good thing. Although this can be caused by a driver incompatibility with your IDE controller, that possibility is far less likely that the possibility of faulty or incompatible hardware. The problem is most likely caused by buggy IDE chipset, given the fact that you are having problems with a second drive, however this is purely speculation on my part.

Some things to consider: Are both drives that had problems the same make/model/etc.? Are other drives in that machine working and trouble-free? Are the drives failing on the same IDE channel?

Taking the approach above, you may be able to determine the most likely target for troubleshooting. One thing is for absolute sure though - never ignore error messages until you are sure of the cause and it's consequences. The kernel will do it’s best to alert you of anomalies in the hardware and it’s operation, hopefully providing you with enough time to react before data loss occurs. It is important to keep in mind that NASLite can operate flawlessly only if your hardware allows it to. NASLite is not capable of “fixing” the hardware or the way it behaves.

I would first try replacing the IDE cable/s, cheap and simple fix.

Mike

NO JOKES PLEASE. there's a reason they're called male and female connectors.

Look at the IDE connectors using a flashlight. Pretty hard to clean, but you can try plugging and unplugging the connectors a few times to see if you can get get a good connection.

i had the contents of one of my drives disapear once after a controled shutdown

i used the built in repair function of nas, it worked a treat and recovered the entire drive

I'm using NasLite+ v1.1. Once again (3rd or 4th time) I've lost all data after a power cut (this time my fault, but that doesn't make it any easier to bear!). If there is an in-built repair function as rkirman indicates, please let me know how I can launch it....I'm starting to lose patience. The NasLite box is supposed to be my back-up... currently it seems that the PC is back-up for NasLite.

Hugo

Hugo,

When you power up NASLite it does a file system check and if errors are found it automatically tries to repair problems. This can take a couple of hours for large drives. If you check the logs it will tell you it found problems and is trying to fix them. It will also tell you if it couldn't fix the problems in which case you could try moving the drive to a Windows machine and use some of the disk recovery software that's available for Windows. I have used R-Linux to recover lost data. It is available for free at http://www.data-recovery-software.net/Linux_Recovery.shtml

smeyer...
Thanks for the reply... the box has now been up for about a day and a half, which should have been ample time (even with a 200Gb) disk to repair itself. It hasn't done so: looks as if my version doesn't have this facility. There don't appear to be any logs.... I'm told that disk 1 is present and ready to be used for storing data...which seems to imply it's been wiped clean! I'm going to try reading any remaining data via a windows machine....but on past form I suspect the disk will be devoid of anything useful. I can understand that a sudden power out would corrupt the "running" bits (MBR etc in Windows-speak) but why does it also destroy all data? I'm sure that for the first 9-10 months of its life, power cuts might interrupt things, but I didn't lose anything. More recently, any power disruption means curtains for my data.
So, do I now cut my losses and abandon NASLite in favour of a USB external disk, buy the latest version of NASLite which should be more resistant to these problems, or wait for version 2, or buy a tape drive, software, and tapes?
Hugo

All the versions of NASLite have the file system repair built in as far as I know. You have to use a web browser to access the logs, they're not on the configuration screen. In IE, Netscape, or Firefox just type in the IP address of the NAS box - 192.168.1.x usually, (where x is a number you assign) and it will bring up a web page generated by the NAS box. Click on the Info link and then on the SYS_Log.htm link to see your log.

If you see a line that says "running e2fsck" that means it found an error and is running the program to try and fix them. If you see a message that says something like "e2fsck failed" it means the automatic program couldn't fix the errors. This doesn't mean your data is gone, it just means the automatic program didn't know how to fix it without loosing some of your data, so instead it just gave up. With the rlinux program you can probably still get to 90%+ of your data on the drive. It just takes some human intelligence to tell the rlinux program to copy the data you can to another drive. Once you do that you can put the drive back into NASLite and reconfigure it again.

I went thru the above process once before connecting the NAS box to a UPS system. No problems after that.

I recommend getting a UPS system for your NASLite box (and other computers too!). This will take care of short power glitches caused by storms or what ever and give you time to do a proper shut down if the power is out for more than a minute.

In my opinion as a hardware designer and programmer, there isn't a "more resistant" way to handle these problems. Newer versions of NASLite/linux/Windows will still have the same problem on your hardware. Proper shut downs are the only way I know to avoid the problem.

If you're only using NASLite to back up data, then tapes are an option.

Thanks again..... What threw me was that there were no logs in SYS.log or elsewhere, and I assume that, if the e2fsck check ran at all, it didn't do anything useful. However I was able to rescue all the data via a Win machine- coincidentally I'd just tried a magazine disk with some Paragon disk management software, and this included ext2 (?) "drivers". The data's now safely on an external HDD. I've finally got the NASLite HDD mounted again - initially it wouldn't reformat, and I had to low-level format it (with Maxtor's HDD tools) before it would behave. I'll reload the NASLite, and monitor it once I return next week.
I take your point about a UPS.. that was my downfall, as I switched my brand new UPS off accidentally - you can't eliminate user stupidity!

Regards
Hugo

actually the option i used is within the telnet console
if you goto option "4" configure storage disks
then "c" for check storage filesystem it will try to repair your drive based on the asumption that it is a nas drive

The system's been back in action for a week or so, and behaves as it should... and I'm keeping well away from the UPS's power switch.
A question, though.... rkirman suggests using option 4..Configure storage disks, with the C switch, to repair a faulty file system. I understood from the documentation that option 4 would wipe the disk clean and install a fresh file system (vide Windows "format"). Is there any way to manually run the repair function without losing the disk's data contents? (I understand that it runs automatically if NasLite detects a problem, and logs its findings)
Regards
Hugo

Hugo,

If you telnet to the server or use the configuration screen and select option 4 it gives you a menu with the choices to Format, Check, Smart status, or return back to main menu.

If you select C it gives you info on how the drives are numbered and the option to also check for bad blocks with the C option after the drive number. Without the C option it just does a "quick" file system check. With the C option it does a non-destructive bad block check of every block on the disk, which will take a LOOONG time

It prints out information on the screen about what it's doing as it goes thru the tests.

Neither test will format the drive or erase the current contents. I had to reboot the NAS server after doing this to get Windows to allow me to write to the drive after the test, but I don't know if that's just my setup or if that is the normal procedure.

Just a note to say that all seems well - the box has now been running for almost a month without problems, So thanks all for your helpful advice. (The 160Gb drive that caused me difficulties is behaving oddly when I try to use it as a Win XP boot drive, so I suspect it was a hardware problem all along). Oh, and roll on Naslite 2 for CD..... I like the sound of the additional facilities, but the old M/B etc won't boot from USB.. although there's always the kicker disk, I suppose.

Regards

Hugo