DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

Voziv · 2008-05-22 16:38:58

So.. recently I decided to investigate what HD_a4 and HD_b4 are on my drives, and to my surprise I got the following from "DF -h".

Code:

/dev/md0              1.4T  1.2T  204G  86% /mnt/HD_a2
/dev/sda4             487M  141K  487M   1% /mnt/HD_a4
/dev/sdb4             487M  2.0K  487M   1% /mnt/HD_b4

The /dev/md0 is 2x750gb drives in Raid 0, but the other 2 I have no idea. Apparently they are independant as I created a random.txt on the HD_a4 and it did not appear in the HD_b4. Are they merely a waste of space?

Also here is Mount

Code:

rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
/dev/root on / type ext2 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nodiratime)
/dev/loop0 on /sys/crfs type cramfs (ro)
/dev/md0 on /mnt/HD_a2 type ext2 (rw)
/dev/sda4 on /mnt/HD_a4 type ext2 (rw)
/dev/sdb4 on /mnt/HD_b4 type ext2 (rw)
none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)

Your help is much appreciated

-Voziv

Last edited by Voziv (2008-05-22 16:39:19)

bspvette86 · 2008-05-22 18:35:42

Those file systems are used to house the UPnP database, Disk layout, etc... It would not be advisable to remove them unless you want your unit to quit working as designed.

Do a "find /mnt/HD_a4" and look at the contents of some of the files. You might learn a bit about how these things work.

Cheers!
bspvette

SilentException · 2008-05-22 19:14:18

basically you "loose" around 2gb when using 2 disks with dns-323. 1gb for HD_a4 and HD_b4 and 1gb for swap partitions. no biggie if you ask me

skydreamer · 2008-05-22 19:56:24

bspvette86 wrote:
Those file systems are used to house the UPnP database, Disk layout, etc... It would not be advisable to remove them unless you want your unit to quit working as designed.

Do a "find /mnt/HD_a4" and look at the contents of some of the files. You might learn a bit about how these things work.

Cheers!
bspvette

I am not sure if this holds true, looking at another thread I asked exactly the same question last week and got response back that under v1.05 firmware the disks are formatted only with two partitions.

http://dns323.kood.org/forum/t2199-Firm … -site.html
post # 15

bspvette86 · 2008-05-22 20:03:01

My A1 unit has all three partions when formatted using 1.05.

sda1 Swap
sda2 Data
sda4 Config

I would guess that if you had both raid and jbod, that there would be a sda3 with data as well. I'll check tonight...

Cheers!
bspvette

bq041 · 2008-05-22 21:01:44

I manually set mine up with only 2 partitions (1 and 2). All my config files that were under partition 4 are now found on partition 2. The units have been running great with no noticeable degradation. However, I cannot comment on UPNP since I have it disabled and always had. I would guess that the login scripts are written to search partition 2 if partition 4 is not found. I have found this type of coding in some of the D-Link scripts, such as looking at sdb2 for the BT client if it's not found on sda2.

bspvette86 · 2008-05-23 17:37:13

As I expected, reformatting with a RAID / JBOD combo creates 4 partitions per physical disk.

sda1 Swap DNS-323
sda2 Data RAID
sda3 Data JBOD
sda4 Config DNS-323

sdb1 Swap DNS-323
sdb2 Data RAID
sdb3 Data JBOD
sdb4 Config DNS-323

Cheers!
bsp

talkingRock · 2009-04-08 21:31:37

I've been wondering exactly this same thing about my DNS-321.

Clearly the swap partitions are useful and need to be left alone.

The HD_a4 and HD_b4 partitions, when using "standard" mode seem like another matter entirely. From what I can see of the files that exist there, they are dedicated to control files for the uPnP and itunes servers, neither of which I use.

So, these partitions are about 500MB, a perfect size to put the ffp files and my rsnapshot configuration and automation files. This makes the a2 and b2 partitions clean as just snapshots, well except for the "fun_plug" file on a2.

Has anyone tried this?
Does it work?
Is it more than aesthetically useful? (500mb on a 1.5TB drive doesn't seem like anything worth worrying about.)

Duaine

bq041 · 2009-04-09 21:03:36

a4 and b4 are not just for upnp and itunes. They have config files that are crucial to the DNS' operation. These store the setup information that the DNS uses each time the web utility is run to determine the setup.

DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

Announcement

#1 2008-05-22 16:38:58

Odd Partitions: Waste of space?

Code:

Code:

#2 2008-05-22 18:35:42

Re: Odd Partitions: Waste of space?

#3 2008-05-22 19:14:18

Re: Odd Partitions: Waste of space?

#4 2008-05-22 19:56:24

Re: Odd Partitions: Waste of space?

bspvette86 wrote:

#5 2008-05-22 20:03:01

Re: Odd Partitions: Waste of space?

#6 2008-05-22 21:01:44

Re: Odd Partitions: Waste of space?

#7 2008-05-23 17:37:13

Re: Odd Partitions: Waste of space?

#8 2009-04-08 21:31:37

Re: Odd Partitions: Waste of space?

#9 2009-04-09 21:03:36

Re: Odd Partitions: Waste of space?

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