Unfortunately no one can be told what fun_plug is - you have to see it for yourself.
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Hey -
Newbie here - just found these forums, which are at a different level of 'puter expertise than I have!
Just added the DNS, with 2 WD Green Power Caviar 1tb drives to my network. Set it up initially (RAID1) - no problems, and normal access times (minus the spin-up time for the GreenPower HD's).
I then decided to update the firmware - went from 1.02 to 1.05. First, the updating took a looong time, with both drive lights flashing - I thought it was reformatting the drives (since there was a caution about updating to 1.05 with EXT3 formatted drives), but it didn't.
However, now every time I access the drive, both drive lights start flashing, and it takes a minute or longer to finally access the drive. And after I finish accessing the drive - e.g., if I add tags to some new music - then it takes another minute to get access back. I suspect that there's some kind of RAID sync check or updating going on. I've checked out the configuration panel a few times, but can't find any setting about managing that config.
Apparently, other posts here have mentioned that the DNS implementation of RAID is somewhat sloppy....
Is there any known problem like this, or any way to identify what exactly the problem is? And then, to fix it? Re-update the firmware? Use another version of the firmware? Adjust the RAID configuration?
I'm using this NAS as the data storage device for all my data, so this access problem is driving me nuts!
TIA
Ed
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just a few general comments, nothing specific to your situation, but search the forum (as you have done), and also look at one of the sticky posts - the read me first one as it contains a link to the wiki known problems page. There are lots of complaints about raid, but many others do use raid (in my case raid1). As to reconfiguring the raid setup, unless you do it manually (search the forum for scripts and posts on how to do this) I think you will lose data. You may want to just 'bite the bullet' and change the raid setup via the web interface (even if you 'change' it from raid1 to raid1) and format the drives under the new f/w that you are running and see if it makes any difference (don't know if it will though - so I would hang on and wait for better suggestions from other people before you try it!). I don't use green drives myself, but have the standby timer set to a low value, so on access it can take a while for them to spin up, but once they are spinning access is not bad, and they don't spin down between two parts of the same operation (but as I say I am unfamiliar with green drives); when I do an operation both lights flash, the only time that I have had to knowingly wait for a sync operation was when web interface reports that the raid is degraded and specifically starts a syncing operation (which took forever). I hope someone can give you a better solution!
lu
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Thanks for the comments....hmm, yes I could reconfigure as RAID1, but that will mean copying over all my data to somewhere else. However, if all else fails....
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gandoe wrote:
Thanks for the comments....hmm, yes I could reconfigure as RAID1, but that will mean copying over all my data to somewhere else. However, if all else fails....
You can do it manually, break the array, format one drive (a), copy data back to (a) from other drive (b), format (b), copy data back to (b) from (a), rebuild array ...... I think :-) ....... Not for the faint hearted though :-) But in any case I am not sure that this would fix your problem. Look i.a. at http://dns323.kood.org/forum/p18035-200 … %3A27.html and bq041 's posts. But like I said others can better help you, I just thought I would offer a couple of general points in case they were a useful place for you to start.
lu
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Wow - phenomenal post - thanks for the link. I believe I upgraded from 1.02 to 1.05, but I'll check that tonight. I'll also check if I've got that configuration partitions for F/W 1.05 - if not, that could be the cause of the problem.
Thanks!!!! Off to see more of BQ041's posts!
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The script that is on the thread luusac posted should also work for drives installed in F/W 1.02, but I did not include that in the original post because I have not tested it. Part of the problem with EXT3 on the older firmware is that it is broken and you get corupted filesystems.
If you want to use the script, make sure you install ffp 0.5 before you begin, you will need it.
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I didn't format the HDs as EXT3 - that's what the dlink caution was, that if you were upgrading the firmware that you could lose your data.
So...probably a stupid question, but...what exactly is the fun_plug? And how do you go about installing it? I'm pretty much a Win user...not linux...and although I've been screwing around with computers since the dos days, and have a fair degree of expertise, I certainly think that the level of competence here on the board is way beyond mine. Are there diagnostics or executables in the ffp that the script calls?
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It is short for function plug, which is a specific file that the D-Link start-up scripts look for and execute. We use this to our advantage to install other applications such as telnet and a variety of other things. Fonz has made some great compalations of utilities and programs know as fonz fun plug, or ffp for short. I personaly use ffp 0.5. Instructions are on the wiki under howto ffp. It essentially involves copying 2 files to the DNS and rebooting it. Once that is done, you can use Putty (google for it) to telnet in and you get a shell promps which reacts similar to the old DOS prompt. This will give you root user access, basicly equivelant to Administrator in windows.
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Excellent - thanks! I'll install the ffp, and then check to see if I've got the right partition configuration...and then if not, I'll run the script.
Whew! Guess I picked a bad week to start screwing around the computers again!
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If you choose to run the script, make sure you read all the instructions first (from the thread posted above) and understand them. Most of them are also dictated in the script. I do always recommend a back-up copy for just-in-case.
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Yep - I just borrowed a LaCie TB backup drive from a friend - now I just figure out how to make a Mac NAS work on a PC network, back up my own NAS, and then install ffp and off we go!
Thanks again for all the great help! I learned a long time ago that whenever I run into computer problems the first thing to do is get to the net and start searching for forums like this one!
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Of course, it strikes me now that, since I can get a complete backup of all my data (assuming I can - I haven't yet hooked up the other HD) - the simplest thing may be, as luusac suggested, to change the RAID setup. Anyone have any idea if this will correct the problem of the missing configuration files? I have to assume it will...
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gandoe wrote:
I have to assume it will...
Can anybody else jump in and give a better answer? But if you are sure you have everything backed up (if it is important stuff/stuff that you can't afford to lose make sure you have two backups on independant systems and verify the data is ok - the last thing you need is trying to restore from a failed backup !) maybe it won't hurt to try. Don't assume though, I did say that I am not sure that it would solve the problem at all!
lu
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Well...actually I just tried to connect the USB HD...and it didn't work, presumably because of a BIOS issue with my USB (it's an old computer!)
So....given the fact that everyone who's tried the script said it worked flawlessly...I'll just have to run the script.
Thanks again for the help!
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Ok, now this is quite interesting.
As noted in my last post, the USB backup HD didn't work on my old computer (naturally - why would I ever think the logical simple solution would work). However, I had just recently added the DNS, so - just to have a backup - I was able to copy/squeeze all 200 or so gigs of data back onto my computer HDDs.
So, given that I had all the data - rather than try to install the ffp then run the script, I thought the simplest route would be to reformat the RAID1 config.
So, I ran the EasySearch utility, and reformatted my existing RAID1 config to RAID1. I then copied over a test directory of 10gig of photos and movies, and....no difference in the problem of extended access times.
OK...so, thinking that perhaps I needed to start from a non-RAID config - I then reconfigured the NAS as independent HD's - and, after the formatting, sure enough, there were two 1TB volumes.
Good - ok, so I then went back and reformatted again, from the independant drives to a RAID1 format...copied over again the 10g test directory, and.....still the same problem.
So...to recap...
I got my new DNS323 two weeks ago. It came with F/W v. 1.02, and EasySearch Utility 3.5. I installed my two 1TB WD Cavier GreenPower SATA drives....formatted as RAID1 - and bingo, it was working perfectly. Normal access times, etc etc.
So then - in preparation for rebuilding my computer, I was collecting various updates on different programs, drivers, etc (although didn't install any) - and decided to check if there was an update for the DNS. There was, both a firmware update (F/W 1.05) as well as a new version of the EasySearch utility (v4.2)
After checking to make sure my RAID1 drives weren't formatted as EXT3 (as per the caution on the dlink site) - I then updated the firmware. It took a good half hour - and both drive lights were flashing continuously. I thought my data was toast. However, when it was finished, all my data was there.
Then I tried to access some of my photos - and then noticed the problem. What is the problem? After starting up Adobe Photo Elements (which takes a good 45sec anyway - the Mac camp of developers have unique ideas about the important attributes of application performance and functionality) - it then takes approx 10 minutes, 22 seconds to load the photo catalog. FYI, Adobe PE uses a "catalog" approach - a file with a thumbnail, link to original photo, and all sorts of metadata, both descriptive and user generated, for each photo.
So, the way I see it is:
dlinks RAID1 configuration parameters in FM 1.05 could simply be bad
OR
dlinks application to configure RAID1 could be bad
OR
there's something weird going on with Adobe
OR
there's an issue somewhere else in the OS or even on my circuitboard, that's simply showing up here (unlikely, since it was working fine before).
So....I think my next step is to go ahead and install the ffp then run the script that bq041 provided, to see if THAT corrects the problem. But I wanted to post a quick summary, in case someone with more expertise could better identify the problem.
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Do not do that. It was not intended for this and will not work. The first thing you need to look at is if the drive are indeed set-up correctly. After you have ffp installed, post the results of these:
/ # cat /proc/partitions / # ls -al /mnt
Just so you know, I am running the WD 1TB Green drives also and am having no problems. I have to assume it is most likely not the DNS, the F/W, or the drives. My guess would be Adobe, your network, or your system.
Tell me a little bit about your network, exactly how everything is connected and at what speeds. Next, have you tried transfering any data directly to or from the DNS, not using Adobe?
If so, what speeds are you getting there? You can use the program that is posted in the end of this thread to test the network: http://dns323.kood.org/forum/t1847-not- … sults.html
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Ok then...so, it may in fact be an Adobe issue...I re-copied over another folder of photos (approx 2GB), with the associated Adobe catalog - and that seemed to work fine. So it may be that the original Adobe catalog is corrupted somehow....which, after checking to make sure the hardware/network config is set up correctly, I'll then go back and fix that.
And just as a note - I transferred the files manually to the DNS - NOT using Adobe. And I've transferred other files manually, as well. Music files, my personal data (docs, spreadsheets, pdfs, etc). As an example, I copied over (and back) all my music files - approx 127 GB - which took roughly 4 hours.
So - back to basics. I installed ffp .05, and using Putty ran the commands - the results are:
==============================
/ # cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
7 0 5484 loop0
31 0 64 mtdblock0
31 1 64 mtdblock1
31 2 1536 mtdblock2
31 3 6336 mtdblock3
31 4 192 mtdblock4
9 0 974133312 md0
8 0 976762584 sda
8 1 530113 sda1
8 2 974133405 sda2
8 4 514080 sda4
8 16 976762584 sdb
8 17 530113 sdb1
8 18 974133405 sdb2
8 20 514080 sdb4
/ # ls -al /mnt
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 1024 Aug 31 10:01 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 1024 Aug 31 10:07 ..
drwxrwxrwx 7 root root 4096 Aug 31 10:02 HD_a2
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 1024 Aug 31 10:00 HD_a4
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 1024 Aug 31 10:00 HD_b4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Feb 16 2007 web_page
/ #
==============================
I also got the file NAS Performance Tester .04 from the thread you linked, and the results are:
=======================
Running warmup...
Running a 200MB file write on drive q: 5 times...
Iteration 1: 3 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 3.03 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 3.04 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 3.04 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 3.09 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (W): 3.04 MB/sec
------------------------------
Running a 200MB file read on drive q: 5 times...
Iteration 1: 3.8 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 3.82 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 3.85 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 3.87 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 3.78 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (R): 3.83 MB/sec
------------------------------
========================
which, after reading that thread, seems awfully low.
The DNS323 is configured:
Link Speed: Auto
Static IP
No user or group policies defined
FTP server is off
I've got it running through a Linksys BEFSX41 10/100 router.
The other component of the network is my old Dell Dimension - 996 mhz, 512mb. I've got a 3Com 10/100 PCI expansion card, and am running WinXP with SP2.
What other specific network info would help?
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That is slow. It looks to be a network / computer related problem. I average around 17 MB/s but I am on gigabit ethernet. I've never tested on 10/100, but I recall people talking about 8-9MB/s on 100mbs lan. Do you have another computer by any chance. This can help narrow down the problem. I also recall people having issues with some pc network cards and having to uninstall them, then reinstall them and then everything was fine.
Lastly, do you have anti-virus orfirewall software on your computer (this includes microsoft's windows firewall)? If you do, disable it completely, do not just say allow traffic. Test again. These software programs look at all traffic on the network to and from the machine and it takes time to do that.
Last edited by bq041 (2008-08-31 19:36:31)
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So - I'm assuming that the RAID1 configuration looks to be ok?
I'm in the process of rebuilding the Adobe catalogs (a good thing to let run overnight) and so hopefully that will resolve the initial problem, which turned out to be an issue with my test catalog.
So now - speeding up the network...I'll bring my work laptop home and try that, to see what kind of speeds I get. As noted, this is an old computer/BIOS I'm working with, so I'm not surprised if its a bios or driver issue. Part of the reason for getting the NAS is so that I can rebuild this computer. It will be interesting to see how many issues go away with a clean install of all the latest program updates and drivers.
I don't have any firewall running, since the BEFSX41 has a built in hardware firewall, but I'll test after turning off the anti-virus programs.
Thanks for all the help.
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Do you happen to have a switch? If you do, try connecting the computer and DNS to the switch, and the switch to the router. I am not familure with your particular router, but I have known some to impose rules on switching internal traffic.
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I had a bit of a problem connecting the work laptop to my home network - but that was entirely an issue with the work laptop.
However, I did turn off my anti-virus and re-run the performance tests, and got relatively significantly better results...
==================
Running warmup...
Running a 200MB file write on drive q: 5 times...
Iteration 1: 7.68 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 7.63 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 7.68 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 7.45 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 7.66 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (W): 7.62 MB/sec
------------------------------
Running a 200MB file read on drive q: 5 times...
Iteration 1: 5.45 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 5.61 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 5.14 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 5.61 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 5.37 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (R): 5.44 MB/sec
------------------------------
===================
Although it's a bit odd that the read test is that much slower than the write test....
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gandoe wrote:
Although it's a bit odd that the read test is that much slower than the write test....
Not really - the drive you're writing to also has an impact on the test, when last did you defragment it?
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Sorry for the delayed response....I've been having other computer issues (unrelated to this).
I'm a bit crunched on space on the write drive - one of the main reasons for getting the NAS is to get all my data off the computer so I can rebuild it with new partitions and a brand new install.
And - just to complete this thread - as it turned out the slow access times was due to issues with Adobe Photo Elements catalog, NOT the NAS. Now I've got all my data BACK on the NAS, and am going to work on getting access to the NAS first through adding another computer to my home network, then through the internet (setting up a VPN tunnel to my router). Then - once I can do that - I get to blow away my old computer install and start fresh.
Whew!
One last question - I'm assuming if I want to "uninstall" ffp .05, I can just delete the directories and original install scripts? I didn't see any guidelines or instructions on removing ffp's.
Thanks again everyone for the great advice!
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Yes, you can just delete them.
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I'm having a similar problem since updating to firmware 1.5. I have 2 WD Green Power Caviar 1tb drives in Raid 1 mode and now playback stalls and halts completely , randomly. Is there any way I can go back to firmware 1.4. As problem started with upgrading.
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