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

Because of the growing population of IP connected devices in my home, I needed a central and safe storage place for my data. DNS-323 seemed the right answer, because of price and possible user extensions.
My idea was to use Raid1 to have my data secure. This was my first configuration. After thinking about it, and a small data loss, it became clear to me that most data losses are caused by user errors rather than HD crashes.

The new concept: Use the first HD as working disk, the second one for backups. This is much more flexible, allows keeping versions, and archive the whole disk physically.

What I did (FW 1.08 from UK server, Raid1 configuration with EXT3):
I removed the left disk and rebooted. DNS-323 came up without any problems. I chose to keep the right disk, as I think this is somehow the "primary" disk. Raid was reported as broken, but all data were accessible.
To be able to insert an independent second disk, I needed to change the disk configuration to two independent volumes. After doing this, the DNS-323 forces the user to format the disk. I tried to do this, but the formatting was interrupted with an error code (I think error 3, but not sure). I suspected the fun_plug extensions to blog the disk formatting, changed "fun_plug" to "no_fun_plug" and restarted. After this formatting was possible, resulting in a blank HD_a2 (Volume_1).

=> Why are we forced to format the disk after removing the raid configuration?

Next step was power down, insert the second old raid disk to the left side and power up again.
No problem, the second ex-raid disk was recognized without any problems and mounted as Volume_2, all data fine.

The second disk had all user extensions, e.g. fun_plug and the BitTorrent delivered as loadable extension in the Nas_Prog directory. Interestingly the BT was loaded, but the fun_plug not. HD_a2 is kind of primary disk. When I later installed BT again, it was only on HD_a2 installed, but during startup, the DNS reads those loadable applications also from HD_b2. On the other hand, fun_plug is read only from HD_a2 (the right and primary disk).

=> I found on both disks a second partition (e.g. HD_a4 and HD_b4). They have an .lpd and .systemfile directory. .lpd seems to be clear, must be a printer buffer. The .systemfile contains:

/mnt/HD_a4/.systemfile # ls -la
drwx------    3 root     root         1024 Jan 15 11:00 .
drwxrwxrwx    4 root     root         1024 Jan 15 11:10 ..
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         1024 Jan 15 11:01 .pureftpd
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           34 Jan 14 10:57 Certs.info
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1371 Jan 14 10:57 cacert.pem
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1751 Jan 14 10:57 cakey.pem
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            8 Jan 15  2010 dsk_mapping
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            6 Jan 15  2010 hd_magic_num
-rwxr--r--    1 root     root          512 Jan 15  2010 raidtab
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root          312 Jan 15  2010 raidtab2web
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1679 Jan 14 10:57 server-key-nopassword.pem

=> I wonder what all those files are needed for. Especially raidtab seems to be a leftover from the previous raid config. But why didn't this disappear after re-formatting?

Now I use rsync to keep a backup on the second volume. Need to think about a more sophisticated backup mechanism and to keep a few versions. I think there are some suggestions around.

=> What if I replace my backup disk? Does every disk in the DNS need to be formatted inside the DNS? E.g. are some data in the .systemfile needed? What happens if I insert another disk formatted elsewhere with EXT3?

-Stefanix

Last edited by Stefanix (2010-01-15 09:47:38)