After a day, Synology support got back to me and asked me to send them a set of system logs.
I did.
After another day, a got an email saying that the file system had some problems probably, in their opinion, from ungraceful shutdowns associated with power loss. They wanted me to set the box up so that they could establish a ssh connection and poke around. I asked how that was a safe thing to do. Here’s what they said:
The remote support (including SSH channels) work in similar form to QuickConnect, where a secured tunnel is established with authorized/official servers of ours, which then we create a secured connection on our end using the remote key (tunnels are established for the service(s) needed). A lot of care is taken to ensure that the connections/traffic are sent securely, with this basically being a secured relay channel.
That makes a lot of sense. It also means that I don’t need to poke a hole in the firewall for them. It does leave me at the mercy of a tech who might poke through my files. I’m not pleased with that possibility, especially compared with the usual remote access through a web browser, where the customer can see if the tech is doing something she shouldn’t and stop her. I suppressed my paranoia and set it up.
After a few days, I got an email that apologized for the delay, then got right down to it:
Basically at this point the filesystem damage is the culprit that is preventing from a resize (referred to as “online resize”). There are also logs showing something called kernel panic, and due to the combination of these two issues, and some practical measures, I would suggest that you perform a full backup, delete the volume, reset the DSM, then recreate the volume and push your data back onto the device.
The tech offered to try to fix the file system with the NAS box live, but said that the process was fraught with difficulty, and that I could end up having to do a full restore anyway.
I told him:
I think your suspicion about power problems is probably in the right direction, but since other equipment on the same UPS had no problems during that time, I’m suspecting the power supply of the NAS box.
In general, I’ve had better luck with the reliability of the rack mount Synology equipment than the consumer grade stuff. So I’ve ordered a 12 bay rack mount unit with redundant power supplies. I will transfer over the data to the new unit when it comes, and then I’ll take Anna out of service, reusing the DASD and probably retiring the box.
I’ve ordered a new Synology RS3614xs. It’s supposed to get here Tuesday. I’ve also ordered a bunch of Western Digital RED NAS-rated 6 TB disks.
To be continued.
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