Storage pool healthy but system crashed

[640 dnl]

Dear friends!
After 3 years of nice Synology operation, I am in need of help,
We have a 418play NAS in our company. The person in charge made such a big mess of our NAS and general network which is not even funny. While we are waiting for a new 1522+ unit to arrive with 5x18TB Ultrastars to make sure that I can sleep properly at night, we have run into multiple issues with the 416.
The storage pool had 4 Red WDs, 2.73 TB each, in a SHR configuration. Up till some point everything was ok.
We started swapping the two of the four hard drives with 3.64 TB Blue WDs.
The first week all ok, then the volume crashed (but the storage pool is healthy). I removed a HDD and rebuild the pool and it was all ok for about an hour. Then the volume crashed again but the HDDs show a healthy status.

The array is extremely slow and we are trying to back up the files at the moment to external HDDs. If we use the USB on the unit, the copy is slower than death... I am trying to make images of specific folders.
The question I am asking, since I am not a pro and it will be another week before pros arrive in our premises, how is it possible for the volume to crash while the HDDs are healthy? I mean, it rebuilds itself and then crashes again.

SMART values are all ok, and we are doing an extended smart check to see if there is anything else. Any clues as to what to do? Please do not UBUNTU me as I am just an above average Windows user

Thanks all!
D.

 

[Rusty]

how is it possible for the volume to crash while the HDDs are healthy?

This is almost certainly an HDD issue. So 1st week it was all good after you replaced both drives or you just swapped one so far and it failed on the second one?

Backing up is the best thing that you can do now, but if you can try and get another 4TB drive and replace it. Ofc, don't do it until the backup is done as it will stress the array and NAS even further.

 

[640 dnl]

Hi Rusty and many thanks for your reply.
I replaced one, left the array to rebuild and then the second one (but it was immediate, so cannot know which may cause the error). I am tempted to revert back to the 3TB ones after I manage to back up...
I have read about mixing SMR and CMR may cause issues, I have no clue what the Red and Blue ones are in my array.
The issue is that so far we are 19% on the image backup on one of the big folders and it has already taken almost 2 hours...
Patience is a virtue, but yes....

 

[Telos]

Volumes crash for all reasons... Drives may, mor may not be involved.

Drive "health" is a vague description...

 

[Coop777]

Larger lession learned..always have an external backup of your data, even after you get the DS1522+

 

[640 dnl]

Although I new that as an individual who is playing with the computers and have build my personal PCs since the late 90s,
I will add that is ''who you trust'' with your data. The guy (don't ask... and it was a relative - the ''it'' is not wrong...) portrait himself as an expert only for us to have to chase him legally at the end.
I will use the 1522+ with SHR2 and then the 418 as a backup of the 1522+ (using SHR on the 418).
The only app that I trust regarding HDD failure is the HDD sentinel which so far has saved me in more than one occasions. I will try to install that on the synologys as well in the future. The good thing is that data these days are so huge that I will not even know what we lost, except for some specific folders. (just kidding).
So far it is copying , let's see the outcome...

 

[Coop777]

sounds like you have had to learn things the hard way. Vet very carefully whom you trust with running your network. I have run into a few challenges sort of like this in the past taking over admin support for other companies and finding out things were setup incorrectly on purpose, and sometimes straight incompetence too.

 

[640 dnl]

Update on the situation.
I left it yesterday and it EaseUS ToDo backup was running to image one of the large shared folders. It was running slow, but ok when I left the company.
This morning, before I arrive to work, I open my mails on my phone, and I receive that the NAS was connected to the UPS, then that it was shut down improperly. There is nothing else to panic as I cannot beam up myself to work, so upon arrival I open the web-based synology thing and I see that the Storage pool is now completely healthy. Hmm....
I started working on my PC, accessing some files and I did create a new folder to install HDD sentinel. After 5 minutes I get a message that the pool has crashed again... Go figure. Once I back up everything, I am ready with a hammer to kill every single drive on that thing, take the platters out and machine them on our CNC (which by the way I have a back up on the files, so all good there :p) . Let's see how this ends...

 

[Rusty]

Soldier through it and get that backup done. Make sure to check if the backed up files are ok, before you take those drives to the CNC and end them