On their own I’d agree, nothing remarkable about them at all. I’m currently re-running a backup I know WILL stall - just backing up the Inaki share. I want to see exactly how many file and folders are processed before it stalls.
I have to admit that as soon as I compared the figures I immediately thought “signed 16 bit integer overflow?”. That magic figure of 32767 (max positive value of a 16 bit signed integer without overflowing) lies suspicously between your first share’s 30,470 file count (which works) and my first share’s 35,068 file count (which stalls).
The backup appears to process multi-share backups as consecutive backups in a sing job, so if there IS an issue with the number of files it is likely to be the number of files in a single share. But this is pure speculation. It could equally as likely be a folder nesting depth issue or something totally unrelated.
I’ll post the file/folder count of my test backup once it has stalled.
EDIT: Yep pure speculation. It still stalls at 113GB, but has only copied 8,225 files and 677 folders.
If it stops on the same file each time, Id remove that one and try again…entirely possible their app is taking some sort of improperly handled exception on it.
I’ve been trying to determine if it is a particular file… but there are a lot to cross check!
While a particular file should not have the slightest effect due to either it’s type, name or contents - since it should literally just be “a file” - the reality it does. For example with Samba I’ve came across problems copying a backup of a friend’s website to two different Samba based NASs, both the EX2 and a Seagate Central (don’t buy one, they are pretty poor). Both barfed at having a simple text file copied from a Windows NTFS drive to them simply because it was called “.bashrc”.
Yes I know that is potentially a dangerous file if copied to the wrong place in Linux, but hey it is a file. Windows doesn’t care what it is and neither should Samba it is truly to act as a Windows file server. It should (whether any implimentation really does is a good question) isolate the files it handles as a NAS drive from those it’s underlying OS use.
This particular “gripe” (not copying a file just because it is called “.bashrc”) at least was easy to spot - the copy bombed out with an error on that file. The lack of an easily accessible backup job log makes it hard.
Yep…it’s a consumer oriented device and there are plenty of capabilities and diagnostics that would be in an appliance aimed at the commercial sector. The good news is that is is linux and open rather than locked down. It sounds like their OS3 may resolve some of the issues you and I are seeing…and it appears that it isnt available for the older devices yet…
According to the posts from WD about F/W 2.10.302/310 it IS OS3, confusing as it sounds. So I’m afraid it doesn’t fix them.
As an “expert” product the EX2 is aimed at the cross-over between home office/small business, so it is lacking features that should really be there. Unfortunately I don’t subscribe to the view that “hey it is Linux, it is open and can be fixed” as an excuse for not delivering a properly functioning product.
I bought it to work and do a job, not faff around with or “hack”.
Don’t get me wrong I appreciate your comments and views - a different perspective from a fresh set of eys can (and all too often does) result in one of those Homer Simpson “DOH!” moments (whilst slapping forehead for one’s own stupidity - my forehead has the indentations to prove it).
I suppose it is just a combination of the following:
if I want to “play” with Linux I’ve a Dell Poweredge server running Centos 6.7 at home for that
I bought the EX2 as a much smaller, quieter, resiliant place to store my important files than my current (other) Dell Poweredge server I have at home running Windows Server. That is also fun to play around with. However it’s eight fans, six 15K RPM SCSI drives (comprising it’s RAID 5 array) are making it difficult for me to find a “socially acceptable” permanent location for it - it sounds like a 747 taking off when poweing on and not much quiter once running. It does though make a nice supplemental room heater in winter! LOL
The time will come when I’ll want to dive into the EX2’s inards to see what else it can be made to do (I love embedded stuff). Right now getting back from a day spent sovling just such technical IT issues, then having to do the same just the get the EX2 to do what is supposed to (and I bought it for), is way too much like a “busman’s holiday”.
After hard week working on this, this is my clear solution:
Note that, if you restart your NAS, (or format, or reset), you will loose all your changes on the native OS, i think, every time the system ups, WD flash a ROM image again. (not in the drives where the data is stored)… then:
Enable SSH access on the web administration with password myRootPasswordOnNas < just an example
create a cronjob on another linux server (on other server!!!)
2.1) for this cronjob, i use sshpass because cant use sshkey, remember that all system is resetted every time that i restart my NAS, resseting the knowing hosts used for storing keys. Then, install sshpass on the remote server
2.2) In the remote server cronjob, i use something like:
sshpass -p myRootPasswordOnNas ssh root@WDnas ‘rsync --archive --delete --update -v /mnt/HD/HD_a2/source/ /mnt/USB/USB1_c2/destination/ > /mnt/HD/HD_a2/source/log.log’
test it (on the remote server), there is a log on /mnt/HD/HD_a2/source/log.log on the WD NAS
