A plea for help to those who understand such devices, from a lapsed mechanical engineer who definitely doesn't.
BACKGROUND
3 years ago, I thought it time to dip a toe in the water of this new fangled music streaming lark.
So I designed and built a beginner's home network to connect existing Apple computers, HP printers etc. together and to run the Naim DAC-V1, NAP140 and a pair of PMC DB1i speakers off a 2012 Mac mini.
Internet comes into the house courtesy of Virgin Media at a measured 120MB/s on a fibre cable, through a Virgin Superhub set to modem mode then into an apple time capsule (wifi router + 3TB backup hard drive all in a white box).
Joining the whole lot together is a Netgear GS108T managed 8 way gigabit switch and lots of 100% CAT6 or CAT6a professionally installed cables.
All media is stored on a Synology DS212+ NAS drive, which runs periodic backups to a second Synology DS212 NAS drive, which is also on the home network, though in a different part of the house for security reasons.
So far, so good. It all seems to work and to be totally reliable. Until the last few weeks...
FAILURE SYMPTOMS
The main NAS drive just drops off the network for no apparent reason. After a short pause of a few seconds, it can be re-discovered. However, by then either the music has stopped streaming or the backup routine has been interrupted, so I have to reset and start again.
The second NAS drive meanwhile continues to be utterly reliable, though it has had a much easier life and works far less. Internet access on all devices continues uninterrupted throughout.
I have even replaced the Ethernet patch lead from the NAS drive to the switch, to no avail. Most recently, I have plugged the NAS into a different socket in the switch, again to no avail. I have even pulled out the 2 hard drives, blown them clean and reinserted them in the NAS to make sure that the contacts are okay.
So, everything that I can think to do says that the main NAS drive just can't be bothered to stay on line all the time. Yet strangely, all its lights stay on, as though all is well.
I'm baffled now and would welcome informed advice.
My somewhat primitive root cause analysis points towards a fault in the NAS drive itself.
I'm at the point of buying a new NAS drive and even a better Ethernet switch (which one?) though it might not solve the problem.
Any wise counsel from those who understand such matters would be genuinely appreciated.
best regards from a vinyl playing, CD spinning Luddite.
Posted on: 16 November 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk
FT, unlikely to be network, especially if you have swapped Ethernet lead between suspect NAS and switch.
When you say the NAS disappears from the network, can you explain what you mean by this? Who does it disappear from? When it disappears do you see all the lights blinking on the switch rapidly at the same time and then settle down again once 'found' again?
if it disappears from UPnP then it is more likely software related within the NAS. Has anything changed there or been loaded? Can you run a UPnP media server on a seperate computer and mount the NAS over the network? Does that work better, or does the network attachment clear down after a while?
Sorry a lot of questions, but they should pin it down more.. In short it does feel software related on the NAS
Simon
Posted on: 16 November 2015 by Foot tapper
Many thanks for the helpful replies.
The NAS is now disconnecting from the network every 3-15 minutes of use, so deterioration has been rapid over the last week or so. There were no software changes on the NAS, the macs or the switch that triggered the change.
The symptoms of "disappearing" include itunes seizing on the mac mini because it can't locate the music file anymore. Equally, the "Diskstation" cannot be located when using the "Finder" app on the mac either.
To retrieve it, I would go into Google Chrome, where I have bookmarked the static IP address of the NAS drive, then access the NAS drive's home screen using google chrome. Once Google Chrome finds the NAS drive, then reverting to the "Finder" app usually re-discovers the NAS drive and itunes will resume playing music for another few minutes before the cycle repeats itself.
Another symptom occurs when backing up from this NAS drive to the other one. Automatic, timed back-ups have started to fail to run now. So I have started to initiate manual back-ups.
To do this, I go into Google Chrome and pull up the 2 IP addresses - one screen for each NAS drive. Both NAS drives are set to wake up on LAN.
The back-up NAS drive starts up quickly and once running is always available & stable.
The main NAS drive can take several attempts at being contacted by Google Chrome to be discovered.
Once discovered, I start the manual back-up routine. It typically transfers between 1GB and 20GB of data to the back-up NAS before the back-up fails and the main NAS has disconnected. Given that I'm trying to back up over 100GB of data this time, 20GB is nowhere near enough.
On the operating system side, I've updated both NAS drives from their original, 4 year old version 3.2 O/S to the latest version 5.2, via 4.0, 4.3 and 5.0 along the way - all since this problem started. The back-up NAS was stable with every version of O/S. The main NAS falls over with every version. It has made no difference.
The settings and o/s in the switch are unchanged in 3+ years.
All of which makes me think that a component is dying inside the main NAS drive, after almost 4 years of totally stable running.
Does any of this help to focus your lines of thinking?
Posted on: 16 November 2015 by Foot tapper
Thanks Simon
I've found IGMP in the switch manual now, so know where to look.
Hit another snag though. The Netgear switch management software only runs on Windows. I got rid of my last Windows PC 2-3 years ago, so am unable to access the switch logs tonight. I'll try late tomorrow afternoon, using the company Windows laptop.
Thanks again for all your help this evening. The NAS is switched off and disconnected now until tomorrow afternoon.
Why?
Because we are having new carpets fitted on Tuesday in both the lounge (i.e. music room) and the office where all the computer network kit lives. So no computer stuff or music until tomorrow evening...
Ah, the complicated, multi-tasking lives that we lead these days!
Oh, how I love the simplicity of vinyl!
Best regards, FT
Posted on: 17 November 2015 by Solid Air
Foot tapper - if it were me, the first thing I'd do is ensure I have a good backup. all fixes should be secondary to that, and I wouldn't attempt any other change until I had that. If backup via the network is unreliable, use the USB slot on the NAS. It will take a 32gb thumb drive and possibly - don't know - a USB hard drive.
Once you're use sure your music is safe, you need to work out where the problem is. The most obvious way to do that is to swap over your two Synology NAS, ie move your current backup one to 'live' duties.
If it runs without issues then you know it's the other NAS that's the problem. While it could be the disks, it's more likely to be the control software or hardware, and probably a new NAS is required.
If if it suffers the same issues as the other one then your NAS is ok and the problem is upstream. At that point there are more factors, but something in the network is most likely. Try detaching everything possible from the network - bare bones - and see if the problem persists. If not, put each thing back one at a time to diagnose where the guilt lies. If the problem's still there in bare bones mode then it's the Apple, Superhub or switch. Unlikely to be the switch, so I'd look at the other two first.
