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Synology NAS Recovery

After upgrading from my old Synology DS1511+ (yes, 12 years old) to a new Synology DS423+ (highly recommended!) and getting everything migrated, I wanted to wipe the machine to see if I can sell/donate it. It still works great, but I wanted to hard reset it to prepare it for a new owner. Needless to say it didn’t go according to plan, but figured I’d document it here.

As part of the upgrade, I had disconnected the old NAS to ensure there was nothing more I needed on it. It had been sitting in my office for about 3 weeks and I figured it was time to wipe it. I plugged it in, turned it on…and for some reason I couldn’t hit the website. Meh, no matter, I’ll just reset it via the button.

It reset and I was able to find it via find.synology.com and started the reconfigure of it. All worked well until it got to 95%…and sat there. I opened a new browser window and did the same thing…only to have it get stuck at 95% again. Life happened and so I left it there for awhile only to come back to the same issue. Ugh.

So I restarted it…

I was still unable to access it via the IP I saw it was getting. I also wasn’t able to find it on find.synology.com. So I attempted to find it via the downloadable Synology Assistant. At first I couldn’t find it there either (Yikes!), but then I realized I was crossing VLANS and the traffic was probably being blocked.

Ok, now I can at least see it, and low and behold DSM isn’t installed on it – so much for “95%”.

Should be easy at this point, just run the install and tada. Sadly, this is the error I continually received.

As part of the install process it prompts you to input both the networking configuration and the admin password prior to getting to this point. Seeing the error, I then telnet’ed into the machine, but the password I had set it to never worked.

Some searching later, I found a link that outlined the recovery password.

I’m putting the info below, in case that website goes away and is no longer available.

1st character = month in hexadecimal, lower case (1=Jan, … , a=Oct, b=Nov, c=Dec)
2-3 = month in decimal, zero padded and starting in 1 (01, 02, 03, …, 11, 12)
4 = dash
5-6 = day of the month in hex (01, 02 .., 0A, .., 1F)
7-8 = greatest common divisor between month and day, zero padded. This is always a number between 01 and 12.

So, let’s say today is October 15, the password would be: a10-0f05 (a = month in hex, 10 = month in dec, 0f = day in hex, 05 = greatest divisor between 10 and 15).

In some cases the clock is also set to factory default… then try the password: 101-0101

Additionally, by default the TZ is in UTC, so account for that in the day.

The install logs are located at /var/log/messages, and cat’ing that I saw the following:

Feb 4 00:26:38 kernel: [ 3393.572368] ata3: SError: { HostInt 10B8B }
Feb 4 00:26:38 kernel: [ 3393.576648] ata3.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Feb 4 00:26:38 kernel: [ 3393.581931] ata3.00: cmd 60/20:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 16384 in
Feb 4 00:26:38 kernel: [ 3393.581934] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x44 (timeout)
Feb 4 00:26:38 kernel: [ 3393.597037] ata3.00: status: { DRDY }
Feb 4 00:26:40 kernel: [ 3396.226915] ata3: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
Feb 4 00:26:42 kernel: [ 3398.543647] ata3.00: disabled
Feb 4 00:26:42 kernel: [ 3398.546712] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.565298] Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.594016] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 0
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.599194] Buffer I/O error on device sdc, logical block 0
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.604882] Buffer I/O error on device sdc, logical block 1
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.610580] Buffer I/O error on device sdc, logical block 2
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.610705] sd 2:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.610792] sd 2:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.610815] sd 2:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.610858] sd 2:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.638050] Buffer I/O error on device sdc, logical block 3
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3398.672656] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] START_STOP FAILED
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: format start, szBuf = ^R4VxSYNONI^A^D^A
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:1314 No found '/.raid_assemble', skip it
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:2235 CleanPartition=[0], CheckBadblocks=[0]
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:2296(ErrFHOSTDoFdiskFormat) retv=[0]
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ErrFHOSTTcpResponseCmd: cmd=[2], ulErr=[0]
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: query prog, szBuf = ^R4VxSYNONI^A^D^A
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:2150(ErrFHOSTUpdateMkfsProgress) gInstallStage=[3] ret:-34
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: index=[0], ulRate=[8]
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:2221(ErrFHOSTUpdateMkfsProgress) retv=-34
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:1423(ErrFHOSTNetInstaller) read socket fail, ret=[0], errno=[2]
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:1512(ErrFHOSTNetInstaller) retSel=[1] err=(2)[No such file or directory]
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:1527(ErrFHOSTNetInstaller)
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: Return from TcpServer()
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3399.370817] md: md1: set sda2 to auto_remap [0]
Feb 4 00:26:43 kernel: [ 3399.401536] md: md0: set sda1 to auto_remap [0]
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: raidtool.c:166 Failed to create RAID '/dev/md0' on ''
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: raidtool.c:166 Failed to create RAID '/dev/md1' on ''
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:2249 szCmd=[/etc/installer.sh -n > /dev/null 2>&1], retv=[1]
Feb 4 00:26:43 syslog: ninstaller.c:2293 retv=[1]

Lots more searching of the some of the errors didn’t really get me any real answer, but I was able to find a forum post that seemed relevant that had a link to the web archive of a website that didn’t exist anymore. While that link was about a failed array, looking at my log files it appeared as if the installer couldn’t create the base RAID for a few drives.

While telnet’ed in, a look at my arrays returned with the following:

>cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid10] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
unused devices: <none>

At this point I tried various things with my drives. I removed them all and tried to run the install again, I tried with a single drive, multiple drives and so on to no avail. I even repartitioned one of the drives on my laptop to be “clean” and tried again. Sadly, none of these worked. Finally, with not much else to try, and after looking at the web archive article how they recreated the array, I decided to try and create it manually via the same tool.

Below is the what I ran and the associated output, which gave me something similar to what is shown in that article for those two arrays.

>mdadm -Cf /dev/md0 -n1 -l1 /dev/sda1
>mdadm -CF /dev/md1 -n1 -l1 /dev/sdb1
>cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid10] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md1 : active raid1 sda2[0]
2097088 blocks [5/1] [U____]

md0 : active raid1 sda1[0]
2490176 blocks [5/1] [U____]

unused devices: <none>

I then attempted to run the install again, using the same static IP address as I had done before to keep my telnet connection alive, but no love. Quickly looking at the log and seeing similar issues about disk formatting, I figured it hadn’t worked.

Feb 4 00:36:03 kernel: [ 3958.866984] ata1: device unplugged sstatus 0x0
Feb 4 00:36:03 kernel: [ 3958.871556] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4010000 action 0xe frozen
Feb 4 00:36:03 kernel: [ 3958.879115] ata1: irq_stat 0x00400040, connection status changed
Feb 4 00:36:03 kernel: [ 3958.885282] ata1: SError: { PHYRdyChg DevExch }
Feb 4 00:36:06 kernel: [ 3961.934818] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
Feb 4 00:36:08 kernel: [ 3963.663357] ata1: device plugged sstatus 0x1
Feb 4 00:36:13 kernel: [ 3969.024334] ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Feb 4 00:36:18 kernel: [ 3973.721782] ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
Feb 4 00:36:20 kernel: [ 3975.681496] ata1.00: revalidation failed (errno=-19)
Feb 4 00:36:20 kernel: [ 3975.686574] ata1.00: disabled
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: format start, szBuf = ^R4VxSYNONI^A^D^A
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: ninstaller.c:1314 No found '/.raid_assemble', skip it
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: ninstaller.c:2235 CleanPartition=[0], CheckBadblocks=[0]
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: ninstaller.c:2296(ErrFHOSTDoFdiskFormat) retv=[0]
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: ErrFHOSTTcpResponseCmd: cmd=[2], ulErr=[0]
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: query prog, szBuf = ^R4VxSYNONI^A^D^A
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: ninstaller.c:2150(ErrFHOSTUpdateMkfsProgress) gInstallStage=[3] ret:-34
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: index=[0], ulRate=[9]
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: ninstaller.c:2221(ErrFHOSTUpdateMkfsProgress) retv=-34
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: ninstaller.c:1423(ErrFHOSTNetInstaller) read socket fail, ret=[0], errno=[2]
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: ninstaller.c:1512(ErrFHOSTNetInstaller) retSel=[1] err=(2)[No such file or directory]
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: ninstaller.c:1527(ErrFHOSTNetInstaller)
Feb 4 00:37:03 syslog: Return from TcpServer()
Feb 4 00:37:05 syslog: ninstaller.c:1199(ErrFHOSTTcpServer) bind port 9998 error (98):Address already in use
Feb 4 00:37:05 syslog: Return from TcpServer()

At this point, I decided as a last ditch effort to open a ticket with Synology. Knowing this thing was so out of support I put a bit of a cry for help at the beginning. But after creating the ticket, I looked more at the log file and realized it wasn’t complaining about the md0 and md1 anymore, and instead focused on the last item…”Address already in use”. Huh, weird.

So I reran the installation again, but picked the next open IP address and not the one that I had used previously…and to my great surprise it actually worked!

After a few reboots, I’m now back into the web UI! There was no volume that was created, but all 5 of my drives are up and running – which is good because I wanted to properly wipe them anyways. Yay!

Bliss & Music Management

Another one of the great things about using a Synology is having access to all the great packages that both Synology and the community create. You find out about so many different apps you may not have been familiar with. Turns out Bliss was one of those (grab the app from Patters).

I have a fairly large music library I’ve composed over the years, and while I was picky about folder structure, all the other stuff was lacking: tags, images, etc. Back in July of 2012 I gave it a first run and liked what it did. However, I didn’t keep it installed (didn’t think I would need it continually).

Fast forward to last week, and I reinstalled it to help clean things up again – I had to restore lots of my music which meant the tags, folder structure, etc. were all messed up again. I’m loving it all over again for it’s ease of use and continual running in the background.

Turns out in the current release they’ve added some new case rules which I love, but was having a few issues with it. Shot of an email with some of the details, and got an immediate response saying it was being fixed in the next release that was in beta. I asked if they wanted any help with testing, and sure enough Dan (creator) gave me links to the beta which I promptly installed (replaced the bliss-bundle folder after you extract the Linux jar file).

Can’t say enough about the customer service, plus it’s fixing all my music issues in the background. Yay!

Synology L2TP/IPSec VPN

In the last few releases, Synology has added L2TP/IPSec as an option for a VPN. I’ve never been able to get it to work on a Windows client until today.

Ports Required:

IPSec – UPD 500
IPSec NAT Traversal – UDP 4500
L2TP – UDP 1701

Fix on Windows clients – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926179

For Win7 and Win8 Machines
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesPolicyAgent
- New DWORD (32-bit) – AssumeUDPEncapsulationContextOnSendRule
- Set the Value Data to 2

Update:

Using OpenVPN with port 443, for easier access: http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?t=45545#p215354

Bash Pass Variables Between Scripts

I have an app that can call a single script, sending it some variables. Unfortunately, I needed to run multiple scripts, but both utilizing the same variables. With bash, there is an easy way to do that, just append “$@” to the script.

For example, the application calls ‘combined_scripts.sh’ with variables $1 through $7. The contents of ‘combined_scripts.sh’ is below and the variables are passed through to script1 and script2.

#!/bin/sh
./script1.sh "$@"
python ./script2.py "$@"

mkvtoolnix on Synology

I’ve been fighting this for awhile as the mkvtoolnix package doesn’t have the correct dependencies when you install it. Well, after doing a bit more digging I’ve found the answer to get mkvmerge to work!

Packages required:

mkvtoolnix
bzip2
boost-filesystem
boost-system

Then, you need to set an environment variable of LANG=C. This can be done from the command line.

Tada, works!

http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=36845&start=15

*UPDATE – Jan 1 2016*

In addition to the LANG=C environment variable being set, I’ve also had to add in LC_ALL=C. For me, I run a script that calls mkvmerge, so I just set both of these in the script.

Windows 8 RTM, Realtek NIC, and WOL

At home I have my NAS setup with VPN so that I can pretty much always get back on my home network if required. This comes in handy for running virtual machines. However, since I moved to the NAS I run my virtual machines from my desktop.

The whole point of the NAS was for less power and noise though, so I don’t want the desktop on all the time. My solution was wake-on-lan (WOL) and in Windows 7 it worked great. However, over the past couple of days, I’ve upgraded to Windows 8 RTM and I couldn’t get WOL working when the machine was powered off. It worked great when the machine was asleep, but not completely off (most of the time).

Turns out the default realtek NIC drivers in Windows 8 aren’t really the best, but downloading the Windows 8 drivers from the realtek website fixed the issues.

P.S. Being able to run Hyper-V instead of Virtualbox is nice, plus you don’t loose hibernation!

Proxy Other Ports to Port 80 on Synology

Ok, so you want to be able to access services running on a random port on your Synology NAS over standard ports (80 and 443). To do that, you need to do the following items:

Enable the web station from the web services icon in control panel. This gives you Apache

Add the following lines to the end of /usr/syno/apache/conf/httpd.conf-user (you must re-do this after doing a DSM update). Replace <accessPath> with a name, and <port> with the port it is running on. For example, http://localhost:8080/party.

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On

<Location /<accessPath>>
ProxyPass http://localhost:<port>/<accessPath>
ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:<port>/<accessPath>
</Location>

Restart apache with “/usr/syno/etc.defaults/rc.d/S97apache-user.sh restart”

Just make sure whatever service you are doing this with has a base url of <accessPath>.

UPDATE: Just updated to DSM 5.0 and a few things have changed:

/usr/syno/apache/ has moved to /etc/httpd/
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S97apache-user.sh is gone, so just use ‘httpd -k stop|start|restart’
You may need to create the folder /var/services/web/internal for httpd to restart

Find PID of Application Using a Port

Best way to do it is to run the command

netstat -lnptu | grep :<port#>

This will give you the PID of the service, and then you can run

kill <PID>

kill -9 <PID>

if just a regular kill doesn’t work.

Synology DS1511+ and Crontab

I’ve added an rsync job to my crontab file in order to backup all my websites I have being served from Dreamhost (including this one). The specific job is set to run every night at midnight starting last night. Unfortunately, it didn’t run.

This is because the crontab service needs to be recycled in order to grab the new jobs (also, don’t update your DSM, because that seems to blow it away). As this is a non-standard linux distro, you need to restart crontab the following way:

/usr/syno/etc.defaults/rc.d/S04crond.sh stop
/usr/syno/etc.defaults/rc.d/S04crond.sh start

Synology Plex Media Server and Samsung Smart TV Client

This one wasn’t completely obvious, but I think I’ve managed to figure it out. It at least appears to be working correctly, assuming it continues to work a bit better after the media scan is complete.

Steps for the Server:

Grab the spk from http://www.plexapp.com/linux/linux-pms-download.php.
Log into DSM and in Package Installer, install the downloaded spk.
After it is installed, visit the website at http://<nas-server>:32400. It doesn’t look like the shortcut that is created works.
Add in the locations to your media.

The steps for the Client on a Samsung TV with SmartHub is broken up into two options: installer hosted on your own server, or on someone elses. It doesn’t matter where you get the installer from, as you can specify the Plex Server after the application is installed.

Hosted on your NAS:

In Control Panel, enable web station under web services
Copy the installer (link) to the web share that was created in step 1
Copy the widgetlist.xml (link) to the web share that was created in step 1
Edit the widgetlist.xml to contain the IP of your NAS (or the URL where the installer is located)
On the TV, open the Smart Hub
Log in as a different user (A/red button)
- User: develop
- Password: 123456
Click the Settings button (D/blue button)
Select Development
Set the Server IP to that of your NAS
Select User Application Synchronisation
Once the installation is finished, restart your TV
Visit SmartHub and Plex is installed.
Point Plex at your Plex Media server.

Hosted by someone else:

On the TV, open the Smart Hub
Log in as a different user (A/red button)
- User: develop
- Password: 123456
Click the Settings button (D/blue button)
Select Development
Set the Server IP to 92.50.72.58
Select User Application Synchronisation
Once the installation is finished, restart your TV
Visit SmartHub and Plex is installed.
Point Plex at your Plex Media server.

These install instructions were taken from the Plex forums.

Update 1/6/2012: The crawler has completed, and it does actually work! I also found out that it only supports TV shows right now, and not music or photos. Looking into it, it’s just a webpage with a lot of javascript. If I have time, I may look to add music in, as having one solution for everything is a lot better than both this and DLNA!

Update 8/19/2012: Instead of going through all of this, just grab the Plex app from the Samsung App Store!