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HELP - failed DSM update


Earthian E90

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Hi Everyone,

 

Today I was an idiot. 

Last few DSM updates went smoothly so I was confident that today would be no different.

 

After the update i could not connect to the DSM and when i connect a screen this is all I see. 

 

screen.jpeg

 

Is there any way to save this situation/data/setup?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Edited by Earthian E90
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/7/2021 at 5:57 AM, Earthian E90 said:

Hi Everyone,

 

Today I was an idiot. 

Last few DSM updates went smoothly so I was confident that today would be no different.

 

After the update i could not connect to the DSM and when i connect a screen this is all I see. 

 

screen.jpeg

 

Is there any way to save this situation/data/setup?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

I did the same stupid thing today.  I wasn't logged into this forum and didn't see the warnings at the top until logging in now.  I did check the forum to see if others were successful but I looked at the wrong version thread.  Did you get this fixed?  If so what did you do?

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Sorry to hear about your troubles. While I don't have anything to contribute to a fix(Haven't been through this myself), I can at least help shed some light on best update practices going forward, and hopefully alleviate some of the 'update anxiety'


1. You can use win32diskimager to clone out your working thumb drive after booting into DSM and setting it up. If anything should come up, you can easily flash that to a different thumb drive. Good to keep versions of your configs with this. I have version fro 6.2.2, 6.2.3, with and without extra driver files, and every time I make a change to the config

2. You should have an extra drive laying around. Of some sort. Could be old, new, on it's last legs, ssd, hdd, etc. Doesn't matter. More on that below

3. With versioned bootable thumb drives, and that extra drive, if you want to test if an update will work, you can flash your current config to a new thumb drive (remember to change PID / VID), shut down your machine, REMOVE ALL YOUR DRIVES, install that spare test drive, set up your machine with a test DSM config, and try to update to your desired target. If it fails, you now have a means of either debugging or refusing an update without affecting your data, OR if the update goes through and works, you have a high likelihood of the update going through on your production configuration. As a point of note, when you reinstall your production drives, it doesn't matter which order you put them in. The system is software raid, with relevant info stored on the drive, it's not tethered to a slot. With that said, labeling your slots with info like drive model, serial, installed date, and slot number does make it relatively easy to keep track of.

4. Reminder to maintain backups of some variety. DSM is pretty stable, but remember that we are running it in unsupported configurations. Good backup practices are the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies of data, 2 of which are backups, 1 of which is stored off site (cloud, friends house, bank box, etc etc). You shouldn't incur data loss in the event of a software failure, hardware failure, failed update, etc. An external hard drive plugged in running hyper backup is better than nothing, but won't protect against a spilled drink / flood / fire / power surge / whatever. But either way, your nas shouldn't be your end all be all to backups and data. It's just a piece of it. Of note, then 3-2-1 rule is just a general guideline. If you have critically important stuff that you absolutely cannot afford to lose under any condition, you really should have more copies at multiple offsite locations.

5. Just breaking this up so it's not huge paragraphs... A point of note regarding backups: Raid is not a backup. Raid provides uptime such that if you have a drive failure, you're less likely to incur an interruption to your workflow, and less likely  you'll need to restore from a backup, but it IS NOT a backup in and of itself. Hardware fails, arrays crash, rebuilds go sideways. SHR1/2 ONLY gives you machine uptime and SOME protection against a DRIVE failure. Apologies if I'm repeating myself, but I really want to hammer that point home.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi again @xnaron,

 

After a long time of not wanting to deal with this I finally attempted to recover my data. 

 

It is important to note that the first thing I did when I realized my initial mistake was to mark and disconnect the drives. 

Then I went searching my PC for the original .IMG file that I used to flash the loader USB. 

Luckily it was still located on my desktop (god bless my cluttered desktop)

 

I flashed a new USB drive and booted the system without drives. 

Just to make sure it boots. 

My next step was to power off the system, connect the drives and boot and connect. 

 

I was presented the a screen asking if I want to recover my system.

After recovering, I was presented with the same issue. 

I cannot access the system.

 

I preceded to do the same thing again but this time using the systems on board NIC. 

Same result.

 

I went over the thread that @gadreel posted. They talk there about a raid 1 recovery. 

Unfortunately I am running an SHR so i did not attempt any of that. 

 

 

Looks like my last option is to purchase a Synology NAS 😕

 

 

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On 5/2/2021 at 10:06 PM, SnowDrifter said:

Sorry to hear about your troubles. While I don't have anything to contribute to a fix(Haven't been through this myself), I can at least help shed some light on best update practices going forward, and hopefully alleviate some of the 'update anxiety'


1. You can use win32diskimager to clone out your working thumb drive after booting into DSM and setting it up. If anything should come up, you can easily flash that to a different thumb drive. Good to keep versions of your configs with this. I have version fro 6.2.2, 6.2.3, with and without extra driver files, and every time I make a change to the config

2. You should have an extra drive laying around. Of some sort. Could be old, new, on it's last legs, ssd, hdd, etc. Doesn't matter. More on that below

3. With versioned bootable thumb drives, and that extra drive, if you want to test if an update will work, you can flash your current config to a new thumb drive (remember to change PID / VID), shut down your machine, REMOVE ALL YOUR DRIVES, install that spare test drive, set up your machine with a test DSM config, and try to update to your desired target. If it fails, you now have a means of either debugging or refusing an update without affecting your data, OR if the update goes through and works, you have a high likelihood of the update going through on your production configuration. As a point of note, when you reinstall your production drives, it doesn't matter which order you put them in. The system is software raid, with relevant info stored on the drive, it's not tethered to a slot. With that said, labeling your slots with info like drive model, serial, installed date, and slot number does make it relatively easy to keep track of.

4. Reminder to maintain backups of some variety. DSM is pretty stable, but remember that we are running it in unsupported configurations. Good backup practices are the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies of data, 2 of which are backups, 1 of which is stored off site (cloud, friends house, bank box, etc etc). You shouldn't incur data loss in the event of a software failure, hardware failure, failed update, etc. An external hard drive plugged in running hyper backup is better than nothing, but won't protect against a spilled drink / flood / fire / power surge / whatever. But either way, your nas shouldn't be your end all be all to backups and data. It's just a piece of it. Of note, then 3-2-1 rule is just a general guideline. If you have critically important stuff that you absolutely cannot afford to lose under any condition, you really should have more copies at multiple offsite locations.

5. Just breaking this up so it's not huge paragraphs... A point of note regarding backups: Raid is not a backup. Raid provides uptime such that if you have a drive failure, you're less likely to incur an interruption to your workflow, and less likely  you'll need to restore from a backup, but it IS NOT a backup in and of itself. Hardware fails, arrays crash, rebuilds go sideways. SHR1/2 ONLY gives you machine uptime and SOME protection against a DRIVE failure. Apologies if I'm repeating myself, but I really want to hammer that point home.

Thank you for you helpful(in general) input. 

 

You make very good points. 

 

Most of my data was backed up(on and off site).

What wasn't backed up was images waiting to be sorted(dumb mistake) and docker containers.

 

Its not the end of the world, I mean I have been living without the NAS for quite some time now. 

Its just a convenience thing.

 

Maybe one day there will be a fix or I will be able to buy Synology HW to recover the raid.

 

 

In any case, thank you for your response :)

 

 

 

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So after installing my hard drives (in no particular order) in the DS1621+, it recognized the migration and set everything up as it was before.

I did not need to repair the volume or anything. 

Within about 15 minutes everything was back online.

 

I assumed that getting Synology HW would make things run smoother, but the system isn't as fast/snappy as it was on my custom HW+xpenology.

Quite disappointed with that fact but I have my data back so that's a relief  :D 

 

Moral of the story is don't f*&^in update unless you must/know it will work and backup backup backup!

 

Thank you all for your input and I wish luck and good fortune to the idiots to come ❤️

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