Recover a bricked system after DSM 6.1.1 upgrade accident

[apelders]

It happens already two times to me that I upgraded my Syno and ended up with an unresponsive system.

The last time I updated my system (which was already on DSM 6.1, and I was not aware that this was a dangerous upgrade) to the latest version DSM 6.1.1.

The update seems succesfull until a few days later I noticed I could not contact my shared drives anymore.

The diskstation could not be found by the Synology Assistant anymore.

 

This scenario in the end helped me to recover my NAS and return back to DSM 6.1

It also should work for other mistakes resulting in unbootable or unresponsive systems.

 

I have a HP gen8 server with one disk and one volume and another older Synology acting as a rsync backup destination.

 

To prove what the real problem was, i turned off the Syno and took out the harddisk.

Then I booted up the Syno again and it was possible to find my Syno with Synology Assistant.

I connected using the web interface and it offered me to install a new Synology server.

When I instructed to do a manual install with DSM_DS3615xs_15047.pat the installer refused and asked me to install 15101, so the USB stick seems to be updated to the new version already.

 

After bringing down the system, I put a fresh v1.02a image on the USB stick and placed it back into the HP gen8.

I also put in an complete empty hardddisk (I first removed all partititions using a PC) and booted the system with a regular boot.

After the Synology Assistant found my DiskStation, I opened the web interface and did a manual install using DSM_DS3615xs_15047.pat which resulted in a functional DSM 6.1 system!

I did not create any volume, just installed the system and after I found out that a reboot was successfull I placed my bricked disk with all my data next to the disk I just installed with a fresh 6.1 image.

After rebooting (and have some patience) Storage Manager noticed a disk with a corrupt partition and offered to repair it for you.

 

This is the trick who will recover your system, but be aware that you have to reinstall your apps and reconfigure some things or restore a system configuration after all.

Now the system partitions of your fresh DSM 6.1 system will by copied to the "corrupted" disk and shortly after that the system will respond with System is healthy. This is great news!!

 

Now you can bring the system down gently and take out both disk and put your disk with all your valuable data in the first slot and reboot again.

With a relief you will notice that the system will nicely boot and your disk is back on DSM 6.1 again.

 

To make the recovery complete I had to reinstall my previous installed packages and I had to recover my rsync task in Hyper Backup. This takes a while because Hyper Backup has to read back the whole index from my backup station.

The Photo Station also has to reindex but that will be done at a glance.

I restored my system settings (Configuration Backup) which I made months ago after successfull install of 6.1 in the way I just described with a new disk. This backup I stored on my old backup Synology server in a shared folder.

 

So I'm a happy user with a working DSM6.1 system who has learned not to update without special attention anymore.

I will wait until there are signs that 6.1.1 should be able to funcion on my gen8, but I will first start to practice using VMware and then with an empty disk. Then I will give it a try to upgrade my existing disk with data using the method I described here.

I can recommend everyone to have a backup of all your data on another system in another location with a regular sync. You will not be afraid to lose your data when you got into trouble and that helps you to try some new & risky scenarios.

 

 

This method is not new in this forum. I found it on the Russian forum section I believe and with Google Translate I was able to understand and perform it with good results.

Please respond to this topic if you have questions or doubts.

[cuspess]

Good write up. I faced similar issue and had the same idea in my head to solve it. Great to see someone already come across this method and assure my thinking. Will try this now, hope it all works out.

[cuspess]

btw I am using Gen8 too, though run DSM under esxi. Otherwise we had a very similar setup.

 

One thing you got lucky, which is that DSM 6.1 actually works for you. Somehow I couldn't get it work. So I am recovering back to 6.0.2 using your above method.

[sbv3000]

I used a similar 'clean disk' method to recover raid/downgrade -

 

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31705

[cmpugay]

Quote

 

I also bricked my Disk Station today by accidentally installing Disk Station 6.2.

 

After it bricked the system, I checked up this forum and found that v. 6.2 will brick the system.

 

Can any one specify the step by step instruction on how to downgrade or recover the system.

[yetithebouncer]

Accidentally updated to 6.2 bricked my 6 disc 3617xs. Any suggestions on how to recover? 

Edited June 29, 2018 by yetithebouncer

[flyride]

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/12779-tried-a-recovery-choosing-migrate-option-worried-now-bricked/

[yetithebouncer]

Hi Guys, since there currently is no solution in rolling back the 6.2 to 6.1.17 or another older versie. i have decided to backup my data and do a clean install on my NAS using the basic new/clean install method (I am lucky to have backedup all my DSM setting in June recently)

First boot your machine via ubuntu (follow these instructions  http://www.instructables.com/id/RECOVERING-DATA-FROM-a-SYNOLOGY-DISKSTATION-USING-/ )

 

the open a superuser terminal (I could not find how to do that so i opened a root terminal) after mounting my data array  (6 discs in total 15TB in raid 5) i used btrfs on my array but this should also work on ext4.

 

A have 6.1TB of data on the array. I had a spare 3TB en 2x 1TB discs. Which would not be enough. But the discs in the data array of my NAS are a mixed bunch (old and new). So i bought me one new 3TB disc. Which I now first use for backup, after installing the new dsm and restoring the data i will replace the oldest disc in my array with this new one.

 

I use a USB 3.0 - Sata disc station (sharkoon sata quickport xt) for connecting and mounting the backup discs.

 

Good luck on restoring yours guys. 

Edited July 1, 2018 by yetithebouncer

[wimpi13]

Hello, everybody.

I have the same problem.

I try to downgrade, so I boot with new key and new disk.

But, in the bricked NAS, I had 4 disk, so how can I found back my data ???

Thanks in advance

Best regards

 

[cmpugay]

I followed the instructions given in above post and recovered the data but after that when I try to install/migrate to older version, I get error : Failed file is corrupt.

 

I even did low formatting of all the hard disks but no resolutions.

 

Still I'm not able to install back older versions.

 

My System details are :

MB : Asus Z97 Deulxe

RAM : 32 GB

HDD : 2 x 2 TB , 2 x 3 TB

On board Graphics

 

I can install anything but not Synology.

 

Please help....