Thanks... I finially tracked down another hard drive. However it has been fully reset but I don't have the Assist software. I looked on Adaptecs web site, but didn't see that as a download. Is there anyway to get that software?

Thanks again.

Nice little boxes!
 

David,

Thanks again for your help. I will look for a 2200. I like the idea of the data redundency. Retrospect BU works well with the 1100 in the office where I installed it. I am working out BU scripts to automate backing up the data now.

Nelson

I've just gladly discovered this thread whilst on a mission to upgrade my 4400 OS to v4. Gotta say i'm well impressed with the length of this thread and the great beta on here! Mister Bill i'm so gutted you've had to shut down your FTP, it looks like i'm three weeks to late! Can anyone else please help me out? I'd be so greatfull!

Ta muchos,

Cuban.

Alive & Kicking
 

Yes, :)

This is one of the more active thread.

It has become technical support for Snap Servers, since Adaptec is killing it off.

David

Ok... I'm new to this. My IT guy at work talked me into the snap server as a NAS rather than the simpletech or other new consumer models. He was right! After reading some of this thread, I managed to determine either the 2000 or 4000 was the models of choice for me due to the ROM based OS. I just didn't want to mess with the idea of having to image a drive before using it (or replacing a dead drive hoping to get my data from any remaining drives). The model 2000 looked to have potential heat problems with the faster drives, so I picked the 4000. Anyway, a trip to EBAY has produced a $265 Snap 4000 with (4) 30 gig drives and SNAP os v4.0.860 and motherboard rev 2.0.1, BIOS 2.0.252 (I think I did well, these look to be newer versions). I just dropped 2 brand new 160gig drives into one of the drive caddy's (a WD and Seagate) and they formatted at 151 gigs each. GREAT! no problem with the LB48 size limitation then. I'll drop 2 more Maxtor 160GB drives tomorrow to finish it off at a total of 640GB of storage (about $400 total with new drives). NOW MY QUESTION FOR THE EXPERIENCED FOLKS: which RAID should I choose? I want data protection, so RAID 0 is out. I just don't know what to choose between RAID 1 or 5? I understand the mirror concept, but if RAID 5 gives me 75% of the drive space with protection, sounds tempting to me! (if I understood how RAID 5 works, I'd be more comfortable with it). Also, any way to set a drive sleep time? If anybody has any of the software that goes with this, let me know, I'd like to have the system complete (the seller included a disk with some files: assist, Snap_4_x.sup, snap_jvm.sup, snap_ServerSync.sup, and a pdf users manual). I wasn't sure what the .sup files are for, thoughts?

Raids
 

I will send you a word doc on how the different raids work.
My choice would be Raid 5.
Some have had problem using 4 disk in the array and dropped back to 3 with 1 spare.
It is allways best to use the same make and model harddrives. And preferably the same hardware revision. Make sure all of the interfaces are ATA100, snaps don't like ATA133 (WD). WD can be set back to ATA 100 with the utility disk.
Expanding the ram helps performance.

The sup file is the SnapOS.

David

Snap OS upgrades
 

Hate to sound like a stuck record, but can anyone email/PM me the location of the various OS upgrades?

Snap Server 4100
S/W 3.4.803(UK)
H/W 2.2.1
BIOS 2.4.437

Thanks,
Chips.

Help Slow performance
 

First off thanks for all the info, upgraded a snap 2200 to two 250GB hdd.
I also upgraded to V4 os.
Here is the kick and I am not sure what is the cause. The performance sucks, worse now than before. What happens is that the snap server will handle little files no problems but with large files forget about it. I mean take a 4GB image (these are usually broken down into 1GB size files). Copy says 122min. After about 30 minutes it times out stating can not copy. Little files can be read and written in sort order. Is there something that can be done with this or is this a MB problem. :cry:
Anyone have this problem besides me.
Thanks again

File Size
 

Never had to transfer a single file that large. The largest I've transfered has been image files (700meg), No problem.

Try transfering to another PC and see if you get the same results.

Which version of 4 are you using.

David

Software Version: 4.0.860
Hardware Version: 2.0.4
Bios Version: 3.4.758

I am worried about this as I have another 2200 that is running a revision of version 3 of the OS with smaller drives and it does not seem to have this problem. I just worried that if I can not fix this I might not want to take the chance on messing up another one.

Another funny issue with this unit is that since upgrading to V4 OS the Assist utillity can not auto find the unit. I have to search by the name of the server.

I did a test of breaking the files into RAR 100mb (42 files). Ran ok until the 42 and seemed to hang. Had to cancel and then recopy #42.

Not sure what it might be. I have tried several systems and networks for that matter and this unit still does it.

The transfer to windows files always is slow

NFS transfers are supposedly quicker

I understand slower but not be able to copy a file is the problem. I mean on a snapserver with V3 I can copy these large files and on a same model snap server with V4 I can't, it is just weird.
I also have a Dell 750 (I think, or is it 705, whichever one with two drives) that has V4, even though it seems slower since V4 at least it copies files of any size.

Ram
 

This may be a ram problem. The 2000 has 32 meg of edo ram. If you get into debug there are some commands to see how the snap is using the ram, "nvram demonds number (fsync enable/disable ( filesystem fsync suport )" you can also set file cache size. I would compare the 2 units and see what is different.

The command "debug memory display current memory stats" will show how much is being used by OS and process.

There has been some reports of a MS security patch causing problems with 4.0.855, thus the reason of 4.0.860. No such problems with v4.0.830.

David

Snap 1000 got a new drive
 

David,

I installed the new Seagate 200MB ATA100 drive. The 1000 did not see it. I connected the new drive as a slave and the Snap recognized it and formatted it for 32GB. It worked properly as a 2nd drive.

How should I prepare the drive so the Snap will see it as the boot/master drive. Should it be formatted? FAT32? What size partition? Is a 2GB FAT16 partition better? Should it be formatted as the primary drive? A logical, active drive?

Again, thanks for your time.


Nelson

Snap 1000 got a new drive
 

David,

I have the new Seagate drive and installed it in the Snap, which did not recognize it. Assist could not find the server. I installed the new Seagate as the slave on the same IDE adapter along with the original drive. The Snap booted and recognized the Seagate as the second drive and formatted it. Both were recognized by Assist.

How can I prepare the new drive so the Snap will see it as the primary drive?

Thanks again for any pointers,

Nelson

I need the OS upgrade too!!
 

Can someone please email me the v4 OS upgrade file. I need it to upgrade my Snap2000 and 4100. Thanks

I have version 4.0.860 on my snap 4000. Just installed and formatted 4-160 gig drives as Raid 5 ending with 450gigs of useable space (about 12 hrs formatting time). Transfered a 3.59 gig file in roughly 10 minutes. No error messages. Transfer was from a PC to the SNAP then from the Snap to a MAC and also from the Snap to a XBOX, there were no issues on these transfers. I don't know what to tell you as I am just learning this system myself. I am using a linksys 54G router with a hacked sveasoft bios, static IP's on my home network. Only trouble I have had was when I renamed the Snap and forgot to tell the router to use the new name with the Mac address to assign the IP.

Let us know if you find out the cause of the slow transfers and errors on your Snap.

4 drive in raid 5
 

There has been reports of problems using 4 large capacity drives in raid 5 on 4000. Most have dropped back to 3 drives with 1 spare. There have been some problems reported with some of the old units on 4.0.860, but mainly on the 2000's. I know the 4.0.860 uses more ram. You may consider add more ram. Turn off jvm if you are not using it, it requires a lot of resources.

MisterBill and poogles_uk are the 4000 experts.

What are the problems that people have seen with the 4000 and 4 disk RAID5?
I've had no problems yet, but I don't want them either.
If the RAID 5 disk formats OK and works, am I in the clear?
As a complete Newb to this, what is JVM?

I appreciate the help. The snap I have came with 4.0.860 installed, I have no idea how much or what type of memory it has, but it has been running well since the new disks have been installed.

jvm
 

JVM is Java Machine.

Those having problems were using 250 - 300 gig drives. They were able to format but could not build the array with 4 drives, 0.1% / hour.

Snap 1000 got a new drive
 

David,

I got the Seagate 200GB HD installed in the Snap1000. I found out the linux mount command line file type switch -t auto did not work with ntfs, the file system on the c: drive, only FAT, so I copied the bin file to a usb drive and used dd to image from that. That didn't work at first until I completely deleted the partition in the new drive using disk management from W2K so it indicated the complete drive space was available and unallocated. Maybe zeros have to be written in all the drive to have the image pasted in the exact front of the drive. It then worked and the snap booted from it! I upgraded from the web console as Assist crashed during the OS upgrade. Still only 28GB, though, the size of the pasted image. I reformated and still only 28GB, but a new drive. You and Seagate reference the Snap command line, but how do you invoke it? I sure would like to have the full 200GB.

Thanks,

Nelson

Nelson

Thanks David,

It looks like the 160gig drives do OK with 4 disk RAID5 on the 4000. I had no trouble with formatting (12 hrs though).

Yet another question, I am trying to connect to the Snap with an FTP program and it says "...Files ar inexistant or not sufficient access privledges..." I am using a username and password that is set for access. No troubles transfering using windows or OSX and even another FTP program, Is there something I may have turned off to allow a particular FTP program to access?

command line
 

You must be logged in as administrator
1. Type /debug after the address (http://snapaddress/config/debug)
2. Then type "config devices format dev 10000 /reinit" in the command line
3. It should then give you a prompt
4. restart server, it will then format
5. when finished you should have full capacity.

David

ftp
 

That is a result of the software not passing userid and password info.
I had that problem when trying to connect with firefox and IE. I was not using my userid & password. WIth firefox I added an extension "fireftp" and it allowed me pass the needed info. For windows I had to delete the location in "network places" then reconnect, then I was prompted for the need info.

What software are you using that is having the problem.

David

Ntsf
 

I ran into that problem too, with ntsf partitions. I need to find the command in dd for mounting them. Most of MS machines are now on ntsf. Knoppix also had a problem booting on my 915g computer with SATA drives, it would not come up at all.

David