4400 bios password

[Dead2]

I have gotten hold of a Quantum Guardian 4400 second (more like third) hand, and have been trying all sorts of things in order to get it usable.

I have no license, key, passwords, manual, software. I don't even know what IP it is set up to use, so 'snap server manager' doesn't even find it. Tcpdump reveals nothing.
So, I figured I'd give it a try and put Fedora Core 4 on it.

First problem was no vga connector. So I searched through a lot of scrap I have and found a matching low profile pci vga card. Unplugged the Adaptec scsi card and put in the vga card. Works nice, I can see the AMI bios, Promise bios and the two broadcom network card bioses claiming network boot capability. Then grub loads stage2 and finally linux kernel is uncomressed and booted. (No more text after that, probably just disabled in their linux kernel)

So, since it has no PS2 ports I figured I could try to make it boot via the network and then I could just ssh or vnc to it to administer the install. No go, it does not appear to even request an IP address from the DHCP server.

Fine, so I guess the bios has disabled network booting. Lets see, USB -> PS2 adapter.. will it work? Yes is does. AMI bios says during boot that it detects usb keyboard and mouse, cool! Verified that CTRL+ALT+DEL works.

So getting into the bios I keep pressing F1, F2, DEL until I see it says it will enter bios setup. And at this point it asks for "CURRENT PASSWORD: ". No problem I thought and unplugged the CMOS battery and power cord for a good while. But it still asks for a password.. (Repeated battery removal and even shorting the connector does nothing)

And this is where I am currently banging my heaed against the wall. Does anyone know what this password is? I know some programs exist to read the ami bios password out of a running system, atleast a dos one.

I might still try to boot the system from a scsi cdrom, but that will require me to get hold of a two-port pci riser card first. I am guessing it will not work due to bios settings probably preventing it from getting into trouble trying to boot external disks.

Also, does anyone know the pinout of the open connector/jumper pins on the motherboard?

[blue68f100]

The 4400 is a lot newer than we normally get through here. You can download the manual from Adaptec.com , they are the current owners of Snap Appliance. As for password. There is a reset cmd that clears the password and net and even back to factory settings. This info is stored in the clock, which has its own battery good for 10 years. Have been doing research on the older units. I am assumming that the 4400 is using the guardian OS. It is a lot more advanced that the snap os. The reset for the snap os is like this. Press and hold the reset button while powering up the unit. continue holding till the disk and sys led blink in unision. Then release. Then press the reset button 4 times, it should blink back at you four times. Then press and hold the reset button till the sys and disk light go out. Then release. The unit should restart. The guaridian default IP is 10.10.10.10 if it does not pull it from dhcp. Connect to the web admin by "http://snap######" where ##### is the serial number.

All these reset and id are from the snap os, but should be similar.

[re3dyb0y]

And it is a guardian OS unit, which we rarely see


I know MS do a NAS version of server 2000, must be for things like this

The manager wouldn't find it as it would could be on a different ip range, and if that is the case, it would take a helluvealotf of time


This is the most/nearest of actually being able to use it as a machine.

You won't see anything, as if the guardian units are anything like there snap os counter parts, it will run a HTTP server which allows access to the Admin panel




I probably wouldn't reccommend sticking FC4 on it tho.... But you could, but you could probably never go back!

[webboy]

have you tried to do a factory reset? It will reset everything including raid configuration. but it may work.

What size drives do you have installed in that beast? I will be upgrading a 4400 when it arives, and there is no documention here or anywhere as to the max capacity of this device. But a talk with a teck over at snap led me to believe if its running guardian OS there is no limitation. If my 4400 wasnt loaded with data id upgrade it, but for now i sit waiting for the ups guy.

My snap4400 has:

Drive 1 195 GB WDC-WD2000JB-00 169,770MB Member of md0 (RAID 5)
Drive 2 195 GB WDC-WD2000JB-00 169,770MB Member of md0 (RAID 5)
Drive 3 195 GB WDC-WD2000JB-00 169,770MB Member of md0 (RAID 5)
Drive 4 195 GB WDC-WD2000JB-00 169,770MB Member of md0 (RAID 5)

[Dead2]

Originally Posted by webboy

have you tried to do a factory reset? It will reset everything including raid configuration. but it may work.

I didn't try that. After some searching I did find the reset button, but I didn't have the time to test it at the time. What I ended up doing (3 days ago) was to put the disks into another computer and install Fedora Core 5 on them. It works just great and the performance is nice too

For those wondering, here is a little info about the hardware:

# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Broadcom CNB20LE Host Bridge (rev 06)
00:00.1 Host bridge: Broadcom CNB20LE Host Bridge (rev 06)
00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5702X Gigabit Ethernet (rev 02)
00:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5702X Gigabit Ethernet (rev 02)
00:0f.0 ISA bridge: Broadcom CSB5 South Bridge (rev 93)
00:0f.2 USB Controller: Broadcom OSB4/CSB5 OHCI USB Controller (rev 05)
00:0f.3 Host bridge: Broadcom CSB5 LPC bridge
01:0b.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. 20275 (rev 01)
01:0c.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. 20275 (rev 01)

[blue68f100]

You should be able to down load the maunal from adaptec, I think the wiki section has a link to them.

I'm not so sure I would be try another os on the 4400. Its one of the better units with the Guardian OS. I think you need at least a v2.6 OS to have MS AD support.

[Dead2]

Originally Posted by blue68f100

I'm not so sure I would be try another os on the 4400. Its one of the better units with the Guardian OS. I think you need at least a v2.6 OS to have MS AD support.

Problem is I have the hardware but not the license for the software. Also I need almost none of the features provided by Guardian OS, witch is based upon Linux anyways.

So if you are an experienced linux sysadmin you should have no problems with this approach. As a bonus effect I can use the unit as a server for other applications aswell if I should need it. 1U webserver? No problem.

[blue68f100]

The password can be reset with the reset button. Without effecting the network, or Drive configuration settings. This feature is built into all snaps.

[Dead2]

Originally Posted by blue68f100

The password can be reset with the reset button. Without effecting the network, or Drive configuration settings. This feature is built into all snaps.

Yes, but from my understanding there is a licence required for using this device. And the company I got it from stopped paying and thus using it after its 1 year subscription ended.

[blue68f100]

There is the standard warranty time. And there is a optional service contract that adaptec is pushing. There is a lience for users on servers, just like MS. But NAS boxes don't carry that requirment.

They may have been running some backup software that required user liense.

I have contacted another person that may be able to shed some light on this subject.

Reset the password, install a drive and see if you can get it up. What do you have to loose.

[blue68f100]

Received this from a user with a Snap14000:

With regards to a Guardian OS license as far as i know there isn't one. However, the company has a service contract/tech support contract that is renewable on an annual basis.

[jontz]

Man, you lose your internet connection for 2 days and all sorts of cool stuff happens on this forum...someone with a 4400 pops up out of nowhere Sounds like a cool unit. I am curious if the password/network reset proceedures work on this newer unit.

[webboy]

Power the machine up wait for it to totally boot up press reset button on the back of the unit next to the RJ45 plugs with a paperclip machine will reboot. Hit it from its ip address from there you can reset it.