Guardian OS units

[yfpang]

Hi blue68f100,

But from the previous forum info, i though we can't use the GSU file to fix or reload the OS?
As in order to use the GSU file we may need a working OS first or the system must be able to boot until we are able to have access to the unit.

And for fresh Installation how do we go about it? Should we be looking for another unit of Guardian with working OS and load the new HD into the unit for it to sync the OS over to the HD? Or is there a way for us to load the OS into the fresh HD directly?

Thanks
Pang

[blue68f100]

I would run SpinRite on the drives. More than likely there is marker wrong an it will repair it.

You should be able to get in to the recovery console. This is an option on v3 on up, have not looked at v2. Watch the terminal screen, there should be an option during the boot process. If you can gain access to the shell, use the "touch /nopiviot" <enter> then "reboot" <enter> This will force the unit into recovery console and will wipe out all data. "touch" with out the /nopiviot may just gain access to the recovery console.

With the watchdog bios you need to give the unit an hour on startup. The os is suppose to report back to the bios. If it does not after 5 min it should reboot using the next HD continuing through all of the drives till it finds one working.

If you decide you can do with out the data, You need to test all of the drives for a working OS. More than likely it's only main boot drive that is bad.

Failing a HD or 2 should also envolk the diaster recovery console. From there you can reload or do a clean install.

[slkj]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a source for a replacement power supply and fans for a SNAP 4200? We have a couple of 4200s that are working well but want to have backups of the things that might fail. Adaptec says they don't have any.

Thanks,
Steve

[bitor]

You are going to have to find out the serial/part number for the fans inorder to find a replacement for them. It's on a sticker on the fan. Then do a google to find it.
Most of the power supplies are from http://www.zippy.com/ but yours may be diff.

bitor

Originally Posted by slkj

Hi,

Does anyone know of a source for a replacement power supply and fans for a SNAP 4200? We have a couple of 4200s that are working well but want to have backups of the things that might fail. Adaptec says they don't have any.

Thanks,
Steve

[blue68f100]

I believe it used the std 1din 250W server PS. You will need to search the PN. Also Dell is a good source for parts, besides eBay.

[yfpang]

hi blue68f100,

Thanks for your advice as for our final resort we manage to borrow 1 working hdd from our friend to boot up our unit. And once it's up we add back our hdd into the unit and it manage to do a boot sync.

And once we have manage to boot sync 1 hdd we shutdown the unit and take out the new hdd and boot via our old hdd, and re-sync the rest of the hdd. and currently it's working fine already.

And for this do you think it's possible to copy the sector 0 to 10k to a CD rom for keeping, as the unit can be booted up from it's usb storage. As this will be easier to recover from a corrupted OS.

Thanks blue68f100 again for your help

[blue68f100]

The Guardian OS reserves 10gig for it's shell (Raid1 across all drives). So more than 10k will be required. I use a 20-40 gig hd as a backup, just encase the unit will not boot. As long as you do a cold boot it will only copy the OS. Some use an identical HD as the raid
, this way they have a BU HD ready.

[chrisnz]

SNAP 4500 with guardian os 4.5 and expansion shelf.

[xponet]

I have a 4400 running version 5.0.133 SP1 with 4x320 in RAID5

[hyperjason]

I have 3 - 1TB Snap 520's running OS 4.2.054

[schnappi]

I have a lot off Snap Server 4400, 4200, 4500, 110, 410, 520 and many, many, many Problems with the new Guardian OS 5.1.041 - (If I install V5.1x the 4xxx Snap Servers get very, very slow).

[eschw95458]

How much memory are you running in those units. I noticed that snap server 110 originally came with 256mb mem and they quietly upgraded them to 512mb. I would suggest upping the memory in those units and see if that helps.

[blue68f100]

I would consider 1 gig as min. If you have a lot of users max it out.

[blue68f100]

I keep a (2) 20gig HD loaded with just the GOS, clean install for emergencies. When I first got my unit I did intensive testing to see how well it handled crashes during read and write process involving loosing power. I was very impressed that if you had snapshots and the required settings back upped it always recovered on it's own. I did buy a APC SmartUps 1500 with the network card for my server. It has enough power to carry it and 1 PC for about 90min. When it gets to low power it shutsdown my servers.

Your better off if you can setup a USB memory stick to boot off of. 1 user did that, but due to parts of the GOS software he could not distribute it.

Like I said 1 gig is a min for GOS units. Andy says 2 gig will give the best performance. But it all gets down to how many users are hitting your server.

The SnapOS units do not benifit much unless you have large HD's and running JAVA.

[Terry Kennedy]

Originally Posted by blue68f100

The SnapOS units do not benifit much unless you have large HD's and running JAVA.

Another use for more memory in the SnapOS units is to avoid falling back to swap-based fsck after an unclean shutdown. I prefer to pro-actively install the maximum memory, as the last thing you want to do is suffer through a 12-hour-plus fsck in this case, and you certainly don't want to install a larger memory module when the server is in that unclean state.

This probably isn't important for 4100's with smaller drives, but when you get up to the 120GB maximum drive size, it makes a huge difference.

[papablito]

Can anyone help me with OS5 ???? please send me an email... thanks guys!

[bitor]

Papablito, you can get the GOS5 at http://www.overlandstorage.com

Originally Posted by papablito

Can anyone help me with OS5 ???? please send me an email... thanks guys!

[papablito]

How? Is it a free download?
thanks

[bitor]

papablito, you crack me up. Well, there are not to many things concerning snap servers that are free. I would go there(overland) and inquire how much it is. Then you will know. I don't know the exact cost.

Originally Posted by papablito

How? Is it a free download?
thanks

[papablito]

I know... stupid me... LOL
Kind of expensive there.... i guess i will stick to 4 for now.

Cheers!

[Mad-Cat]

I have been playing aroudn with an old 4500 server thats still working 4.0.228 i think is the image on it working out if we should get another one this model only showing me as having 100 meg network nic in it what on earth???????? in a NAS im not sure if this is with the server image on it or what. And the fact the stupid thing going missing for 10 minutes iscsi and web page u cans till ping it but my vsphere box can see the iscsi lun at all.

i was wanting to upgrade it to a later image but 800 for a charity organization is stupid expecally when im not going to be keeping it as its 100 meg cards will not work as a backup nas for vmware. i found the 886 file but its telling me signitour is incorrect is this for older models only? i was trying to find the filre from bt as testing but non luck do other people have this issue with vmare or just me. anyway i just want to see if the gardian os will workas planned before spending more money on a newer model...

if anyone can help me with an update file would be great or how to upgrade to 886 even i just want to know its going to work.. thanks

Dave

[xponet]

I keep getting PMs about people wanting to buy the newest OS's from me

[Phoenix32]

Originally Posted by xponet

I keep getting PMs about people wanting to buy the newest OS's from me

Yup, I get them all the time too. Too many people want something for nothing.

[Phoenix32]

Originally Posted by Mad-Cat

I have been playing aroudn with an old 4500 server thats still working 4.0.228 i think is the image on it working out if we should get another one this model only showing me as having 100 meg network nic in it what on earth???????? in a NAS im not sure if this is with the server image on it or what. And the fact the stupid thing going missing for 10 minutes iscsi and web page u cans till ping it but my vsphere box can see the iscsi lun at all.

i was wanting to upgrade it to a later image but 800 for a charity organization is stupid expecally when im not going to be keeping it as its 100 meg cards will not work as a backup nas for vmware. i found the 886 file but its telling me signitour is incorrect is this for older models only? i was trying to find the filre from bt as testing but non luck do other people have this issue with vmare or just me. anyway i just want to see if the gardian os will workas planned before spending more money on a newer model...

if anyone can help me with an update file would be great or how to upgrade to 886 even i just want to know its going to work.. thanks

Dave

The Snap 4500 has DUAL Gigabit ethernet ports. I seriously doubt it is the OS image causing a problem like that. Check your cables. Check your switch. Is it plugged into something that supports Gigabit ethernet? Do you have the port(s) of the 4500 hard set to 100baseT in the Network-TCP/IP section instead of AUTO like it should be?

iSCSI, well, I am not the IT/Software guru around these parts, but I do have a friend who uses his Snap Servers (4400, 4500, and 510) with iSCSI almost 100% and says it works great for him without any problems. I would suspect, OE, bad network connection (see above), older GOS issues (4.0.x is a bit old now), or problems due to failing hardware.

Overland does not charge $800 for the OS update anymore. It is much less now, but still not cheap. And, is still copyright protected.

886? Are you talking about using a windows based OS instead? I am not sure what you meant by an 886 version.

In any case, nobody (other than Overland) can give you a copy of the GOS update files without violating copyrights and puting themseleves at risk.


Note: Sorry for breaking silence people, but he asked me directly in PM, I just answered here in public.

[Mad-Cat]

Well im a ccna so i do know switching im connecting into a 3750 gigabit switch i have tryed auto on both switch and 4500 and then tred hard setting it "speed 1000" and auto on 4500 and i wanted to hard set the NAS but that isnt an option in the GUI is this normal... ither way im very disapointed with this equipment... i can include scrren shoot and switch configs if u dont belive me...