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hi, i've got a pair of N5200s running backups at one site
we have an N5200 which we use to backup the server
this then uses nsync over FTP to copy everything to a N5200 pro (the thecus secure nsync seems to be VERY slow indeed, and often fails altogether, the FTP system works fine however)
both of these units have 5x western digital 500gb hard drives set up in raid 5 (3+1 parity +1 spare)
i've so far experienced major problems with the N5200 pro, and indeed, a few problems with the N5200
after getting the nsync up and running, it gets about 90gb into the transfer (which is about 400gb of data) and then fails. the target, n5200pro, is now no longer visible on the network, and the web interface is no longer accessible. it also fails to respond to pings by hostname, although does respond to pings by IP address.
the only solution is to power cycle it. after this, the RAID array comes up as degraded, and it's rebuilding using the spare. as there is not any useful data on this unit yet, rather than trying to recover the array, it's easier just to delete it and build another.
so i do that, and run the nsync again. again, the same thing happens, after about 95gb of data it crashes, and the array is degraded.
i've sector scanned each of the disks, which are brand new, and they are fine. also, it's a different disk that fails each time the system crashes.
i've gone through this procedure five times now, and it's very frustrating. last time, rather than recreating the array with a spare, i built it across all 5 drives (4+1 parity). this time, the transfer failed again, but the unit had not crashed. the web interface was still accessible, however, the array had come up as degraded again, and the disk contents were lost (the "folder" page in the web interface was empty).
it's currently using firmware 2.01.09 although i'm pretty sure i've upgraded that at some point in an attempt to solve this problem. i can't remember what version was installed previously, but the problem was present on both the old and the current firmware.
now
the other unit - the N5200 which we are backing up to from the server - has crashed and degraded the array 3 times in as many months. again, the disks are all brand new. it's getting a lot more disk access due to daily backups taking place, however, there is no reason at all why it should have crashed and degraded the array three times already. this one is also running FW 2.01.09 and it also has been upgraded from an earlier version.
it's really important to me that both of these units can handle a modicum of disk access without constantly failing. i'm not exactly hammering them. at a cost of around £500 each i was expecting something a lot tougher.
