BlackArmor NAS Network Storage Server

[huntermic]

Does anyone know what has been changed in this new version?

I can't find a changelog.

[jonlup]

probably they don't have it... because they have no idea what they did on this "upgrade"

considering the overall features and performance of this product I wouldn't risk an upgrade while having important data on it!

[your2slow]

as an FYI.. I tried the upgrade yesturday morning... The BA is now showing Firmware extracting message and it's been like that since.  No network connectivity and i've tried a reset.. Not sure what else to try.

[franssie]

No changelog, not even a date on the firmware - very very poor. I wouldget fired over this I think

Anyway, thanks for the warning, I will stall upgrading the NAS servers at my site.

[huntermic]

Well, seems that the issue with timemachine is fixed (a friend noticed that after installing). But i would like to know the other things fixed/changed. Can't imagine they only fixed timemachine functionality.

[huntermic]

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/products/blackarmor/docs/ReleaseNotesBANAS.doc.pdf

Version: BA NAS 400 series – 4000.1281Release Notes:

There are new features and bugs fixes for the entire line up as well as some new features thatwill only be for the BA NAS 400 series product.

New Features:

1. Support for MAC OS Lion’s Apple Time Machine

2.Server Configuration Tool:○ Simplify multiple unit deployment- VAR / System Integrators- ROBO business

3. New Kernel which provides increased performance and security

● New Linux Kernel - version 2.6.31.8 with LSP version 5.1.3

● Increased Security by upgraded to php version 4.4.9 Increased performance:

● Significant increases in performance

iSCSI read - 100% increase

iSCSI write - 35% increase

SAMBA read - 15% increase

SAMBA write - 10% increase

Bug Fix:New shares created with this firmware will be able to delete hidden / system files (.tb files)

[franssie]

Indeed the release notes have been posted now. thanks.

[nas400user]

I have NAS400 with 4 3TB Seagate hard disks. My NAS400 had firmware 4000.1211 and I upgraded it to 4000.1281. That was a mistake. After the firmware upgrade my NAS400 began to loose its connections to the network. When the connection is lost, I can't to use the power button to shut down any more. I have to pull off the power cord behind the NAS400. The firmware 4000.1211 worked fine but the new 4000.1281 did'n work (If it works don't touch it!!!). I'm frustrated with the new firmware. Does anybody know if I can downgrade the firmware back 4000.1211 and how can I do it?

[franssie]

I also upgraded the first NAS 400 series  - the process of upgrading went good - however I have no timemachine access anymore (both 10.6 and 10.7 - error 2 somthing from OSX n both computers. Samba is still working but that is not helpfull for timemachine. 

Is it possible to downgrade the firmware? This is not helpful. Afraid this is my last seagate product ever if there is no response from seagate and their processes are not very transparant - to say the least. This is costing us more money than their product is worth :-( It is that I have my data elsewere but I am getting reluctant to rely at seagate for backups. 

For a knowledge base I would expect seagate to actively participate in a discussion like this, specially so short after publishing a firmware update!

[franssie]

the exact error being "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 2.)" on both 10.6 and 10.7

appears to be a rights issue - but I cannot and want not rebuild the whole volume(s) as I have windows backups there as well.

I just received the seagate email for this 'critical' update - I strongly advise OSX users not to upgrade!

[franssie]

OK I solved my problem.

the problem was:

After updating to the latest firmware, my macs would not connect over timemachine protocol, SMB was fine as before.

NAS440 (3 disks in RAID5, 1 Spare ilding) in one volume andone share.

Purging the timemachine data dit not help.

What helped: At the end I added the ilde (spare) disk as a nw volume to see if I could point the timemachine to that volume. At that time I forgot memachine only sees the machine name, no shares, but hey, it worked! I could mount timemachine to the NAS again.

So next I just removed the span volume (the 4th disk, spare) and ejected the 4th disk. For some not so obvious reason, the RAID5 volume picked up again and allows timemachine to connect, now including OS Lion as well. 

In the end I have no clue what solved it, might be specific to my situation or RAID5. Hope thing will be stable, I have had better starts.

[franssie]

I have NAS400 with 4 3TB Seagate hard disks. My NAS400 had firmware 4000.1211 and I upgraded it to 4000.1281. That was a mistake. After the firmware upgrade my NAS400 began to loose its connections to the network. When the connection is lost, I can't to use the power button to shut down any more. I have to pull off the power cord behind the NAS400. The firmware 4000.1211 worked fine but the new 4000.1281 did'n work (If it works don't touch it!!!). I'm frustrated with the new firmware. Does anybody know if I can downgrade the firmware back 4000.1211 and how can I do it?

---

Same issue here now ... suggests seagate withdraws this firmware what a **bleep**ty situation we are in now. The net work connects, IP address of the NAS shows in the router IP table, but the NAS does not repond, not even to a ping request.

Worthless piece of Firmware this 1281

[victorpham]

I could not delete .tb files as stated below:

-------------------------------------------

Bug Fix:New shares created with this firmware will be able to delete hidden / system files (.tb files)

----------------------------------------------

Anybody could make it ?   I used Win7

[CaptainMikeP]

Exactly the same problem.  Need help Big Time

[your2slow]

In the same boot as everyone else.  After upgrade and doing many hard-reboot, I finally got the thing up and running to find out it keeps dropping off the network.  When I go to the box I can't even scroll through the LCD screen options.  It's like the BA hangs and doesn't recover.   Only way is to do a hard-reboot (pulling power).  Comes back for a few min's then dead..  This even happens when connecting direct to my PC with a x-over cable.  I get connection for a few min's, then dead.

What a Piece.  Worst buy and unfortunatlly I was past my return date so now I'm stuck with a 1200 dollar door stop....

[ Edited to comply with forum guidelines ]

[Alisio]

Also getting the "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 2.)" error on Lion. Does anyone got timemachine working? Seagate?

[huntermic]

Well, i think i will wait a bit before i try this or any other firmware seagate releases.

And instead of giving a reply on this matter they only check our forum posts for improper language.

Well, i'm also beginning to realise that seagate sucks big time!

[jmsanchez]

worst update  after the update the NAS 440 keeps dropping off the network only work for a few minutues and then not respond only a hard reboot(pulling power) make this thing back online, 

is possible downgrade the firmware and if is possible where can i download the previous firmware ? 

[MKSanchez]

----------------------------------------------------

In the same boot as everyone else.  After upgrade and doing many hard-reboot, I finally got the thing up and running to find out it keeps dropping off the network.  When I go to the box I can't even scroll through the LCD screen options.  It's like the BA hangs and doesn't recover.   Only way is to do a hard-reboot (pulling power).  Comes back for a few min's then dead..  This even happens when connecting direct to my PC with a x-over cable.  I get connection for a few min's, then dead.

What a Piece.  Worst buy and unfortunatlly I was past my return date so now I'm stuck with a 1200 dollar door stop..

---------------------------------------------------

Just got off the phone with seagate. The support guy was very apologetic and informed me that the fw update 1281 has been pulled from the website and replaced withe the 1211 fw. He isn't sure why though. I asked it it is safe to downgrade from 1281 to 1211 and he was non-comittal (maybe, maybe not...give it a try....). After a pleasant chat he offered to replace my 3 failing blackarmors....I'm suspicious that I'll never actually see the replacements....but I'll play along.

Cheers.

M

[Riaan dW]

Thanks for you response.

I was on the phone for about an hour with the tech support guy yesterday morning, and all he said was sorry, seems you gonna lose your data.

I've just tried to do the rollback to FW version .1211 but I get the following message: "The device already has the latest firmware."

Any ideas on how to go about doing a roll-back without losing data?

[Riaan dW]

I got a solution for Seagate regarding their customers who installed FW .1281 which has now been pulled to roll-back to .1211.

Re-issue a new FW package for them with the .1211 image but just up the release number to 1282 so that the NAS "thinks" it is a newer version being installed.

Please

[franssie]

I myself had no time yet to call support yet, thanks to those who did.

For my site it somewhat looks like it has to do with the RAID configuration of the NAS (RAID5 myself) as with a normal span volume of one disk things look better. But I did not buy these NASs to not use RAID, a USB drive would have been sufficient, not?

Hacking into the firmware is too much for me and voids my warranty, which I am about to claim.

Would be helpful and comforting if seagate issued a statment with timelines to address this serious issue, this cannot be good for their business as I (and I think most here) work in IT/Systems related fields and now at least I am not comfortable advising anyone seagate. Mistakes can be made (although we test to prevent that) but resolving mistakes is also part of the quality of the brand.

A 4000.1282 rebranded old firmware would be appreciated.

edit:// what I wanted to ask: what disk configurations do you al have? I have a three disk 2TB RAID 5 volume and one non configured spare disk in the little rack.

[MagData]

One large RAID5 volume, which spans four 2 TB drives

Update bricked both NAS 440 with identical configuration - after I was finally able to use the promised Time Machine support, which Seagate advertised and promised and for which the two NAS 440 were bought.

They should react with a full disclosure on what happened, how it happened, what causes the problems and how they could be be remedied.

[Riaan dW]

Hi Franssie,

I have a RAID5 volume spanning 4x 2TB Seagate Barracuda Green drives.

I truly hope they will re-brand or fix asap.

I'm a Seagate partner and bought the BA NAS400 not more than 2 weeks ago in order to use it myself and test it as a solution to sell to my SME clients to keep their backups and business data on.

Needless to say, I'm having second thoughts now. All my business data currently reside on the device so needless to say I REALLY need a solution to get the device back in working order.

Yes, I know, the 1st sentence in the Firmware Update stated: "Make a backup of your data", but really I got the NAS to use as a backup and company wide storage. Now I need another NAS to backup the NAS in order to do a FW upgrade? Sounds a bit counter intuitive and counter productive to me.

I expect that when a company like Seagate who is in the business of supplying storage products that at least there would be a way to get the data back, or allow for a rollback to a previous working Firmware version.

[your2slow]

Also running RAID5 spanning 4x2Tera drives.  Box is now disconnected and unplugged as it's useless right now..

[lnxmnky]

Hi All,

I too suffered this issue with the 4000.1281 firmware. After the upgrade to this firmware version I was able to see all files, but could not open any of the files that were located on encrypted shares. I could see them, but could not open them.

I was able to down grade my firmware back to 4000.1211. after downgrading I was able to see and access all of my files again.

My solution is as follows.Please be aware that you can screw up your data if you do this incorrectly. Only those who are comfortable with the command line, and have a reasonable knowledge of linux/unix should attempt this.

Before I began I took all of my drives out of the system, and backed them up to identical drives. I used the dd command(note, this can take a long time per drive(I have 4 2 TB drives, and they took 6 1/2 hours per drive), make sure to use bs=64k)  to do the deed as I run my nas 420 in a raid 5 setup using some encrypted shares, and most clone software have issues with super large raid partitions.

After backing up the disks, I booted to the cloned copy with no issues. I ssh'd into the device(see hajo's post on how to enable this), then vi /etc/version this is a flat text file that contains the firmware version number. I changed mine to 4000.1200.(yep just one file) Then I logged in the nas admin page, changed to the manual firmware section, selected 4000.1211, and followed the standard firmware update procedure, as soon as it came back up, I was able to access all files, both encrypted and unencrypted.

Special note, any files that I had copied into the encrypted shares after the upgrade to 4000.1281 will not be accessable(reversed issue), so you should make sure you copy them to another system before you downgrade the firmware.

I recommend that after you get access you copy all of your files off to another system, and wait for an offical release from seagate.

Hopefully this will help some of you.

Cheers

[Riaan dW]

That's good news. Just too bad I don't have another set of identical drives laying around.

If the solution is that simple I wonder why Seagate does not cater for version downgrades on their firmware or just issue the 1211 FW with a newer increment number to those who were hit by the 1281 bug.

Phone Tech Support this morning again but with no much luck on getting this resolved.

Come-on Seagate, help us out here.

[MKSanchez]

Thanks for some great posts here.

Anyone know the root password on fw 1281?

I can telnet to the box as admin then su but the password "atsahs" doesn't work.

Any help?

Thx

M

[lnxmnky]

If you do a search on ssh, you should find the instructions that Hajo wrote along with the files you will need.

Cheers

[MKSanchez]

Thanx.

Installed ssh.

edited /etc/version

did firmware update to 4000.1211 through the web gui

BA's now working properly again.

Thanks to all the posters here!

M

[Riaan dW]

Hi,

Followed the SSH route and was able to downgrade to the 1211 FW..

The NAS is up and running now, but I have one 6TB problem  

I can see all the shares, but cannot access any of them.

All four 2TB drives under Storage --> Disk Management shows status: GOOD.

Under Storage --> Volumes, the RAID5 volume currently shows as "FAILED" and only has the "delete" option available.

Any ideas on how I can get the volume up and running again and retrieve my data? The boss is on my case as it has been a week since the 1281 FW affected the NAS.

[lnxmnky]

Did you by chance make a clone of the disks before you downgraded the firmware? Was the raid encrypted(disk/share)?

btw I saw another of your posts that you may have used the reset feature. I really hope your nas was not encrypted, becuase if I remember correctly, using the reset wipes/resets the encryption key(I have not tested this, as I am still in the process of taking off 6TB of data) won't be  able to test till later in the week, and I could be wrong. I would ask seagate support.

If you made the clone, you should just put the drives back in and let it come up and sync, and try again after everything is in sync(or follow my suggestion at the end of this post), if not and the shares/disks are not encrypted, then you really only have 2 options.

1. Try diskinternals raid recovery(they have a trial version(read only.) Note you will have to remove the disks from the nas system and put all of the disks into another system. I don't work for them, but I have had personal experience with their product, and it was the only one that worked, and believe me the money was worth it. This should only be attempted if you really know what you are doing, as this could kill or seriously hamper all chances of any type of recovery if done wrong.

2. Hope you have a backup somewhere else, or be able to rebuild the data from your office systems.

If your shares/disks are encrypted, then short of a professional offsite data recovery team(and I seriously doubt even then), there is no joy.

Sorry to make this bleak, but there are not a whole lot of options at this point.

My personal recommendation is that if you didn't have it encrypted, or if you only encrypted certain shares, then I would send it out to professionals, as none of my tips/suggestions are meant to serve as a replacement for professionals, this is just me sharing what I did, and what worked for me. Your setup may be different.

Cheers

[schizophren]

Can you give a link about ssh thing ? or can you tell me step by step please ? i have 2 Nass 440 with 4000.1281 firmware and iahve to fix this. seagate support doesnt help to their own fault.

[Riaan dW]

Thanks for the feedback lnxmnky.

Luckily none of the data is encrypted thus I should be safe. Yes, I did however do a RESET as per the instructions of Seagate.

I'm currently scrapping cradles together to connect the 4 NAS drives to my notebook in order to try and do a RAID recovery. Thanks for the tip on DiskInternals' software. I've also downloaded a tool called NAS Data Recovery so I wol have a look at both of them when I'm ready.

Unfortunately I did not clone the disks as I do not have any other disks to replace them with. They were recently bought so the budget is spent.

Will keep you all posted....

[Riaan dW]

Hi schizophren.

I found the SSH information on the following post: SSH

The links to the instructions, as per thepost is here: Hajo Noerenberg instructions

Hope this helps.

[Gordon.N]

I engaged seagate support about this for our 8TB 400 series.

Seagate informed me that they wanted to do backup all data from the device, given this one stays up for no longer than 20 minutes ensuring the integrity of the data is imposible. I have 2x 8TB models running 1281, 1 is fine the other has gone bad.

Seagate have recompiled 1211 as 1284 for me (in the kernal aswell so the BANAS will accept it). They will not make this an official release but i have the firmware binary if anyone wants it.

[schizophren]

Hello gordon.n  Can you share that firmware with me please ?

Thanks Riaandw if gordon.n helps me, ssh will not be neccesary anymore.

[Riaan dW]

Hi Gordon,

Please share with me as well. Please email me with details. When I asked Seagate Support for a recompiled 1211 I was informed they cannot do it and that I need to replace my NAS400 by taking it back to the supplier.

I did however receive an email from Seagate on Friday asking for my contact details. Maybe this is to supply me with the updated FW as well. Lets see

 schizophren no problem.

[Gordon.N]

HI Guys,

I will upload the firmware after ive tested it on my own nas and confirm its working.

Seagate have dubbed it 1284

[Gordon.N]

Ok, i've flashed my BANAS and its back working.

here is the firmware

https://rapidshare.com/files/3580703870/sg4000-4000.1284.zip

Hope this helps someone else

[schizophren]

Hello Gordon.N i am downloading it right now, i will try it tomorrow and will write back to you   i am so excited Thank you very much i will not update any firmware of seagate products for a long time )) especially which comes with a mail has subject like "critical update" ))

[Gordon.N]

I think it was pot luck that i got onto someone at seagate that was willing to help out on this issue.

Its worth noting that 1211(1284 now) does not have ISCSI support, I only downgraded one of our units as the other one is working fine and presented to a ESX cluster via ISCSI for non-persistant staging backups

My raid was broken by the constant powercycling and i was constantly resyncing which prevents firmware updates, i ended up pulling 1 disk so that the raid did not attempt to repair its self, then i flashed the firmware and inserted the drive again.

I didn't loose any data and now the array has rebuilt. Im using raid 5 with 4x2tb drives. and its been stable for 2 days now.

[MagData]

Hi Gordon,

it was definitely big luck to reach someone one the phone, who even admitted that Seagate ever had a 4000.1281. As I already wrote in a post on my own thread, I was literally told to p*ss o** by Seagate, as they denied ever having provided a 4000.1281 firmware and that I have to reinstall Windows and probably have a virus (I neither use Windows, nor do I have a virus). He went really rude and impolite towards the end of our conversation.

As I am having trouble with two identical boxes like yours (4 x 2 TB drives, NAS 440, large RAID-5) I will try the firmware version you have provided, because art the moment both boxes are sitting around, full of data, but unaccessible - and I was facing exactly the same problem like you: One of the boxes did constant powercycling and always attempting to resync the RAID-5, which boldly failed. No wonder...

I hope I can get my data back off one of the boxes, because one is the master and the other is the backup of the master, but both boxes are giving constant problems.

Note to myself: Never ever Seagate again, if at all possible :-( That was the final drop in the bucket.

The last products I bought from Seagate (after having started back in the days with MFM/RLL drives) always failed within warranty or one to two months after the warranty expired, but none was replaced by Seagate (3 drives from the PushButton backup series, 400 GB each, bought on the same day, failing within one week - one 1.5 GB flex drive - and an external 2 TB FreeAgent Desktop in silver, failing from day one, after weeks of discussions with Seagate my dealer refunded my money, out of his own pocket.)

[schizophren]

Hello Gordon again, it works Thank you very much. And raid 5 stripe did not fail. there is no problem.

[MagData]

Hi Gordon,

just finished upgrading the box that was constantly cycling, after pulling a disk - waited, waited, did the firmware upgrade to the version you kindly provided and big surprise: The NAS came back alive, the encrypted RAID-5 was there, accessible! :-)

Now I am copying all my important stuff off off the NAS drive to a bunch of external HDDs.

Without your help I would have lost about 4.8 TB of my valuable data.

Many thanks!

[jmsanchez]

Hi Gordon, 

I haved the same problems, the BANAS fail to resync the radi5 volumen for the constant powercycling, i started in degraded mode pulling 1 disk and flashed the firmware that you kindly provided and it works.

many thanks

[franssie]

thanks for sharing the firmware, works here as well. Now it is still up to seagate to get things working!

[Riaan dW]

Hi All,

Seagate gave me a call after more than 2 weeks of this. I can confirm Gordon's FW on the RapidShare link. It is the same one Seagate provided me.

My NAS is back up and running except for my RAID5 data volume that got damaged during the constant power cycles.

And as it goes, Seagate does not take responsibility for this and tell me I'm basically scr3w3d, as apparently my case is the 1st one they've heard of where the DataVolume got corrupted due to their bad FW1281.

I'll definitely not recommend Black Armor NAS as a solution to my clients as I cannot take the risk of providing a solution to my clients where their data can get lost caused by bad FW.

This is a sad day indeed.

Gonna try and do some data recovery over the weekend. Wish me luck...

[halson]

Hi Gordon,

Is it possible to reupload (because the rapidshare link is dead) this last firmware in order for me also to be able3 to resolve problems

Thanks and regards

[franssie]

download works fine? (FF@OSX)