SNAP crap

[alocurto]

Company I am now helping (due to recent incident) has SNAP server (80 gig RAID 1 = ~35gig network storage). Shares go down, snap server web interface is SLOW and its reporting FATAL ERRORS.

There is of course no backup for this device.

It is mirrored so there is hope. I am going to have my hands on the server tonight. Basically, I need to know if:

1) If one drive fails, do fatal errors occur?
2) Can I remove a drive from the mirror and attach it to a PC? I know I can do this with normal raid one but I know that SNAP has their own file system.
3) Any one ever do this?
4) I called SNAP and they want 1100 for a replacement that can mirror and hold 180 gigs. That is way over kill, any recommendations for SNAP replacement?

All help is appreciated!

 

[Agamar]

Wow, for 1100 you could get a PC with RAID 1 and Windows XP Pro. Of course, the beauty of the snap servers are that they are supposed to be easier to support. Anyway, I would guess that you are getting memory or some other hardware failing. In a normal raid-1, you would never get fatal errors from a drive down. In fact, you might not even notice unless it has a blinking light or an alert comes in.

 

[alocurto]

There are no warning lights on on the unit. I am thinking of getting a server however, SNAP is so easy to manage and so reliable (this one gave 6+ years ALWAYS on). Plus they have a few MACs and I don't want to get into that mess.

Any other advice would help. I didn't get a chance to pick it up tonight, I sould be able to get it by tomorrow night.

 

[alocurto]

Anyone know of any sites that cover SNAP recoveries or any information on SNAP disasters?

 

[thirdlegstump]

which Snap model is this?

 

[alocurto]

Its a M2000 Quantum snap server. Its OLD. I am picking it up shortly to take it home and see what I can do, if anything.

 

[polm]

What exactly do these "FATAL ERRORS" say ?

no backup ? ouch...no excuse for that.

 

[Garion]

Originally posted by: Agamar
Wow, for 1100 you could get a PC with RAID 1 and Windows XP Pro. Of course, the beauty of the snap servers are that they are supposed to be easier to support. Anyway, I would guess that you are getting memory or some other hardware failing. In a normal raid-1, you would never get fatal errors from a drive down. In fact, you might not even notice unless it has a blinking light or an alert comes in.

Keep in mind that Windows XP has a very low limit on the number of incoming connections for things like file sharing or printing. The number 5 seems to come in mind, but I'm not totally sure.

If you DO get the data back, be very sure to convince them to spend an extra $100 on a 200+ GB hard drive that can go into another PC. Setup a batch job on this other PC to backup the files every night or so. At least this gives them a reasonable way to recover from a failed drive on a SNAP server.

- G

 

[FreshPrince]

it'll still work since it's running in degraded raid mode. Just backup the data, put in a replacement drive, blow out and recreate the raid, and restore data.

 

[alocurto]

Ok, I have the unit in my possesion. Upon further investigation it is indeed running mirrored. From what the web interface tells me, ONE drive is damaged. It says this exactly:

"This server's disks are currently configured for data protection (mirrored) and one disk has failed. Contact technical support."

So I guess I will be paying for the support. I know the file system is special so I see no way of retriving the data. The data does not come up when I connect to the SNAP. All I can think of is that this is some kind of safety fault. Bascially, if one drive fails, the unit stops working correctly so it has to be looked at. I sure hope that is the case. Thanks for the replies and I will post my results as soon as I have some.

 

[alocurto]

I paid $120 to talk to snap. Only had them confirm that one drive is shot, the other may or may not be. At this point they recommend data recovery to be 100% safe. Basically, that's a $120 down the drain.

So long story short, back, back, back your crap up.