Author Topic: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy  (Read 12096 times)

slimd

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LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« on: May 05, 2009, 11:31:08 PM »
   Hello-

Synopsis of my issue:

Anytime I try to access more than one file at a time, my linkstation freezes (well, the network stops responding on the linkstation).  It seems to try and recover at 60 second intervals.  Sometimes it will start going again at 60 sec or at 120, 180... sometimes you can see that it only gets 5 or 10 MB copied before its stalled again.

Any ideas?  I can't see any way to change the way the linkstation network operates other than basic IP settings.

Anyone having this issue?  Or heard of this?  I would think I should be able to copy lots of stuff, to and from simultaneously.


ENVIRONMENT:

I have a LS-Q4.0TL/R4 (4 GB) Linkstation configured in the default RAID 5 configuration.  I still have the default share settings and even use the default "share" name as the directory I connect to.  One item that is not the default:  I did have to replace the silly flat cable it came with as I was only showing a 100Mbps connection to my switch.  I do have jumbo frames enabled as I wanted to get things "working" before trying to squeeze more performance out of it.


My primary PC is a quad core HP Pavillion Elite w/a Gb NIC running Vista Home Premium 64.  I have tried setting my PC to auto-negotiate, to 1 Gbps Full Duplex, 100 Mbps full, and 100 Mbps half, all to no avail (other than slowing things down).  All configurations exhibit the same "stop" condition.


I have my Linkstation plugged into a Netgear 8 port 10/100/1000 Mbps switch, the same switch that my home PC is plugged into.  My Wife has a Compaq tablet PC also plugged into the Netgear switch.  She is running Vista Home Premium 32.  

 

For reference, I also have 2 Linux boxes running MythDora (MythTV) that are not connected to the linkstation as well as one Linux "server" that I originally planned to connect to and leverage the linkstation.  I have temporarily abandoned that plan until I can get the linkstation to maintain more than one file copy at a time.   


PROBLEM DETAILS and EXAMPLES:

I can copy a single file from the "share" (mapped as drive s on Windows) at around 15-18 MB/s.  However, if I try to copy a second file before the first one finishes (or if my outlook decides to access its pst, or any other file access) everything "freezes."  My copy stops.  I can't access the linkstation, any share, or even the web interface.  After a while (60 seconds, 120 seconds??), things start working again.


Below are a few scenarios I've tried.  Note that my wife does not have anything accessing her linkstation share... but in transparency, it is connected to the link station and mapped as drive "s."


As part of my testing, I took a 1GB mpg file and a 2 GB mpg file off my MythTV system to use as test files in my diagnostics.


Scenario 1. -- Simple file copy from linkstation to my PC:  Start  file1 copying to my local myPC.  (all going well)  Start file2 copying to my PC.  file1 copy stops, file2 copy fails to start.  After about 60 seconds, the copies will resume.  Sometimes they complete, sometimes they will stop again (or multiple times).  Sometimes Windows times out and sometimes the copies work.


Scenario 2. -- Copy files from linkstation AND Home Linux Samba Share to Home PC:
  Start file1 copying from linkstation.  Start file3 copying from Home Linux Samba ShareA to Home PC.   All going well.  Start file4 copying from Home Linux Samba ShareA to Home PC.  All still going well (though the throughput of file3 and file4 are now slower, as expected).  When I start a copy of file2 from the linkstation to the home PC, file1 and file2 both stop.  File3 and file4 continue uninterrupted and complete just fine. I can watch the network view in my Windows Vista and confirm the increase in throughput when I start file3 in network throughput, I can also see it drop when I start file2. This makes me think it is NOT my local PC.


Scenario 3.  -- Copy files from linkstation to my PC and my wife's PC: Start file1 copying from linkstation to my PC.  My wife starts file1 copying from linkstation to her PC.  All file copy proceeding nicely.  I start to copy file2.  Both file copies stop on my PC and the one copy stops on my wife's PC.  After about 60 seconds, all file copies resume.  After a minute or two (in the example I ran tonight), the copies stop again... hers times out, mine eventually start back and complete.

Dustrega

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2009, 12:56:41 PM »
Excellent synopsis but which firmware are you running?

slimd

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2009, 07:51:44 PM »
   

Oops... firmware is 1.05

 

I upgraded Monday evening in hopes that things would get better... but to no avail.  I am hopeful there is something I'm missing somewhere.


slimd

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2009, 10:46:31 PM »
   

Anyone seen an issue with "stalls" when copying (or accessing) multiple files from the same device or share? 

 

Conversly, can anyone attest to "great success" copying and/or accessing multiple files?

 

Could I have a problem with my Netgear Gigabit switch/hub?  I do have 2 other 100/10 switch/hubs plugged into it.  

 

thanks for any help or feedback-

Slim


Dustrega

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2009, 04:36:35 AM »
After a little bit of analysis I would like to query further. Are you accessing this device by IP address? If not I would suggest trying that by going to Start->Run and type in "\\[IP_Address_of_NAS]" (minus quotes of course) and see if your filesystem access is smoother. If that doesn't help try re-initializing the unit in the web admin. This can be accomplished by logging into the web admin and going to Maintenance->Initialization->Restore (follow prompts). I hope this helps and my apologies for the delay in response.

Orbit67

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2009, 03:47:20 PM »
   

Hi,

 

Can confirm am seeing exactly the same symptoms on my LS-Q4.0TL/R5 F/W 1.05. Single stream or multi-stream, all combinations of reading and writing data. Thought it was only related to writing at first, with the RAID 5 array taking a time out to organise itself, but later had the same problem when copying files from the LS to a new PC, single stream.

 

The time outs on initial data copies were a pain, but the job was eventually completed. What is really bugging me now is that a media playing device (which worked fine with my old 250 GB linkstation), is now stalling in the middle of playback if any other device tries to interact with the Quad.

 

Only snippet of evidence I can add to the above posts is that the problem appears to be much worse (more frequent stalls / hangs) under F/W 1.05.

 

Buffalo support, that's now 3 units seeing this problem (4 if you count Humorme2003's replacement machine), so there *might* just be a problem... Happy to provide more details as required for your investigations.

 

Thanks.

 


slimd

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2009, 08:53:04 AM »
   

Dustrega-
Thank you for the reply, but it did not change anything.  The other folks that have responded (Orbit67 and Humorme2003) stated the problem quite well. 
 
I followed your steps (access by IP and Maint/Init/Restore).  Then I tried the following (and I recommend that you or someone at Buffalo try this, it’s pretty easy):
1.  Started a 4GB file copy by dragging TEST_FILE_A.MPG from one directory on the buffalo share to a different directory on the buffalo share.
2.  Attempt to start a second file copy by dragging a file to my desktop... but I could not b/c Windows Explorer and the file copy had both "frozen."  After 30-60 seconds, the file copy resumed, I tried to access Windows Explorer and after a few clicks navigate around, it froze again.
3.  It seems that one big file will gum up the entire works of the Buffalo.
 
How can anyone watch a video off of this device?  If you try to copy a file or access the directory tree, you'll likely disrupt your video stream.  Even if my email does a check (my PST is on the buffalo share), I'm going to be in trouble...

 

Please keep working on the issue and resolve it.  Right now I've got an expensive (and useless) 4TB storage array stitting on my shelf right now... 

 

thank you-

Slim


JasonCollins

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2009, 01:08:39 PM »
   

I have the same issue too.  This is not an isolated problem.  I upgraded from 1.04 to 1.10 and it didn't help.  Any ideas?

 


JasonCollins

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2009, 09:19:58 AM »
   The next update did not help.  I purchased a 4TB unusable NAS.  I'm not sure what to do.  I'm thinking of returning the whole thing unless someone comes up with a fix or at least says they are working on it.  Is someone at Buffalo listening to this!?!

micklec

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #9 on: July 02, 2009, 03:42:27 AM »
   

I have had my 4TB Quad now for a few months, and have always had problems with the linkstation 'freezing' when streaming and/or copying more than one file simulateously.

 

The problem is most noticeable when I am performing a file operation (for example, copying a large file to or from the NAS) and trying to stream video to my PS3, but even when there is just bittorrent activity, video and even music still freezes for perhaps 10 seconds, and

 

PS3 frequently reports DLNA media server errors (usually 'A network error has occurred'). Any operation on a PC or laptop freeze and occasionally fail completely.

 

I have tried a number of things to isolate the problem - turning off the PVConnect DB refresh, stopping bittorrent downloads etc. I find that by stopping all bittorrent downloads seems to help in most cases.

 

I have a gigabit switch and use cat5e wired connections to PS3 for streaming, and also when managing files from my laptoptop, so this isn't a wireless or network problem. I am running firmware 1.04.

 

Not being able to do more than one thing at a time is pretty annoying and just shouldn't happen on a piece of kit that cost me £600.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


JasonCollins

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2009, 01:40:53 PM »
   

I would love for someone at Buffalo to help on this before I'm forced to give poor product reviews and to return my unit.  The only answer I've gotten back is basically don't use the NAS for anything other than backup and that it also shouldn't be a backup solution.  That was a wierd answer I thought!  Has anyone got one of these that works right?  If so, what is the configuration?  Maybe if I backed all the data off and changed the RAID type it might fix it?  Any thoughts before I shoot the thing?


micklec

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #11 on: July 05, 2009, 06:21:31 AM »
   

I've spend a good amount of time over the weekend, trying to work this out. 

 

I found the latest update 1.11 and installed this. Unfortunately the release notes in the download are not readable even in notepad, so I can't tell if there is a fix included that is designed to address this stalling/freezing issue.

 

Anyway, following the update, there was still no obvious change in behaviour.   

Further things I've tried. 

  

- I have tried disabling everything I can think of (media server, bittorrent, even NTP!). Each time I disabled something I restarted the server just to be sure.  

- Connecting directly to the unit (1Gbps connection confirmed on my laptop), so eliminating the possibility that the router is to blame.

 

Each time, same problem; trying to access or copy a large file results in regular stalling, and it's impossible to perform more than one large file operation at a time.  

 

I am running the box with RAID 5 configuration, so I'm starting to wonder if this is actually the problem - is this software RAID, not hardware??

 

I'm going to try different frame sizes now, but am running out of options....

 

I will also calling UK support this week and will keep you all posted on my progress.

 

Chris 


JasonCollins

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2009, 08:30:52 AM »
   

Here is an idea.  Suppose I took three of the disks and put them in a RAID5 configuration.  Then did media serving off of the 4th drive.  Then I could backup to the RAID5, but media serve off of the 4th disk.  I will try this, but wondered if anyone had any thoughts on if this might work. 

 

In theory, if the problem is slow RAID, then the backup would cause stalling, but it's done in the background anyway and at a time when I'm not trying to share files, get photos or watch movies.  Of course I've turned my 4TB into 1TB, but if it's not usable any other way...

 

 


JasonCollins

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2009, 09:22:12 AM »
   OK, so I just tried it and there is no way to setup some disks in RAID and leave other disks separate.  When I don't have all the disks checked to add to the array, the go button is greyed out.  Oh well...  This is messed up!

JasonCollins

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Re: LinkStation Stalls when I start 2nd file copy
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2009, 10:58:16 PM »
   

So, I tried Raid 1 it doesn't work.  Then I said I'd just blow away RAID altogether -- just go for 4x1TB disks.  Guess what?!?  It still stalls.  As an example, it copies just fine for one minute or two and then just stops... for a while...  then restarts.  7500 files totalling 17.1GB and it has taken 6 hours so far because of this problem.  This is really not good!

 

I think maybe if you only do one or two files at a time you don't notice.  The problem is that I use Adobe Photoshop elements and it gives you a preview of all of your pictures.  The program hangs because it tries to read a lot of files and the LinkStation stalls.  Now I'm at a loss.  My major reason for buying this was to store my photos for working with and sharing and it doesn't do that well.

 

Anyone reading this thread, do not buy this product unless there is a fix for this problem!