WS-WVL Win 2008 R2 EOL/ESU End of life - to buffalo WS-WVHL/debian, discussion

[1000001101000]

That's an interesting solution. It would definitely be better to enable SMB1 in a disposable VM rather than your actual PC. To allow the VM to connect to the rest of the network usually requires changing some network settings too though it's not complicated.

I would think this would be impracticable in a lot of use cases like if your plan is to backup files from your main PC.

[Kane88]

We should circle back in a couple of weeks and add some of these things you’ve learned to the wiki.

Yes, let's do that at some point.   Not there yet, I haven't went through anything yet about the x11vnc or xwindows stuff for the WS-WVHL. 

But I am back on the WS-WVHL unit today in preparation of the Terastation 3400.

And I did sudo apt-get install default-jdk on this one to get the java loaded.  You said in the other thread that python is already installed with your installer.  What else do I have to do to prep the TS-WVHL so to get the 3400 loading the debian?

Will installing java on these terastations slow them down at all?

Because the TS-WVHL unit does not have a uEFI BIOS (there's no mention of BIOS boot or uEFI boot in the BIOS settings), I don't understand how the Buffalo Linux OS stock firmware install was able to get past the 2tb MBR/BIOS barrier eiter.  It apparently has fully allocated and formatted a pair of 3tb drives, using all their space.  The system boots fine to your new Debian 10.3.  The drives are GPT too.

kane88@debian:~$ lsblk
NAME     MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
sda        8:0    1  2.7T  0 disk
├─sda1     8:1    1  4.8G  0 part
│ └─md0    9:0    0  4.8G  0 raid1 /boot
├─sda2     8:2    1 15.3G  0 part
│ └─md1    9:1    0 15.3G  0 raid1 /
├─sda3     8:3    1    1M  0 part
├─sda4     8:4    1    1M  0 part
├─sda5     8:5    1  3.8G  0 part
│ └─md2    9:2    0  3.8G  0 raid1 [SWAP]
└─sda6     8:6    1  2.7T  0 part
  └─md10   9:10   0  5.4T  0 raid0 /mnt/array
sdb        8:16   1  2.7T  0 disk
├─sdb1     8:17   1  4.8G  0 part
│ └─md0    9:0    0  4.8G  0 raid1 /boot
├─sdb2     8:18   1 15.3G  0 part
│ └─md1    9:1    0 15.3G  0 raid1 /
├─sdb3     8:19   1    1M  0 part
├─sdb4     8:20   1    1M  0 part
├─sdb5     8:21   1  3.8G  0 part
│ └─md2    9:2    0  3.8G  0 raid1 [SWAP]
└─sdb6     8:22   1  2.7T  0 part
  └─md10   9:10   0  5.4T  0 raid0 /mnt/array
kane88@debian:~$

I need to test this out and fill it up, and see if that's actually right.

How do I actually share out the /mnt/array partition using Debian?  Do I have to install samba?  Or does your installer put it on there?  I was hoping I could do a quick test, but don't know how to make a basic share.

I have to read up on OpenMediaVault, I think I am going to try that out on this box eventually- until I can get used to linux.

I did install webmin on the WS-WVHL today, using the steps in the debian on linkstation video.  But again, I need to do more reading...

[1000001101000]

And I did sudo apt-get install default-jdk on this one to get the java loaded.  You said in the other thread that python is already installed with your installer.  What else do I have to do to prep the TS-WVHL so to get the 3400 loading the debian?

Just acp_commander and the installer files, you should be able to follow the example more or less exactly.

Will installing java on these terastations slow them down at all?

no, but it will use up a few hundred MB of space. You can always remove it when you're done via apt-get remove

Because the TS-WVHL unit does not have a uEFI BIOS (there's no mention of BIOS boot or uEFI boot in the BIOS settings), I don't understand how the Buffalo Linux OS stock firmware install was able to get past the 2tb MBR/BIOS barrier eiter.  It apparently has fully allocated and formatted a pair of 3tb drives, using all their space.  The system boots fine to your new Debian 10.3.  The drives are GPT too.

Bootloaders and partition tables are a somewhat complicated topic. This configuration (BIOS + Grub2) can handle GPT partitions just fine. The version of u-boot built into the TS3400 can also handle GPT. Some older versions can't but there are potential workarounds even in those cases.

I need to test this out and fill it up, and see if that's actually right.

It should work just fine, but filling up the filesystem is always a good test of the configuration.

Samba is not installed by default. If you install webmin/omv you should be able to use it to configure your samba shares, I dont know if it installs it for you or not (you can check using dpkg -l | grep -i samba). You can also do so by manually editing your smb.conf. There are guides out there that can walk you through both better than I could. 


 

[Kane88]

Well I've done something this time.  The TS-WVHL is stuck to where it will not boot now.

Reloading system manager configuration
starting default target
You are in emergency mode...

Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked.
See sulogin( man page for more details.

When I press enter, it just loops back to this.

I can't ssh into the machine either.

[1000001101000]

do you have an fstab entry for a volume that is no longer there?

If so remove that entry and it should return to normal.

[Kane88]

I ran your dd command for the TS3400 test on the /mnt/array partition on the TS3400 and also on the TS-WVHL.

I take it that doing so wiped out the /mnt/array partition on the TS-WVHL?  If so, then I need some help restoring that raid device and/or partition for it.

I have no idea how to check the fstab entry.  I can't access the console from that machine now, or ssh into it either- connection refused.

I can maybe use a systemrescuecd live iso to boot into a terminal window.  But from there I will definitely need help.

Thanks.

[1000001101000]

apparently you don't get to use the built-in recovery shell if you don't have an active root account, i did not know that.

You'll want to boot into livecd as you suggested. Then all you have to do is mount your rootfs somewhere and remove the fstab entry for the missing array.

I believe Ubuntu/Debian live environments don't all include mdadm you may have to install it first if your rootfs is on a raid device.

that will look something like

Code: [Select]

apt-get update
apt-get install mdadm
mdadm --assemble --scan
mdadm --detail --scan
mount /dev/md127 /mnt
nano /mnt/etc/fstab

 

[Kane88]

well I tried and it did not work.
mdadm was in the environment and the --assemble --scan wasn't turning up anything.

--detail --scan showed the arrays, but I couldn't get the raid array to mount  for /dev/md10.  I forget the error, something about a partition format flag, it didn't like how it was partitioned basically...

Since the built-in recovery wasn't working as you pointed out: I opted to wipe it all out and start over, this time adding a root password.  I hope I'll be able to use the recovery if there is ever a need to.

Thanks.

[Kane88]

I think I've got this one in pretty good shape now.  Enough to run with it and see where it leads.

Got debian reloaded on the TS-WVHL.
java, webmin, and smartmontools installed.

I managed to get samba installed, and setup my first working samba file share (that was a little tricky!)

I'm feeling accomplished!

The speed of this box is now on par with the Win 2008 that was installed on it originally, copying some test files with samba at just over 100MB/sec.  Perfect.

This is actually quite useable, especially not being limited to 2TB disks.  It's going to make an interesting Debian test setup.


Is there any way possible to construct a trashbox setup like the buffalo linux stock firmware has?  I found that quite handy actually.  Anything that got deleted just moved to the trashbox dir, before I manually deleted it from there.


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For those interested:  this is what I used to get Debian loaded.  This will allow you to completely scrap the outdated original Win 2008 storage server R2 for this model.

First, you have to make your buffalo EM boot disk
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Create_Recovery_Disk_for_Intel-based_Terastation

and then load the TS-WVHL firmware get your partitions layed out (WS-WV windows model converts into TS-WVHL linux model using this)
https://www.buffalotech.com/support/downloads/terastation-pro-duo


then, make the debian boot iso for usb disk - iso file here
https://github.com/1000001101000/Debian_on_Intel_Terastations/tree/master/installer-image/Buster

I used rawrite32 from a windows pc to create the usb boot disk
https://www.netbsd.org/~martin/rawrite32/

installer files for intel terastations to load debian
https://github.com/1000001101000/Debian_on_Intel_Terastations


instructions to load debian
https://github.com/1000001101000/Debian_on_Buffalo/wiki

instructions to load debian + webmin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfMHlLmsSF8

webmin package
http://www.webmin.com/deb.html

instructions to setup samba
http://digitalhacksblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/setup-samba.html


I still have yet to go through the post install items for the bays and fans and things.  But so far, so good.