Buffalo Forums

I've got two WS-6VL units running 2008 storage server, which are integrated into a server 2008 network. I have two sites, and use the built in windows DFS to keep a copy of data from one site to another. This works fine, but every now and again one of the units 'disappears' from the network. It will suddenly not be visible in NAS navigator and will not open in a remote session nor respond to a ping. But if I go to the physical box its lights are on and the display reads normally. I either have to hold in the button on the front until it restarts or simply wait -in the last case it reappeared on the network after three days without me doing anything. When I looked in the event viewer there was a three day gap with no messages, and nothing to indicate why it may have gone offline. When I called Buffalo tech support all they could say was I should rebuild the unit using the USB stick. I did this and it took several calls to get the RAID rebuilt, and while that was rebuilding the other unit went offline for two days but has come back of its own accord this morning!
I've loaded no software on these devices, so the only change from new is the various automatic windows updates. Has anyone else experienced this, and would I be better turning off windows updates?
(Just to clarify, I'm giving each unit a name, a fixed IP and then joining it to the domain. that's it. Both units are protected by a UPS)

Dealing with WSS units is fun...

I would have to guess (disclaimer: only did a demo on a WSS unit, and it had 2012 not 2008), that if its anything like the newer one, it could be an issue with the OS drive filling up, have you checked the capacity to see if it was full? I know the error logs for some updates where causing my demo unit to lockdown, fixed that by updating the drivers, clearing all the even logs/error reports then redoing the windows updates.

Then again, it might be something else, but you might try clearing the event logs, then the next time it happens go through them carefully.

It might be an IP issue as well, but highly unlikely if you have a tight network setup

Check if you have any power saving options set on the network port... Also when it happens, get a monitor, keyboard and mouse and see if you can login and access the WSS that way. If so and you still dont see it on the network.. i would think its a port issue or setting issue. Check if the nics so activity, and see if it says connected in the WSS. do a free pings to sites with the CMD. This will give me some ideas on your feed back from this.

Thanks for these suggestions. I've just checked and there is a setting on the network adaptor which says 'allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' which is ticked. I've just unticked it.  I wonder what possible use this setting could have!
Also in the control panel Power Settings I found a 'put computer to sleep after 6hrs' setting so I've turned that off. I never knew servers had these settings I thought it was only PCs -the though of a server turning itself off because no one has used it for 6 hours is horrifying! I just checked one of my other servers and the only power setting is for the monitor thank goodness.
The unit at the remote site has gone off line again today and I can't even ping it. It will have to wait until next week when I can get over there and press the button on the front. Anyone know if there's any way of waking these things up if they're no responding to a ping? Also the suggestion to plug a monitor and keyboard in isn't practicable - there is no monitor socket, only USB sockets. And in practice I've found that giving it a hard reboot always results in the thing going into its 'rebuilding raid mode' for about 3 days. Again -is there any way of turning this auto-rebuild off?

kind of forgot the V series didn't come with a vga port... but most servers have these options its just the standard, enterprise, etc are setup by default with most the settings disabled or off. windows storage server... isn't a true server os. its a server storage os.. this would be the only reason why the settings were set different. plus buffalo has no control of those settings Microsoft does.. if you setup a magic packet on the server, basically a wake up on lan, and forward ports outside you can wake it up. this is if it goes to sleep.. it shouldn't go to sleep if you disabled it... hmm....

O it uses windows software raid.. I wouldn't know how as I have never used it... will have to do some research. there is probably a command or something we can do in powershell.

You can try installing the buffalo software If you haven't yet or if you have the older version I would update.
go to http://www.buffalotech.com/support-and-downloads/downloads (http://www.buffalotech.com/support-and-downloads/downloads)
and type your model number in. Its either "WS-6V12TL/R5" or "WS-6V6.0TL/R5". the first link should be the buffalo software. if anything you can always rma the unit. maybe your unit is getting hot and shutting off... that is possible but I would need to know the temps. the buffalo software should tell you if not you can use the software fan speed. great freeware.

I still don't have a solution to the power problems on my storage server units - I now know the problem is down to the power settings in Control panel - they are set to go into sleep mode after 6 hrs. But when I change them to 'never' , they somehow revert to 6hrs after a while. Can anyone tell me how to make 'never' the default? I think this is a Buffalo setting rather than windows  -on my other servers the only power option is to turn off the display -they don't have a 'put the computer to sleep' option.