Time Capsule resets

[UKenGB]

Having performed this 'update' on one of my TCs, it then ran for a week or so without trouble, but it was only being used as an ethernet switch, no backing up to the disk.

A couple of days ago I noticed that the devices connected from this 'switch' were not connected, even though the TC was still showing constant green LED. So I brought the TC up to my study to test and on powering up the LED ended up flashing orange and TC not seen in AirPort Utility.

Only solution was to reset it and reconfigure it to suit. Which I did and all was fine, until I turned it off and moved it back to the Office where it had been originally. Once again it would stick on flashing amber LED, yet it was perfect in my Study.

Thinking the network was at fault I remade the cable connections to the RJ45 sockets (had to anyway for other reasons) and tested the cable end-to-end and it was all good, but yet again, TC stayed on amber.

Brought it back to the Study and found it had reset itself again, so reconfigured it and all was working. Turned it off and returned it to the Office and this time it booted to a green LED and appeared fully functional and shown in AirPort Utility.

So first question is whether this could have anything to do with TCSMB?

The install process can result in a TC resetting itself (when restarting) and this does seem rather coincidental that it has now done the same thing twice in regular use, whereas in all the years I've had this TC, it has NEVER done that before. Not 100% conclusive of course, but rather looks like it's connected.

Next question, is it expected that such a reset would wipe out the TCSMB installation?

I did not expect that and tried to set up a Time Machine backup to this TC, but Tahoe displayed the warning and made me realise that it was back to AFP, so no SMB.

Or, has the reset just wiped out the boot hook flash?

Do I need to completely re-install TCSMB from scratch, or can I simply manually activate the boot hook and/or flash it again?

[UKenGB]

I redeployed to that TC which completed without error. I then assumed I'd need to re-flash the Boot Hook patch. However after running 'Plan Patch' it states "Fresh plan is already satisfied: no write needed".

The above implies that the patch has remained in place during several resets. So it appears the deployed SMB payload has disappeared from the disk, while the Boot Hook Patch has remained?

[jamesyc]

Yes, the Boot Hook patch is burned into the firmware. It won't be removed, even after a reset.

The TimeCapsuleSMB install is designed to be not permanent, it will be removed via a reset (or even just the Restore button in Airport Utility).

[UKenGB]

This (Gen 3) TC is causing a lot of trouble. This morning I wanted to erase the disk for a new backup from different Mac. AirPort Utility cannot connect to it and just displays the warning triangle. However, I can ping the TC and mount its disk (over SMB since I redeployed TCSMB). Not only that, its LED is solid green.

I moved it back to my Study for easy access while I try to figure it out and it booted up fine, straight to solid green LED and I can ping it and SMB mount its disk, so all good, right?

Apparently not as still cannot be found by AirPort Utility, so I'm going to have to reset and reconfigure it again and probably redeploy TCSMB.

Last time I reset and reconfigured, it ran for a day with no problem. The issues seem to arise only when installing TCSMB. Hard to pin down exactly, but it does rather look that way.

[UKenGB]

Had to completely reset it (several times) to get AU to recognise and configure it. Now it's back up and running, seen in AU, but of course only AFP sharing again.

I'll have to set it all up again with TCSMB. Probably leave that till tomorrow to be sure it's all still running as it should.

Be good to have some confirmation about what part(s) of TCSMB are deleted during a reset.

[UKenGB]

Ok. What parts of TCSMB are in /mnt/Flash and what is on the hard drive?

[jamesyc]

Boot/manager/common shell scripts, the main conf file, rc.local hook, and mdns-advertiser are on flash. The rest are on hdd and copied to the ramdisk on boot.

[jamesyc]

Oh and dfree

[UKenGB]

I'm still wondering that since the TC resetting can be a problem, it would help if there's a 'recovery' option that can simply copy over what has been lost due to the reset. Rather than it having to start all over again.

Not a big deal I realise, but I think it would be good to have. Mind you, hopefully I'll never have to deal with it again. 😀

[jamesyc]

Honestly, it'd be fastest for you to just copy the current version of the files from /mnt/Flash to the disk. Then copy it back if it resets.

It'll be faster than me deploying it to the device.