QNAP TS-431X3 says "Server not initialized yet" after restart?

[zeze2001]

Hi,

My first post here!

I bought a QNAP TS-431X3 four bay NAS.

This is my first NAS and I've wanted to try one for a long time...

Problem:
The device stopped working after shutting it down.

I did a shut down from QNAP's GUI. I then tried to restart the device the next morning. After the device booted Qfinder PRO said "Server not initialized yet". Device name and IP address were no longer the same while the device was working. When I'm trying to login to device, it asks about firmware update. If I select skip, I end to a screen that says "Hard drive missing".

Shut down and restart didn't help.
I also tried removing and putting hard drives back (while the device was turned off and unplugged).

What I did before all this:
I installed 4 hard drives into the device (Seagate IronWolf 8TB).
Found the device in LAN.
Went through QNAP installation process.
Created a single volume (RAID 5).
Tested copying some files back and forth to see if the device is working.
After this the device worked fine for a day or two.
HD temperatures were below 50C, and the device is in well ventilated location.
3 out of 4 hard drives were used a little while in a typical PC to see that those where working, drives were in perfect health (according to Crystal Disk Info's SMART data).

---
Any ideas what might have happened?

I was looking forward to have a more reliable place for my files, but this didn't start in a promising way.

[zeze2001]

OK... I finally solved the problem.

I did a bit of reading, and found out there were similar cases, so I started testing different things.

At least in my case, seems like this is caused by a 10 Gbit network cable.

This happens when a SFP+ copper DAC cable (or whatever its exact name is) was used to connect the device to a 10 Gbit MikroTik switch and I then shut down and reboot my QNAP TS-431X3. This "Server not initialized yet" error happens every time with that specific cable.

Solution -> use a different cable, in this case an optical cable. With a different 10 Gbit cable the device was able to boot without any issues.

IMHO the error QNAP TS-431X3 spits out is very misleading - it doesn't relate in any way to what is going on... I was already thinking about starting from scratch.

[peppersonly]

Thank you for this post! I came here to post the same phenomenon on a TS-431KX - reproducible failure to boot correctly with 10Gb DAC SFP+ copper cable connected (reporting system not initialized, and no hard drive found, though via SSH all drives can be seen via command line). Remove the cable and the system boots correctly . Also Mikrotik switch. It seems that with the cable connected the NAS defaults to factory settings (NAS name, DHCP'd IP address instead of the correct static) etc. I tried three versions of firmware, no apparent difference. In fact, the firmware fails to update with the 10Gb cable connected, so it has to be pulled to perform the downgrade/upgrades.

I have not tried an optical cable, I will do that next and report back in a few days. Could you post the manufacturer or the cable you have that works and I will try a different one, just for additional info.

Next to the 431KX is a TS-932PX (has 2 10Gb ports) that I am also setting up for someone, that NAS does not show the problem with the 10Gb DAC copper cable in port 4 (I haven't yet tried it in port 3), it it boots ok with the 10Gb copper cable in port 4, I'll be trying it in port 3.

[peppersonly]

Adding a quick data point: TS-932PX, which has 2 10Gb ports, known as Adapters 3 and 4 in the "Network&Virtual Switch" Interfaces list, accessed via Control Panel, does not show the problem with 10Gb cable connected to either port. In the TS-431KS the 10 Gb port is Adapter 1, a working guess therefore is that the problem shows when the 10Gb port is Adapter 1.

(I notice also that QNAP themselves sell a SFP+ passive DAC copper cable, would be interested to know if anyone has tested that cable in this specific scenario)