Monitor hard disk status of D-Link DNS327L NAS
In this guide we describe how to configure Hard Disk Sentinel Professional to monitor status of hard disks managed by D-Link DNS327L NAS device. The solution is nearly same with other D-Link NASes too and gives generic information about set up monitoring of Network Attached Storage with Hard Disk Sentinel Professional.
Preparing the NAS
We assume that two hard disks already inserted, formatted by the NAS and they are generally readable (shared) over the network, so there are no network, user permissions or other similar issues.
In order to extend the functionality of the NAS, it is required to add SSH and
vtCRON add-ons. Please
open http://dlink.vtverdohleb.org.ua/Add-On/index.php
(where you may find valuable extensions for the NAS too) and download OpenSSH and vtCron add-ons.
You may download and extract directly both from
this link: DNS 327L SSH and vtCron add-ons
Open the web interface of the D-LINK NAS by entering its IP address in your browser and log in as admin
Open the Applications page and select the Add-On Center (please note on the image the extensions already installed).
Select the Install Manually button and install both the OpenSSH and the vtCron packages. Then the Enabled Add-Ons page should reflect that these add-ons are installed.
Creating the Status Source by Hard Disk Sentinel Linux
Start PUTTY and log in to the NAS device as root. The default root password is empty (no password required) and it is recommended to modify this after login.
Locate a folder which is readable over the network (shared with samba) from the remote computer running Windows and Hard Disk Sentinel Professional by entering cat /etc/samba/smb.conf
We will store the Status Source in the /mnt/HD/HD_a2 folder, which is shared as Volume_1 on the network.
We could save hdsentinelarm in the internal storage of the NAS, but by using df command, it is possible to see a list of available partitions and free space on them, which reveals that the first hard disk also has a hidden partition, ideal for storage of Hard Disk Sentinel Linux version. So we place Hard Disk Sentinel Linux on this special, hidden partition /mnt/HD_a4 So enter cd /mnt/HD_a4
Download Hard Disk Sentinel Linux version designed for ARMv5 CPU by entering wget http://www.hdsentinel.com/hdslin/armv5/hdsentinelarm
Use chmod to enable executable permissions: chmod 755 hdsentinelarm (Hard Disk Sentinel Linux Edition page describes this with details
To shcedule with crontab, we need to use the vtCron extension downloaded. crontab -e would work - but it resets on power cycles, so the scheduled task would disappear. Becuase of this, in the web interface, we need to open the Applications tab, then the vtCron application and click on the Configure CROND button to open the configuration page.
Create a new schedule and in the Minutes field, specify */10 and in the Command, enter /mnt/HD_a4/hdsentinelarm -r /mnt/HD/HD_a2/hdsreport.html -html and then Click on Apply Changes button on the top to save.
Now every 10 minutes, the complete status of the hard disk drives detected and report saved to the shared Volume_1 folder. If things are fine, in 10 minutes the hdsreport.html file should appear there and if you open the contents in a browser, you may see something like this:
Load status source in Hard Disk Sentinel Pro
In Hard Disk Sentinel Professional, please select File menu -> Configure NAS Disk Monitoring.
If we'd have the network shared path ( \\DLINK-2C06B0\Volume_1\ ) already mapped as a network drive, then we'd only need to click on the Auto Detect button: then Hard Disk Sentinel Professional could automatically use the created hdsreport.html file as status source.
Now assume there is no mapped network drive, so click on Browse and in the network locations, we would need to manually select the network path where the hdsreport.html file is located.
After the detection (or manual adding the Status Source, the configured network path displayed, indicating that 2 hard disks found in it:
And after clicking OK, Hard Disk Sentinel Professional reads the status source and displays the hard disks just like other internal hard disks (and NVMe SSDs in this example):
If you still have the PUTTY window open (so the SSH connection is still active) you may verify the status by entering ./hdsentinelarm to detect and display complete status:
This shows that the hard disk model, serial number, actual status and possible errors, health, temperature detected and reported.