Before you start, you must be aware that there is a risk that you break your ReadyNAS. You should not do this unless you really understand what it is doing.

Installing the EnableRootSSH extension

The first step is to install the addon which allows you to connect to your ReadyNAS using ssh:

  1. Download the EnableRootSSH extension. I've used the following link:

http://www.readynas.com/download/addons/4.00/EnableRootSSH_1.0.bin

  1. Go in the ReadyNAS FrontView with your browser and go to System -> Update -> Local Update
  2. Upload the EnableRootSSH binary file. The ReadyNAS verifies that content and if it is correct it displays a description of the addon.
  3. Acknowledge the installation of the addon

After installation, the ReadyNAS must be restarted. Shortly after, you will receive an email:

Subject: Addon Package Progress (nas-XX-XX-XX)
Successfully enabled root SSH access.  The root password is now the same as your admin password.

Connecting to the ReadyNAS using ssh

With the EnableRootSSH extension in place, you can easily connect using ssh. The RSA key fingerprint of your ReadyNAS is prompted and you must accept it in your known_hosts.

$ ssh -l root pollux
The authenticity of host 'pollux (192.168.1.6)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 01:c8:00:b4:56:5a:f9:fe:2d:73:9a:b0:55:a1:31:2f.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'pollux,192.168.1.6' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
root@pollux's password:
Linux nas-D2-24-F2 2.6.17.8ReadyNAS #1 Fri Sep 19 15:04:06 PDT 2008 padre unknown
nas-D2-24-F2:~#

Exploring the ReadyNAS

Since the ReadyNAS runs a Debian Sarge with a GNU/Linux 2.6.17 kernel, you can easily explore the system.

CPU and Memory

The CPU is a Sparc-V8 (LEON ) that Infrant has optimized for their needs. It integrates hardware RAID, the gigabit Ethernet and 4 SATA channels, a 64-bit DDR SRAM controller, a DMA, a 3 DES engine and a PCI/USB interface.

nas-D2-24-F2:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
cpu             : Infrant Technologics, Inc. - neon version: 0
fpu             : Softfpu
ncpus probed    : 1
ncpus active    : 1
BogoMips        : 186.36
MMU             : version: 0
LP              : HW.FW version: 0.1
FPGA            : fpga000000-0 Configuration: 0
AHB arbitraion  : 7
CPU id          : 0
Switch          : 0
ASIC            : IT3107

And the memory:

nas-D2-24-F2:~# cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:       226384 kB
MemFree:        146560 kB
Buffers:         15440 kB
Cached:          42352 kB
SwapCached:          0 kB
Active:          61776 kB
Inactive:        22944 kB
HighTotal:           0 kB
HighFree:            0 kB
LowTotal:       226384 kB
LowFree:        146560 kB
SwapTotal:      255968 kB
SwapFree:       255968 kB
Dirty:               0 kB
Writeback:           0 kB
Mapped:          39712 kB
Slab:             5488 kB
CommitLimit:    391792 kB
Committed_AS:    72048 kB
PageTables:          0 kB
VmallocTotal:   131008 kB
VmallocUsed:      1120 kB
VmallocChunk:   129408 kB

Disks

The system is installed on the hard disk. It appears to use arround 1.9G from my 1Tb disk.

nas-D2-24-F2:/usr# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hdc1             1.9G  224M  1.7G  12% /
tmpfs                  16k     0   16k   0% /USB
/dev/c/c              925G  543M  924G   1% /c

Other interesting commands:

The following commands are interesting to explore the system and learn more about it:

dpkg -l         List of installed packages
netstat -ln   Network open ports (TCP/UDP/Unix)
top              Top running processes
ps aux         List all running processes

Next step

The next step for me is to see if I can install the Bacula Storage Daemon and see if my bacula server is able to connect to it directly.