topic Re: System ZD 1100 USB in ZoneDirector

System ZD 1100 USB

moncef_zellou — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 11:42:01 GMT

Hello
I format the USB key which is located at the inner casing of ZD 1100 helped me how can I repair my zone director

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

john_d — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 15:42:24 GMT

I've had one ZD1100 where I did something like this, but I have bad news: If you are seeing some sort of reboot loop occasionally which can only be solved by unplugging the hot-glued USB key inside the ZD1100, then you likely have a hardware failure of that USB key and need to RMA your ZD.

Note that you can indeed format and, if you're a Linux guy, even look at its reiserfs filesystem on a computer. But it's rarely helpful. My advice is, if you need to recover your ZD, follow the procedure at https://support.ruckuswireless.com/answers/000001481

If you see this happening a lot, then you should RMA the unit.

(P.S. If you're tempted to try to replace the USB key, I'll save you some time: It doesn't work. The ZD seems to rely on that specific Winbond USB drive. Putting in another identically sized USB2 key, even with the exact same contents, didn't work)

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

edmundas_asmont — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 12:51:06 GMT

(P.S. If you're tempted to try to replace the USB key, I'll save you some time: It doesn't work. The ZD seems to rely on that specific Winbond USB drive. Putting in another identically sized USB2 key, even with the exact same contents, didn't work)

You are wrong. You can make USB image using Linux, and move it to another USB or microsd card. Everything works like a charm.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

daniel_bronson_ — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 16:46:06 GMT

I was able to resurrect a ZD1100 that was stuck in Rescue Mode. The internal USB stick had died. I removed the stick, and repaired it with the "SMI Mass Production Tool" but decided not to use it, since if it died once, I wasn't going to rely on it. I had another, generic 2GB stick lying around, and used that instead. It's nothing special - just some old compact, folding thumb drive I've had in a desk drawer for years. I tried a larger stick, but that produced some complaint about the size, so there must be a narrow range of sizes that will work.

The real key to my success, however, was to ignore the feedback from the web interface, and rely on the console output instead. In particular, the FDISK function of the web interface reports success far too readily. The console output is much more accurate.

I inserted my generic 2GB USB stick, pressed the FDISK button in the Rescue Mode web interface, then watched the progress in the console. When formatting was done, I tried uploading various firmwares via the web interface. At first, I tried newer ones, but the console output showed 'out of memory' errors of various sorts. I went back as far as 9.3.x, and that was small enough to work. Once I had 9.3.x firmware running successfully, I performed the usual sequence of upgrades, restored my config backup, and all is well.

Maybe this can help someone else keep their older, end-of-life hardware running. Obviously, I would not recommend doing this for a box that's under a current service contract or warranty.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

harley_mckittri — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 22:54:09 GMT

EDIT: I originally posted that I couldn't get this working following Daniel's steps above, but on second try I got it.

For anyone else in the same situation:

Replace the memory stick with another 2GB stick
Connect via the second Ethernet port
Let the Zone Director reboot a load of times (it will go into Rescue Mode after something like 15 attempts to boot)
You will know its in Rescue Mode when only the green LED on the ethernet port is lit
Open http://192.168.0.2/ and run FDISK - Daniels notes above here are crucial, the UI definitely says its done a minute or two before it really is, so let it sit for a few minutes
Upload firmware, I used 9.3.0.0.87 to start with (earlier FW diddn't work for me)
You should see the success message after a few minutes and again the device should reboot
After a further few minutes you should have a red flashing status LED for startup followed by a flashing green LED
Ready to be configured or continue upgrade path

Thanks again Daniel for the post above!

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

emolyff_gmailco — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 10:23:46 GMT

System ZD 1100 USB - FOR THIS I WILL RECOMMEND YOU "Linux", what's more, move it to another USB or microsd card. Everything has exactly the intended effect.and move it to another USB or microsd card. Everything works like a charm. NEED ANY assistance "technical" then dont hesitate to take help from us

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

keith_vinson — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 22:32:58 GMT

Thanks to Harley and Daniel for the good info; I was able to get my dead ZD1100 going again and get the campus WiFi back online. I used a generic 2GB thumb drive to replace the failed one. When it goes into Rescue mode, that's when it's helpful to have the serial port connected, so you can see what is happening when the web gui has frozen or timed out. I also had to resort to 9.3.0.0.87 to get an image that would not error out due to insufficient memory, but after that I was able to successively update until I got back to 9.8. We stopped at 9.8 (where it was before the failure) because of the issue with the security file after 9.9 preventing further upgrades, and because we are going to replace this unit ASAP; but at least everything is functioning again, and people can extinguish their scalps because of extreme WiFi withdrawal.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

gerry_hoon — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 02:10:48 GMT

does this work on zd1200 which is using CF card?

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

roy_peverett — Thu, 02 May 2019 17:01:11 GMT

Have tried 2GB generic usb & fdisk does not seem to do anything

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

harley_mckittri — Fri, 03 May 2019 08:56:13 GMT

That's a bit vague - what exactly is the issue & at what step in the process?

When you start FDISK are you seeing a progress window?

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

roy_peverett — Fri, 03 May 2019 09:24:27 GMT

OK, sorry to be vague, thanks for asking.
No progress bar, just states completed instantly.

Have a dead ZD1100, rescue mode does not detect storage with original USB drive.
plugged generic 2GB usb drive in, clicked on FDISK comes up completed instantly, to be sure I have left it running FDISK for over an hour, then performed upgrade using 9.3 image as above notes.
Proved FDISK process is failing, plug usb drive back into windows PC it still has original format and has not changed.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

harley_mckittri — Fri, 03 May 2019 10:43:52 GMT

Oh ok, looks like it's not liking that USB stick. It was nearly a year ago that I done this but I do remember it being weird about USB sticks - I intentionally got one of the cheap ones that has insides looking like the OEM one. Mine was one of those crap colored plastic ones with the swing around metal cover usually given out as promo/merch.

I'd try another USB stick and potentially see if you can get hooked up to the serial port so that you can see the debug log - it may have some detail on whats going wrong. Also try formatting the drive to FAT32 on your machine before going via the ZD1100 just in case.

The first post on this thread also mentions a specific type of drive, I guess there is every possibility that the system may have been designed around the type of drive Ruckus was intending to use.

Also remember this is option 1 of 2.

As Daniel and tadkasur have mentioned above you may be able to "repair" the OEM USB drive and clone it to a good drive too - I initially tried this but mine was totally dead.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

roy_peverett — Fri, 03 May 2019 11:20:29 GMT

Many Thanks, spooky my memory stick looks exactly like the photo, but also tried other ones.
As an update I have managed to clone from a working ZD USB drive & successfully revived the dead one, but would still be nice to know why the rescue process didn't work.
Will get a serial console cable & give it another try.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

daniel_bronson_ — Fri, 10 May 2019 16:14:02 GMT

I've had this issue happen once again, and am about to try a USB stick like the one mentioned above. I'll report back how it went. It's worth nothing that the stick I succeeded with a year ago was a pretty old one. That may be a factor in my success. I'm not sure what the difference would be. Clearly I got lucky.

Also worth noting; Firmware 9.8 and above will indeed prevent you from upgrading without a support entitlement file, or something. However, 9.7 has no such restriction. Mine complained a little as I recall, but I was able to get it to firmware 9.10.x by jumping directly from 9.7.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

daniel_bronson_ — Fri, 10 May 2019 18:24:06 GMT

Here's an excerpt from my notes to my future self from a year ago. (I tend to adopt a conversational tone with future-me. It's calming);

"The USB sticks inside these beasts look to be SMI 3255AB or similar. They fail a lot. It is possible to resurrect them using the SMI Mass Production Tool. You may have to set the number of bad blocks higher than normal in the settings to achieve this. Presumably, you'll wind up with less usable storage, so I'm not sure what the point of this would be."

Perhaps this will provide some useful clues to someone else who's even more desperate.

Anyway, the USB stick I just tried failed, as did a vintage, 2GB SanDisk Cruzer. It was at this point that I dismissed screwing around with even lower-level USB stuff, since I'm not a huge fan of putting band-aids on band-aids, and frankly, my time is worth more than this. Ebay to the rescue. Two used ZD1100 units from two different sellers for $150 was acceptable to my employer. I'll put one or both of these in service next week as a stopgap, and then propose a sensible migration away from EOL hardware. Fortunately, I have consumer-grade dreck to limp by on until then. Apart from lower throughput, and dodgier coverage, my user base won't even know the difference for the few days we'll be limping.

If I'm sufficiently bored one day, and figure this out, I'll post more.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

roy_peverett — Mon, 13 May 2019 12:00:07 GMT

Thanks Dan, As I stated above, managed to revive dead ZD1100 by cloning another working USB,
So the vintage USB worked when cloned, but no good trying FDISK rescue mode.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

daniel_bronson_ — Tue, 14 May 2019 18:34:20 GMT

That's awesome. I'll be trying that here in the next couple days.
Also, to confirm: I just got the first of two used ZD1100's in today. It had 9.8.x installed. I downgraded to 9.7.x, then upgraded that to 9.10. It's deployed and working fine.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

daniel_bronson_ — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 20:32:20 GMT

Just to follow up - I successfully cloned the stock USB drive using dd. I made an image file as a backup, then wrote that out to a new, generic 4GB stick. Works perfectly. With any luck, wear-leveling will make it last longer than the original.

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

jannis_jacobsen — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 07:59:33 GMT

Did you have a valid service contract on the ZD1100 you upgraded to 9.10?
I was told the 9.10 checks for this before letting you upgrade.
(I just bought a used ZD1100, and am trying to find the latest fw I can use)

-jannis

Re: System ZD 1100 USB

richard_o_neill — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 21:19:43 GMT

Daniel I'm tinking about buying a zonedirector 1100 that powers on but won't boot on ebay for my R600 and r700 to coexist properly at home. I presume that it was pulled from a working environment and hard reset for too long. Would it be possible to get your cloned image as you've had success so I could just switch out the USB? Thanks Richard