2nd time : pools degraded and segmentation fault

[Thomas_VDB]

Hi all,

I have been using FreeNAS for years, but I am having several issues on my HP Microserver N40L.
I installed Freenas 8 on the new server, and i was running OK for several months. Then I need to reboot the machine, and the ZFS pools were degraded (error getting available space. When trying to do SSH command with putty : segmentation fault).
I did a fresh install of FreeNAS 9, and with an auto-import, I succeeded in importing the volumes.
the server was then running fine for about a year. I've had a power outage this week, and after restarting the server, again same issue : all ZFS volumes : error getting available space, segmentation fault.

I am now performing again a clean install and am hoping to be able to auto import the volumes again.
If it doesn't work, I am considering moving to ufs again, because the old disk in my server that is ufs, survived both crashes without any hiccups.

I have 4GB RAM, tested with memtest86+
Pools were 3x single disk ZFS volumes. No mirroring/striping/raid5...

Can somebody please advise?

Thx,
Thomas.

 

[joeschmuck]

Well the only issue I see is you do not have an UPS configured to shutdown the system during a power failure. It doesn't matter which file system you use or operating system, if you have a power failure during a write operation you can lose your data. If you have a power brownout or momentary glitch you can hang the computer. It's not FreeNAS nor ZFS that is messing you up, it's you do not have an UPS to handle your power issues. If you do have an UPS, it must be connected by USB to tell FreeNAS there is a power problem and then FreeNAS will shut down ensuring there is no data loss.

 

[gpsguy]

A UPS is strongly recommended to protect your (FreeNAS) server. With the right one, properly configured to work with FreeNAS, if you suffer a power failure, it would gracefully shutdown your computer.

By the way, ZFS on FreeNAS requires a minimum of 8Gb of RAM. UFS can be run with as little as 2Gb RAM.

 

[Thomas_VDB]

Hi,

Again, a clean installed and auto-import rescued all my disks. So i think it is not ZFS which failed due to the power outage, but the OS itself. Does that make sense?
So an upgrade to 8GB wouldn't help, would it?

 

[gpsguy]

Yes, it's quite common for the flash drive to get corrupted, if FreeNAS isn't shutdown properly.

But, one can also corrupt the data too. That's why joeschmuck and I both suggested a UPS.

So i think it is not ZFS which failed due to the power outage, but the OS itself.