BACKGROUND
We have a VMWare hypervisor that had 2 iSCSI connections to a FreeNAS storage server. These connections stopped working, and upon further investigation we find the flash drive containing the FreeNAS boot / config is un-readable. We have no backup of this configuration. We were going to install FreeNAS onto a flash drive, import the volume and re-setup the iSCSI connections.
BEHAVIOR WE'RE EXPERIENCING
We can't get FreeNAS to install. The setup starts, but the server stops and reboots at the first step (Installing base OS)
STEPS TAKEN
TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS TAKEN
Our Setup
Hardware
We have a VMWare hypervisor that had 2 iSCSI connections to a FreeNAS storage server. These connections stopped working, and upon further investigation we find the flash drive containing the FreeNAS boot / config is un-readable. We have no backup of this configuration. We were going to install FreeNAS onto a flash drive, import the volume and re-setup the iSCSI connections.
BEHAVIOR WE'RE EXPERIENCING
We can't get FreeNAS to install. The setup starts, but the server stops and reboots at the first step (Installing base OS)
STEPS TAKEN
- We burned FreeNAS version 9.10 to a DVD using the ISO
- Inserted new USB flash drive into the server
- In the bios, we can see the flash drive (USB 3)
- We ran the setup from the DVD, selected the flash drive as the install destination and it gets to part 1 and freezes and eventually reboots. If we try to boot from the flash drive, it goes to a black screen.
- If we retry the installation again, it does the exact same thing.
- I tried with the 9.10 and 11.2 installer with the same results.
- We've tried all the USB ports on the server, with 2 different flash drives
TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS TAKEN
- Used different flash drive (same result)
- Tried USB 2 & USB 3 flash drives (same result)
- Tried all 4 USB ports on the system
- Tried different FreeNAS boot media
Our Setup
Hardware
- Supermicro Chassis (MB x7DB8 with BIOS 2.1)
- 16x SATA drives
- LSI HBA
- Both USB2 and USB3 flash drives
- Unknown version of Freenas installed prior