Can't mirror USB drives

[avalon60]

I am currently booting FreeNAS 11.-2U4.1 from a sandisk cruzer blade 16gb, and I also have another usb stick the same. As I want to mirror the boot device, I am following these instructions:

1. Open your FreeNAS UI in a browser.
2. From the System tab, select Boot
3. Click the Status button
4. Select either freenas-boot or stripe
5. Click the the Attach button
6. Select the appropriate device from the Member Disk drop down and click Attach Disk

When I click on Status, then freeNAS boot, and click the Attach button, the operation seems to start, but I keep getting an error:

[EFAULT] The new device (SanDisk Cruzer Blade, 14.56 GB, 30,529,536.0 blocks) does not have enough space to to hold the required new partitions (freebsd-boot, 1,024 blocks, freebsd-zfs, 31,260,672 blocks, total of 31,261,696 blocks). New mirrored devices might require more space than existing devices due to changes in the booting procedure.

The said new device has been formatted to fat32, so there are no other files on the drive. Do I need 2 32Gb usb drives then for mirroring the boot files.

Thanks

 

[Chris Moore]

USB drives are not good quality and there are often variances even in the same model and brand. Then there is the possiblity that the new one is a fake or factory second. That happens more often than most people know.
Although the new drive may have been marketed as the same size as the one you were already using, FreeNAS is telling you that it is not large enough to hold the data that is on the drive you are using.
If you must stay with USB, which is not recommended, the best thing is to buy a pair of 32GB drives, mirror the existing drive to the first 32GB drive, then remove the 16GB drive and replace it with the second 32GB drive. That should give you a working set that will match and last for as long as possible.
Using USB 3.0 drives in not recommended because they tend to overheat under constant use. This is type I would suggest:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH8P39771

 

[avalon60]

If I don't stay with USB, what would recommend. If ssd what brand and size, if not it doesn'tmatter.
I've had a look at the USB drives in the link and they are £7.15 in the UK:
Cruzer Fit 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (SDCZ33-032G-B35) -
Thanks

 

[Chris Moore]

If I don't stay with USB, what would recommend. If ssd what brand and size, if not it doesn'tmatter.

I have been using mechanical 2.5" laptop style drives for the last (almost) three years and have had very good service from them. I picked the ones I am currently using up as "New, Old Stock" on an eBay auction for about $5 each. Like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hitachi-Tr...-HTS541640J9SA00-SATA-Hard-Drive/264244921757
I have not had a moment of trouble from the ones I am using. I bought six, two for each of my NAS systems and two for spares and have not needed the spares. One of the nicest things about it, I can monitor the health of my boot drives in the same way I monitor the health of all my other drives.

 

[avalon60]

I've put FreeNAS 11.2-U4.1 on an old 2.5 20Gb Seagate laptop drive and when FreeNAS has booted up, and it is not showing the update in that it says it is 11.2-U2. I then uploaded a backup config of 11.2-U4.1, and after a reboot, it is still showing as 11.2-U2.