SOLVED FreeNAS and SSD drives

[CyberPete]

I've got FreeNAS installed on mirrored USB sticks and it works perfectly. I previously had it installed on a SSD drive. Now I want to re-deploy the SSD, probably as a cache for one of my raid volumes. The problem is that if I re-connect the SSD, on boot, FreeNAS insists on loading onto it, even though I make it boot from the USB sticks.

How do I stop it doing this, other than taking it out and reformatting it on a Windows PC - which sort-of defeats the object of using FreeNAS? I can't do anything from within FreeNAS, because it's using the SSD as a system volume.

Is there a way I can force FreeNAS to boot using only the USB sticks as a system volume?

Thanks,

Pete

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Is there a way I can force FreeNAS to boot using only the USB sticks as a system volume?

By the time FreeNAS begins loading, it's too late. There should be a keystroke you can use during POST to generate a one-time boot device selection menu (many times it's F12). When you do that and choose your primary USB stick, that should leave the SSD available to be wiped from within the FreeNAS GUI.

 

[sfcredfox]

I don't know what kind of HBA you're using, but I would ensure it supports hot-swap and just pull the drive until FreeNAS boots from the USB. After the system is up, insert the SSD.

Once it recognizes the new device, wipe it and do whatever.

I have inserted and removed drives murmurous times with no issues with no issues. Just ensure your hardware supports hot-swap.

 

[CyberPete]

Thanks Robert and sfcredfox for your help.

I already have it booting from the USB drive. It seems to pick up the fact that the SSD was previously a boot volume and hi-jacks it.
Maybe I'll try hot plugging it. I've got a fairly up-to-date Gigabyte MB - the manual says I can enable hot-swapping on a port-by-port basis.

It's just that I'm a bit wary of sticking my hands inside a running PC. I'll give it a go though.

Thanks,

Pete

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I already have it booting from the USB drive. It seems to pick up the fact that the SSD was previously a boot volume and hi-jacks it.

Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense to me. The box can only boot from one device at a time. Is booting from the USB stick failing, causing the machine to fall back to the SSD?

 

[Robert Smith]

It sounds like the boot loader starts from the USB, but then the boot loader in turn loads FreeNAS from the SSD drive.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

It sounds like the boot loader starts from the USB, but then the boot loader in turn loads FreeNAS from the SSD drive.

Oh, good thinking, just like a dual-boot PC. But how would the box end up in that state?

 

[Robert Smith]

If the boot loader was originally configured to try the SSD first, it is not unreasonable to expect it will continue to do so until the configuration is changed.

Who told the boot loader to try the SSD first I do not know: maybe it is hard-coded, maybe it is an installation option…

 

[sfcredfox]

OP,

Depending on how your case is designed and your interest, there are 5 1/4 modules you can buy that are drive bays. It allows you to access your disk drives without opening the case. Just in case you are interested. Makes swapping disks a lot easier. Not sure about the interfaces, I assume SATA, but I don't own one.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

If all you need to do is wipe the SSD, just boot the box from a Redo Backup CD and run the secure erase utility on it.

 

[CyberPete]

OK problem solved. I set my MB to use AHCI, then set the relevant SATA port to hot-swap. I rebooted without the SSD connected, which it did successfully, from USB. Once it was up and running, I (carefully!) reconnected the SSD and it came up on FreeNAS as just another disk. A quick wipe, just to be certain, and I was able to attach it to my raid volume. Job done.

The history:
I originally installed FreeNAS 9.3 on the SSD. When I realised that I could run it from USBs, I reinstalled on dual USB sticks. At this stage I had disconnected the SSD. It all ran successfully.

When I tried to reconnect the SSD to use as a data volume, FreeNAS did boot from the USBs, but seemed to latch onto the SSD and run from that. Its strange behaviour, but solvable.

Thanks for the advice,

Pete