Freenas newby - Recreate USB boot disk from backup?

[FreeNasMeNZ]

Hello from New Zealand (In isolation so plenty of time on my hands)

I have had a freenas setup for a few months now which has been running superbly, yesterday the Sandisk USB boot thumb drive (Ultra Fit 3.1 32GB Micro-size 3.1)
packed up (No longer readable, windows does not even recognize it when I plug it in).

I found some instructions online about getting things going again. I have a saved backup of the configuration (freenas.tar file). Instructions I found mentioned that I need to create a new USB boot disk from scratch (fresh install), and then just restore the configuration tar file. All has gone well and config has been restored and I am able to boot the setup again. I can see the freenas pools etc in Storage / Pools. Problem is that the pools are showing as status unknown:

Current alerts:
* The volume WD-2TB-Red state is UNKNOWN:
* The volume Spare state is UNKNOWN:

Unfortunately I never made an iso backup of the boot USB, I always thought the saved config would be enough If I lost the USB boot disk.

I'm no expert in this so I am very cautions with running shell commands against the physical disks etc as I down want to corrupt or destroy the disks.

Hoping for some help so that I can get things running again.

 

[FreeNasMeNZ]

Hi again guys, any ideas? I am sure this has happened to people in the past.

 

[sretalla]

I always thought the saved config would be enough If I lost the USB boot disk

That is the case.

Can you share the output from zpool status -V ?

 

[FreeNasMeNZ]

Here is the output:

I may have come across the issue. Saw this in the FreeNAS documentation:

Note: When adding another boot device, it must be the same size (or larger) as the existing boot device. Different models of USB devices which advertise the same size may not necessarily be the same size. For this reason, it is recommended to use the same model of USB drive.

The drive that died was a SanDisk 32GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive, the drive I am replacing it with is a 16GB Drive. Is this really the problem. Do I need to try and find an identical drive to the one that died? Or is it still possible to recover the boot?

 

[Dan Tudora]

Here is the output:

View attachment 37083


I may have come across the issue. Saw this in the FreeNAS documentation:

Note: When adding another boot device, it must be the same size (or larger) as the existing boot device. Different models of USB devices which advertise the same size may not necessarily be the same size. For this reason, it is recommended to use the same model of USB drive.

The drive that died was a SanDisk 32GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive, the drive I am replacing it with is a 16GB Drive. Is this really the problem. Do I need to try and find an identical drive to the one that died? Or is it still possible to recover the boot?

hello
NO
"When adding another boot device, it must be the same size"
but you do not "add" that is for 2 boot device
yours install is "fresh" and work with fresh install and put the old config on them
I hope is same version of FN
try with a SSD drive for boot drive for "just in case" usb have problem
succes

 

[FreeNasMeNZ]

hello
NO
"When adding another boot device, it must be the same size"
but you do not "add" that is for 2 boot device
yours install is "fresh" and work with fresh install and put the old config on them
I hope is same version of FN
try with a SSD drive for boot drive for "just in case" usb have problem
succes

OK thanks. I only have ever had one USB boot device. I have installed identical version on the replacement USB Drive, its booting fine, and I restored the saved config. Pools still showing as unknown though. Don't have a problem with booting now.

 

[Redcoat]

Pools still showing as unknown though

How are the pools "showing as unknown" - just in the alerts? Post a screenshot of Storage/Pools.

In the screenshot you already posted, looks like that was from the Shell - did you scroll the screen up to see if there was anything showing below what you posted?

 

[Dan Tudora]

OK thanks. I only have ever had one USB boot device. I have installed identical version on the replacement USB Drive, its booting fine, and I restored the saved config. Pools still showing as unknown though. Don't have a problem with booting now.

hello
let's do a diagnostic
check the cable HDD (power and data) with system poweroff
check to see the HDD in bios
after that will see
succes

 

[FreeNasMeNZ]

How are the pools "showing as unknown" - just in the alerts? Post a screenshot of Storage/Pools.

In the screenshot you already posted, looks like that was from the Shell - did you scroll the screen up to see if there was anything showing below what you posted?

No thats the lot unfortunately.
Here is a screenshot of the Disk Information

 

[FreeNasMeNZ]

hello
let's do a diagnostic
check the cable HDD (power and data) with system poweroff
check to see the HDD in bios
after that will see
succes

Hi, Yes they are all there. As the disks are showing up as per screenshot above. Also when the USB Drive crashed I got an alert email:

New alerts:
* Boot Pool Status Is ONLINE: One or more devices has experienced an unrecoverable error. An attempt was made to correct the error. Applications are unaffected.

This indicated to me that the problem is just with USB boot. I will confirm anyway that all HDD's are in bios.

Thanks so much for the help guys.

 

[Redcoat]

What FreeNAS version were you running before the crash and what version did you put on your new USB stick?

 

[Redcoat]

Not anything to do with the problem, but note that Windoze will not read a FreeNAS usb boot stick - incompatible file system.

 

[FreeNasMeNZ]

What FreeNAS version were you running before the crash and what version did you put on your new USB stick?

FreeNAS-11.2-U4.1 (Build Date: May 10, 2019 21:33)
Put the exact same version on my USB stick.

 

[FreeNasMeNZ]

Not anything to do with the problem, but note that Windoze will not read a FreeNAS usb boot stick - incompatible file system.

Thanks for that, but normally Windows will want to format it, that message does not even pop up on the faulty stick, not can I see the device in windows device manager.

 

[Redcoat]

FreeNAS-11.2-U4.1 (Build Date: May 10, 2019 21:33)
Put the exact same version on my USB stick.

Good.

Did you refresh your browser cache to make sure that Storage/Pools is "fresh data"?

Yes, I would, too, expect the unreadable stick to cause W to suggest that it should format it

 

[Redcoat]

Will the ADD button give you the option to import the unavailable pools?

 

[Dan Tudora]

Good.

Did you refresh your browser cache to make sure that Storage/Pools is "fresh data"?

Yes, I would, too, expect the unreadable stick to cause W to suggest that it should format it

I think is much complicated than a browser cache
even a hardware failure
succes

 

[Redcoat]

I think is much complicated than a browser cache

Yes, so do I, but I was interested to know if the browser was providing us with a "red-herring"

 

[FreeNasMeNZ]

hello
let's do a diagnostic
check the cable HDD (power and data) with system poweroff
check to see the HDD in bios
after that will see
succes

All HD's in BIOS, I also see them in the logs while freenas is booting. I did see a mount error in the log while booting, I will see if I can find it in the logs.

Will the ADD button give you the option to import the unavailable pools?

Yes it does give me the option, I tried but the only pool available to import is freenas-boot

 

[FreeNasMeNZ]

I have now come across something interesting.

These are the steps I have taken to re-install a new USB Boot drive:

1) Inserted new USB1 into the same USB port as the one that went bad (This will become the new freenas-boot)
2) Inserted a secondary USB2 with FreeNAS-11.2-U4.1 iso to re-install freenas-boot
3) Booted USB2 and did a new install to USB1
4) Removed USB2, rebooted into freenas off USB1.
5) Restored configuration from my saved config file.
6) Rebooted, configuration is restored, including old user names etc.. But pools still showing as unknown.

Now when looking through some older posts on here it mentions that I should select an upgrade option. Not a fresh install. In step 3 above there was no upgrade option available. Only new install. This is the window that should be made available to me.

System is now in a state where its running original FreeNAS-11.2-U4.1, saved configuration has been restored, but pools are still shown as being unavailable.

My next step to try is going to be doing an upgrade/install to a new release. Is this worth a shot?