freeNAS will not boot from replaced and re-silvered USB

[ferroresonance]

Hardware:
HP proliant n54l, 16GB Ram 5x 3TB Seagate Barracuda drives setup in Raidz.

FreeNAS Version and build:
FreeNAS-9.10.1-U2 (f045a8b)

Boot Volume mirrored:
devices da1p2 , da0p2 - Both USB's are a Lexar 16GB JumpDrive

FreeNAS Volume and Data Set:
1x Volume using 5x 3TB split into 3 Data sets as windows share

Hi All

This morning i awoke to find that the 35day boot volume scrub had finished and i was left with a checksum error on da0p2 USB. As a cautious person i decided to replaced the drive. I added a new (Exact Model) USB to one of the front USB ports and selected replace and chose the new USB from the front ports, the resilvering took place and completed ok. Now this is where i think the error may lie. I then removed the freshly resilvered USB and placed it in the location of the old failed one (Rear of server). Obviously i had alerts again saying the volume was degraded, i once again chose to replace the missing USB and chose the same USB that had been freshy re-silvered. The re-silvering process finished but i was left with another drive under the mirror-0 which was the one that was resilvered at the front and moved to the back. I chose to detach the listed drive and the alerts disappeared and the boot volume condition is now healthy.

The problem i have now is freeNAS will not boot from the da0p2, but will boot fine from da1p2. After the resilvering process, I shutdown and removed da1p2 to check that da0p2 would boot, after the post test when you would get the freeNAS boot screen i now get a blinking white cursor (like there is not bootable disk). I have set the da0p2 USB as the primary booting device in the bios as i do for da1p2.

What is going on? How do i fix this?

I understand that i should have just removed the failed USB and inserted the new USB in its place and chose replace and selected the new USB. I guess i didnt think at the time and made a mistake

 

[SweetAndLow]

What you did seems fine to me and exactly what I would do. What does zpool status show?

 

[ferroresonance]

Hi Sweet
zpool status as requested, the below does not look right

Code:

0																			
			gptid/1c316e81-6d01-11e6-8142-38eaa7a9e5a0  ONLINE	   0	 0	
0																			
																				
errors: No known data errors													
																				
  pool: freenas-boot															
state: ONLINE																
  scan: resilvered 9K in 0h0m with 0 errors on Tue Nov  8 22:29:00 2016		
config:																		
																				
		NAME											STATE	 READ WRITE CKS
UM																			
		freenas-boot									ONLINE	   0	 0	
0																			
		  mirror-0									  ONLINE	   0	 0	
0																			
			da0p2									   ONLINE	   0	 0	
0																			
			gptid/c8d20147-6cf6-11e6-81e3-38eaa7a9e5a0  ONLINE	   0	 0	
0																			
																				
errors: No known data errors													
[root@freenas1 ~]#	

 

[SweetAndLow]

To me it seems like the fact that it doesn't have a gptid is strange and could be your problems. Know why it doesn't have a label?

 

[ferroresonance]

I have no idea why there is no label, as you can see in the attached capture the boot status is is ok

 

[danb35]

To me it seems like the fact that it doesn't have a gptid is strange and could be your problems.

I don't know why, but that does seem to be the norm when a mirrored boot device is replaced, or when a mirror is added post-installation.

 

[ferroresonance]

I don't know why, but that does seem to be the norm when a mirrored boot device is replaced, or when a mirror is added post-installation.

Hi Dan, what does seem to be the norm? The fact the drive does not boot or the captured image i attached? I have done a bit more googling and found a similar image as below

http://blog.brianmoses.net/2016/04/mirroring-the-freenas-usb-boot-device.html

 

[Stux]

When mirroring a boot device, FN needs to also duplicate the boot partition. It normally does this. But if it didn't, you'd see the results you are seeing.

Not sure how you could reliably mirror a cheksum failed non redundant partition after the fact though.

 

[ferroresonance]

Thanks stux, i am sure that the re silvering process has failed and is failing (and i have tried 3 times by unplugging and replugging the newly re-silvered USB). The fact it shows up in the boot section as healthy means it has data but looks like the active boot partition in not being set or being copied

I am trying to find a repair, worst case scenario the freeNAS configs have been backed up so all i have to do is disconnect the HDD's re-install to 2 new mirrored USB's and upload config, shutdown, connect HDD's and reboot

 

[Stux]

Backup your configuration. Reinstall FreeNAS to the USB. restore config.

Should fix it.

I fact install to two usbs so you have redundancy.

 

[danb35]

Hi Dan, what does seem to be the norm?

That one of the devices in the boot pool is identified by the device name (e.g., ada1 or ada1p2) rather than the gptid. Normally FreeNAS uses gptids for device designations in pools, but if a device is added post-installation to the boot pool, or a device in a mirrored boot pool is replaced, it seems to be added by the device name. Don't know why this is though.

 

[ferroresonance]

Backup your configuration. Reinstall FreeNAS to the USB. restore config.

Should fix it.

I fact install to two usbs so you have redundancy.

Hi Stux, i did have redundancy . When i installed freeNAS originally it was a mirrored boot, i think the issue was due to the process i went through to re-silver the mirror that caused this issue (Process will change to just removing the bad USB and replacing into the same port and replacing). This time it will be 3 brand new SanDisk 16GB sticks mirrored.

 

[xaibex]

Same Problem here. replaced both old usb drives. now my hp n40l does not boot anymore in any way. and i only have a very old config backup. :-(

 

[xaibex]

I tried different approaches and found some kind of solution.

1. download the same FreeNAS Version ISO that was installed on the machine and create a Bootable FreeNAS Install Thumb Drive of it.
2. connect one of the not bootable USB Drives.
3. boot the install drive and run the install dialog. Select the drive from 2. for installing. It will say "UPGRADE / INSTALL".
4. run the upgrade process. it will find the configuration db on the stick from 2. and apply it on the new installation.
5. boot from the usb drive and verify everything is working.
6. wipe second(+third) usb drive with dd if=/dev/null of=...
7. attach additional usb drive (6.) to your boot setup, so that freenas will start resilvering.

this will result in a bootable setup again. but of course, all previous versions under "system > boot" will be missing.