Fresh install / boot drive keep the array?

[wreeve]

I’ve had no-end of trouble with booting from USB with my Gigabyte motherboard, sometimes it does sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it just doesn’t even see the stick! This is a brand new Skylake build as well! I’ve tried many sticks! I’ve now bought a 64Gb SSD SATA as a boot drive which should eliminate the issue!

I don’t want to loose the data on my 4 disk array. What’s the best way of installing freenas onto the new SSD (I should be able to get the install USB stick booting OK).

Is there a guide you can point me to which shows how to recover the current array information? It’s 4 identical 4Tb drives. Can't find the info in the on-line manual.

 

[gpsguy]

Use the "save config" option - http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/system.html#general to download a copy of your current configuration.

Install the same version of FreeNAS (skip the wizard) on your SSD. If you're paranoid, you could disconnect your other drives or do the install on a different machine. Use the "upload config" option to restore the saved copy of your configuration.

 

[jpimp]

If I understand your problem correctly and you have a 4 drive zpool there shouldn't be any concern. You don't even need your original config (though it would be nice), once you install freenas you can simply import the volume.

Just make sure you install to the correct drive...the previous advice to disconnect the 4 other drives would guarantee that

 

[wreeve]

It was refusing to boot from the currently installed USB stick (it used to!). A quick google seems to suggest Gigabyte motherboards have these quirks sometimes. In fact it only seems to boot from a “fresh” installation .iso from the F12 bios boot menu and not by-its self unattended which defeats the point really. I would avoid Gigabyte MBs for a freenas build!

Anyway; it’s much happier booting from the small SSD.

A fresh install onto the new SSD.

Import Volume. Non-encrypted (not sure if this made it easier or not). Fingers were crossed (and toes). Had to re-make my windows shares and it works!

Thanks for your advice guys.

So far so good. I built this box to replace a 4-disk Lenovo RAID box and a 2-disk Synology mirror box. It has a Skylake Celeron G3900 (the cheapest processor in the range!). 8Gb of DDR4 and it flies. I am maxing out the gigabit link to it. The best I ever got from either the Lenovo or Synology was 60 to 65 at the most! It’s sitting on the same switch so it’s not the network. There is room in the case for another 4 drive array (with a PCI-SATA card required) so I can expand. That was the reason for this freenas build. The community seems friendly as well.