Installing FreeNAS To A USB Thumbdrive

[Arvo Bowen]

Having issues getting FreeNAS installed on my USB thumb drive. I have tried a few different methods to install FreeNAS on a USB thumb drive and neither one will work.

Server Specs:
Processor: Dual Intel® 64-bit Xeon® 3.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB
Memory: 16GB DDR 333MHz SDRAM
Hard Drive: None
RAID-Z Drives: 8 x 2TB Drives (WD Black WD2000F9YZ)
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon800/E7520/X6DHT-G.cfm

1) I tried using the CD method:
I have no hard drive installed for the OS and I have only attached a USB thumb drive to the server. I downloaded "FreeNAS-9.2.1.3-RELEASE-x64.iso" and burned a CD with it. Popped in my USB thumb drive and the new CD then booted off the CD. It booted up and starts to load until it gets to "BIOS CD is cd0" then hangs. I let it sit for about 4hrs then gave up on it.
- FAIL!

2) I tried the IMAGE method:
I have no hard drive installed for the OS and I have only attached a USB thumb drive to the server. I downloaded "FreeNAS-9.2.1.3-RELEASE-x64.img.xz". I then extracted the IMG file and used the app called "Win32DiskImager.exe" to write the image to the thumb drive. Popped in my USB thumb drive with FreeNAS loaded on it then booted off the USB thumb drive. It booted up and starts to load until it gets a complete black screen with a blinking cursor "_" then hangs. I let it sit for about 2hrs then gave up on it.
- FAIL!

3) I tried the CLEAN method:
I tried to clean the USB thumb drive with "Active KillDisk 8" (Wiping the drive) just in case it had any issues from that. Then proceed with method 2.
- FAIL!

4) I tried the MANUAL EXTRACTION method:
I have no hard drive installed for the OS and I have only attached a USB thumb drive to the server. I downloaded "FreeNAS-9.2.1.3-RELEASE-x64.iso". I then extracted the XZ file "FreeNAS_x64.img.xz". I then extracted the IMG file "FreeNAS_x64.img" and used the app called "Win32DiskImager.exe" to write the image to the thumb drive. Popped in my USB thumb drive with FreeNAS loaded on it then booted off the USB thumb drive. It booted up and starts to load until it gets a complete black screen with a blinking cursor "_" then hangs. I let it sit for about 2hrs then gave up on it.
- FAIL!

Why am I having so much trouble installing FreeNAS 9?

 

[gpsguy]

Is your thumb drive at least 4Gb in size?

I'd retry method #1 in another system. And test it on another system. If it boots there, you'll know the flash boot drive is okay.


Sent from my phone

 

[Arvo Bowen]

Thanks!

Yes the thumb drive is a SanDisk Cruzer 8GB.

Tried it on a different 64bit server (with a Core 2 processor QUAD) and it seems to work just fine. I also tried it in the original server (not booting FreeNAS) on all the USB ports with no success.

Suggestions? :)

 

[gpsguy]

Since you can boot the flash drive in another server we know it's okay.

Are there any firmware updates available for your motherboard?


Sent from my phone

 

[Arvo Bowen]

Not that I can see. There is only one BIOS for my motherboard and it's the original that it was shipped with.

 

[cyberjock]

Not to be a downer, but those CPUs are quite old. I'm not sure if it's going to be compatible with FreeNAS.

Even if it works, I'm not sure your going to be happy with the performance. An 800Mhz FSB is pretty darn limiting for today's technology. That CPU series was likely Irwindale, which came out in 2005. That's almost 10 years ago!

 

[Arvo Bowen]

OK so just figured it out, it was my SATA card. Not sure why... But if the card is seeded then FreeNAS will not boot. Any ideas why?

Add-On SATA Card: AOC-SAT2-MV8
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cfm

 

[cyberjock]

seeded? You trying to grow a card? I don't think I know what you are talking about.

 

[Arvo Bowen]

Search all over the web, "to seed a card/cable" on a computer refuses to plugging it in. Ex: If you are asking someone to unplug then plug a cable back up you would say "Try reseeding the hard drive cable". It's a common term / slang in the tech community. Kinda old but still used.

In any event, if it makes you feel more comfortable then please replace the word "seeded" with "inserted inside the slot on the motherboard".

As far as the comment before,

Not to be a downer, but those CPUs are quite old. I'm not sure if it's going to be compatible with FreeNAS.

Even if it works, I'm not sure your going to be happy with the performance. An 800Mhz FSB is pretty darn limiting for today's technology. That CPU series was likely Irwindale, which came out in 2005. That's almost 10 years ago!

I'll take my chances. FreeNAS has worked great on a LOT less. I have been happy with FreeNAS over the years and know it makes a great NAS!

 

[Arvo Bowen]

Looking around on the net I found this page...
http://tickett.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/freenas-zfs-up-running/

If talks about the AOC-SAT2-MV8 card and how they had to edit the /boot/defaults/loader.conf file. When adding "hw.hptrr.attach_generic=0" they were able to get there's up and running! Could it be that FreeNAS is trying to use rocket raid drivers (hptrr) instead of the correct drivers for my super micro card?

 

[cyberjock]

Interesting.. we've always called it "reseating".. just like "get out of your seat, then sit back down" type of thing.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termsr/g/reseat.htm

 

[cyberjock]

And reseating isn't an IT term. It's used in tons if engineering fields, mechanical, structural, etc. Pretty sure you mean reseating and not reseeding.

 

[Arvo Bowen]

Then in that case I would like to plead the fifth. If someone was to tell me I was simply making a typing error then I would not be inclined to argue with them.

:P I was close though, seed... seat - I guess I have simply been that confident when talking about it no one challenged me... Maybe they just thought I had a really bad southern draw. Either way thanks for making me smarter! ;)

 

[Arvo Bowen]

O yea about the issue... I took out the sata add-on card, put in the thumb drive, booted from the CD and did a fresh install of FreeNAS. After the install and after confirming there were no issues with the first boot after the install, I shutdown the box and installed the card "seating" it. ;)

After booting up FreeNAS, so far so good....

 

[cyberjock]

Cool! Does the card actually work?

 

[Arvo Bowen]

Yea, I have not used FreeNAS for a few years so I have some catching up to do... But when trying to set up the zfs volume it does see the 2tb drives... it says 1 - 2.0 tb (8 drives, show) so yea... I'll get it all set up and do some testing then report back if everything is stable. ;)

 

[Arvo Bowen]

Been very busy this weekend, sorry for the late response on getting back to you. Quick question about my choice of RAID implementation... I want to go with ZFS but a little confused on what I should go with...

Keeping in mind I have the following...
- 8 x 2TB drives

Keeping in mind I care most about (in the order listed)...
- Speed: I want the best setup for the fastest possible read/write speeds
- Redundancy: I want my data to be protected (ex: Z/Z2/Z3) (I also have a few NAS units I do backups to as you can never have enough backups)
- Space: I want to get as much out of my storage as I can. I have 12TB to work with, how much can I keep?

In doing research I have found the following...
- Running RAIDZ3 is slower than RAIDZ2
- Running RAIDZ2 is slower than RAIDZ
- RAIDZ wants 5 drives, not 6 or 7 or 8
- RAIDZ2 wants 6 drives, not 7 or 8
- RAIDZ3 wants 7 drives, not 8

How should I configure my single volume? I was thinking of doing a RAIDZ3 using 7 drives but I only end up with 7.27TB (a little more than half!) and Z3 from what I heard is slower... I'm at a loss of what direction I should take... Ideas?

Thanks!

 

[gpsguy]

You haven't told us how you plan to use FreeNAS. Will it be for home, work, one user, 25 users, ...? What protocol will you be using CIFS, AFP, iSCSI, NFS ...?

Realize too, as cyberjock said, that your system is nearly 10 years old. You may not be able to achieve your goals with that hardware.

 

[Arvo Bowen]

Sorry,

Large files mostly... Mainly for a media server (large movie files, tv eps, music, documents, etc)...

- Home
- Around 3-7 users at any given time.
- Windows NTFS

 

[cyberjock]

You know, sometimes I wish someone would send me a box with old Xeons and 32GB of RAM just so I could test how much a system that old "can" handle FreeNAS.