Installing SCALE on HPE MicroServer Gen8: CANT_FIND_sda3_OR_sdap3

[HMHackMaster]

After previously successfully installing TrueNAS CORE onto a 32 GB High Endurance microSD card inserted into the motherboard's microSD card slot on the HPE MicroServer Gen8, I decided to wipe everything clean and re-install TrueNAS SCALE.

At this point in my testing, I have removed all other storage media and completely wiped the microSD card (to try and ensure no leftovers from previous attempts are causing issues).

During the initial part of the install (done via the ISO mounted via iLO) just after I decline the prompt to allow EFI boot, the system fails with the following error:
"cannot open 'CANT_FIND_sda3_OR_sdap3' : no such device in dev"

A second attempt (without restarting the system and booting into the installer again) causes it to fail without prompting for Legacy Boot.

But...the specified partitions do exist...

It looks like the Line 140 in `truenas-install` is the source of the error: https://github.com/truenas/truenas-...3ecc4856083974c/usr/sbin/truenas-install#L140

While I am still digging though the code a bit, I am not exactly sure why this is happening despite me seemingly being able to confirm the partition does exist.

(The install did work correctly when I performed an install to an SSD, so I do not suspect media corruption issues or anything like that...)

Any help or insight is appreciated!

 

[HMHackMaster]

To follow up on this, I did end up performing a fresh install attempt using UEFI boot and it worked perfectly, even my moonshot goal of installing to both the internal 32GB high endurance SD card AND the 120GB SATA SSD (plugged into the internal ODD SATA Port 5).

So not only does it seem like the HPE MicroServer Gen8 supports UEFI bootloaders, TrueNAS Scale (TrueNAS-SCALE-22.12.3) requires UEFI boot to be configured for the install to complete. (I was able to install TrueNAS Core TrueNAS-13.0-U5.1 in Legacy BIOS mode, though I didn't try UEFI mode.)

 

[NickF]

Neat! I had one of those for a bit, they are cool little servers.
Just make sure you take periodic backups of your TrueNAS config as you make changes. Also make sure your "System Dataset" is on your pool and not on your boot drive and double check that you didn't install a swap partition on your boot drive.

Something else to consider which may be helpful when you have the opportunity, throw a USB to micro SD reader with another card on that system and mirror the boot pool. It's always a PITA to go out to a off site backup box because the boot drive exploded during a system upgrade :)