SOLVED Installing updates after Beta Upgrade & Bad Drive

[venkavis]

Hi

Yesterday I upgraded to beta and after 2 reboots the system came up successfully. I wasnt watching the console, but later on on the Web GUI, I saw updated and then selected them to install.

The system never came up. When I connected a monitor to the NAS server, I saw that it was trying to do ixdiagnostics and getting stuck there.

When I rebooted, I saw the BIOS giving a warning saying my HDD status is BAD and asks me to backup and replace.

Hence I rebooted again to see if the system will boot with prior 9.2 with grub.

When I do that I get read-only file system system as messages everwhere and the console stopped at below.

cp: utimes: /var: Read-only file system
/etc/rc/conf.locla : cannot create /var/tmp/rc.conf.freenas: Trad-only file system
init:NSSWITCH(_nsdispatch): files, passwd_compat, endpwent, not found and no fallback provided
Enter full pathname of shell or RETURN for /bin/sh:

Not sure what to do from here. I dont know what to report as a bug in the 9.3 buglist.

My question is.
[1] where am I stuck
[2] how to I backup the ZPOOL it its not even mounting
[3] Can I add a new hdd and still will I be able to use it?
[4] OR Do a fresh install of 9.2 on usb sticj and then try to mount?

Any help appreciated.
I

 

[venkavis]

Can someone help?

 

[jkh]

I think this is one of the anticipated failure cases where your boot device was actually bad, or going bad, when you were using UFS, but once you switched to ZFS the nuke-and-repave option involved pushed the device over the edge and it failed (or, as I said, it had already failed and you simply didn't know it since UFS does not detect corruption). I would replace your boot device with another and reinstall 9.3 from scratch, using the ISO from the latest 9.3-BETA nightly on download.freenas.org, and try again.

P.S. Once you import your pool, you will find a copy of your config database in the .system dataset.

 

[cyberjock]

The location to find the hidden config databases is /var/db/system. Do a directory listing of that directory and it'll be obvious what you want to grab. ;)

 

[Apollo]

I had a similar issue with my old trusty AMD and old drives that have seen a good life, but now are dying slowly but surely. If the pool fails then it will happen as stated above. Freenas or ZFS doesn't seem to recover from, possibly because the Syslog and Reporting Database could be using the System Dataset Pool. I don't think the boot drive is at fault in this instance.

 

[cyberjock]

No, that error is *definitely* related to the boot files being missing/corrupt. If the pool were corrupt it would crash the box on import or it would finish booting without any consequence and you'd have some corrupt files. But, those files in question are NOT on the pool. So we're definitely talking about a problem that is either before the pool mounts, or after the pool mounts, but before the boot sequence finishes.

If you search around the forums, errors that involve the system asking for the location of the shell (which is on your boot device) are always followed up with either a reinstall of FreeNAS to the same boot device, a reinstall to a different boot device, or equivalent. This is definitely not a pool problem.

Don't get me wrong, the pool may have problems. But the errors provided don't tell us the status of the pool at all.

 

[venkavis]

Hi All,

Due to not in town, I wasnt able to get back to this.

Today I did a fresh install of 9.3 release and when booted, I can see the disk, but cant see any ZPOOL or unable to import anything when I try using the Storage Manager.

All I can see is the Disk and when I select import option there is nothing.

The smart error says disk is bad, but in the Disk/Storage in NAS it shows as disk online.

Can you please tell me on how to proceed and find the ZFS pools and my volumes?

Regards
Venkavis

 

[jkh]

Sounds like the disk (THE disk? You have a pool with only one disk?? AIEEE! That's HORRIBLE! Ahem. Sorry...) has gone bad. Try importing the pool by hand, using the CLI. If you get an I/O error, then you did indeed lose the disk. Disks like to pick times like upgrades or reboots to freak out, just to achieve maximum shock and awe.

 

[venkavis]

Unfortunately it was the only disk. The backup I took was long ago and cant find the USB HDD. Worst case I can live without the disk. Most of my MUSIC can be lost and VIDEOS can be re-created from tapes. Many are in you tube :)

Where can I find the procedure to import using CLI? Just follow the documentation?

I live a very short distance from Xi Systems office in Santa Clara? If I bring the system can there be any support?

~Venkavis

 

[jkh]

It's easy, just "zpool import". If that doesn't work for you, it won't work for anyone. I'm sorry we can't help you - creating a single disk ZFS pool gives you absolutely no redundancy or margin for error, and I'm afraid this system was kind of cursed from the beginning. :(

 

[venkavis]

Good News is zpool import worked. I was able to execute it via shell on the NAS box. Then I did zpool upgrade.

Then I logged via web and looked at it and I didnt see anything. I just did import volumes and its just running.

Do I need to reboot. Or what the steps after the zpool is imported?

 

[venkavis]

Update: I didn't realize on the backend the server rebooted and was waiting for me to press F1.

Once the server rebooted, I was able to import the volumes. Now checking all the volumes and data.

 

[jkh]

Great, now copy your data off immediately and construct a proper NAS with more than one drive for some redundancy. :) Seriously, a single-drive NAS is not even really a NAS - it's just an external drive that you store your data on and may die at any time with no hope of recovery.

 

[venkavis]

Yep. I had ordered and got 2 4TB Seagate drives for my fresh NAS install. Copying Data to another Zyxel NAS now.

 

[venkavis]

Question!

How can I add the 2 new 4TB drives and make them as mirrored.

And then transfer my 2 TB of data from my failing Hard Drive?

PS: I found my old backup but its a year old and its taking a long time to pull from the failing HDD to another NAS (Zyxel one).

~Venkavis