ISO Install Questions

[jlpellet]

Since some of my FreeNAS servers are headless in a server room, when I've had to do a freash install in the past, I've downed the server, removed it to a bench with monitor/kydb, run the ISO to install fresh, then let it reboot as needed until stable, downed it, & moved it back to the rack, rebooted, & restored backup. My question is if it is practical to use the ISO to install to a drive on a separate system, shutdown on success, & move the SSD over to the shutdown server, & restart it? If so, does the ISO need to be run from an 8GB RAM system since I would not boot FreeNAS on the installed SSD on the system used to install.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,
John

 

[Heracles]

Hey @jlpellet,

The best would be to do this over IPMI or a management card like an iDrac. This is exactly what this kind of remote management cards are designed for.

A clean install from a different hardware SHOULD boot your server in a way that will let you connect it over the network and complete its configuration after that. But there are cases when you need KVM for debug or more, so a remote management card would really the best for a headless server.