Lost web gui access

[FRBC]

At some point in the past, the web gui interface stopped working. When I try to go to the ip address, my browser spins, but never loads. I have tried from two different computers, and three different browsers, all with the same result. I can ping the address, so I know that responds, and my share is still working because my servers can access the files. I just cannot get in to make any changes to the system. As far as I know, nothing had changed on the system. I don't recall if it was set to auto update (if this is even possible). On the local screen, I can type commands and press enter, but as far as I can tell, nothing executes. I have thought about just rebooting the system at some point, but since I am new to TrueNas, I don't know exactly what that will do to the share.

I have a Dell PowerEdge R740xd with two Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6244 CPU @ 3.60GHz, 192 GB of RAM, and twenty-eight 900 GB SSD drives. There is no RAID configuration on them, but they are controlled by a Dell HBA330 Mini. My TrueNas OS is installed on a vFlash SD drive. I don't know what version of TrueNas I have, but it is fairly recent, as I just built this server in July. My network cards are Intel(R) Gigabit 4P I350-t and Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GbE SFP+.

 

[Ericloewe]

Since your shares are still working normally, I'd suspect a borked install that only/mostly manifests as a broken WebGUI (for now...) - I say that mostly because of the SD card, as experience over the past eight-plus years of root on ZFS is that even the boot pool is more than many low-end flash devices can handle.

Do you still have SSH access? What about local console?

 

[Whattteva]

There's a (semi) sure way to find out if it's the SD card. Reboot the server and see if it comes back online. Make sure you're ready for the downtime that will result from a failed reboot though.

 

[FRBC]

Since your shares are still working normally, I'd suspect a borked install that only/mostly manifests as a broken WebGUI (for now...) - I say that mostly because of the SD card, as experience over the past eight-plus years of root on ZFS is that even the boot pool is more than many low-end flash devices can handle.

Do you still have SSH access? What about local console?

I have access to the local console, however, I don't know if the commands are working. I have attached a screen shot. I can type and press enter, then the next line just comes up blank.

I have not tried SSH access.

 

[FRBC]

There's a (semi) sure way to find out if it's the SD card. Reboot the server and see if it comes back online. Make sure you're ready for the downtime that will result from a failed reboot though.

If I reboot the device and the SD card is in failure and I need to reload the OS, will I be able to get my data/shares back?

 

[Ericloewe]

Oh yeah, there's your answer right there, first line. Your OS is hosed, whatever happened to be loaded into memory will keep chugging along, but anything else will just break in weird and wonderful ways.

If I reboot the device and the SD card is in failure and I need to reload the OS, will I be able to get my data/shares back?

Yes, obviously, though it's a lot easier and faster if you have a config backup.

 

[Whattteva]

If I reboot the device and the SD card is in failure and I need to reload the OS, will I be able to get my data/shares back?

This is the beauty of TrueNAS. It's designed to work as a "firmware" if you will. As long as you have your config file backup, you can simply reinstall the OS on another drive and restore your config file and you will be back up in minutes. You can do it without the config file backup, but it will be more tedious and will take longer cause you would need to reconfigure stuff manually.

Keep in mind that all this becomes a lot more complicated if your pool is encrypted.... which is why I generally always tell people that they shouldn't encrypt their pool unless they have a REALLY good reason to, because 90% of the time, it just ends up becoming self-imposed ransomware.

 

[FRBC]

Oh yeah, there's your answer right there, first line. Your OS is hosed, whatever happened to be loaded into memory will keep chugging along, but anything else will just break in weird and wonderful ways.

Yes, obviously, though it's a lot easier and faster if you have a config backup.

Thanks for the info. Sadly, I don't have a backup yet as I had not completely set up the system before the card failed. :(

 

[FRBC]

This is the beauty of TrueNAS. It's designed to work as a "firmware" if you will. As long as you have your config file backup, you can simply reinstall the OS on another drive and restore your config file and you will be back up in minutes. You can do it without the config file backup, but it will be more tedious and will take longer cause you would need to reconfigure stuff manually.

Keep in mind that all this becomes a lot more complicated if your pool is encrypted.... which is why I generally always tell people that they shouldn't encrypt their pool unless they have a REALLY good reason to, because 90% of the time, it just ends up becoming self-imposed ransomware.

Do you know if there is doc that gives the steps needed to re-setup if you don't have a backup? Or backup the config from the running memory?

I did not encrypt the pool.

 

[Whattteva]

Do you know if there is doc that gives the steps needed to re-setup if you don't have a backup? Or backup the config from the running memory?

I did not encrypt the pool.

The config file can be found at /var/db/system/configs-<some_guid>/TrueNAS-<version>/<date>.db if you still have access to your CLI.

 

[FRBC]

Update: On Friday night, I was able to turn off and reboot the server. It came back up without a problem. PTL!

I now have a backup file of TrueNAS. Thank you all for your help.