ryandasilva
Dabbler
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2021
- Messages
- 27
So I’ve been running TrueNAS since i dont even know which version of FreeNAS 11.something. I dutifully upgraded to each version along the way.
Somewhere along in the last few updates, I had trouble updating thru the web interface so I started using the CLI. Then that stopped working I too.
I decided to migrate to SATA disks thinking maybe my USB drives were having issues or were full. I also learned that USB boot isn't recommended anymore.
So I took one of my mirror’d USB boot disks out of the machine but stupidly formatted it thinking it was a blank USB. Shouldnt be a problem though, right?
It’s a mirror and was going to be replaced by a SATA Disk anyways, plus there’s the other functioning USB.
Well, I forgot to mention that I was starting to have an issue where if i rebooted TrueNAS there was a 50/50 chance it would boot up properly, or it would boot up into some blank config mode where I would get a login prompt instead of the menu and if I typed in username root, it wouldn't even ask for a password it would just log me in. The config was blank and web services weren't up.
But if i rebooted again, sometimes selecting the boot normally option #1 seemed to help, I might get back into my proper system config. I’m not sure what exactly was the straw that broke the camels back... i suspect it was when i purchased an 32gb SATA M.2 drive and installed TrueNAS onto it with a blank config and attempted to restore a slightly older backup of my config that i had in my downloads folder, although that shouldn't have affected the USB because it wasn't even plugged in when I did that. Bottom line though, I can no longer boot from USB at all.
I posted to reddit and eventually they referred me to here because the data is so sensitive and nobody knew how to help me. Basically I am able to restore the most recent backup config that I can find without any errors to TrueNAS CORE and I also decided to try TrueNAS SCALE , cuz , why not if the systems down might as well try it. I really liked Scale and think I might end up using that in the end but right now I need my data back. This data is so important to me, as I have most of my family videos on one of those pools which includes video of my late wife and if i lost that forever i don't know what i'd do. I am not panicking yet because i think the USB key if somehow repaired would work, or i could simply extract the decryption key from the USB. I had literally just purchased faster Fiber internet (1.5down / 1.0 up) because i was trying to back my NAS up to iDrive and my cable provider's 30 meg upstream is garbage for the 10 terabytes of data all of my pools consist of.
So to summarize that again, The config restores fine, and one of my pools comes back up... its the one and only pool that isn't encrypted. The other pools are all encrypted and wont come up.. I have backup files called {POOLNAME}-GELI.key but i didn't have to manually enter a decryption key every time so i think the key is somewhere on that unbootable USB key or possibly within my backup files. Not sure where the .key file comes into play.. is that a recovery key or something ?
I would have thought restoring the .TAR file that is backed up would include the decryption keys but i dont have any experience with the backup/restore of FreeNAS config.
Here’s a pic of the foobar'd TrueNAS instance on the USB.. Not sure if i even want to attempt to rescue this or if i should just try to pull the decryption keys off it.
https://imgur.com/a/TzdkNo8
As i mentioned I've tried restoring to both CORE and SCALE; Scale is the most recent. Here's a screenshot of the pools. It looks pretty much the same on CORE. If it makes more sense to go back to Core for now i can... but i would like to think that I just need to find the decryption key on the USB or use one of the key files , or maybe it's in the .TAR file? And where does that decryption key go?
Just wanted to clarify.. 2 of the 3 pools that are offline are encrypted ... but the most important one isn't. I must have mixed that fact up in the worry about my data. Now im scratching my head even more why an unencrypted pool won't come up. Either way, how do I get the 2 encrypted and 1 non-encrypted pool back up
Here is a screencap of my Pools screen:
imgur.com
Thanks in advance for your help! Stay safe. Cheers.
Thanks
Somewhere along in the last few updates, I had trouble updating thru the web interface so I started using the CLI. Then that stopped working I too.
I decided to migrate to SATA disks thinking maybe my USB drives were having issues or were full. I also learned that USB boot isn't recommended anymore.
So I took one of my mirror’d USB boot disks out of the machine but stupidly formatted it thinking it was a blank USB. Shouldnt be a problem though, right?
It’s a mirror and was going to be replaced by a SATA Disk anyways, plus there’s the other functioning USB.
Well, I forgot to mention that I was starting to have an issue where if i rebooted TrueNAS there was a 50/50 chance it would boot up properly, or it would boot up into some blank config mode where I would get a login prompt instead of the menu and if I typed in username root, it wouldn't even ask for a password it would just log me in. The config was blank and web services weren't up.
But if i rebooted again, sometimes selecting the boot normally option #1 seemed to help, I might get back into my proper system config. I’m not sure what exactly was the straw that broke the camels back... i suspect it was when i purchased an 32gb SATA M.2 drive and installed TrueNAS onto it with a blank config and attempted to restore a slightly older backup of my config that i had in my downloads folder, although that shouldn't have affected the USB because it wasn't even plugged in when I did that. Bottom line though, I can no longer boot from USB at all.
I posted to reddit and eventually they referred me to here because the data is so sensitive and nobody knew how to help me. Basically I am able to restore the most recent backup config that I can find without any errors to TrueNAS CORE and I also decided to try TrueNAS SCALE , cuz , why not if the systems down might as well try it. I really liked Scale and think I might end up using that in the end but right now I need my data back. This data is so important to me, as I have most of my family videos on one of those pools which includes video of my late wife and if i lost that forever i don't know what i'd do. I am not panicking yet because i think the USB key if somehow repaired would work, or i could simply extract the decryption key from the USB. I had literally just purchased faster Fiber internet (1.5down / 1.0 up) because i was trying to back my NAS up to iDrive and my cable provider's 30 meg upstream is garbage for the 10 terabytes of data all of my pools consist of.
So to summarize that again, The config restores fine, and one of my pools comes back up... its the one and only pool that isn't encrypted. The other pools are all encrypted and wont come up.. I have backup files called {POOLNAME}-GELI.key but i didn't have to manually enter a decryption key every time so i think the key is somewhere on that unbootable USB key or possibly within my backup files. Not sure where the .key file comes into play.. is that a recovery key or something ?
I would have thought restoring the .TAR file that is backed up would include the decryption keys but i dont have any experience with the backup/restore of FreeNAS config.
Here’s a pic of the foobar'd TrueNAS instance on the USB.. Not sure if i even want to attempt to rescue this or if i should just try to pull the decryption keys off it.
https://imgur.com/a/TzdkNo8
As i mentioned I've tried restoring to both CORE and SCALE; Scale is the most recent. Here's a screenshot of the pools. It looks pretty much the same on CORE. If it makes more sense to go back to Core for now i can... but i would like to think that I just need to find the decryption key on the USB or use one of the key files , or maybe it's in the .TAR file? And where does that decryption key go?
Just wanted to clarify.. 2 of the 3 pools that are offline are encrypted ... but the most important one isn't. I must have mixed that fact up in the worry about my data. Now im scratching my head even more why an unencrypted pool won't come up. Either way, how do I get the 2 encrypted and 1 non-encrypted pool back up
Here is a screencap of my Pools screen:

imgur.com
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Thanks in advance for your help! Stay safe. Cheers.
Thanks