New to FreeNAS, error on upgrade, now feel unsafe

[risner]

I just received my new system (FreeNAS Mini 4 drive) from Amazon. I set it up, got it on the network, noticed it said it needed an upgrade and ran the upgrade.

Upon reboot, it got to the "Trying to mount root" and hung with an error "bad" something. I feel sad that I didn't take a photo or write it down. I waited many minutes and hit control C. That resulted in many error during the boot up. I rebooted and got the same error. I power cycled but had to leave immediately. When I returned it was up and apparently functioning without issue. I rebooted and it seemed to boot up clean. I created a user and fixed it so that I could ssh into that account and sudo to root.

I installed two 4 TB drives and made a mirror "Tank". Now my user account is gone.

So to my questions:
How do I verify the integrity of the system?
So all volumes mount under "/mnt" like "/mnt/tank"?

I'm feeling very uncomfortable with the system. I don't know anything about how to fix issues. Is there a guide to eschew away all the FreeNAS bits and just get to a non-GUI command line FreeBSD system? I may feel more comfortable in native FreeBSD. I guess I didn't realize that FreeNAS was more like NanoBSD tmpfs system, hence my lack of confidence in administrating.

 

[MrToddsFriends]

How do I verify the integrity of the system?

You could start with verifying the integrity of your boot medium/media (1) and proceed by stress testing all other relevant system components (2).

For (1) a read/write (non data preserving) test would be clearly preferable, so be prepared to re-do the FreeNAS installation afterwards. Unfortunately you didn't tell us which sort of boot medium/media you are using. Single USB stick?

From within a running FreeNAS you can do the following to verify the integrity of your OS installation:
System -> Boot -> Scrub Boot
System -> Update -> Verify Install
These tests are not a substitute for a full read/write test of the boot medium/media prior to installation.

Instead of directly proceeding with (2) you could contact iXSystems. This is one of the benefits when buying a FreeNAS mini. Unfortunately I don't know which kind of quality control is done by iXSystems before shipment.

So all volumes mount under "/mnt" like "/mnt/tank"?

In FreeNAS each ZFS pool (besides freenas-boot) has an associated top level dataset, which gets mounted under /mnt.

 

[danb35]

So all volumes mount under "/mnt" like "/mnt/tank"?

Yes.

Is there a guide to eschew away all the FreeNAS bits and just get to a non-GUI command line FreeBSD system?

That's called "installing FreeBSD"--but if you wanted that, why buy a FreeNAS system?

I don't know anything about how to fix issues.

The manual would be a good start.

 

[risner]

Yes.

That's called "installing FreeBSD"--but if you wanted that, why buy a FreeNAS system?

The manual would be a good start.

Thanks.

I bought it as a package because I had confidence in the system based on reviews and BSDNow podcast. Running into a major confidence shaking malfunction on a simple upgrade before putting it into product has me having regrets.

I asked about eschewing away, mostly because the flash disk in the system is very tiny, so I was sort of looking for a "here is how to cram a quasi full system in a small space". I can buy a new larger flash disk.

I read much of the manual (sections 1-17 and , but most of it was so basic or focused on the GUI that I honestly failed to find anything in the manual relevant to my issue. Nor could I find a simple "FreeBSD to FreeNAS" disk layout comparison. Also the last GUI I used was AIX's GUI from 1995 and it had a button to display all the commands the GUI was issuing for each option. That would be a tremendous help to folks like myself apprehensive about GUIs.

I may contact support from 25.5 (recommended by MrToddsFriends) or I may craft a reinstall of vanilla FreeBSD depending on my ability to regain confidence by verifying and/or reinstalling FreeNAS.

 

[garm]

Now my user account is gone

What do you mean? Please be precise in you explanations. How did you create a user? How did you activate sshd? What makes you conclude the user is gone?

Please note that a lot you do in cli won’t survive a reboot unless it’s stored in the configuration database.

 

[Redcoat]

Sorry you are feeling insecure.. On your trip through the manual did you find section 2.5.5. If Something Goes Wrong ?

I suggest that you revert to the previous boot environment - In System, Boot, I expect you will see something like this:

Click on the penultimate line (should be your pre-update OS version) and select the Activate button at the bottom of the screen. "On Reboot" should move to that line. Reboot to activate the as-delivered OS, go to the System, Update tab and Verify Install for an OS check. FYI, when I bought my 4 HDD mini package in 2015 the disks had data on them. Fearing that it was a return I called iXsystems tech support to ask about it. They advised that it was their preshipment test install, so at least at that time there was active QC at some level in place.

Once you have checked out the as delivered OS, then I would follow the same procedure to Activate the latest OS boot environment (that from the troubled install), reboot, and Verify Install again (if you have not already done it following @MrToddsFriends suggestion, or even if you did) - just for more comfort).

You might even download the ISO of the latest version and install it to a USB stick then clean reinstall the latest OS. All these activities are described in detail in the relevant manual sections. If you feel those are lacking, please come back and make comments here - @wblock of the iXsystems document team is a very active participant here, also @dlavigne, both as Forum Moderators, so they'll certainly see your input.

If you spend a bit of time reading posts here you'll pick up a few things at least: FreeNAS is an appliance designed to be used from the GUI - command line use is possible but many changes so made will be overwritten on the next OS reboot; many FreeBSD commands can be used in the shell; scripting is common also - see the Resources section (in the masthead) for a set of useful scripts for automating tasks by @Spearfoot, also the link in his set to those of @Bidule0hm; installs and updates are not universally trouble-free (you'll see posts asking for help with these topics).

For my first server experience, FreeNAS had a steep learning curve. I found substantial help here via the Search function - use the link in the masthead as that from the box in the top RHS has some warts not yet resolved.

I hope you can get comfortable with FreeNAS and benefit from the community here.

 

[risner]

cli won’t survive a reboot unless it’s stored in the configuration database.

You answered my problem with your question. I did everything in the command line, and it was all lost on reboot.