PXE-E61 error (Media test failure, check cable)

[Doug Hall]

Hardware:
Motherboard: SuperMicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155
CPU: Intel Xeon Quad-Core Processor E3-1230 v2 3.3GHz
Memory: 16GB Kingston Technology ValueRAM (2 x 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 PC3-12800 ECC)
HDD: Seagate 4TB NAS HDD SATA (6 x 4TB)
FreeNAS: 9.1.1

I made this for a friend in September, 2013. She called, saying it wouldn't boot after an extended power outage. (Yes, I had it protected by a CyberPower SineWave UPS, and it should have quit normally, after ten minutes of no power.) After connecting through IPMI interface, I saw that it was having a "Media test failure, check cable" (PXE-E61) error. After that, it exits the Intel Boot Agent. Sounds like the USB stick went bad, to me. Has anyone else seen this?

I have a backup of the configuration settings and encryption key, but I need some advice on what to do next. Do I just do a fresh install of the latest version, to another USB drive, and restore her settings, or should I use the FreeNAS version that was installed (9.1.1)?

 

[SweetAndLow]

I suspect that the boot order is messed up and just need to use the usb as the first boot device. If not then it's the USB stick going bad and you should only modify one variable at a time. So replace the USB stick with the same version of FreeNAS that you had before and get everything up and working.

Other:
you probably don't want encryption unless there are laws requiring the private user information to be encrypted on disk. I would look into rebuilding your friends pool to not use encryption. This way if something goes wrong you don't lose all your data.

 

[Doug Hall]

Will definitely try to change the boot order. I thought the main point of the encryption was simply to keep her data private, in case the box is stolen. How exactly do you "rebuild" a pool that's 24TB in size? Can you just flip a switch and turn off disk encryption without losing anything?

 

[marbus90]

ZFS encryption protects your data against anyone who doesn't have the encryption keys. No amount of "but I'm it! unlock!" is going to help if you don't have these. If you didn't backup the encryption key, that data is gone.

If you have that one, follow the documentation on importing pools, there should be a section about encrypted pools as well. No need for rebuild or something, just import the pool. ZFS doesn't fsck either (that's what scrubs are for).

 

[Doug Hall]

Thanks. I know about the encryption, and that's okay. I just didn't know if there was a special proceedure to get back to where I was. I have a (slightly outdated) config file and the encryption key and passphrase. I need to reinstall FreeNAS 9.1.1, then (somehow) tell it about my config file, and then re-import the encrypted volumes, right? I really should have made a mirror of her FreeNAS boot drive, instead of just a backup of the config file and encryption key. Aggh!

The documentation does not appear to have a section for re-creating a boot drive. I'm not "upgrading" to FreeNAS 9.1.1, that's the version it should have. So, the "Upgrade" section of the manual does not seem to apply. On the other hand, that's the only place where it mentions an existing config file. In the section on using the ISO to upgrade, there is a Note, which says "if you select to perform a Fresh Install, you will have to restore the backup of your configuration." Again, this is the only place in the documentation that I can find a reference to restoring an existing config file.

Any pointers would be helpful.

 

[marbus90]

The config is not important. Install 9.3 (only version which supports mirroring the bootdrive), import the pool with that recovery key, done.

Importing the config is just a bonus.

 

[Doug Hall]

Awesome! Thanks, marbus90. You've saved me a lot of time.