Recover from write-protected USB boot volume (failure)

[asmodeus]

Hello,

my FreeNAS has been booting from a USB stick for a few years. I think it has given up on me now. FreeNAS rebooted out of thin air and will no longer boot from it, complaining about da8 (the USB boot device) being write-protected.

I'm weighing my options to recover from this. It seems I can still read from the USB stick, but I am unsure how reliably. I attempted to import the boot volume on the stick in a FreeBSD VM. It was listed as online in zpool import:

Code:

vagrant@freebsd:~ % sudo zpool import
pool: freenas-boot
id: 5611845564011574050
state: ONLINE
status: The pool was last accessed by another system.
action: The pool can be imported using its name or numeric identifier and
the '-f' flag.
see: http://illumos.org/msg/ZFS-8000-EY
config:

freenas-boot ONLINE
      gptid/1ddacf43-5e46-11e6-90be-0cc47a82d3e8  ONLINE

but when performing the actual import with zpool import -R /tmp/freenas -f freenas-boot it would complain:

Code:

vagrant@freebsd:~ % mkdir /tmp/freenas && sudo zpool import -R /tmp/freenas -f freenas-boot
cannot import 'freenas-boot': one or more devices is currently unavailable

And some kernel messages:

Any thoughts on how to read from the boot pool and recover the configuration? I have other - potentially older - backups of my configuration, and if I understand correctly there will be backups in my pool too. My FreeNAS 'tank' pool is encrypted.

Is my best bet just to reinstall the same FreeNAS version on a new USB stick and reimport my pool, then configuration?

Thank you,
Achim

 

[Samuel Tai]

Your USB stick is a goner. You'll be better off reinstalling to a new disk, and reimporting your config and pool. Honestly, please don't go forward with USB sticks. The current guidance is SATA disk-on-modules (DOMs) or small SSDs. 16 GB M.2 SSDs are available on eBay for under $10, and there are plenty of USB-to-M.2 adapters for $15. These will have vastly longer life and better performance than USB sticks.