Server not booting up

[thetraveller333]

I set up my FreeNAS system in December, 2012. It has been running 24/7 since then and I have not had a single problem with it.

I have not made any software or hardware upgrades. (no FreeNAS upgrades)

I was on vacation for 2 weeks and when I came back, the server was off. ( it is plugged into a UPS, but the battery died) I turned it back on but I could not see it on the network. I then attached a monitor and saw the following message:

"This is a FreeNAS data disk and can not boot system. System halted."

The system consists of 12 HDD's (WD Red), 3TB each, running in RAID Z2

I am running FreeNAS off of a USB stick.

I'm not 100% sure, but after reading my notes from that time, I believe that the version I installed was FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-x64 (r12701M) It was the most current version around that time.

So far, I have tried the following:

1. I assumed that there is a problem with the USB boot disk, so I tried moving it to different USB ports (2.0 and 3.0), in case that was the problem.... same error message.
2. I even tried starting the server without the USB boot disk... same error message.
3. While the server was off, I removed each of the 12 drives from the case, cleaned the dust off and re-installed them. I made sure that each drive was returned to the original slot it came from.... same error message.

My system consists of the following

Case: Antec Nine hundred, ATX Mid tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021
Mother board: ASUS P8Z77-V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131820
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Series Gold AX750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139016
RAM: 16 GB Corsair Vengeance 16 dual channel kit DDR3 1600 MHZ
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004E0ZKLQ/?tag=ozlp-20
USB 3.0 stick for OS: 8GB Patriot Supersonic Boost XT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220652
USB 3.0 external to internal 19 pin adapter cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812162012
Hot Swap drive cages: iStarUSA 3X5.25in to 4X3.5in SAS/SATA, model #BPN-DE340SS-Blue
http://www.directron.com/bpnde340ssblue.html
Hard Drives: 12X WD 3TB Red
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236344
HBA card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118142

Questions:
1. Is the USB Boot disk the problem?
2. If yes, how do I replace it, without losing the data on the 12 HDD's?
3. How do I find out the exact version of the software?
4. If not, what else could it be?

Thank you for all your help.

 

[Spearfoot]

Sounds like the system is trying to boot off of your ZFS hard drives... did you check the BIOS settings to make sure the boot device is set to the USB drive?

 

[SweetAndLow]

Either your boot device is dead or your BIOS isn't booting off the usb.

If your usb is bad you need to get a new one and install either the original os version or the current version. Both would work but I would stick with the original and upload your backup configuration file. I doubt you have your config file though? If not you will have to set up all your settings again but your data is fine.

 

[thetraveller333]

Thank you Spearfoot and SweetAndLow,

I checked the BIOS and the boot device is set to the USB drive.

You are correct, I do not have a backup of my config file.

Is there a thread that describes the process of replacing the boot drive?

Its been a while since I set up the system originally ...... what settings will I have to set up again?

Is an 8 GB USB boot drive large enough?... should it be smaller ..... bigger....?

I read in other posts, that the minimum RAM for the server should be 16 GB. Should I increase to 32 GB?

I read in other postings about smart and email notices .... I don't remember them being available when I set my server up, but I will definitely set them up now ....... and keep a backup of the config file.

Just as an aside, I remember doing a lot of research when choosing the USB boot drive, in particular looking for something that was very reliable. Is it relatively common for the USB boot drive to go bad?

Thank you for your help.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I have never had a boot usb die on me but lots of people have them fail all the time. The go to around here is usually the sandisk ultra fit. 8GB is fine but if you are using 9.3+ you might want to get 2x16GB so you can mirror them and have backup boot device.

do you want to use 8 or 9.10?

 

[nojohnny101]

+1 to what @SweetAndLow said. just go with 16gb. i run a mirrored sandisk setup. i've always been told USB boot devices will fail way before SSDs so if you are running 8 then i'm not surprised that it died after this long.

reference: here is what the manual says:
https://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_intro.html#compact-or-usb-flash

 

[thetraveller333]

SweetAndLow, my system is a single user system. It is only used to store photographs, videos and other misc. files. It can go days and sometimes weeks without anyone accessing the drives. Once in a while I will play a movie directly from the server. So far, it has performed everything I needed and I don't foresee changing my requirements in the future. Based on the above, would you recommend that I stay with 8 or upgrade to 9?

nojohnny101, thanks for the advice. I will go with 2 mirrored 16gb USB Boot devices and I'll make sure I study the manual and the references.

Thank you.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Kind of a tough call. In a perfect world you should update to freenas 9.10 because that has the latest freebsd 10 code. Since you are going to have to reconfigure everything anyways I would say try the new stuff.

If you still had your old config file I would say go with the old version so you didn't have to deal with any possible upgrade problems around your configuration.

At the worst freenas 9.10 doesn't work and you can always install freenas 8 on your USBs.