Two USB drives died in less than 2 weeks - is it possible my boot device is mounted RW?

[William Yoder]

Hi, I've had two boot devices die in less than two weeks on a new FreeNAS install (11.0-Stable). Fortunately, I had a mirror on the boot device both times, but I'm wondering if I did something wrong when I installed FreeNAS.

Can someone please tell me if there is a way to determine if I installed incorrectly? Is it even possible? Or does the FreeNAS installation automatically detect a USB install device and properly set it up as read only? And if I did install incorrectly, can someone please tell me the best course of action to correct it?

I cat'ed /etc/fstab, but it doesn't give much detail:

Code:

root@freenas03:/ # cat /etc/fstab
freenas-boot/grub	/boot/grub	zfs	rw,noatime	1	0
fdescfs	/dev/fd	fdescfs rw	0 0
/dev/ada0p1.eli	none			swap		sw		0	0
/dev/ada1p1.eli	none			swap		sw		0	0

Thanks very much in advance! Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[nightshade00013]

Well FreeNAS installs things and while it is read write there shouldn't be much going on outside of updating or booting. The one thing you could have set wrong is under the "System" tab and "System Dataset" subtab. If that setting is set to your boot drive and the syslog is turned on you did something wrong as this should be your pool

However having an inferior model USB drive can have a HUGE impact on its lifespan. I bought a cheapo just to get a system up and running while waiting for Amazon to ship the correct ones out and it wouldn't even survive the instal process. So it would also be helpful to know if you got a decent drive or some POS that was cheap and hanging there.

 

[wblock]

In the old days, FreeNAS loaded the operating system into RAM. In the last few years, the operating system runs read/write off the boot media.

 

[Redcoat]

In the last few years

How long, given what seems (to me at least) like a significant increase in (reports of) failing USB boot media?

 

[wblock]

Two or three years, since FreeNAS 9.3 (AFAIR).

 

[Stux]

There is an option to verify the install on the update tab. Also you can scrub the boot volume.

 

[Redcoat]

Two or three years, since FreeNAS 9.3 (AFAIR).

Thanks. Did the amount and/or frequency of writes change significantly between versions in that period? My sense is that reported USB failure rates have increased dramatically in the last 12 months or so, even for the here-recommended stick versions.

 

[BigDave]

iXsystems has been saying this for a while now...

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...slower-gui-boot-time.51489/page-2#post-358319

and

A Complete Guide to FreeNAS Hardware Design, Part IV: Network Notes & Conclusion
Written by Joshua Paetzel on February 12, 2015.

Boot Devices
FreeNAS was originally designed to run as a read-only image on a small boot device. The latest versions now run read/write using ZFS. A SATA DOM or small SSD is a great boot device for the latest versions. Since ZFS is used, the boot device itself can be mirrored. As an alternative to a SATA DOM or SSD, one or more high quality USB sticks can be used.

 

[William Yoder]

Thanks for all the quick responses. Some answers:

nighshade00013 - System>System Dataset was properly pointing to the HDD array, but I wasn’t aware of that setting. Thanks for the tip. BTW, I'm using SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33's.

Stux - I’ve since replaced the failing USB, but I did try to perform a scrub on the boot media, and the system became unresponsive. Looking at the console it was reporting repeated disk failures. I was surprised by this behavior of FreeNAS, but it’s consistent with the previous failure I had a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t try the verify install, but I will next time. Thanks for the info

BigDave - thanks, I wasn’t aware of that.

Redcoat (et al) - Is it possible that by mirroring the boot device, it inadvertently causes more write operations than just a single boot device? Maybe a better option is to mirror the drive and then break the mirror and save the copy in a desk drawer in case of failure (maybe with a periodic refresh in case of system config updates)?

Again, thank you for the insights. I think I’m going to create an extra broken mirror and save it in a drawer just as extra security.

 

[Ericloewe]

Either you have really crappy USB drives or you have the .system dataset on the boot pool. In the latter case, move it to the main pool.

 

[rs225]

Thanks. Did the amount and/or frequency of writes change significantly between versions in that period? My sense is that reported USB failure rates have increased dramatically in the last 12 months or so, even for the here-recommended stick versions.

I don't think FreeNAS has had any big change, but it is possible the USB sticks have. They are very cheap, and they do not have SSD wear-leveling.(They may have something more than nothing.) If they were SLC and moved to MLC/TLC, or the endurance of chips went down with capacity increases, it would show up.

Typical consumer FAT use is more manageable and optimized for on the USB sticks than ZFS.